I have an english mastiff/shepard mix standing about half the size of a great dane, and even before having him fixed, he flatly refuses to eat dry dog food.

The story is, when my wife worked for a cab company, the company owners dog, (a small tan colored dog) went missing, and as the company owner went out looking for him, she came back with a stray, (thinking it was her dog), my wife told her that unless her dog grew an extra 3 feet in a few days, this dog was not hers, but the mastiff mix immediately took to my wife, and after 3 months of trying to find the owner (posting notices and notifying the local animal control) the owner never came forward, so we kept him, licensed him, had him fixed and got his shots, we tried calling him different names, until my stepson called him 'Rocko' and he immediately answered to that name.

We even tried not feeding him for 3 days, then gave him some dry food, all he did was sniff it, then whack is paw down on the side of the bowl, tipping all the food out, we even tried mixing 1/4 wet with 3/4 dry, he does the same, we even mixed gravy with the dry, and still he does the same, we tried all variaties of dry food, but still he does the same, unless his food comes straight from the can or it's of a meat kind, then he'll eat it.

Even though he weighed 110Lbs when we got him, he now weighs about 90Lbs.

It seems he will starve before eating dry food. Is there a way to get him to eat dry food? It's starting to cost a fortune in canned food. We don't want to give him up, as he's a great guard dog, not food aggressive, and lets my wife's nieces kids climb all over him, and has a temperament that would put a pitbull to shame.