[yorkietalkjilly]

This is not a thread about food or nutrition but behavior. Behavior I am interested in understanding but I need some input and help with it. It's a "why" thread.

Tibbe has access to his kibble and water 24/7 in his little stainless steel doggie bowls in the kitchen and can free-feed anytime he wants. Because of persistent tummy troubles, he was put on Hill's I/D GI kibble well over a year ago but once he was diagnosed with MVD(microvascular dysplasia), I began feeding him half the canned hepatic food, Hill's I/D Hepatic and half his usual kibble, Hill's I/D Gastrointestinal, in a special glass bowl for my breakfast dishes and one that is set aside only for his use.

Every morning now he wakes me up hungry, I make coffee and his meal to set on the cabinet and sort of marinate for a bit, fix my breakfast and then we eat at the same time. I fix him half of his canned hepatic food and half his regular kibble food and add zero to differing amounts of water, truly souping it up some days and other days, just mixing the canned food and kibble dry. Still I set the food in the bowl aside to let the ingredients soak into each other for a bit, even if there is no water. I call his bowl of food his "special food" as I put it down on the rug.

I do almost the same thing as far as his dinner is concerned around 4 - 6:00 p.m. but leave out the canned hepatic as he tends to get itchy if he eats too much of the hepatic. Still, if he just has the kibble for dinner, I always add warm/hot water and stir it, let it soak and bring out the kibble gravy smell. And he always has his dinner in his special glass bowl sitting on the rug between the kitchen and the den. I also tell him this is his "special food" as I put it down evenings.

Because of this way of feeding him now, he largely just ignores his kibble in the steel bowl and flat turns up his nose at it unless I skip feeding him his moistened dinner in his special bowl on the little rug because he's looking a little porky. If so, I like him to free-feed for evening for a couple of days, which he eventually does but only after much begging, barking and growling for his special dinner. He sure puts up a stink before he finally eats the dry food from his steel bowl in the kitchen, sometimes holding out until late night before he gives in and eats some and once in a while, he skips dinner altogether.

Tonight, he was looking a tad porky but not wanting to put up with his evening of grousing, for the first time, I just put plain old dry kibble in his special glass bowl, set the bowl on the counter-top for a while and then put it down on the rug between the kitchen and den and said "It might be special food". He gobbled all his plain dry kibble in the special bowl up ASAP. Why?

Why would he eat plain old dry kibble in his special bowl on the little rug and not in his stainless steel bowl in the kitchen? Was he just expecting it to be special and tasty and his Pavlov's reactions just pushed his brain to tell him it was just as good as his special food? Will it last? What does this teach me?