The bowl went down at seven. He looked at it. He looked at you. He walked away, lay down two feet from it with his back to the whole business, and has not touched it since. Meanwhile he will still take a piece of cheese out of your hand at a hundred miles an hour, which is the detail that makes you cross and also tells you most of what you need to know.
Fussiness is one of the most common things owners write to us about, and it is also one of the most misunderstood, because almost everything that feels like the obvious response makes it worse. This is what to check, in what order, and what actually fixes it.
The short answer
A dog who has always been picky and is otherwise bright, active and a healthy weight is usually a behavioural problem, and it is usually one we created by accident. A dog who used to eat well and has recently stopped is a different thing entirely and should see a vet first. The single most common cause of ordinary fussiness is that the dog has learned that not eating produces something better, and the fix is to stop proving him right.
First: rule out the things that are not fussiness
This is the part to do before anything else, and it is short.
A sudden change in a dog who normally eats well is a vet matter, not a food matter. Going off food is one of the vaguest and most common signs of illness in dogs, which is exactly why it should not be managed with a new flavour. Call your vet rather than browse, particularly if any of this is also true:
- He has not eaten for 24 hours, or 12 hours for a puppy or a small breed
- There is vomiting, diarrhoea, lethargy or obvious discomfort
- He goes to the bowl, starts, then stops or drops food, which can point at teeth or gums
- He is drinking noticeably more or less than usual
- He is losing weight
- He is an older dog, or has a condition already being managed
Dental pain is the one most often missed. A dog with a cracked tooth or sore gums will often still take soft treats enthusiastically and refuse kibble, which reads exactly like fussiness and is not. If your dog has suddenly started preferring soft food, get his mouth looked at.
The five real causes of everyday fussiness
1. The food is always there
Free feeding, meaning a bowl left down all day to be grazed, removes the one thing that makes a dog eat properly: the sense that this is the meal and it is happening now. A grazing dog is never hungry and never full, and he has no reason to commit.
2. The treat budget has quietly taken over
Treats should be a small part of the day, and the usual guidance is no more than about 10% of a dog's daily calories. It is remarkably easy to pass that without noticing: a few training treats, a chew, the end of a sandwich, something from a visitor. A dog who has had a third of his calories by four o'clock is not fussy at dinner, he is full.
3. You have been teaching him, patiently, for weeks
This is the big one, and nobody does it deliberately. He refuses dinner, so after twenty minutes you add a spoon of something nicer. He eats. The next night he waits, because waiting worked. So you add a bit more. Within a fortnight you are warming a tin and he will not start until you do.
From his side this is not stubbornness, it is a sensible dog who has correctly identified the rule of the house. The topper is not the problem. The topper arriving as a reward for refusal is the problem. The fix is not to remove the wet food. It is to put it in at the start, as part of a planned meal, rather than at the end as a negotiation.
4. Something has changed and he is unsettled
A move, a new baby, a different work pattern, a guest, building work, a bowl moved to a new spot, a dog who has started eating next to another dog. Appetite is one of the first things to go when a dog is uneasy, and it returns on its own once the house settles. Feeding somewhere quiet, away from the front door and the traffic through the kitchen, fixes more cases than any change of recipe.
5. The food genuinely does not suit him
Least common, and worth considering last rather than first. A dog who eats reluctantly and also has loose stools, excess wind, itchy skin or recurring ear trouble may be telling you something real. That is a different problem, and our sensitive stomachs guide and elimination diet guide deal with it properly.
What actually works
Put a clock on the meal
Food down, fifteen to twenty minutes, then it goes away until the next meal with nothing in between. No fuss, no coaxing, no standing over him, because attention is itself a reward. Most healthy adult dogs will come round within two or three meals once nothing is gained by waiting.
Two caveats that matter: this is for healthy adult dogs only. Do not do it with puppies, small breeds prone to low blood sugar, elderly or underweight dogs, or any dog with a medical condition, and do not run it past a couple of days without speaking to your vet. A dog refusing food for days is no longer a training question.
Warm the wet food, do not cook it
Dogs eat with their nose. Warmth and moisture carry smell, which is why a dog who has ignored dry food all morning will inhale half a tin. Taking wet food out of the fridge twenty minutes before, or adding a spoon of warm water to kibble, raises the aroma without changing the food or adding a single calorie. It is the cheapest thing on this list and it works more often than anything else.
If you use a topper, plan it and count it
Mixed feeding is a perfectly good way to feed a dog, and for a picky one it is often the right answer. Two rules make it work. Put it in at the start of the meal, not after a refusal. And count it as food, reducing the dry accordingly, or you will quietly add a few hundred calories a day and end up with a fussy dog who is also overweight.
