Never having missed lunch in my life, I find not eating a mystery. So when my pup, Bear, who normally loves to eat anything, decided to go on a hunger strike, I was baffled. This dog spends much of his time scrounging garbage and inedible items off the ground. What the heck was wrong with his kibble? Sad, hungry Bear on the couch, waiting for culinary inspiration to strike Of course, my first step was to Google solutions and see what other people did. I found a great article on the Web MD pet channel and started going down the list with my husband. • Was Bear sick? Nope. He'd just been checked out and nothing huge was amiss. • Had he had any shots or new medicines? Nope again. • Any changes in location or routine? No, he was at home and seemingly comfortable, so this couldn't be at the root of of the problem. In our minds, that left just one possibility: behavourial issues. We thought maybe Bear was just feeling his oats, testing us out as an adolescent. Like humans, dogs tend to go through an adolescent phase (at around 1 year of age for a big dog like Bear). They suddenly stop listening to commands they know perfectly well, test their (and your) limits and generally try to figure out who's really boss in your house. But two weeks into this hunger strike, we realized it couldn't just be a battle of wills. Bear was losing weight, and his digestion just wasn't right. So we took the advice of a friend and tried a new food. We didn't want to lose a battle of wills, but we didn't want to starve our poor pup. Our friend's dog loved the new brand and was thriving. It couldn't hurt to try. And, sure enough, it worked! We transitioned Bear slowly, mixing in just a little of the new food and working up to more of the new stuff every day. Soon, Bear's digestion was back to normal, he was looking forward to meals (and drooling dreadfully when the food bin was opened) and we had the old bouncy Bear back. Tell me: Has your dog ever gone on a hunger strike? How did you fix it?