Our toy poodle, Butchie, insists on eating his food on one of us. Worse than that, he must have his dish either on a chair, the couch, or the bed. He will not eat until one of us is sitting with him, at which time he will take a bite of food, then stand on us, and eat. Why? All attempts to break this have resulted in him barking at us for hours, and if that fails, he waits till we're asleep and then pees on the bed! He refuses all human food, and will only eat kibble or Ol Roy dinner rounds. Why did the dish end up on the bed to begin with? Butchie spent the first few years of his life tied up in an alley in Soeul, South Korea. We think he may have had to fight off the rats for any scraps of food his first family fed to him. He was then adopted by my brother and his family. For several years he seemed to have a great "dog's life". When my brother and his first wife started having marital issues Butchie developed alopecia and lost most of his hair. After several years he and my brother moved to U. S. and into my home. He quickly settled in and his hair grew back to normal. At that time he still took food from the dish on the floor, but insisted on chewing it over the nearest shoe or purse. My brother moved nearby and could not have a full time pet - so Butchie stayed with me. For about a year he would only eat Milk Bones, unless my brother visited or Butchie visited him. One night, in desperation to get him to eat, I sat on the edge of the bed with the dish, trying to coax him to eat. It worked, and I was so happy that I didn't realize until it was too late, what a terrible habit I allowed him to develop. Now my brother and new sister-in-law are staying with me till they purchase a house - Butchie is thrilled, but we're all held hostage by this spoiled 13 year old poodle and his strange eating habits! Our main question is, Is there an instinct of some sort that is driving him to eat like this? Secondary question is, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to gently break this habit?
