Hi all:

As the topic indicates, I'm a frequent reader/ infrequent poster, in need of any help you knowledgeable folks can provide. In short, my dog is not eating properly. In much greater detail, as follows. I will even use some HTML to make it look pretty.

History:
Zeus is 17 months old GSD. A few months ago he stopped eating his kibble regularly. We had him on Taste of the Wild, the same stuff he had been on for quite some time. He suddenly stopped showing interest in kibble and it's clear he would prefer to follow us around on the small chance we might play with him or do something else interesting. He will still gobble down a ton of treats quickly, but not his normal food. He will eat the kibble if we sort of hand-feed him the first couple bites to get him going and then stay in the room, or if we sit there and keep tapping the bowl and saying "eat your food." But otherwise not really.
I know about not forcing your dog to eat in case you have a bad bag of food. Since he started doing this we've tried 3 different brands and about 6 flavors of food, and he's still doing it. So it can't be a bad bag of food. Plus now I have probably $200-worth of 3/4 full food bags in my garage (TotW, Acana, Orijen and I think a smaller bag of Fromm).
So the bottom line is he's not eating his kibble, but will wolf down treats, and still follows us around the kitchen or dinner table in case he can somehow get himself a scrap of people food.

Clearly he still has his appetite, since he'll eat anything that's not his kibble.

Symptoms
Lack of interest in his kibble is about it. He will not eat until he's at the point where his stomach is growling loud and he does the gross bile-throwup thing from not having anything in his stomach. This morning he was even trying to eat grass, which he never does. So he is obviously extremely hungry.
His energy level is absolutely fine. He is awake 10+ hours a day and constantly poking me and my wife with his kong to go play, or whining to go out and chase his laser pointer. Lots of energy.
No other unusual behaviors. No new scratching or lameness. No lethargy. No new aggression or any other change in mood. He seems completely himself but for the loss of interest in the kibble. *edit* stool is completely normal, consistent and no sign of parasites.

My suspicions & what I've tried
I've read several articles & discussion threads, including on here, which suggest my teenage dog is just being-- pardon my French-- a little a-hole. Several places say a loss of interest in food between 14-20 months or so is just the dog being difficult, testing his boundaries, etc. And they all seem to agree that if you just stay consistent with only leaving the food down for 10-15 minutes and picking it up after, he will eventually get the point and eat his food.

And that has in fact worked once or twice, where he's missed 2-3 meals and then we put the next one down and he gobbles it up. That reinforces my suspicion that he's just being a little bastard right now. But it's hard to stay consistent, particularly for my wife who is apparently afraid he's going to die if he misses more than 2 meals or so (which I know is not the case).

As noted above, we've tried several brands and flavors of food. I admit I haven't tried the red meat formulas since I don't think I can afford a $70-80/ per bag cost for Orijen red meat or Acana red meat. Right now he's on Acana, something with chicken and fish.

This time around I've made very clear to my wife that we are doing the 15-minutes-to-eat thing, consistently, for a whole week. Further I have decided the dog is not getting any treats of any kind until he starts eating his kibble regularly again (like a child not getting dessert unless he eats his dinner).

Yesterday ate about 1/2 breakfast, a couple small treats. Last night did not eat dinner. This morning did not eat breakfast. Wife says if he doesn't eat dinner again we will have to take him to the vet. I am comfortable waiting another 1-2 days (5 missed meals? 6?) But I am very nervous about my poor little 80-pound monster missing all these meals

So I ask the community:
Has anyone dealt with something similar? How did you solve?
Is there something I'm missing?
Is it really ok for him to go without food for 3 days? 4 days?
What can I do to help this guy???

As usual, any help GREATLY appreciated. Thanks everyone for reading!

Have you tried feeding only once per day?

If the weather is really hot in your neck of the woods it may be affecting his appetite.

What is his condition? Are you able to feel or see a little rib? Is it possible that you are feeding him too much?

If it were me, I would feed once per day to see if that rectifies the problem. I would also consider cutting rations just a little bit, unless the dog is already very thin.

