Eating Dog Food

I think that most of the time my dog believes that she is a human. She lies on the couch, sleeps on our bed, and sits in a regular seat in the car. She also does not eat alone. It took her a long time to even accept dog food, as we would sit for long periods of time with kibble in our hand for her to take. It was as though she would rather starve than steep to such levels of eating dog food, especially out of a dog dish on the floor. But over time she started eating more dog food, probably out of starvation, but only if we sat next to her. When we're at work during the day she does not touch her food, no matter how long we've been gone. Once we're home, and near her dish, she will devour her food as though she has been starving for days. But if we leave the room, she looks up and will walk away no matter how hungry she seems to be. Often I don't even notice, I just happen to be in the room where her dish is when I start hearing the crunch of her kibble and realize that she is there as well. The other thing she does is wait for encouragement to eat. She will stand over her dish and stare at her food until someone tells her, in an enthusiastic tone, that she's a good girl. She'll then wag her tail and start eating.

This is one of the reasons why it is so hard to leave our dog for any length of time. She'll barely eat while we're gone, even if it's for a week or more. She'll eat some if another dog is nearby and is eating as well, or if whoever is taking care of her sits with the kibble in their hand as we once did, but it's never very much. So after she finishes doing her laps of excitement once we get home, we walk to her dish and she devours it in about five seconds, halting her hunger strike for the time being.