I’ve noticed something about our dog and his meal times – not including his recent bout of ill health which we strongly suspect came about after eating a baby rat (he caught another one at the weekend).

I don’t know about you but I’d gotten into the habit of feeding our dog sardines in mixer for breakfast and commercial dog food for dinner – week in, week out, plus the odd treat here and there. Why am I surprised when he looks at the bowl one day, looks at me and says, “No – I’m sick of that”. Where is the variety and why did I expect him to be happy and healthy on that?

He has been ill lately, which was distressing all round but it has given me a chance to pause and re-assess his diet.

Turns out he loves scrambled egg – so I made a big batch for us for breakfast. The ‘us’ being him and me. I put his in his bowl and went to eat mine first as is the norm. Then I went back into the kitchen and put his bowl, with the now cooled scrambled egg, down for him.

He took a sniff and walked away.

Now, here is where the trick comes in…I know he is watching me so I take his bowl and with my back to him, I put the bowl on the counter and stir it with his fork while pretending to add extras in as if I was preparing a meal for myself.

One last stir and I put the bowl back in the feeding stand.

He walked over……….and ate the lot!

Turns out, he just wanted to know I put as much effort into making his meal as I did my own!