Why does my dog wait to eat?

Honestly, I wouldn't allow this behavior to continue. This can escalate easily.

I would recommend separate feeding areas, and 10min to eat. If they don't eat in that time, I would take the food away, and then give another opportunity at the second feeding time during the day. If they skip a few times, that wouldn't be a bad thing. They won't starve themselves. They'll learn quick you control food, not them.

There could be a lot of reasons why your dog is waiting to eat. Might be a good idea to get her checked out just to make sure there is nothing seriously wrong. We have 3 dogs, all different sizes, ages, and breeds. We feed our dogs cooked chicken, rice, and veggies that we prepare for them. One of our dogs will occasionally stop eating with the others if he gets bored with the food. You might try changing the food or adding something to it that would entice Huxley to eat. When we have guest dogs stay with us, some of them get nervous eating with the pack or are homesick missing their owners. With the owners approval, sometimes we will add just a little bit of chicken broth to the food to change the flavor and smell. More often than not, the dog that wasn't eating with eat as soon as you put the bowl down.

Sometimes with our dogs, even though they are not food aggressive, there is just too much stimulation and when we have several dogs from different families over at one time, we separate them to feed them. You might try this. I don't know your dogs but it could be that Molly is more dominant than Huxley and Huxley could feel threatened or that she needs to wait her turn to eat.

You might be "claiming" the bowl as yours. Try not to stand over her or touch the bowl. We make ours dogs sit and wait until we are ready for them to eat and then one by one give them the command go and point to their bowl. It helps with basic obedience training but also for them to know when it is time to eat and they each know which bowl is their own. Also we try to feed them at the same time we do.

Sorry for the long post but without knowing/seeing the situation it is hard to narrow it down to what exactly the problem is. Recap: might try changing the food, changing the feeding schedule, separating the dogs to eat. Hope some of this info helps. Note: if one of our dogs skips a meal or two, we allow them to. Sometimes they are just not as hungry depending on exercise level. We take the bowl away after several attempts and about 5-10 minutes of waiting for them to eat.

If Huxley is getting on in dog years it may be that he has a breathing problem since this will affect his eating and will result in hesitancy. A visit to the vet is recommended.

Hello! My dog has started to do the same thing within the last couple months. Its like he won't eat if I'm around him or staring at him. I have to leave the room or walk away and give him space. It's not a food aggression issue, either. Obviously, if your dog isn't eating and isn't behaving normally, I also suggest a vet visit. But I've also had another dog when I was a kid, and she would just look at you, all polite, and wait for you to leave until she ate. Good luck! :)

I'd recommend starting with a trip to the vet to rule out illness or injury that could be affecting her appetite. Also consider whether there have been other changes in Huxley's life which could be causing her stress. Some of my boarder dogs behave very much like your Huxley, waiting for my girls to eat and requiring extra motivation. In their case, it's stress due to the change in environment (doggy homesickness), but if the rest of Huxley's life is the same, I'd be more concerned about a medical cause for her decrease in appetite.