What to Do About a Picky Dog

1 Overview

Before treating pickiness, let’s analyze the cause.

Generally, excluding the dog’s own illness, pickiness comes from owner spoiling and wrong feeding.

Causes of pickiness

Some dogs lack trace elements, causing discomfort and pickiness.

Some with parasites have poor appetite and are thin.

Some with mouth disease want to eat but the mouth hurts.

Owner spoiling and wrong feeding show as:

Often feeding human food changes the dog’s habits – why eat kibble when there is good food.

Too many or too frequent treats.

Too much food left out, not removed, so the dog feels no shortage and does not care.

Too soft-hearted, compromising with pickiness, making it worse.

Long-term same kibble.

Harms of pickiness

Eating is the most basic training; if you cannot fix meals, forget other obedience. Compromising only lets the dog dominate, building wrong belief: I eat what I want.

Long pickiness causes malnutrition, then anemia, low blood sugar, mouth disease.

Pickiness solutions

Dogs lacking trace elements are not truly picky; owner should balance feeding – choose nutritious kibble, add some fruit.

For picky dogs, our method is simple and crude: during it, remember one rule – no matter how pitifully it looks, never soften.

Put a little kibble in the bowl; if not eaten in 10 minutes, take it away and confine the dog, scold firmly.

Except water, feed nothing for 8 hours.

After 8 hours release and give kibble; if eaten, reward with petting and a walk.

If the dog refuses in protest, keep water and confinement until it gives in.

Notes:

Do not starve over 4 days.

After pickiness ends, change kibble appropriately, but not directly – mix old and new gradually.

For stubborn dogs, grind kibble to powder, add water and heat, mix in egg yolk, try feeding.

Once pickiness appears (e.g. slow crunching), correct at once; waiting for a hunger strike is too late.

Extremely, a severely picky dog ends up eating nothing, kept alive only by IV.