Refusing to eat food from bowl

Ever since we brought him home 6 weeks ago, Tucker has refused to eat his food out of his dish. We must put it directly on the floor. At first I thought it was because it was a stainless steel bowl and he was seeing his reflection, but he drinks water from a stainless bowl just fine. Not a big deal, really, just curious if there are other particular eaters out there...

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Permalink Reply by mosesbotbol on April 17, 2009 at 2:01pm

Not sure what I would do, but I think Camber would be getting hungry as I do not think I would allow that one more than a day or two. Seeing how Tucker is so young, refusing food would not be a good idea. Never had a dog that young, but am curious what the "experts" say.

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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanton on April 17, 2009 at 2:24pm

I really don't have an answer for you, I just had to laugh at his idiosyncracies. Since my dogs eat poop in the woods, gum off the sidewalks and everything in between, bowls have never posed a problem. But I have posted elsewhere that Bertie Wooster will lick stuff off a spoon only if I am holding the spoon in my hand. If I put the spoon in a dish, he acts terrified and won't come near it. No idea what that's about, either. (He also finds tape measures threatening, but that doesn't come up nearly as often as spoons.)

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Permalink Reply by Nicola Porter on April 17, 2009 at 2:45pm

LO did that, after about a week I said to heck with it. He got with the program. LO's problem seemed to be the noise the dish would make if it moved, he is a little scardy cat.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah, Sadie & Dexter on April 17, 2009 at 5:30pm

Sadie will eat the food faster off the floor as well. She will eventually eat out of her bowl but she wil occasionally take the food out of her bowl and put it on the kitchen floor or even take it into the living room and eat it there. My other dog (rat terrier) does the same thing. It is the strangest thing, but I don't know why they do it, I have tried switching my bowls too, but she still does it.

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Permalink Reply by Alice on April 17, 2009 at 6:19pm

Finn will eat out of his bowl if you leave the food down until he's ready to eat it but if you feed him out of your hand or set pieces of the food on the floor, he'll eat right away. When we set the bowl down and tell him to go eat he'll sniff the food then make little growly/talking noises and turn his head away from it. This makes for a good laugh and if you keep moving the bowl in front of him he'll do it over and over again. I guess that means he isn't hungry? I don't know.