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Canine Behavior/racheal female dobbie pushes food with nose

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Expert: Lee Charles Kelley - 1/5/2008


Question
e have a female dobermann we have rescued and need to get her to eat better. She will only eat once a day, never the same time and she pushes it with her nose then wipes it on the floor. we have a great high calorie multi vitamin but still wont eat the food.

Answer
Hey, Armando,

Kudos for rescuing Racheal (or is it Rachael?). I'm sure she's happy you did.

What are you feeding her? Would you consider letting her eat out of your hand? It might help calm her down if you held the food in one hand while stroking her topline (from the back of her head down to her tail) and talking to her in a soft, encouraging tone of voice.

Make sure you're feeding her something tasty. If it's kibble, mix in some juicy pieces of chicken, for example. Try feeding her in the morning, after she gets some good, hard vigorous playful activity, like playing fetch or tug-of-war, or just running around the yard, or at a dog run. If she doesn't eat at breakfast time, don't worry about it. Just put the food away and try it again at dinner. If she doesn't eat at dinner time, put the food away and try it again the next morning. With some dogs it might take a few days before their appetite overpowers their nervousness, but it will eventually. Once it does you'll start to see a change in her overall confidence, and in her level of trust, as well as her general desire to obey you.

Make sure you always treat her with kindness and love. Dogs don't understand punishment and scolding, particularly if they've been abused. It sounds to me like the one thing Rachael needs the most is to feel safe in her new environment. Giving her play time, hand feeding her, and talking to her in a gentle, encouraging, even praising voice, will help her do that.

Good luck,

LCK

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Lee Charles Kelley

Expertise

I've been training dogs in New York City for nearly 20 years. My training approach and philosophy are based on the way police dogs, search-and-rescue dogs, and detection dogs are trained--through the prey drive, inherited from the wolf. It's true that there's been a shift away from using the "wolf model" in dog training recently, and to some extent, there's a good reason. That's because trainers have been using the wrong model, the one that says you have to be the "alpha" or the pack leader in order to control your dog's behavior. This simply isn't true. In wild wolves there is no dominance hierarchy, no "alpha" wolf, and no pack leader (not in the traditional sense). The pack instinct only exists to enable wolves to hunt large prey by working in harmony. (Wolves who live near garbage dumps, for example, and who don't hunt together, don't form packs.) So if wolves don't have an instinct to "follow the pack leader" or "obey the alpha wolf," how could dogs have inherited it from them?

Years ago, before I became a dog trainer, I noticed that the happiest, most obedient, and best-behaved dogs I met weren't the ones who'd been to a dog trainer or behaviorist; they were the dogs whose owners always had Frisbees and tennis balls on hand. And while it might seem that my approach would only be relevant to high-drive dogs who love fetch and tug-of-war, it isn't. Even something as seemingly unrelated as a housebreaking issue or greeting behavior are often the direct result of a dog's predatory energy not having an acceptable outlet.

All behavior is an expression of energy. So when a dog's energy isn't utilized in a way that feels satisfying to his or her instincts and emotions, that's when behavioral problems develop. Giving the dog an acceptable outlet for its energy will almost always bring the dog's behavior back into alignment with its instincts

Feel free to ask me questions about any training/behavioral issue.

LCK

Experience

20 years as a dog trainer. I'm also a bestselling author, writing a series of dog-related mystery novels for Avon.

Organizations
Dog Writers Association of America

Education/Credentials
Just a natural gift I have for understanding and training dogs

Past/Present Clients
Too numerous to mention.

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