Dinner time!

Having owned a Labrador for the last 11 years a disturbing new phenomenon has occurred in this house over the last few months- dogs who don't eat their dinner!

In this house we don't have the 30 second rule for food dropped on the floor; we have the beat the dog rule. If you can get your food off the floor before Spike has got to it then you're welcome to have it, otherwise it's tough luck!

Spike will eat nearly everything. In fact in almost 12 years the only things we have come across that he won't eat are onions, lemons, rhubarb and baby button mushrooms. Everything else he'll give a try. When we first weaned our eldest child we actually had to cut back on Spike's meals as he got so fat eating all the food that was thrown on the floor!

Fast forward to 2015 and we got Lola. Something new and unusual happened...we'd give her a bowl of food and she'd ignore it completely and try and eat Spike's food. Now fair enough if she ignored it all, I'd presume she wasn't hungry but why go try to eat Spike's and not her own. It's no better, so what's it all about?

At first we figured it was just Lola being Lola but since then we've looked after loads of dogs. And they do it too! What's it all about? They don't want their own food but they'll happily go and eat one of the other dogs' food. I have to say it's rather unnerving when you're used to a dog who inhales everything you put in front of him.

Every now and again we try and trick them by putting their food in each other's bowl. Sometimes it works; sometimes they look at us as if we're stupid. Maybe we are!