As far as the eating from a dish thing .. I hear yah... Sometimes my new kittens will NOT use a dish and would rather starve to death if I didn't feed with my hands. I found(finally) that if I fed off a napkin or papertowel they would eat ...Go figure
Then I would kind of edge them into using a bowl by offering both for awhile until I see them using the bowl more frequently, then I take away the papertowel.
I also hear you on the dry food thing. When I first got Cowboy he was eating Royal Canin. Then he decided pretty quick he wouldn't eat it and I went through TONS of other stuff. I hated the bags I had to buy when there were no samples. . Finally I just went ahead and fed him people food . He would ALWAYS eat that and I ALWAYS have leftover meat and veggies and stuff. I tried mixing in kibble but he would just pick through it
. Now after a couple months he does OK with eating people food and kibble food and has adjusted fine. I actually can feed him kibble only if we are not cooking home.
Just make sure to do a google for poisonous foods to dogs if you do human.