When a dog refuses to hear, it means that there is either a physical or a psychological problem. In this case, some owners try to tempt their dogs with some good food or by offering them food from the palm of their hand. Some dogs are bored or neglected and, by refusing to eat, they try to draw attention.



A careful owner will always take the dog out for walks, will play with the dog and pay attention to their pet. So it is not always constructive to make the correlation “dog stops eating – symptoms of disease” because, as we will see, this is not always the case.



How can we solve the nutrition problem of a dog who is not neglected, but on the contrary, who is too spoiled? Easy. Remove the bowl after 30 minutes and put it back when it is time for the dog’s next meal. Spoiled dogs are often obese, so they could use skipping a meal or two. You should also try not feeding your dog the same food every time. Some owners do not realize that their dog stops eating because it receives the same kind of food over and over again, or because the bowl is very dirty.

Food that is not healthy for humans is not good for dogs either. By now you probably have managed to notice what type of food your dog prefers: dried, diced, minced, etc. You could add various flavors to diversify the menu, flavors of onion or garlic, egg, and many dogs prefer liver or ham flavors. A lot of dogs prefer to skip the afternoon meal on very hot days. Let your dog follow his natural instincts. It is not out of the ordinary for a dog to refuse a meal, but if it refuses to ear for more than 24 hours, then this is one of the cases where you should, indeed, make the “dog stops eating – symptoms of disease” correlation and take your pet to a vet.

If your dog is much weakened or if it suddenly loses weight there could be a physical problem involved and these signs are red flags. If your dog has an unusually high appetite but it keeps losing weight, then it might have some intestinal parasites. All these symptoms require attention from a vet, because a specialist is the only one who will know what goes wrong and who will diagnose and prescribe treatment for your dog.



A young puppy that refuses to eat needs to be consulted by a specialist at once. Adequate feeding is essential for the little puppy because its stomach is very tiny and it cannot retain too much food, which is why puppies need to be fed more often. Before rushing to the nearest vet, make sure the lack of appetite is not due to one of the following causes: the puppy misses his mother and brothers. In this case you should try to spend more time with him, but not allow him to get too used to your constant presence; the time when you feed him does not correspond with the time when he is hungry; he is too nervous to eat; avoid playing or bringing in guests before or while the puppy is eating; the food is too hard or the bits are too big; he does not like the bowl you use to feed him.

For puppies, we recommend the use of plates, as flat as possible, and later, when the puppies grow a bit, you can use a somewhat deeper plate, and then a bowl.