[risenshinetech]

Pretty sure a dog will eat through a toothache too, but no one has mentioned anything remotely like this situation. You're bending over backwards to rationalize the really odd behavior of invoking a dead puppy friend to encourage a dog to eat. They will eat when they're hungry.

And in your strange example, if this dog wasn't eating due to a toothache, the parents are forcing the dog to anxiously eat through the pain of a toothache.