Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Jack Russell afraid of his dinner + water bowl!!

Options
  • 23-02-2011 11:51pm
    #1
    the_monkey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,556 ✭✭✭


    Hi I have a very strange situation, I am looking after my friends Jack Russel for one day, he seems afraid of his
    water bowl and food bowl.
    These are the bowls my mate gave me so the dog usualy eats + drinks from them.
    The only thing he did tell me was that he wont eat in enclosed spaces, now my flat is quite small, and i have
    no garden, just a small balcony, I tried putting the food/drink everywhere but he wouldn't touch it.
    He eventually did but only when he was really hungry/thirsty and you could see he was quite distressed by it,
    forcing himself to eat + drink the minimum.
    Really strange this was he would eat no problem if I fed him his food on a spoon !, or when I cupped water in my
    hands he would lap it up !!! I also tried to put food on tinfoil and no joy either.
    He is collecting him early tomorrow so ill talk to him then, but how strange ??? anyone else ever
    hear of something like this ?

    Apart from this he is really well behaved, settles in the flat very quicky for snoozes etc, and is
    very obediant on walks.


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Shanao
    Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 919 ✭✭✭Shanao


    What kind of bowls are they? Some dogs are afraid of seeing reflections in the stainless steel bowls.


  • Options
    #3
    the_monkey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,556 ✭✭✭the_monkey


    The water is a white plastic bowl, so no reflection, the dinner bowl is kind of brown glass - not much of a reflection either.

    I think he might have gotten burnt once from hot food ???

    It is a strange one allright ...


  • Options
    #4
    Zapperzy
    Registered Users Posts: 2,524 ✭✭✭Zapperzy


    Have you tried giving him food or water out of a shallow saucer? It is a weird one alright if these are the normal bowls he usually has. Could be that he's just not comfortable in a strange environment eating in front of strange people? Is he used to you or your apartment?


  • Options
    #5
    LucyBliss
    Registered Users Posts: 616 ✭✭✭LucyBliss


    Maybe he misses his owners? We had a GSD who wouldn't eat on the rare occasions we couldn't take her with us when we had to go away. She'd be minded by a neighbour we knew well but she would not touch her food until she saw my Dad again.
    Of course, the three I have now just make themselves at home wherever they go. No fear of them pining for me!

    Hopefully that's all it is with this JRT and that he'll be fine again when he gets home.


  • Options
    #6
    the_monkey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,556 ✭✭✭the_monkey


    Zapperzy wrote: »
    Have you tried giving him food or water out of a shallow saucer? It is a weird one alright if these are the normal bowls he usually has. Could be that he's just not comfortable in a strange environment eating in front of strange people? Is he used to you or your apartment?

    They are quite shalow as it is, plus he eats no problem from a spoon i hold to him or drinks no problem from my hand !!!

    Something must have happened to him, maybe someone shoved his head in a bowl or as i said perhaps he was burnt...


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    star-pants
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,429 ✭✭✭✭star-pants


    Maybe try different bowls?
    Also if his collar clinks off the bowl that may be scaring him too, or if the bowls move when he goes to eat from them. My pup got like that when we had a stainless steal water bowl (clinking) and then another bowl kept moving on the floor which freaked her out.
    Maybe put those bowls or different ones on a cloth on the floor perhaps?


  • Options
    #8
    the_monkey
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,556 ✭✭✭the_monkey


    OK, so my friend collected him today, he says it's pretty much the same at home, he feeds him in the open in the middle of the terrace and even then he is very wary of approaching the plates - but does so cautiously, so it seems a claustrophobic thing.

    He said he bought him in a pet shop and has been like that since he was little, and he was in a cage and fed in the cage, so unfortunately he has been traumitised at a young age.


Advertisement