My dog is afraid of dog dishes.... advice??

tinadlove

My dog is afraid of her dog bowl, of any type of dish that I set on the floor. She will eat a couple of bites if I stand right beside her bowl and coax her. She will lay nearby on the floor and whine to eat until I end up getting handfuls of food and putting it directly on the floor. We have tiled floors in every room and I have tried putting her dish on area rugs and buying bowls that are rubber underneath as I had a feeling it had something to do with the bowl sliding and startling her, nothing works. Has anyone EVER heard of this type of problem??

honeybears · Super Senior Member Plus Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 3627

I have never heard of that, it sounds like she is afraid of the bowl. How about something like these elevated bowl thaty may help

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=11854&N=2001+113913

charmedagain · Moderator Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 2235 Location: uk

I had a friend whose dog was the same but the problem had started as a puppy before he got the dog and was soon found out the owner had kit the dog with the bowl because it had knocked it over and the food went everywhere.
He eventually gave the dog a plate to eat from and he was very happy to eat off this.

Mike

Nik · Member Joined: 22 Mar 2004 Posts: 258 Location: UK

Hi, welcome.

Is your dog motivated? Do you feed dry food?

I only ask this as you say you have tiled floors. Some people don't like this idea, but my boy Floob won't eat out of a bowl either. I'm not sure that he's frightened of it, but he finds it boring.
I throw his food on the floor now and he eats every bit. Sometimes I do little piles, sometimes lines, mostly just throw it everywhere... you get the picture.
I make him 'sit' at the door, then when I've scattered the food he get's an 'ok' and off he goes to 'work'.

Like I said, it doesn't suit everyone and it is a little bit of cleaning up afterward, but it's an option Smile

loves-da-pits · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:27 pm Post subject:

GET OUT OF HERE!!! I just went through the same thing with my dogs!!! They were use to eating out of ceramic bowls. Then my Hubby broke one, so I went and bought these nice stainless steel ones. Well, when we moved into our new home, I noticed the dogs were afraid to go into the hallway where I feed them. I thought, what the heck!!! they're not eating. I thought maybe it was them getting use to the new home. Well, I notice that at feeding time, they looked into the hallway like the "boogie man" was in there. So I started leaving the light on. Didn't work. After observing them more, I discovered that they were afraid of the new bowls. I put their food on paper plates and they haven't stop eating since. Mind you, paper plates are a bit messy. They push them all the way down the hallway, dumping the food every where.

This is definitely a first time for me.