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Hi everyone...wow it's been a very long time since I've posted on here. After the pups developed epilepsy I sort of clung onto the epilepsy group and stopped posting here all together. However this problem requires a keen understand of the Border Collie mind and I know there's nowhere else I can go. Ok, maybe I could go to a behaviorist but before that, I'll try here. Little back ground since I'm probably new to most of you these days. Gunnar is our male Border Collie (we have 2 females as well) and is just over 9 years old. For nearly 8.5 years he's eaten like a champ. When they were younger, they used to free feed and as they were older he would inhale his food and do a "victory lap" around the kitchen after he finished (well before the girls). For the last 2-3 years we've been on the same food (Taste of the Wild) and same flavor. Mostly because we found a food they liked that didn't spike seizures (they're crazy sensitive). His eager eating started to taper off and he'd eat slower and slower and then in December of last year he got a strange urinary infection and started having accidents in the house. We disciplined him and in hindsight, we should not have. I personally believe that we hurt his ego and shortly thereafter, he started turning his nose up at his food. At first we blamed it on boredom and tried other flavors of Taste of the Wild (because he'd eagerly take his treat of a carrot before we left for work so he was still hungry). That was hit or miss and we eventually ended back on "old trusty" the flavor we'd been buying for the last few years. Everything seemed to be on the mend. His infection subsided and he was eating more normally but still not eagerly like before. I don't think his ego ever rebounded though actually that is a much bigger issue. Let me elaborate on that. Gunnar Mr. Scaredy Pants: I'm not sure when it began but Gunnar went from being a confident stud to being nervous in our house. My husband and I can't even talk to each other (in joyful tones even) without him cowering and going to hide. I swear to everything that's good and holy, we haven't beaten the living daylights out of him. They rarely get smacked at all anymore (only when they do something REALLY wrong which again, is super rare these days). We even try to avoid telling him no or things of that nature lately. When he used to lay down near us when we're on the couch, now he hides/lays under the desk behind us, in the corner of the kitchen table in the other room or in the "nook" that the back door makes with the back stair case. We've tried to increase our amount of trick training to boost his ego. But that doesn't seem to help. He's not being bullied by the girls or the cat. When it comes to other dogs, he's still confident. Any ideas on how I can help boost his ego because I think this has a lot to do with him not eating. Ok back to the topic of him not eating. So I think part of it is that he hates taking his seizure drugs. He takes them relatively well but doesn't like it either way. Also, this is nothing new since he's been taking drugs since he was 3 (epilepsy sucks). So like I said, he was on the mend. Then the bladder thing returned (he's back on drugs and may need an ultrasound :-( ). Back to peeing excessively (there's no negative reinforcement this time we learned our lesson). And back to turning his nose up at his food. He's got a couple pounds of padding to lose if we wait him out but he's a slender boy and I don't want to push him too much. Let me cover the frequently asked questions concerned food refusal: -He's not ill. He hasn't thrown up at all -He's pooing normally -His teeth are fine, he still chews on bones and sticks -He's still hungry as he greedily accepts carrots and apples if offered -We've tried washing his bowl (it doesn't make a difference). I know this is a book...I hope some of you made it through and have some advice to share. Thanks for your help and here's a few pictures of Gunnar for "advice tax". And the three