# food refusal



## Zakia Days (Mar 13, 2009)

Hey everyone,

My male pup (16months) has been refusing his food for approx. 48hrs. The females are in heat and he has no interest in his meals. I'm sure this will pass. My question is should I "baby" him into eating foods I know he would like or should I just let him refuse until heat cycles are over? I'm almost certain he won't starve himself. If I hand feed him "snacks" he eats them half-heartedly. If I place it in his bowl he will ignore it all together. What have you all experienced or do you suggest?


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## Sarah Koth (Mar 1, 2008)

Zakia Days said:


> Hey everyone,
> 
> My male pup (16months) has been refusing his food for approx. 48hrs. The females are in heat and he has no interest in his meals. I'm sure this will pass. My question is should I "baby" him into eating foods I know he would like or should I just let him refuse until heat cycles are over? I'm almost certain he won't starve himself. If I hand feed him "snacks" he eats them half-heartedly. If I place it in his bowl he will ignore it all together. What have you all experienced or do you suggest?



Hey Zakia!

My male dog will do the same thing. I've found if I manage to coax him to eat he'll end up vomiting it anyway. We typically leave food out for him and if he eats he eats and if not that's ok. I will always offer them some marrow bones which they usually can't resist which will give them some calories.

If the boys are stressing I try to give them some space away from the girls and most importantly break them in a different area than the girls. Sniffing areas where the girls break can get them super worked up. 

Hope everything is well with you guys! 

<3 Sarah


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## Joby Becker (Dec 13, 2009)

if he is not gonna waste away, and it fits with your situation, I would just leave some food in the bowl for him. He will eat it when he gets hungry enough....


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## Selena van Leeuwen (Mar 29, 2006)

Let it be. Offer him food, let the bowl stay if possible, and ignore it. Sure not babying him. Water is more important, will pass.


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## Anna Kasho (Jan 16, 2008)

I have only one idiot like that (ok they all get somewhat stupid over bitch in heat, but only the one stops eating) and since he is really skinny, I take him to work with me and feed him there. After some exercise and in a totally different environment, he eats fine. If he was more filled out I'd just let it be, but he doesn't have any reserve weight to lose.


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## Zakia Days (Mar 13, 2009)

Sarah Koth said:


> Hey Zakia!
> 
> My male dog will do the same thing. I've found if I manage to coax him to eat he'll end up vomiting it anyway. We typically leave food out for him and if he eats he eats and if not that's ok. I will always offer them some marrow bones which they usually can't resist which will give them some calories.
> 
> ...


 

Hey Sarah,

It's so good to hear from you! Thank you for the well wishes. Things are going okay here w/ us and we hope they are going well for you too! 

Unfortunately, I am not the coaxing type (I'm tempted to see how long he can go before having to resort to parenteral nutrition:-\". Just kidding:mrgreen. I have given him "breaks" away from home. I've exercised him pretty good, and I walk my females to the park for toileting and try not to allow them in the yard (my other half could care less:roll. I will place a good sized piece of meaty venison bone in his kennel tonight to see how that works out. Thank you everyone for the posts. I wanted to see how or if everyone else deals w/ it. I was intending to just wait him out (not good at coaxing). But we'll see what happens.


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## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

The other members of yr community will prolly put a bounty on yr head for taking yr females to the park to toilet while on heat, nice one, hope it is not a training park.


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## Zakia Days (Mar 13, 2009)

Peter Cavallaro said:


> The other members of yr community will prolly put a bounty on yr head for taking yr females to the park to toilet while on heat, nice one, hope it is not a training park.


The other members of my community don't even give a crap. Those that live in apt. bldgs. that have to walk their dogs in the park in heat or not, are not mindful or even aware of it. Some that own private homes do the same thing. They just habitually walk their dogs to the park to toilet. I'm also not going to have my females toileting around my house, inviting the neighborhood males or any strays to hang out in my yard either. And no worries, its just a neighborhood, county park. As far as I've observed, only I train there.


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## Britney Pelletier (Mar 5, 2009)

My male does the same thing.. and all my girls come into heat right around the same time. He's never lived around intact females for long periods of time until now, so when they came into heat this fall, it was REALLY bad.

I admittedly AM the babying type, especially when it comes to him.. he literally would make me break down in tears. He spent the better part of 5 weeks or so eating sparingly. He would easily go close to 5 days in a row without eating anything. I left food out for him, I gave him strict eating times, I doctored his food (last resort), I did it all. Food was not a priority of his, and as a result, he lost almost 15lbs. 

It took him awhile to gain it all back, but he's completely fine now.. I am NOT in any way looking forward to their heats this spring. :-o


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

I don't baby my males when the females are in heat, unless the weight loss gets to the point of being unhealthy. Generally though my males eat just fine throughout the girls heat cycles. Any weight loss comes from them being more active then normal with pacing or what not. When it's one girl after another coming into heat so we have 2+ months of heat cycles Mac can get a little thin, in that case I restrict his activity.

