Starving Dog Won't Eat

I played Sims 2 for awhile today and adopted Lulu, the black Lab. She's finicky, so I bought the most expensive food dish (which I always do anyway). It was, of course, the first time using it, so it didn't need to be cleaned. I thought she would use it, but she didn't. She just kept getting hungrier and hungrier, asking my Sims for treats. Sooo, I looked online for help and they told me to buy the most expensive food bowl and make sure it was cleaned. Check! I kept looking. They said to praise the dog for eating human food and scold it for eating Sim food, but whenever Lulu eats, it's not a reinforceable behavior - she cannot be praised, or scolded. After some more digging around one person advises to make the dog controllable, and make it eat pet food. But, I couldn't even click the food bowl. I gave it one last shot and tried to Call To Eat...Lulu, but the interaction faded from her queue. There seems to be no fix for this dog; I tried resetting her, I tried resetting the food bowl, nothing; so I guess I'll just put her up for adoption, unless there's something else I can try. All answers appreciated.