Zoey, a 14-year-old goldendoodle, is a picky eater — but her owners have a creative way to get her to eat her snacks.
They pretend to “season” the dog’s food with salad dressing.
In a video posted on TikTok on Sunday, Zoey can be seen rejecting her bowl of food until a (sealed) bottle of ranch dressing is waved over it, after which the food in the bowl seemingly becomes more palatable.
“Senile issues with dogs,” the dog’s owner Michelle Metrailler wrote under the post, which has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.
“Zoey takes prescription food for her sensitive stomach, so she usually needs wet food,” Metrailler, who lives in Toronto, tells PEOPLE.
“We were out of her canned food, so we were trying to trick her into eating her snacks without adding anything that might cause her tummy issues,” he adds of the ranch dressing trick.
When Zoey recently celebrated her 14th birthday, Michelle and her husband Connor pretended to sprinkle her food with cake sprinkles. But the dog didn’t fall for it.
“She prefers the essence of ranch,” says Michelle.
Michelle Metrailler via StoryFul
The hilarious video of Zoey wanting to add ranch dressing to her food sparked hundreds of comments, with many expressing their delight at the dog’s dietary preferences. Commenters also shared their pets’ unusual rituals. Michelle credits the video’s massive response to its relatability.
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“Now I don’t feel so bad with my restless labrador,” wrote one person. “He won’t eat unless we sit down with him like it’s a candlelit dinner.”
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Michelle Metrailler via StoryFul
“My dog would eat that if I put grated cheese on top,” read another comment. “I would literally put one piece in and he would eat it. No piece, he doesn’t eat.”
“Just imagining directions to the dog sitter,” someone else wrote.
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Michelle says she found comments like the third particularly amusing.
“She was my family dog, but my husband and I took care of her while my parents were away over the winter,” she says. “It’s funny that a lot of the responses said ‘How do you explain that to the dog sitter?’ and I laughed because we are like dog guards!”
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Michelle describes Zoey as “very demanding and loud”.
“One day we had company, so we wouldn’t let her on the couch, and now every time she wants to go on the couch, she barks at us for permission,” he says. “She’s very smart—a quick learner—but a little dumb at the same time because she hasn’t figured out the ranch trick yet.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education