If your boy is willing to eat from your hand, just increase your training schedule using food rewards. Otherwise I wouldn't worry about it. If the weight loss is getting to the point you are worried, track your girls cycles and put a few extra pounds on your male before she goes into heat, so he has something to loose.

I've also found that they are usually at their stupidest the first few heat cycles the girls go through, then they get better.

As far as taking the female(s) to the park, when my girls are in heat it's still life as usual. I take them to training, I take them to trials, etc. I fully expect my males to continue working even if they are sitting in a vehicle crated right next to a girl in heat. And they do. I let the club members know I have a girl in heat with me in case some of them want to train before I bring her out, but quite a few will choose to go after I've had her on the field specifically to work their dogs through it. IMO those are the smart ones  After all, who knows what you are going to run into at a trial, there might have been a female out there who is only a few days from starting her cycle, ie she smells but isn't showing any physical signs, or there might be one in heat in the parking lot who will be trialing at the end of the day, etc. I remember an FR trial I did a number of years ago. My girl Cali was in standing heat, so per the FR rules we trialed at the end of the trial along with another female who was also in heat. Worked OK for the FR dogs, but right after the FR trial was over on Saturday, a Schutzhund club used the field to do their obedience and protection portions of their trial, they had done tracking while the FR trial was going on. And the FR club held a second trial on Sunday, Cali trialed at the end again, I think Brassai only did Saturday, but it wasn't like the girls hadn't been all over that field at that point. I can pretty much promise those who had trained their male dogs around girls in heat had fewer problems then those who hadn't.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Exactly...might as well train with it instead of against it. It's not like the males can't smell her in the car in the parking lot 30 yards away. Me and our decoy have the only females in our club and it will take a while for the 12 week old pup to come in, but when she does, I've already got some devious training planned for the more seasoned intact boy dogs in the club. Even for the neutered boys who are like "hmmm...what's this?" *sniff sniff* :twisted:


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## Peter Cavallaro (Dec 1, 2010)

Whats the rules for trial, seems unfair on the dogs.

You would have to be some kind of sadist to 'train' a dog to ignore such a distraction.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Peter Cavallaro said:


> Whats the rules for trial, seems unfair on the dogs.
> 
> You would have to be some kind of sadist to 'train' a dog to ignore such a distraction.


Why? No different than training for other distractions, such as food refusal or gun fire. You think SAR or police dogs get to blow off their handlers while they are working to say hello to the ladies?


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## Zakia Days (Mar 13, 2009)

Maren Bell Jones said:


> Why? No different than training for other distractions, such as food refusal or gun fire. You think SAR or police dogs get to blow off their handlers while they are working to say hello to the ladies?


LOL!!! Exactly!!! Trust me there's no holds barred as far as training goes. Sadist, yes=D>:lol::lol:!


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## Kadi Thingvall (Jan 22, 2007)

Peter Cavallaro said:


> Whats the rules for trial, seems unfair on the dogs.


Depends on the sport. In French Ring females in heat can compete, but they have to go at the end of the trial. In some performance venues like herding they can also compete, once again at the end of the trial. In tracking it's up to the host club. In Schutzhund they can also compete, they track with the rest of the dogs and go last in obedience and protection.



> You would have to be some kind of sadist to 'train' a dog to ignore such a distraction.


LOL Guess I'm a sadist then. Or maybe I just expect my dogs to work when it's time to work, and "play" when it's time to "play". There are plenty of real world examples where dogs are expected to do their job, regardless of distractions. Police and SAR were mentioned, add to that hunting dogs, herding dogs, guide dogs, other assistance dogs, the list goes on. I don't have much use for a dog who's libido is so overwhelming that if there is a bitch in heat within a couple of miles they are useless, or for that matter a female who is so hormonal when she's in heat that she won't work either.


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## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

Zakia

I have two females in heat (Dobermann and wife's rat terrier)
Gwrgenau (2 1/2 year old male GSD) only eats every 2-3 days
I just leave it in his crate. The embarrassing thing is he's after the rat terrier and not the Dobermann......................Perv


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## Zakia Days (Mar 13, 2009)

LOL! That is funny. Dobe's not his type maybe? Offer him a few drinks and he'll get over that (LOL). 

Guess he decided he couldn't hold out. Last night he at his meal. I fed him slightly less than normal. Didn't want to overwhelm him. I'll see if he's hungry again this evening. He's still growing (towards the end of his "official" growth period, I believe), so I hope he decides to consume a bit more nutrition. We'll see. Again thanks everyone for the suggestions.


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