Our Pure range suits this well because each tin is a single named protein with nothing else in it, so a topper does not drag a new ingredient into the diet. Pure Horse and Pure Beef are £3.79 for a 400g tin and £5.69 for 800g, Pure Kangaroo is £4.19, and Pure Ostrich is £4.69. A quarter of a tin on top of dinner is somewhere between 95p and £1.20, which is a great deal less than replacing a 12kg bag your dog has decided against.
If you would rather have variety without buying six separate cases, the AATU Wet Variety Multi Pack is £17.99 for six 400g tins across different recipes.
Feed at the same times, in the same place
Two meals a day for most adult dogs, at roughly the same hours, somewhere calm. Routine does a surprising amount of the work here, because a dog who knows dinner is at six starts getting ready for it at half five. Remember that the clocks go back on Sunday 25 October, which moves every mealtime by an hour as far as your dog is concerned, and a fussy dog will notice that more than most.
Walk first, feed after
A dog who has done something tends to eat better than a dog who has been asleep since lunch. Leave a gap of an hour or so after hard exercise before a big meal, particularly for deep-chested breeds, but the general order of walk then dinner is a good one.
Check the bowl itself
Not the first thing to try, but worth knowing. Some dogs dislike the noise of a tag ringing against a metal bowl, and some eat better from a bowl that is not skating across the tiles or sitting flat on a cold floor. Our Raised Ceramic Dog Bowl with Bamboo Stand at £12.95 sits in a bamboo frame that stops it being pushed around, holds 850ml and is dishwasher safe, in six colourways. If you want to know what a bowl's material actually changes, we went through it in ceramic versus stainless steel versus plastic.
What not to do
- Do not change food every time he hesitates. Each new bag teaches him that refusing produces novelty, and a run of rapid changes will upset his stomach as well, which gives you a second problem.
- Do not add human food from your plate mid-meal. It is the fastest possible way to teach a dog that the bowl is the opening offer.
- Do not hand feed a healthy adult dog to get the meal in. It works beautifully tonight and costs you every night afterwards.
- Do not starve a dog into submission. There is a world of difference between picking the bowl up after twenty minutes and leaving a dog without food for days.
If you do decide to change food
Change it once, deliberately, and transition over about seven days, mixing a little more of the new food in each day. A slow change is kinder on the stomach and makes any genuine reaction easier to spot. If you are weighing wet against dry for a picky dog, the wet versus dry guide sets out what each is actually better at, and if you want to understand what is in the bag you are choosing between, start with how to read a dog food label.
Free UK delivery on orders over £30.
Frequently asked questions
Why won't my dog eat his food but will eat treats?
Usually because the treats are better and he has learned that holding out produces them. It can also be dental pain, since a sore mouth makes hard kibble unpleasant while soft treats stay easy, so get his teeth checked if this started suddenly. In a dog who has always been like this and is otherwise well, it is a learned habit: stop the between-meal extras, put the bowl down for twenty minutes and take it away again, and most dogs reset within a few meals.
How long can a dog go without eating?
A healthy adult dog missing one or two meals is usually not an emergency, but 24 hours without food is the point to call your vet, and 12 hours for a puppy, a small breed or an older dog. Going off food is one of the most common early signs of illness, so a dog who normally eats well and suddenly stops should be seen rather than tempted with something tastier.
Should I leave my dog's food down all day?
Generally no. Leaving food down all day means a dog is never properly hungry at any point, which is one of the most common causes of picking. Two measured meals at roughly the same times each day, down for fifteen to twenty minutes and then lifted, gives a dog a clear reason to eat when the bowl arrives.
Is it okay to add wet food to kibble for a fussy dog?
Yes, and for many picky dogs it is the right answer. Two rules make it work: add it at the start of the meal rather than after a refusal, so you are not rewarding the refusal, and count it as part of the day's food by reducing the kibble, or you will slowly add several hundred calories a day. Keeping the protein consistent between the wet and the dry is also sensible if your dog has a sensitive stomach.
Why has my dog suddenly become a fussy eater?
A sudden change in a dog who previously ate well is worth a vet visit before anything else, because loss of appetite is a common early sign of illness and of dental pain. Once those are ruled out, the usual causes are a change at home that has unsettled him, too many treats or scraps during the day, or a pattern of extra food appearing whenever he refuses a meal.
Does warming dog food help a fussy eater?
Often, yes. Dogs choose food largely by smell, and warmth and moisture release aroma, so wet food served at room temperature rather than fridge cold, or a spoon of warm water stirred through kibble, makes a meal considerably more appealing without changing what is in it or adding any calories. Never microwave food hot, and check the temperature before it goes down.
Featured in this guide: Pure Horse (from £3.79) · Pure Kangaroo (from £4.19) · Pure Ostrich (from £4.69) · AATU Wet Variety Multi Pack (£17.99) · Raised Ceramic Dog Bowl (£12.95). Free UK delivery over £30.