I've discovered Clover will happily eat her food out of the bowl and on her feeding mat. She won't eat it in the bowl. Any idea why?

She doesn't like the bowl?

__________________
Jack - Black Labrador
Nalsy & Ponch - Purebred bedwarming moggies

What sort of bowl does she have?
I know a collie who doesn't like stainless steal bowls and a lab who doesn't like the sound of his dog tags tapping on the bowl.

__________________


A dog Possesses Beauty without Vanity,Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, And all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.

we went through a bit of a phase with our dog recently where if his food was in his bowl,he would turn his nose up at it,but if we put it loose in his crate then he ate it!! or if it was on the floor,or hand fed he would eat it,don't know why but thats what was happening.It stopped though when we changed his feeding time,from first thing in the morning,to after his walk so around 11.30-12pm,and now he eats it in one go,out of his bowl!!!??? which again was unusual,because before he had been a grazer and just picked at his bowl every now and again.Sorry if this doesn't help but its just what we found with Alf

__________________

Use this as a training/mental stimulation exercise - grazing. Instead of putting her food - I'm assuming is dry... in a bowl or a mat - spread it out on the grass or garden - that way she works for her food and she'll eat it slower too.

Benjie will eat his wet food in his dish, but if I mix it with mixer - he will nudge all the biscuits out and eat them on the floor after - he's weird like that.

Plus it's not natural for a dog to eat out a bowl. I would do the grazing with her. It's also great to do if you need to hoover or tidy up and you need her out of the way - throw her food on the grass - she'll be there a while finding it - so you'll have time to do housework

What kind of bowl does she have?
What breed ??? or what kind of 'nose/muzzle/snout' ???

MM

My rescue dog Bracken had some food issues when i got her, one of them was approaching the food bowl as if it contained poison ! As she was very emaciated and starving you would have thought the bowl would have been a last concern for her but it really put her off. I fed her on a old dinner plate and she was happier with that and now eats from a shallow baking ceramic dish but won't go near dog bowls. You could try Clover with a plate or the idea of scattering food is a good one too. Didn't work with Bracken as she had issues about eating biscuits !

I can't scatter food as she is fed Raw. What I did do this morning was feed her in her old puppy bowl, which is shallow, and she ate out of that. So will buy her a shallow bowl. Thanks guys for your help.. once again

Perhaps, as a steep sided bowl is a type of confining space, or the walls remind the dog of an object that caught it one, sometime in past?

__________________
For eager & reliable recall, be fun for the dog to come back to! Then often send them off right away to do what they wanted!
DT&B - Glossary of acronyms & jargon terms.
Encouraging good behaviours, whilst consistently avoiding practise of bad alternatives leads to extinction of the bad. So if dog sits 6/10 times it doesn't sit 4/10 times, encouraging with the right rewards (positively-reinforcing) enough for 9/10 times means it now fails to sit only 1/10 times, sit 10/10 means...

I think its to do with foraging strategies one of the main motor patterns of the dog, I have met many dogs that will take a mouthful of food from the bowl scatter it across the kitchen then go and eat it. You could still scatter raw, do it outside lots of people do.
Sorry just seen your post to say she will eat out of other bowl, i'd still get her working for it though it helps the dog to be contented.