Throwaway, new to reddit, sorry for any wrongdoings.
I don't even know where to begin. For over a year now my boyfriend's mom's (MIL for the sake of simplicity) dog has been afraid of its food I think. If they mix in wet food she eats it, so maybe it's just the dog being picky, but there's been other stuff that makes it seem like this might not be the only issue.
The dog always gobbled up her food until one week they went away and someone else had to come feed the dog. They used to always say "1, 2, 3, go!" to signal to the dog to eat. The person feeding the dogs didn't know to do this and ever since she refuses to eat.
The dog was apparently abused when she was a few weeks old. Since they adopted her they coddle her whenever she gets scared (maybe I'm wrong and this is how you're supposed to treat abused dogs, but in my opinion this has just made things worse because she is scared of everything and is always looking to be coddled). Since this all started the dog slinks around when food is being poured, hangs her head, general behavior that is normal for when she's scared, which led everyone to believe she's scared of the food or her dish or something.
MIL has tried every product out there to make the dog eat. Nothing worked. The current ritual is everyone has to be quiet, the food has to go on the floor, MIL has to sit on the floor petting the dog, occasionally hand feeding is required, and this all takes 15 minutes give or take. The one thing MIL won't try is taking food away if the dog won't eat. I figure if the dog gets hungry enough it will realize it has to eat but she won't have it (the dog is a bit on the hefty side too so it's not like malnourished where missing a meal is going to hurt it).
Does anyone know what the heck is going on or what can be done?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/igv9gn/my_mils_dog_is_scared_of_its_food_please_help/
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