Tell Me How Your Dog Eats. I'll Tell You What He's Like.

I was talking to a breeder the other week and he mentioned something interesting about two litters of pups he was raising. He said one litter would eat absolutely anything. Put something different in front of them and they would get stuck straight into it. The other litter was completely different. He described them as “fussy”. They would happily eat the food they had grown up eating, but put something unfamiliar in front of them and they were very reluctant to touch it.

As soon as he told me that, I asked him a question. “Are the fussy pups timid, and the pups that'll eat anything more outgoing?” He looked at me a bit surprised and said, “Yes. How did you know?” I laughed and said, “Because I know dogs.”

It probably sounded like I was being a smartarse, but there was a reason I guessed it. After more than 40 years of breeding, raising, training and working dogs, you start noticing patterns. One of them is that dogs don't have separate personalities for eating, training, meeting strangers, exploring new places and dealing with unfamiliar situations. It's all the same dog. The pup that charges over to investigate something it has never seen before is often very different in temperament from the pup that stands back and watches for a while before deciding whether it's safe. So why wouldn't we sometimes see that same difference when we put something unfamiliar in their food bowl?

We usually describe a dog that won't eat a new food as a “fussy eater”. I think that description can sometimes send us in completely the wrong direction. We assume the dog has tasted the food and decided he doesn't like chicken, lamb, fish or whatever we've offered him. Then we start searching for something tastier. We add a topper. We change brands. We cook some chicken. Maybe a little cheese goes on top. He eats the good bits and leaves the rest, so next time we try something even better. Before long the dog has trained the owner beautifully. Refuse dinner for long enough and there's a reasonable chance something better will appear.

But there are two other explanations for a lot of supposedly fussy dogs that I think owners should consider before blaming the food. The first is that the dog may simply be cautious. The second is even simpler. He may not be hungry.

Let's start with the cautious dog because that's what I think I was seeing in those pups. There is actually a term for reluctance towards something unfamiliar: neophobia. Dogs vary in how readily they approach new things, including new foods. Some dogs investigate first and ask questions later. Others would rather stand back, watch and make sure everything is safe before committing themselves. Food can be part of that same response.

Research has shown that dogs can behave differently when first presented with an unfamiliar food. They may take longer to start eating, eat more slowly or become more distracted. As the food becomes familiar, that hesitation can diminish. So what looks to us like, “My dog doesn't like this food,” could sometimes be something closer to, “I'm not sure what this is yet.”

Imagine putting a strange object in the backyard. One dog races over immediately, sticks his nose into it, paws at it and wants to know what it is. Another stops several metres away and watches it. Eventually he might creep closer, have a sniff and decide it's harmless. We wouldn't necessarily say there was anything wrong with either dog. We'd say they had different temperaments. Now replace that object with an unfamiliar smell and texture in the food bowl. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect some of those same personality differences to show themselves there as well.

There is good evidence that dogs differ along a broader shy-to-bold spectrum and that genetics contributes to temperament, although upbringing, socialisation and experience obviously matter too. That's why the fact that these were two separate litters interested me so much. One litter wasn't just reluctant to eat unfamiliar food. According to the trainer, they were also the more timid pups generally. The litter that would eat almost anything were also the more outgoing pups. I wouldn't pretend that one conversation proves a scientific rule that fussy dogs are timid dogs, because it doesn't. But it fits a pattern I've seen plenty of times over the years.

Early experience may play a role too. A puppy is learning about its world from the day it's born. It's learning which people are normal, which noises are normal, which surfaces are safe, which situations are dangerous and presumably which smells and tastes mean food. Research going back decades has shown that early food experience can influence how readily dogs accept unfamiliar foods later. Again, that doesn't mean we need to give puppies a different meal every night. But take a naturally cautious puppy and give him very little experience with anything different, and perhaps we shouldn't be surprised if he grows into an adult dog that looks suspiciously at anything unfamiliar that lands in his bowl.

There is even some logic to that behaviour from an evolutionary point of view. If you're an animal trying to survive, eating every unfamiliar thing you encounter isn't necessarily a brilliant strategy. Something new could be poisonous, rotten or simply something your digestive system isn't accustomed to. Caution has advantages. So does boldness. The bold animal may discover new food sources and opportunities that the cautious animal misses. The cautious animal may avoid dangers that get the bold animal into trouble. Neither temperament is automatically better in every situation.

But now let's talk about the other “fussy” dog, because I think this one is probably even more common.

Sometimes he's simply not hungry.

Nobody likes being told they're overfeeding their dog. In fact, if you ask the owner of a fussy dog whether they might be feeding too much, they'll often tell you there's absolutely no chance. “He hardly eats anything!”

Then you start asking a few more questions.

