To be brutally honest -- from the dog's point of view, you are still allowing him to control this. You have just allowed him to control it in entirely new ways with the same end result.
Don't leave the food out -- that just sets you up for a dog that expects to free feed (not good for this breed which will free feed intself into gross obesity and health problems). It also lets him control when he feels like eating. This is very frustrating for you if you need to feed and then take the dog somewhere -- or if boarding dogs, where most places will NOT just leave a bowl down all day. Or if worst comes to worst and the dog is ill and must be left at the vets and NEEDS to be eating -- the last thing you want is a dog trained to hold out on its food and demanding all sorts of fussy alternatives when nutrition becomes a life and death matter. So this is indeed a very serious issue to nail right now.
Second: switching around bowls is no different from giving in on types of food and hand feeding etc -- it is all part of the rewards you are granting to this dog for NOT eating. Stop viewing this in terms of FOOD and start looking at it in terms of what the dog is now getting, very effectively from you, which most dogs consider even better than food: ATTENTION.
What you are training the puppy to do is to not eat -- for look at all the great rewards! From puppy's view: "I get food set out all day long for me to eat whenever I want. And if I don't eat, my humans fuss over me, keep taking out new bowls and pouring the food back and forth, which is all a game and great fun and I get so overexcited at their willingness to play MY game that I bark at the bowls and play with them but STILL don;t eat as I have learned if I don't eat, this goes on even LONGER and is even MORE FUN!!!"
For yes, that is why the pup reacted as it did -- take it as a clear sign that you are doing exactly what the dog wants -- turning eating into a huge game with lots of attention rewarded for not eating....and an overexcited dog is even less likely to eat and more likely to try this new successful technique over and over... :yikes:
Back to the pup: "She keeps encouraging me to eat and fussing over me and talking to me... this is SO much better than eating that I think I will keep right on doing this for the next 12 years! After all she eventually gets me to eat somethingand often something really tasty like specially cooked meals and then I get even MORE attention and praise and the whole time, everyone is looking at me and acknowledging me and waiting to see if I eat, which in my dog language means **all the lower ranking, servant humans are acknowledging my superiority, the fact that I run the house, the fact that when I demand it, I get attention...** --- and given that this is the case, I am sure I can get away with all sorts of other things to as I am clearly running the house. I can boss people around, maybe nip at them, maybe bark all day if I feel like it, growl at people who try to take my toys or move me from my bed. I don't need to learn *any manners*. Though it might start me having some anxiety problems a little later on when I realise I am running the whole house and ALL these people and this gets me very worked up and then maybe the behaviouralist will have to come in and sort me out but for right now, what FUN this all is!!"
A little (and only a little!) exaggerated, but all true -- from the DOG's point of view, in dog communication, you are reinforcing all the things you are hoping to change. You need to stop considering this a food issue and recognise it as a behaviour issue that just happens to be connected to food. As you saw, it quickly became connected to bowls, instead -- I am sure the puppy was delighted with all these new and interesting objects beeing brought out, no doubt while you got more exasperated, and cajoled hom to eat and he got to watch all the moving around of food and cupboards opening and all the while him getting *constant * attention... finally he got bored, ate his food, and can;t wait to try this new technique again! :yikes:
This can be really hard for people because we aren't used to understanding the ways dogs think.
Here is what you must, MUST do.
Choose a bowl and that is the dog's bowl, full stop. If you want to try a flat plate, then try a flat plate, but try it for A MONTH before switching back to a bowl. You don't want to keep rewarding the dog for not eating/fussing over food bowls/finding new ways of getting your constant and ongoing ATTENTION.
Then: put the food down for 15 minutes. Do NOT even look at the dog in this time. Do NOT talk to him, encourage him, sneak glances at him, respond to him if he jumps up. Just find something to do and do it and pretend he is not there.
At the end of 15 minutes, lift the food remaining and put the bowl somewhere -- in the fridge if there's wet food or into a cupboard if dry food that will keep. Do NOT acknowledge the dog as you do this. Do NOT praise for eating, encourage to eat, talk to the dog about why it hasn't eaten. Just ignore, lift the bowl, put away, and go on now normally with your day.
Do NOT offer a SINGLE treat during the day -- NO TREATS until the dog has started eating normally when you put food down for at least one week.
At the next SCHEDULED feeding time, repeat all of the above.
Also do not add new things to the food, try new foods, try to offer tempting scraps. Just feed what you have decided is the dog's regular meal and *that is it*. You must make feeding times a time for feeding, not a time for allowing the dog to try all sorts of bad behaviour. That means you must totally ignore the dog throughout the entire process. EXCEPT I would recommend asking the dog to sit before putting its bowl down. You want the dog to start viewing the food as its reward for acknowledging YOU by obeying YOU. Psychologically this also shifts the dog's perspective to seeing the food as something to east right away as the food is rewarding in itself. Again, once that bowl hits the ground you are to *TOTALLY IGNORE THE DOG*.
If you do this for one week I guarantee you the puppy will be eating when you put the food down, in whatever bowl you are using, and whatever you are feeding.
Please do not waver in this or you are going to be setting up not just a fussy dog but a dog that will be tempted to use all the same techniques in other areas -- creating other problems. It is really important to stop this behaviour now before it escalates.
Many of us have been there!!! And if it helps -- consider what you would do if this were a child. Would you try all sorts of different plates, cook 15 different meals, beg and plead? Most of us would see through this type of behaviour right away and would never allow a child to manipulate us to such an extent. Don't let those puppy eyes fool you into thinking this is a different case!:lol:
What you are dealing with is really a very central issue on understanding what rewards dogs *accidentally* when we think we are doing otherwise and understanding this clearly is very essential to training dogs well and not being manipulated... hence I have tried to explain at some length!!
PS if all of this is difficult for you consider getting someone else in the family to take on the feeding tasks til you solve this.
It is so important for both the dog's and your future happiness. Dogs that are able to manipulate typically become very anxious, unpredictable, problem dogs. Think of what a child would be like in a similar situation where the child is never given any supportive behaviour guidelines, and I am sure you can see what I mean.