I'm worried that something we trained our 11 month old lab to do has backfired.
One of the very first things we trained him to do was to wait for us to say "OK!" before digging into his food. We didn't use any negative or punitive methods to train him...we just held his collar and said "wait" and then said "OK!" as we released him. He would then dig right into his food happily. It didn't take him long to catch on and pretty soon he was sitting patiently by his bowl while we poured his food.
Then things started to change about a month ago. Instead of leaping to his bowl as soon as we said "OK!" he would look at us uncertainly and we'd have to say it a few times before he would believe us. This has been getting progessively worse over the past month.
Starting this weekend, Louie seems absolutely terrified to eat his food. We've said "OK!," we've walked out of the room, we've pulled him toward his bowl, we've taken food out of the bowl and fed him from our hands, we've even tried putting his food in non-shiny human bowls. No luck. He just pokes his snout around his bowl and walks away, whining.
The weird thing is that he has no problem eating treats! In other words, the problem isn't that he's feeling sick or doesn't have an appetite. It's all in his head. He's terrified to eat his food.
We have run out of ideas. What should we do??
One of the very first things we trained him to do was to wait for us to say "OK!" before digging into his food. We didn't use any negative or punitive methods to train him...we just held his collar and said "wait" and then said "OK!" as we released him. He would then dig right into his food happily. It didn't take him long to catch on and pretty soon he was sitting patiently by his bowl while we poured his food.
Then things started to change about a month ago. Instead of leaping to his bowl as soon as we said "OK!" he would look at us uncertainly and we'd have to say it a few times before he would believe us. This has been getting progessively worse over the past month.
Starting this weekend, Louie seems absolutely terrified to eat his food. We've said "OK!," we've walked out of the room, we've pulled him toward his bowl, we've taken food out of the bowl and fed him from our hands, we've even tried putting his food in non-shiny human bowls. No luck. He just pokes his snout around his bowl and walks away, whining.
The weird thing is that he has no problem eating treats! In other words, the problem isn't that he's feeling sick or doesn't have an appetite. It's all in his head. He's terrified to eat his food.
We have run out of ideas. What should we do??