Is it normal for a dog to take an hour to finish a meal

A dog that returns to the bowl every few minutes over an hour, gradually working through the meal, is simply a slow eater. A dog that stands near the bowl for most of that hour with the food barely touched is showing disinterest or discomfort rather than a genuinely slow eating style.

Smaller breeds, older dogs with less urgency around food, and dogs eating a very large or dry meal that takes real effort to chew through can all reasonably take close to an hour without anything being wrong.

Picking up the bowl after 20 to 30 minutes regardless of how much is left, then offering it again at the next scheduled meal, is a reasonable general approach that still allows a genuinely slow eater plenty of time without leaving food out indefinitely.

Spending a full meal actually watching, rather than only checking in occasionally, gives a much clearer picture of which pattern is actually happening, since a quick glance every fifteen minutes can easily miss steady, incremental progress that adds up to a fully finished bowl by the end of the hour. If direct observation genuinely confirms the food is barely touched throughout, that specific finding, rather than the hour long duration alone, is the detail worth mentioning to a vet if reduced appetite continues or other symptoms appear alongside it.