And if you are feeding lots of treats, you may need to adjust his kibble accordingly. As long as the treats are not 'junk food' there's nothing wrong with including them as part of his daily food intake.

The 15 minute rule is a good one, and combined with once a day feeding is likely to solve the problem, IMO.

Thanks for the reply.

His physical condition is very healthy. He was at the vet maybe 1-1/2 months ago for rabies booster and they said he looks & feels great. When I palpate his sides he has his thin layer of flesh/fat and then palpable ribs underneath. Definitely has the tucked-in waist and abdomen. Not overweight by any stretch.

We feed twice per day, about 3 to 3-1/2 cups-- which is about 1 cup less than the bag recommends. So I also doubt that we've been feeding him too much. I may try feeding once per day, but at this point he's eating zero times per day so I'll take it one step at a time.

He gets 1/2 milkbone after he poops, so about 1-1/2 per day, and a handful of baby carrots or dried liver cubes. Not too many treats.

Thanks again for the reply. At the very least it gives me some peace of mind that maybe he's just being a brat and being picky. I will stick with the 15 minute rule for another couple of days before I really panic.

Also:

How is his breath? Are you able to look around in his mouth for inflammation, odor, something stuck in a gum, etc.?

I imagine he was weighed at the vet visit 1.5 months ago .... I would weigh him now and compare.

I tried feeding Jethro 2x a day and he lost interest in the second meal. I feed him once a day now and that is better. Also, I feed him late in the day, so he has an active day before his dinnertime. He is 18 months now, and sometimes he doesn't finish his dinner. We just leave him to go hungry, as he gets a lot of treats from training exercises during the day. Are you training with treats? That should take care of the empty stomach vomiting, at least it does at our house. How much does Zeus weigh? I'm not an expert, just sharing my experience.

My first dog ate every other day for a few years - just had one dog, I free fed and she ate when she was hungry. I'd fill the dish when it was empty. And she stayed at almost the exact same weight that entire time. She also tended to eat less than the recommended amount on the bag even though she was quite active.

The other option for treats would be using some of his kibble as his treats.

How much exercise is he getting? is he an inside or outside dog?

Any chance of switching him to a raw diet?

Wonderful replies everyone-- I love these boards

A few more answers:

1. Breath is fine (for a dog, at least) and his teeth/gums all appear healthy. I could do a better job brushing his teeth more often, but they seem ok. He has no problem crunching through the hard milkbones when he gets them.

2. Will weigh him when I get back home, but he looks about the same as he did a while back. He was 81# at that time-- he is a tall boy.

3. He is an inside dog by necessity (we live in a townhome), but he gets a lot of exercise when I'm home and on weekends. Lots of fetch (1-2 hours running per day maybe) and chasing his laser pointer at night. Also lots of tug with me and the wife. This is all off-leash on the e-collar. Plus I try to take him to the local forest preserve at least once a week for a good 3-4 mile run.
When I train it's usually with a toy, either tug or fetch. He has major toy drive. Will do stuff for treats as well, but not as quickly or enthusiastically as with toys. Plus trying not to give him treats right now until he starts eating his food again, so that he realizes the kibble is his only choice and he won't get treats just for waiting longer.

4. Don't think I have the time, money or resources to do a raw diet, although I know it would be ideal... So we're settling on very good kibble.

Here is a very short video of him doing some obedience in the yard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUGzdoRM7Wk

At the end of that video is a link to another, even shorter video of him chasing his laser pointer around. He looks healthy to me. I'm fairly convinced at this point he's just being a butthead. I will maybe try feeding once/day.

THANKS everyone!

For what it's worth and if it will make your wife feel better I have had a few fosters that didn't eat the first few days I had them. My current foster(a female GSD) was so shy and scared that she didn't eat for the first 2-3 days I had her. And she was (and still is) skinny. I would say that the first week I had her she probably only ate 6 cups the whole week. I stuck to the 15 minute time frame for eating and now she has settled in and is eating twice a day and gaining some much needed weight.