Breakfast sits there until lunchtime. Dinner gets a sniff, a walk away, and then a sudden interest at 9pm when you have given up.
You are now hovering over the bowl, adding warm water and bits of chicken, and wondering whether your dog is unwell or has worked out that you will.
Health first, before any feeding plan
Appetite is one of the clearest health signals you have, so it gets checked before anything else. A dog who refuses 2 meals in a row is a phone call today rather than a new routine.
Safety note
Call your veterinary practice today if your dog has refused 2 meals in a row, has eaten nothing for 24 hours, or is losing weight. Call today as well for vomiting, diarrhoea, drooling, dropping food while eating, pawing at the mouth, or a dog who has gone quiet and flat. Sudden behaviour change warrants a veterinary examination, and pain frequently presents as a change in behaviour rather than as obvious lameness. A small dog goes downhill faster than a large one, so do not leave that call until tomorrow.
Then keep a 5 day bowl diary
One skipped meal tells you almost nothing. Five days of notes usually tells you everything, and it takes 20 seconds a meal to write down.
Note the time you put each meal down, and how much you put in the bowl.
Note how much came back, by eye. Half, a third, all of it.
Note what happened in the hour before: a walk, a game, a chew, a nap, the school run.
Note every extra your dog ate that day, including what other people handed over.
Note the weather and the room. Heat and a busy kitchen both move appetite.
What the pattern usually turns out to be
Only breakfast is skipped. Many adolescent dogs are not hungry early, and eat the same total across 2 later meals.
The meal after the walk is skipped. A dog who is still wound up cannot eat slowly. Feed 30 minutes after the lead comes off.
The meal in the busy part of the day is skipped. Watching people move past the bowl is pressure. Put it down and leave the room.
Both meals are half eaten but the total is fine. That is grazing, not skipping, and it usually needs nothing.
Nothing is eaten from the bowl and everything is eaten from your hand. That is a bowl problem rather than an appetite problem.
Count everything else that goes in
This is where most skipped meals live. Training treats, 2 chews, a dental stick and the children's crusts add up to a meal your dog has already had.
Take the training food out of the daily ration rather than adding it on top. Most of a Session can be paid from the bowl.
Stop the toppings for a week. A dog who waits for something better on the food has learned that waiting works.
Put the meal down for 15 minutes, lift it without comment, and offer the next one on time.
Ask your veterinary practice what your dog should be eating at their current weight, rather than trusting the bag.
Do not try to out-wait a dog into eating. Skipping meals to prove a point is not something we would ask you to do, and it turns a feeding question into a health one.
Use the food your dog left
A dog who leaves dinner is often still keen to work for the same food from your hand. Reward-based methods are what the veterinary behaviour guidance recommends, and the ration is the cheapest way to pay for them.
Hand-feed a portion during a 3 minute Session, scatter a portion on the lawn, and put the rest in a food toy. Behaviour change is built from management plus reinforcement, and so is a finished dinner.
If food is one of several adolescent things going on at once, the Assessment will sort which to work on first. It is free, takes about 3 minutes, and asks for no email address.
Today's version, in one line: start the bowl diary at the next meal, put it down for 15 minutes, and add nothing.