Bentley's first weekend away from us

[Sabrina and Bentley]

My fiance and I went out of town this weekend and his parent's took Bentley.  They have a 150 pound St. Bernard and 150 pound Great Dane, but Bentley has met them before and handles them pretty well...of course, until he doesn't leave the St Bernard alone and he gets barked at. 

Anyway, we've only had Bentley for about 6 weeks now and he's 4 months old, so we're in the middle of training him.  My challenge is that today is his first morning back home and our routine is to potty between 7-7;30 and then he eats.  We keep him in the kitchen during that time so that we can all get ready for work.  I went to let him out and I noticed he didn't touch his food.  Usually he's eating by the time I close the door, so I was baffled when I saw that.  It's 10:30 now and he still hasn't touched his food.  I'm sure he's probably just getting used to being back home, but I didn't know what I should do.  When he was there, their kitchen is open, so he had free reign of the house.  His mom said she would have to stand over him to make him eat, so I'm sure part of that was the excitement of being in a new place.

 

Am i just overreacting??  do I leave his food out until he decides to eat?

 

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[BG and Gavin]

I would take the food up and put food back down at his usual time.  He could just be worn right out with no appetite because of all the action of the weekend with the two other dogs.  Also I know that dogs eating habits change when there are other dogs around.  They may see the other dogs as competition and thus gobble their food more quickly or if submissive, the dog may not wish to eat in front of other dogs until they are finished.  I would not worry yet.

[Rose Ann and Amante]

I would just get him back on his schedule. He will eat when he is hungry. Amante does that sometime when you get home from camping. Don't worry yet!

[Denise & Hunter!!!]

Hunter is 2 1/2 and she still gets goofy eating if her routine gets thrown off at all.  She won't eat if we put her food down and then leave the house.  She will only eat if we are home, normally I am always home when she eats so its not an issue. If we take her camping she will be thrown off for a couple of days and then will eat normally again.  I wouldn't worry at all about it. :-) 

[Ellen, Brûlée, and Tira]

What a great puppy to do so well with so many changes!  Away from home, from you two, living with 2 giants!, and then back home to start over with his "other" routines.  He probably just needs some readjustment time to remember what's what!  

If you want to get him back on a schedule, just go for it.  He'll certainly figure that out in no time...(When he's hungry!)  :)

He is one precious Dood, by the way!

[Sabrina and Bentley]

Thanks Ellen!  This is all new to me and I got scared that everything we taught him went out the window when we got him back.  haha!  I should know better than that because he's so smart!

[Sabrina and Bentley]

Thanks for the reassurance!  I'm one of those new moms who overanalyzes everything.  lol!  I just try to figure out what everything means.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

In my experience you need to take up the food and then reintroduce it at the next scheduled feeding. I think that if you don't you will create a picky eater. Unless you want a free feed situation all the time that is.

[Sabrina and Bentley]

This is what I decided to do.  I don't want him to be able to eat throughout the day whenever he wants, so I pulled it up this morning after 30 minutes and he won't get fed again until dinner.  Thanks for the advice!

[Becka]

I don't have anything to add (I agree that you should just get Bentley back to his usual feeding schedule and not worry about it too much) except to say, with regards to your fiance's parents having 300 pounds of dog in the house: WOW! That's a lot of dog! :)

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

It is just the change, or stress.  No biggie.  You can choose either to pick it up if he doesn't eat or leave it down for him to eat at his leisure. People do both.  When we are home, I leave Ned's food down and when we are in the RV, I don't.  He lives with it.