What does he get for breakfast? What about treats during the day? Does he get a dental chew? Does someone give him a bit of toast in the morning? Does he get something while dinner is being prepared? A bit of cheese? Some leftovers? Does another person in the family slip him something when nobody is looking? Is there food sitting in his bowl all day so he can wander over and have a few mouthfuls whenever he feels like it?

Suddenly the dog that “hardly eats anything” may actually be eating quite a lot. He's just not eating very much at the particular time the owner wants him to eat.

Hunger is probably the best appetite stimulant there is. A healthy dog that is genuinely hungry tends to find food much more interesting than a dog that has been grazing and getting treats all day. If a dog is already meeting or exceeding his energy requirements, he has the luxury of becoming selective. He can sniff dinner and walk away because there isn't much biological pressure to eat it.

Then we make another mistake. We worry.

“He doesn't like his food.”

So we add something.

Maybe some chicken.

He eats the chicken.

“Aha! I knew he didn't like his food.”

But think about what might actually have happened. The dog wasn't hungry enough to eat his normal dinner, but he was quite happy to make room for something particularly tasty. That's not very different from a person saying they're too full for another plate of dinner and then finding room for dessert.

Do that often enough and the dog learns something else. Walking away from the first offer can pay off.

That's when we can actually teach a dog to become fussy. He sniffs the bowl and walks away. We add something better. Tomorrow he waits again. Something better appears again. It doesn't take a particularly intelligent dog very long to work out how this system operates. We think we're desperately trying to convince our fussy dog to eat. From his point of view, he may have trained us perfectly.

This is one of the reasons I've always preferred proper mealtimes rather than leaving food available all day. It is also why, when someone tells me they have a healthy but fussy dog, my advice is usually much simpler than they're expecting.

Put the food down and leave the dog alone.

Don't stand over him. Don't keep pointing at the bowl. Don't follow him around with it. Don't encourage him every time he takes a mouthful. Don't immediately start sprinkling something over the top because he hasn't eaten within the first 30 seconds. Give him some peace and let him make his own decision.

That becomes even more important when we're dealing with the naturally cautious dog I described earlier. Imagine already being unsure about an unfamiliar smell or food and then having someone standing over you, watching everything you do, encouraging you, moving the bowl around and becoming increasingly concerned because you're not eating. We think we're helping. To a sensitive dog, we may simply be adding pressure to a situation he was already uncertain about.

Give him about 15 minutes. If he eats, great. If he doesn't eat, or barely starts, pick the food up and get on with your day. Assuming we're talking about a healthy adult dog that normally eats and there is no medical reason for a loss of appetite, you don't immediately need to replace that meal with something more exciting. At the next normal mealtime, offer his food again.

Now you've got two very simple things working in your favour. The timid or cautious dog gets the quiet and space he needs to investigate the food without pressure. The dog that simply wasn't hungry gets an opportunity to develop an appetite.

And this is why I think looking at the dog is often more useful than looking at the bowl.

If you tell me your dog is fussy, I want to know what he's like away from food. What's he like when strangers arrive? What's he like somewhere he has never been before? How quickly does he investigate something unfamiliar? Does he startle easily? Is he cautious around strange dogs? Does he need time to settle into a different environment? Or is he the dog that charges through life assuming everything new is probably worth investigating?

Then I want to know how you feed him. How much food does he actually get? How many treats? Does he get table scraps? Does everyone in the family feed him? Is food available all day? What happens when he doesn't eat? Do you pick the bowl up, or does something better suddenly appear?

Tell me the answers to those questions and I'll probably know considerably more about your “fussy” dog than I did when you simply told me he doesn't like his food.

Of course, there is an important distinction here. A dog that has always been selective about food is one thing. A dog that normally eats enthusiastically and suddenly loses his appetite is another. Loss of appetite can be associated with illness, pain, dental problems, nausea and plenty of other medical issues. If your normally hungry dog suddenly stops eating, particularly if there are other symptoms, that's not something I'd dismiss as fussiness.

And dogs certainly do have food preferences. Smell, taste and texture matter. I'm not suggesting every dog should happily eat everything put in front of him. I'm saying that when a healthy dog is repeatedly described as “fussy”, I don't automatically assume there's something wrong with the food.

Sometimes the dog is cautious.

Sometimes he isn't hungry.

Sometimes we've accidentally taught him that refusing dinner is the first stage of negotiations.

And sometimes it's a mixture of all three.

That's why my approach with a healthy fussy eater is usually surprisingly simple. Make sure you're not overfeeding him. Be honest about all the extras he's getting during the day. Introduce genuinely new foods gradually. Put his meal down somewhere quiet, walk away and let him eat in peace. After about 15 minutes, pick up what's left and get on with your day.

Sometimes the best way to improve a dog's appetite isn't to put more things in the bowl.

It's to stop making such a big deal about the bowl.