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Thread: Why does my dog do this????

  1. #1
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    Why does my dog do this????

    She'll pick one piece of food out of her bowl, walk into the living room and drop it on the floor, go back and get another piece. She'll do this several times before she actually eats what's in the bowl but won't eat what she leaves in the living room. I hate stepping on these in bare feet at 3:30am

    Also, when we go camping, she'll bury half the food in the leaves or gravel or what ever before she eats the other half. The squirrels think it's great but ....

    Brian

    BTW, she's an 65lb black lab named Deezul....
    The significant problems we encounter cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

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  2. #2
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    Is the living room floor carpeted? My girl does (or did) something similar. I finally realized she much preferred to eat while laying down and just wasn't comfy doing it on the linoleum kitchen floor. So now come feeding time I put her bowl down in front of her about 3 ft into the living room from the kitchen. She almost never leaves anything on the floor and will even retrieve a pc from the carpet if she noticed it dropped before she'll go back to food in the bowl.

    The only small problem I'm having with this arrangement is one of the cats. If China (the dog) doesn't finish everything in the bowl and I don't remove it until later I'll often find the cat has dragged magazines or papers off the end table and covered the bowl. I think in her mind she's burying her kill.
    Use the fence Luke

  3. #3
    They are strange at times. We have a 12-13 year old cat that apparently can't see if theres water in her bowl. So she sticks her paw in it, sliding the bowl around spilling it.
    Does it every time.


  4. #4
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    Why does my dog do this????

    That's funny, I thought my mother in law's late daschund was the only one that did that. It started at about 15 years old (lasted 18). She'd take bits of kibble and actually hide them under the couch, usually 5-10, then eat the rest. My MIL asked the vet about it, and said it's a fairly unusual thing that is most common with hunting dog breeds. The only ideas he offered for the reason is going back to their wild instinct to protect their food from other animals, but then can't resist the temptation to eat so they stop hiding and drain the bowl. He said they are not smart enough to be saving some for later, but I wonder about it. My two dogs will scarf it all up immediately, go outside to do their business, then when they come back in each goes to the other dog's bowl and licks it.



    Sammamish, WA

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  5. #5
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    Huh, never heard of that one. I had a dog who used to take a mouthful of dry food from the bowl, carry it into the living room, drop it, eat it one piece at a time, then go back for the next mouthful. The odd part is, at that time, the powder room (where the food dish was kept), the hallway to the living room, and the living room itself all had the same carpet. Go figure.
    Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
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  6. #6
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    Most domestic dogs are a bit overweight anyway, try putting her on a diet
    Our working farm dogs were fed well, but ran many miles every day so were pretty lean. They KNEW there was only one safe place to keep their food
    IF your dog is getting just enough food they are much less likely to 'save some for later' or share what they have found with the pack leader (You).

    Ian

  7. #7
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    The living room floor is is oak. Maybe she has a thing for hardwood floors??

    Deezul runs a couple miles each day because she'll drive me nuts if i don't spend an hour each day throwing a Frisbee for her. That's my job as a biped

    If i point the pieces out to her and tell to eat it, she just picks it up, rolls it around in her mouth and spits it out again. If she sees me put it back in the bowl, she'll get couple more pieces out.

    Brian
    The significant problems we encounter cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

    The penalty for inaccuracy is more work

  8. #8
    Your black lab is doing that because she is a black lab. I don't know why other dogs do it.

    Are you or your family in the living room when she does this? Labs like to bring things to their owners, after all, they are retrievers.

    On the other hand, our rat terrier does pretty much the same thing. He takes a mouthful of food and drops it in the middle of the kitchen floor. The we step on it, get mad at him, and clean it up. Works for him.

    Our dogs on the farm used to get rats when we shelled corn. If you watch dogs when they catch rats or mice or even find a bird carcass, they like to carry them around a while before they do whatever they end up doing with them. A lot of them would pick a place generally go there when they catch some prey. I think some of it is an instinctual behavior, and sometimes they want to be by us.

    If you figure it out, let me know, because I want to know. I don't think it is that unusual; it's probably a pretty normal thing. The only way to stop her is probably to keep her ravenously hungry, and I doubt if you feel that is a better thing.

    Larry
    Every morning I seize the day - but I lose my grip when I grab my coffee. <*//><

  9. #9
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    My daughter's black lab also MUST take food OUT of the bowl drop it on the floor before he eats anything. His ritual
    Jerry

  10. #10

    Daughter's Yorkie

    My daughter's Yorkie is staying with me for awhile. She does the same thing you stated. The living room is hardwood with a rug. She goes in the kitchen gets one piece of food and brings it back to the rug and eats it. Then she goes back several more times and does the same thing. The last trip she jumps up on the sofa with the food and plays with it throwing it in the air and sometimes rolls on it. I thought it was funny and unusual too. David

  11. #11
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    Just so happens the wife and I are dog behaviorists and trainers.

    Short answer... because she is a dog.

    Long answer... because she is a dog. It is not likely any sort of a natural canid behavior as nearly all don't "stash" food for later. The hard wiring of a dog is mostly wolf like, although juvenile in nature. If I had to hazard a guess without any real research at your home I would say she was "accidentally" trained to do it.

    When we were housing dog as a rescue we had a few hundred come and go (probably pushing 500) and we would regularly see stuff that had us scratching out heads.

    PM me or email if you want to fix it. In the grand scheme of things is a pretty small price to pay as there are lots of worse habits she could have regarding food.

    Joe
    JC Custom WoodWorks

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  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Lee DeRaud
    ...I had a dog who used to take a mouthful of dry food from the bowl, carry it into the living room, drop it, eat it one piece at a time, then go back for the next mouthful...
    I had a dog that did the same thing. I always figured she wanted to be in the living room with me, but I defer to Joe's more educated answer...she did it because she was a dog.

    - Vaughn

  13. #13
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    All dogs named Deezul so this.

    Dan
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  14. My little Cairn terrier did this. She would take 3 or 4 pieces of her food and walk about 4 steps into the family room and drop them. Then she would go back to the bowl and eat the remainder. As soon as the bowl was clean she ate the pieces in the family room. Never had any problems with her not eating it. She always hid the food in her stomach and looked for more. Dogs are funny creatures but they are smarter than us. After all they have us working for them.......
    Big Mike

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  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Forman
    All dogs named Deezul so this.

    Dan
    ROFLMAO
    The significant problems we encounter cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

    The penalty for inaccuracy is more work

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