My dog whines at his dish, any ideas?

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mydogdidit

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My dog is a bichonx sometimes he will stand and stare at his dish and then start to whine. Usually he will have his nose about an inch away from the dish. Then if we move his dish away from the wall a bit and shake the food around he will start eating again.
We feed him Wellness dry small breed.
Does anyone have any ideas about why he does this and anything I can do to help him.
Also, my dog gets scared very easily by things such as the toaster popping, the oven timer, and loud noises. He is a fairly anxious dog so thats why I am wondering if their might be something I can do to help him with the food dish, because he seems kind anxious when he does this.
Any help would really be appreciated.
 
Maybe the bowl is reflective and it scares him? Maybe he's not sure if he's allowed until you give it to him? Maybe something scary (to him) happened when he was eating and he's associated the food bowl with that event? Try a different bowl, different location, and put him on a feeding schedule.
 
I have a pug who exhibits similar behavior. His food bowl always has to have food in it if it doesn't he paws at and whines until I fill it. I guess you can say he has me trained. When he finally wants to eat he first stalks his food bowl then whines and paws at it before eating. This can last anywhere from a couple minutes to a half an hour. However, he will eat immediately if I throw a little of it on the floor. I try not to get in the habit of putting his food on the floor every time he wants to eat because in past he came to expect it. I did a little research online and it seems there are quite a few people with small dog breeds that report similar food anxiety problems. I'm not a vet but as long as your dog is eating it shouldn't be more than a minor annoyance or sort of funny depending on how you look at it. Hope that helps you, at least, a little. But, if you've gotten some new info please post back because I found myself here looking for answers for my little dog's strange behavior.
 
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