Making Progress

For the past couple of days, Petey has decided that he doesn't want to eat dry food anymore unless there is moist food in the bowl. And even then, he only eats the moist food. For the past two days, I didn't have any moist food so I tried compensate with either mixed veggies or fruit. Petey ate the fruit, but he wouldn't eat anything else.

So today I decided not to put the fruit in the bowl because I've been told by a couple of people that I have to get him back to eating the dry food without any moist food. This way he won't get even more finicky than he has become. So this morning I made him a bowl of food and encouraged him to eat but he wouldn't go near the bowl.

Also this morning I started watching the Cesar Milan DVDs to get a handle on how I should train Petey. I'm learning about being a pack leader and teaching Petey how to be a follower and listen to me. He's basically a good dog, but he generally doesn't sit when I tell him unless I have a treat. He also doesn't stop barking when he sees other dogs.

But here's the thing. I got Petey to eat some of his food. I took a little bit of his food and put it in my hand. Petey thought it was a treat and ate some out of my hand. Every time he ate some food, I put more food in my hand and moved my hand closer to the bowl. Eventually, my hand was in the bowl and then he decided to eat out of the bowl himself. I was very proud of him to get back to eating dry food.

I'm going to try this again later in the day so that he eats the rest of his food.