Q: My dog won't eat unless I watch him?
He's about seven years old. He has this weird habit of making you watch him or at least be close by while he eats. Right now I have my door open so he can see me while he eats his food. Last night he would bark and make me get out of bed so I could stand by him while he ate. I have no idea why he does this. Sometimes he will eat if I'm not around but otherwise if I'm home he gets my attention to watch him eat.
Photo Credit: Georgie Pauwels/Flickr CC
I did feed him when he was a pup. I gave him his bottles and fed him puppy food every day. Could he just be used to having me nearby when he eats? I find it rather odd.. Sometimes it gets annoying so I tell him "Go eat your food!" and he will go on his own to eat but he walks back after every bite to make sure I'm around the house.
Answers and Views:
Answer by anabaci
As a trainer, many people have this problem, whether it be that the dog can't eat without their owner or go outside, etc. This is purely a problem with the dog owner. You LOVE it that your dog can't do something without you! Your dog will eat, trust me. If not today, then tomorrow.
Answer by maria luz e martinez
My 3 yr old Rottweiler does the same thing. He barks and barks at me through the window until I come out. He’ll go to his bowl and start eating. I have to act like I’m watching the gate while he eats. I’ll tell him, “Okay, I’ll watch the gate while you eat”. He’ll even stop and look up at me to see if I’m watching the gate. I think he feels like his guard is down when he eats – so he needs someone to watch his back or watch the gate.
He doesn’t care if it’s my husband or me. I got this idea because I used to have a female Rottweiler named Girl that was training another female pup that we adopted named Xena. Xena would be sitting at the gate and Girl seemed to be taking a nap. As soon as Xena started dosing off, Girl would run towards the gate and bark at Xena as if she was scolding her.
Poor Xena would immediately straighten herself up because she got scolded. The girl would go back to her spot and make sure Xena was not falling asleep. Every time Xena started to lay down, Girl would run towards her and bark at her. Finally, I told Girl to leave Xena alone. Poor Xena. She was really lazy. She didn’t care much about guarding our house, but Girl was intense.
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Answer by -C-
My little terrier mix that I adopted does the same thing. I won't give in, though. Usually, I just put a couple of pieces of her food on the floor in front of the bowl and tell her to eat. If she doesn't, I go on about my business. Most of the time, she will come to sit with me, run in the kitchen and eat a bite or two, come back and sit with me, and repeat this several times until her food is gone. If I am cooking or cleaning in the kitchen, she will stay and eat until she is finished. If she doesn't eat, her food doesn't stay down. I give it to her in the morning. If I leave it down, my Lab will gobble it up.
I don't know what makes them do this, but, I won't play by their rules.
When I first got my Lab, he wouldn't go poo unless I told him he wasn't finished. He would run out to pee, then run back up the stairs. I'd have to say "You're not finished. Go potty" or he wouldn't! That only lasted a couple of weeks. Now, he does what he has to do before he comes back in.
After I knew he was housebroken, he would still bark around 3:30 – 4:30 every morning to go outside. I got up every single morning for about a month before I got tired of it. Now, neither one of my dogs makes a noise until they hear my alarm go off in the morning. It has a very distinctive sound. They don't even budge when my husband gets up to come to work at 3-4 a.m. They are smarter than we give them credit sometimes.
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