Why won't some dogs drink or eat from new dishes?
Do dogs look at dog park water dishes and communal dog bone dishes the way humans look at dirty dishes?
Maybe I made this water bowl generalization from walking 104 dogs on Wag! (and a handful on Rover) or maybe the thought came from my previous two dogs. Either way, it never occurred to me that my third dog would be so suspicious of water and food dishes.
I quickly realized this after watching her grow from a 14-pound, adopted puppy to the 20-pound range. (I wasn’t quite sure how tall she’d be, considering she bypassed the purebred Dachshund adult height — 9-inch maximum — but still had the face of one.) Unlike my other crossbreed dog who would pretty much eat anything in front of him, Junee let me know in no uncertain terms that her stomach was not going to tolerate even some regular pet products like dental treats. As much as she liked baby carrots, years later this vegetable turned into a dietary nightmare after she’d gone one winter without eating them.
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But it isn't just the food; it is the food presentation too. Dog food bowls and dog water dishes have always been something she is particular about. I bought her a larger food dish during her puppy year, and she refused to eat for an entire day. After 24 hours, I wondered if she would eat the food in my hands and she devoured it. I have zero interest in feeding a dog by hand two or three times per day for the rest of her life, so I had to find an alternate plan.
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I tried putting food in the new dish that afternoon and she wasn’t eating again. I paused for a minute, knowing dogs gravitate toward your smell. I picked up a couple of spoonfuls of pet kibble, rolled them between my hands the same way I remove hulls from soybeans for homemade soy milk. Then, I turned them over into the dish. She looked from my hands to the dish. Took one out. Took two out. She ate, and we were back in business.
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I rolled my eyes when she did the same thing with the water dish and refused to treat water the way baby birds treat food. (In other words, I would not become a dog water fountain.) I washed my hands, rubbed my clean hands around in the freshly washed dish, and I poured the water.
That didn’t work at first, so I put her small dish into the larger dish. She immediately guzzled down all the water. I then ran my fingers around the sides of the large dish and poured the water from the small dish into the larger dish. She sniffed around, avoided it for a couple hours but then I heard the familiar slurping of water the same day.
When my mother gifted me with new fancier dog food and water dishes, I gave them right back to her to get a refund. I definitely wasn’t going through Junee’s dish test again. Still, I was curious why my third dog was so turned off by eating or drinking from new water and food dishes — or communal dishes at dog parks — while other dogs don’t seem to care.