Puppy Will Only Eat Out of Hand (3 Steps to Stop Hand Feeding) 

Your puppy may love it when you fuss over him not eating and feed him using your hands.

Usually, nothing is wrong with a little pampering, but if your puppy will only eat out of hand it can be due to many reasons. He might have separation anxiety, is scared of other dogs, or you’ve just spoiled him too much.

Why Do Puppies Only Eat Out of Hand?

Even though hand feeding isn’t generally wrong, it might be an indicator of trauma or an underlying health condition. This is why you need to identify the cause behind it to take any measures regarding your pup’s wellbeing.

Let’s dig deeper into four reasons that make your puppy only eat out of hands:

1. Separation Anxiety

Your puppy may develop separation anxiety for different reasons and start showing irregular behavior when you leave the house.

Dogs with separation anxiety tend to be too attached to their owner and like to bond unconditionally. That’s why they may prefer hand feeding only. 

Puppies with separation anxiety may also refuse to eat from bowls if you feed them right before leaving. They’ll associate their meal time with loneliness and won’t eat until you hand feed them. 

If that’s the case, it’s important to eliminate separation anxiety, as your puppy will likely only eat from your hands.

2. Sacred From Other Dogs

If you own more than one dog in your household, you may have one dog dominating the others. 

Usually, dogs establish their dominant status through body posture, certain expressions, and vocalization. While that isn't a cause for concern, if your alpha puppy starts showing aggression, other puppies will fear him.

This type of bullying behavior will scare the submissive puppies off approaching the food bowl. Instead, they’ll only eat from your hands because they feel safer.

3. Trauma

Aside from dog bullying, your puppy may have past incidents preventing him from approaching the bowl.

If the feeding bowl is near loud appliances like washing machines and vacuum cleaners—a puppy’s greatest household enemy—he won’t go near the bowl. 

Even if the machines are off, your puppy may still fear them and prefer eating from your hands, away from the scary noises.

4. You’re the One to Blame

Your nice gesture of hand feeding your puppy may have created that behavior in him. Several actions you may have done that reinforced the habit of hand feeding in your puppy include:

Hand Feeding Your Sick Puppy

Dog owners may hand feed their puppies if they have a loss of appetite because of sickness. In most cases, that’s perfectly fine and may help your puppy recover faster, as he won’t skip meals.

However, too much love can be counterproductive. Your puppy will enjoy the extra attention and may refuse to eat from the bowl, so make sure not to overdo it. 

Feeding Your Puppy While Busy

Another way you can accustom your puppy to eating only out of your hands is by feeding him when busy.

Dogs do all kinds of activities not to get bored, and some ‌activities are only a matter of instinct. For instance, your puppy may skip dinner because he’s busy guarding the house, chasing other animals, or burying a bone.

Because you love your pets, you may try to hand feed him while he’s preoccupied so that he doesn’t skip eating. 

The problem is that this might create a bad habit. Each time your puppy is busy, he’ll expect you to feed him, so he will no longer feel the need to eat out of a bowl.

Praising Your Puppy During Hand Feeding

Dogs are smart and they can tell when you’re praising them. Praising your puppy motivates him to always be a “good boy.” It can even be more rewarding than using treats while training.

That's why, if you often praise your puppy for eating from your hand, he may wait until you feed him to feel rewarded.

How to Make Your Puppy Eat From the Bowl?

Fortunately, you can train your puppy to stop relying on your hands to feed him. 

Before accustoming your puppy to bowl feeding, make sure your puppy is physically healthy and doesn’t have an underlying medical condition affecting his appetite.

Otherwise, stopping hand feeding your dog is usually an easy problem to tackle. Here are four steps to do so:

1. Choose the Right Feeding Location

You’ll need to pick a feeding environment that feels safe and comfortable for your puppy to eat in.

If your puppy is anxious or shy, place the bowl in a silent corner to help him remain calm. In contrast, if your puppy likes socializing, he’ll usually enjoy eating near other people.

For a multiple-dog household, ‌it’s best to maintain space between bowls to avoid the pets fighting with each other.

2. Reintroduce Your Puppy to the Bowl

Now that you’ve found a suitable feeding environment, it’s time to reintroduce your puppy to the bowl.

Here’s how to do it:

• Put a few kibbles in your hands and place your hands over the bowl
• Feed your puppy from your hand
• Move your hand toward the bowl and feed your puppy
• Keep feeding your puppy a few kibbles, but this time drop them in the bowl
• Put more food in the bowl and, this time, keep your hands away

3. Maintain a Feeding Schedule

Puppies can be stubborn, and they may go a few hours without eating if they don’t like the food. 

That’s why it’s important to establish an eating schedule so that your puppy knows food isn’t always available and starts eating when you serve food.

Here’s how to establish a feeding schedule:

• Know how often your puppy should eat
• Serve your puppy breakfast and wait 15-20 minutes
• Pick up the bowl if your puppy won't eat
• Serve the next meal in his schedule and leave the bowl for 15-20 minutes
• Continue doing the same thing until your puppy is hungry enough to eat

Paul S.

Paul has been creating content for the dog niche for many years. The information he shares comes his first hand experience growing up in dog lovers household and then owning multiple dog breeds of his own as an adult. Paul enjoys doing the hard research to collect, analyze and present our dogtemperament.com readers with the best answers to their questions.