Fear of bowls

[Magdabean]

My 11 month old puppy has been really weird about bowls the last two weeks. She has no problem eating or drinking as long as I bring the bowls to her. If she approaches them, she backs off very slowly as if she's scared of the bowls. 4 weeks ago, she knocked over her bowl while she was eating. She was skiddish about the bowls, so I used other ones. I went out of town for a week and was told that she was eating and drinking normally. But, when I got back, she wouldn't eat or drink unnless I fed her with my hands. I know you shouldn't do that so I stopped. Its been so hot here, I was concerned that she wasn't drinking on her own, so brought the bowl to her. I took her to the vet and he thought it was very strange. She would rather drink from puddles or sprinklers than from her bowl. I got her new bowls and changed the location of the bowls and it hasn''t helped. I'm no longer using a crate, so I can't even try that. Has anybody experienced anything similar? Would love some insight and advice.

[gmacleod]

You know, I think you're probably not doing yourself any favours by pandering to her fear (sorry). I can quite imagine that knocking the bowl over (is it not at ground level anyway?) could make quite a noise and frighten the pup... but it's actually something she should get over fairly easily.

But if you're bringing her the bowls, and hand feeding her - then you're actually reinforcing her idea that there's something to worry about. It's rather like trying to reassure a nervous dog: it actually works against you because with you making a fuss too, the dog becomes even more convinced that they were right to be frightened. The better way is to be resolutely matter-of-fact and speak in a happy confident tone whilst dealing with whatever the scary thing was. That shows the dog by example that it's nothing to worry about, and they will slowly follow your lead.

So I think it might be wiser to adopt the same sort of technique with the food bowl ;) Don't pander to her worries, show her there's no need to worry instead.

With you bringing the bowl to her, that does suggest that she's OK with the actual bowl, it may simply be the location that's a problem. So I'd suggest that you stop taking them to her, but simply move the bowls a short distance from their usual spot (and the scene of the scary bowl tipping incident) and feed her there instead. Don't give her treats or any other food between her meals, and she will get hungry enough to eat her food from the required place. Once she's OK with that, you should be able to transfer her and her bowls back to the previous location, if you like.