pees on food

[bear creek]

Just want some advice...we have a male german shepard (1 year old) that within the last week has begun to pee on his food. It's the same food he's alwalys had, nothing new. Because we have two other dogs, they all know that they have a limited amount of time to eat before it is taken up and not offred again until the next feeding. After three days of not eating anything, I added some ground beef and rice to his food. He ate about four good bites, then peed on it again! He's on the thin side anyway (he runs all day long) but I don't want him to get any thinner. He's never had a problem with eating before so not sure what to do.

[erdog3]

Couple of reasons it may be, are the others females on heat at all?
He may be marking territory, even his food!!
I would feed him alone, and allow him the time to eat it all, or offer it again to him later, you don't want him to get too skinny.
Is he still drinking?

[Dawn]

Although there are other possibilities, they will pee on their food if they don't want to eat it then but don't want anyone else eating it. Perhaps you could reoffer him his food every couple of hours.

[Brattina88]

This is actually more common in unutered male dogs than you may think. He's labeling his food, telling the other dogs that THIS IS MINE. Animals in the wild do this so the others won't touch it. Try to feed him out of the other dogs sight, that way there won't be a reason to do this, out of the room or something. Maybe you should lift th bowl off of the ground in a holder (if he's squating on it?) If you feed him in another room with the other dogs locked out, out of view, he should eat it. If he doesn't he probably will when he gets hungry enough, and make sure that no one else is giving him snacks or anything until you get him to eat his meals. He ate those four bites, so I don't think its a medical problem. If he's outside a lot he might've found something else to snack on out there. Let us know how it goes.