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This is what we have been given with Kai from the breeder. It made me smile as it's exactly what we have started doing with Finn - sprinkling cheese in his bowl, adding gravy etc. It was stressful but having this piece of advice really changed our attitude towards feeding times and we are all a lot happier.
The Problem Feeder
There is nothing worse that a poor feeder - nothing more calculated to send the sanest of dog lovers round the twist; they are frustrating and worrying not to mention wasteful. The tale of the problem feeder is a well told one and most breeders have heard it a hundred times.
The puppy is quite normal, a happy bouncing little soul that eats quite well during the first weeks (after the initial new home blues). Than at around 16 weeks, usually when he is cutting his second teeth, he goes off his food. Doesn't want his food, thinks his usual diet yuk! The owners are worried "after all this is going to be a Great Dane", "if he doesn't eat enough he won't grow" and so they change his food to their idea of a more tempting dish. "Perhaps he didn't like the old stuff", "I wouldn't like to eat the same old thing every day".
Now for a day or two, the new food is wonderful and he eats it as if there's no tomorrow. Then he turns his nose up at it. Menu number 2 hits the dust and something else but be tried. "It worked last time", "He must be caning gourmet". Menu number 3 however, only lasts one feed and menu number 4 is hardly sniffed at. By now, almost every waking moment is taken up with the poor dog's dietary intake and feeding times are a nightmare of "will he/won't he". They sprinkle cheese over the bowl, add gravy, hand feed him, scatter it on the floor because sometimes "he cleans up" but nothing pleases him and all the time he seems to get thinner.
Well now you have a problem. It can be cured but it would have been easier not to have got there in the first place. The thing to remember is that dogs are just like us. Sometimes they are starving hungry and other times they are just not interested. Perhaps when they are teething, when it is very hot, bitches when they are 5 or 6 weeks after a season, dogs when the bitch down the road is more interesting thatn usual. Also some are more greedy than others by nature, and some are genetically designed not to be roly-poly fat during their growing period or young adult-hood. NOTHING you will do will mae a dog with a small apetite turn into a mobile dust-bin.
Remember these things. It is essential that when the dog has an "off" day DON'T push him. He may not eat well for a few days, perhaps only half or less of his usual intake, but sooner than you think, he will eat a normal amount and perhaps even ask for more. He may have periods of "off" days all through his growing period and longer and these are the times that if you "tempt" or "push" him to eat more than eh wants, that you create a mental feeding block that starts by being fussy and ends up by totally baulking at any food whatsoever. You can, in fact, so worry a young dog that the site of a feeding bowl is enough to make him tremble. It is interesting, and no surprise, that 9 out of 10 problem feeders are owned by people who want to show their dog and here lies the clue. The more important it is for the dog to look right (i.e. show ring sleek) the more likely they are to be worried when the dog is finicky and slowly develop a problem as described above.
Find out what the dog's parents were like when they were young. IF the sire (now a beautiful rounded show dog) was a skinny tin-ribs type when he was a teenager, you may be bashing your head against a brick wall to get weight on this tin-ribs son/daughter. Don't worry about him, he will get there in the end. Whatever you might think, he will not starve himself to death.
Now to the dog who is already a problem feeder.
To start with, you must be feeding a well balanced and palatable food. Even hungry dogs will not eat sour food or stale stuff that has been hanging around for days (in and out of the fridge).
Have set feeding times and stick to them. Prepare half of his usual food in a clean bowl, push it a little to the side of the bowl so that the bottom is visible (he can see there isn't too much in there), put it down for him and DON'T WATCH HIM. Get on with the washing up or something. Give him about 5 minutes or until he goes away from the bowl and than take it away, completely and out of sight. Do not offer him any food until the next scheduled feeding time (incidentally some dogs will only feed once a day even as 5 months old puppies). Harden your heart and don't give him anything no matter how starving he looks or how longingly he eyes your dinner or how "I'm sure he'll eat it now" you feel. At the next feeding time do exactly the same.Half of his meal freshly prepared, clean bowl etc. And five minutes, no more, even if he looks like coming to eat it as you take it away.
Now for some dogs this treatment works in two days, in others it can take nearly a week and it is much harder on you than it is on the dog but it will work because he will eventually realise that you mean business and he will get really hungry. When he finishes his half ration on two consecutive occasions, you can steadily give him more but never go back to leaving food down or tempting or hand feeding. He will go back to square one faster than you can say "Pedigree Chum". I promise you it works, more by your attitude to the dogs feeding habit than the whims of his appetite.
Problem feeders are made, not born. The more you worry, the worse they get.
I have to say that it certainly worked for us. If nothing else, I am a lot more relaxed and do not worry as much as I used to. We were literally doing the same as described above - grating cheese in the bowl, adding gravy, sitting on the step and hand feeding Finn. Until we brought Kai home it was hard work and the vibe of the day was dictated a lot by how much Finn has eaten. Now with two dogs eating together, we had a few days of almost competing as to who will empty their bowl first. But now, after a few weeks of Kai arriving, we've all settled again and the feeding times are a pleasure. Kai hoovers his food up then hangs around to see if any of Finn's food spills on the floor that he can eat. Finn is as before, some days he eats it all up really quickly and other days he sniffs at it and walks away. I have now learned to take the food away and he doesn't get any until the next meal time. Sometimes he eats then and sometimes he doesn't. But every now and again he hoovers up the whole bowl up faster than I can follow. The important bit for me was to not worry anymore and to stop stressing about him and somehow we all seem a lot happier now.
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The Great Dane 
