The hardest thing for you and your parents to do now is to completely ignore her whenever she cries and begs for food that is not part of her main meal. Both you and your parents have to be very firm on her for her to succeed.

You are feeding her two meals a day? If so, cut the portion to a third of what you normally feed her (not including your parent’s feeding), but still provide her two meals a day. To be honest with you, no amount of dry premium dog food will tempt her right now. You have to improvise her meal for now. You can search through my dog food recipes category for more healthy mouth-watering food for her.

Suggestions:

1. Keep her very busy by increasing her activities, such as walk more often and for longer distance. This not only diverts her attention away from food but also helps to bring her weight down and increases her appetite.

2. Only feed her after she had her walk.

3. If the table food your parents give is safe and healthy, you may want to add that to her kibbles; but keep it to one-third to half of her regular portion. Within that one-third portion the ratio of kibble to table food should be 1:3. Remember to take it away if she refuses to eat within 20 minutes. Then gradually increase to 2:2 and then to 3:1.

4. Walk her again after meal.

5. Water should be easy access to her through the day.

Try this approach first. Good luck!

Is there anyone else feeding him while you are at work? Do you allow free feeding while you are at work? Is there any food left around that he has access to while you are at work? Do you have any other pets?

These are some factors that can contribute to your dilemma.

In any case, not all human foods are bad for dogs. If you cook, you might want to consider feeding your dog home cooked meals. Healthy dogs can go without food for a day or two, and if it persists longer than that, you should have him checked by the vet.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for your question.

If you’ve tried most of the premium dog food with no success, chances your dog may not eat any other dog food inferior to which she had eaten before. It could be some ingredients in them that don’t go well with her stomach.

Your next step is to find which meat trickles her appetite—such as Chicken, Turkey, Beef or Lamb.

Don’t worry about carbohydrates and vegetables first. Since your dog is an extremely finicky eater, she’s unlikely to be overweight or obese. However, do not substitute carbohydrate and vegetables with meat.

Assuming you’ve an adult small breed dog less than 10 pounds with a semi active lifestyle, her daily calories intake would 500. Of which 50% is carbohydrate, 20% is vegetables and 30% is protein. Therefore, cook one of the meat (30%) listed above and see if she eats. Once you have a winner or maybe two, then go through my archives under dog food and dog treat to get some homemade recipes. Though the recipes here only contain 5% of my Doggie Cookbook but it should get you going for a while. Occasionally drop by to check for more updates. Sometimes I give away tips in most unlikely places.

Hope this helps.

I actually found the task of isolating ingredients pretty simple because I didn’t do a typical allergy diet approach. Instead, I educated myself about the more common ingredients that can be problematic for dogs (green peppers and corn, for instance) and just cut those entirely from his diet. I understand that it can be a much more arduous task for some if they wish to validate one ingredient at a time, yet wouldn’t want to discourage folks from trying this approach by making it seem too overwhelming! For some, simply making food and knowing that you’re preventing additives of any kind from going into it can be all that it takes. Thank goodness it was a small dog, though…if I had to do it for our Newfoundland I’d have to quit my job and become his full-time chef!

Thanks for sharing your experience. Actually, my first Maltese (during mid eighties in Tennessee) shared similar situation with your “former” Shih Tzu. Unfortunately, Frosty didn’t survive (his 2nd seizure attack got him) long enough to complete the diet program I planned out for him.

I couldn’t disagree with you more on isolating food ingredients. This is a very daunting process which many dog owners do not wish to go through. It is a lot of work; furthermore the result doesn’t come instantly. Just isolating to one ingredient alone, one has to wait an average of 8 weeks to verify the cause. I applaud you and thank you for doing such a wonderful job for your canine child.