Feeding Issues?

[Lola2012]

My 7 month old GSD is becoming finicky. We are changing her over to Wilderness dog food from IAMS. She loves the stuff, BUT she still keeps spilling her bowl and dragging it into the yard! UGH!

I don't get it. The first few weeks we had her, she would scarf down her food (all dry) and no issue were evident. But then she began flipping her bowl over, spilling half to 3/4 of the food on the deck. We took it as her being a puppy but it's also become a waste of food (which we can't afford) and neither can she. I want her to be a healthy weight.

Please note that she did this WAY before the Wilderness was introduced to her diet. We just started her on it 3 days ago. This morning, I saw the bowl flipped over and the food spilled all over the deck. ARGH PUPPY!

Has anyone else experienced this?

[Mary Beth]

Have you put a special treat on the bottom of the bowl to get her to eat? That could explain it. My Sting never did that, but he would take a mouthful of kibble then dribble it on the floor. That was when he was on Solid Gold Wolfking and the kibble size is bigger, now that he is on their Barking at the Moon with the small size kibble, he doesn't do that. You may want to get a heavier bowl or a flat bowl. Otherwise one of those feeding stands, she can't tip the bowl over then.

[Lola2012]

Mary Beth,

I actually decided to lay off of the treats for a while and see if she eats more. We work with her a lot on her commands, rewarding her with treats so I wondered if that had something to do with it.

Fed her earlier in the day yesterday, took her for her walk and played with her before bed and boom, this morning food on the deck and bowl in the yard. I just don't get it. I don't care so much about the food being spilled all over and the mess, it's just I'm worried about her losing weight and being unhealthy.

[doggiedad]

flipping a food bowl and the water bowl is something they
do. when my dog was in the flipping stage i took the water
bowl away after he drank some. with the food bowl i would put
it down. if he didn't finish what's in the bowl i took it away.

[TommyB681]

Penny used to do this with her water bowl, not the food bowl. She only did it a few times then sort of grew out of it. My old GSD would flip her bowl occasionally (at 2 years old) but then just stopped as well. I agree with the treat idea. Give some sort of incentive to eat all the food w/o flipping the bowl. I know you want her to gain weight but if she flips the bowl and spills the food then chow time should be over. That way she learns, "I waste my food, I dont eat" that should get her to realize she needs to eat.

[jocoyn]

You really need to give her 15 minutes to eat then take up the bowl.