not eating

[davidpe50]

I have an american bulldog who weighs 50 kgs, tonight she hasn't eaten a thing, and i dont get shaky paws for a smako, she ate half of this and spat the rest out, she is 3 years old, and i have never experienced this behaviour before. on the whole she has been good wagging tails and happy when we got home, although i did notice yesterday that she was slow on her walks and didn't put up with her little friends (oscar 50 kg bulldog) mischievous play like behavior. The only thing to add is that in the household, there are boxes packed and the whole house is in disarray due to the fact that we are moving this week, could this be something to do with it?

[Davina73]

Yes, she senses something is wrong.  She might even think you are leaving her.  Animals are very smart, just like children.  Once you move and unpack she will be fine.  The same thing happened to my dogs and cats when we moved, but they are very happy now.

[Ghilly]

It could very well be that she is upset because she senses change.  Some dogs are much more sensitive to that kind of thing than others.  Try to act as though everything is normal, talk to her in a very "up" tone and play with her and show her more attention than normal and see if this improves things.  If not, then you might want to run it by your vet, even over the phone, to get his or her take on it.  Please keep us up to date on what she's doing.

Ghilly

[Caryopteris]

Yes, many dogs like a nice safe routine.  She doesn't know what it means and she may be picking up on stress in her people, too.  She is young and will start settling down after the move in her own time.  You can be reassuring to her by being upbeat, acting happy like everything is fine and giving her her exercise as much as possible.  Maybe you have a friend who would be happy to take her during the move and do fun things that she likes to do to distract her.  

I used distraction technique with my dog, Sasha.  As a husky, she was very brave and stoic, but she had been abused so she did have more issues than most Siberians.  She got a little nervous with storms.  Therefore when it would start to thunder I would play her favorite game that she had taught me - growly bump game, I called it.  I would get on my hands and knees and get in the let's play position (tush in the air, head down), and make the growly sound.  I would reach for her and push her around with my hand.  I would try to get next to her and bump her hip with my hip.  The stronger dog makes the lighter dog's back end move sideways.  She loved this game and forgot all about the storm.