strange eating behavior

[kobieeli]

I'm wonder if anyone has seen their own dog, or someone else's, display this eating behavior:

Kobie has recently started to do something odd just as she begins to eat: she takes a mouthful of kibble, turns around, crosses the patio to the lawn (about 12 feet), and deposits the kibble in a heap on the grass. Then she goes back to her dish and eats the rest normally. She doesn't return to those kibbles, either; Eli usually finishes eating before her, stumbles upon them, and eats them himself. Kobie does this both morning and night.

The only other dog I've seen do this was my grandfather's very elderly shelter-adopted Golden mix--except she'd eat her entire meal that way, going back and forth to the grass with mouthfuls!

Could this be a specifically female thing, or perhaps a thing with shelter-adopted dogs? It's not really a problem, it's mainly a curiosity at this point. Any ideas or anecdotes would be great...

[carrie]

I would take a guess that this was part of an instinct that is no longer useful to the domestic dog.
Wild canids will bury excess food away from the site of a kill to save for leaner times and to lessen the risk of scavengers finding it. Your dog has lost most of this instinct as it is not needed in the domestic situation but is still displaying part of it.
Pretty cute - you should tell all your friends that you have taught her to feed the birds!!!!

[kobieeli]

Aha! I'd never thought of this as something akin to burying bones, but it makes a lot of sense! Strange that this is occurring as autumn is coming on, almost like a wild animal might feel that it's time to start storing away some food for winter...

By the way, I'll bet she's not "feeding" the birds so much as LURING them to her--she's got four bluejay kills already notched on her belt and is always looking for more!

[carrie]

Crikey! Maybe she is bird fishing then!!!!!

[KayAnn]

I gotta tell you Im in love with Kobie... Im a sucker for tan dogs I just love em.. and also i love dogs with pointy ears Eli is beautiful too!

[RachelJ]

I used to have dogs that felt they needed to eat their krunchies on the rug instead of directly out of the dog dish. One especially like to carry it by the mouthful to the braided rug in the dining room, but she would always eat it, never leave it. Thankfully the ones I have now are too worried to leave their dish unattended for fear the other one would suck it up. And they are correct, the other one would suck it up.

[kobieeli]

I gotta tell you Im in love with Kobie... Im a sucker for tan dogs I just love em.. and also i love dogs with pointy ears

Thanks, KayAnn! I admit that her ears and cool red-brown color were what grabbed us too, when we first saw her in the shelter's cage.

Those ears are really expressive: she rotates 'em around like satellite dishes, folds them back for aerodynamics at a full run, or our favorite--flattens them out sideways like Yoda. Usually we see the Yoda look when she's in the car with us and she knows we just PASSED the park!

[squeesan]

Originally posted by kobieeli:
<STRONG>I'm wonder if anyone has seen their own dog, or someone else's, display this eating behavior:

Kobie has recently started to do something odd just as she begins to eat: she takes a mouthful of kibble, turns around, crosses the patio to the lawn (about 12 feet), and deposits the kibble in a heap on the grass. Then she goes back to her dish and eats the rest normally. She doesn't return to those kibbles, either; Eli usually finishes eating before her, stumbles upon them, and eats them himself. Kobie does this both morning and night.

The only other dog I've seen do this was my grandfather's very elderly shelter-adopted Golden mix--except she'd eat her entire meal that way, going back and forth to the grass with mouthfuls!

Could this be a specifically female thing, or perhaps a thing with shelter-adopted dogs? It's not really a problem, it's mainly a curiosity at this point. Any ideas or anecdotes would be great... </STRONG>

[jackiesdaisy1935]

Perry eats like there is no tomorrow, but Daisy is a little different. She eats the soft lamb and rice really well, but when we give her the dry lamb and rice she will take some in her mouth and drop them on the floor.
Then she will eat them one at a time, when she finishes those, then she will eat the rest in her bowl, that is if Perry don't get to it first.

[Pam]

I had a male toy poodle that also took his food to the carpet in the dining room, mouthful by mouthful. We used to laugh that he was burning up all of his calories that he was taking in by all of the walking!

[lizbud]

kobieeli,,
My dog Buddy does not take the kibble and
deposit it like Kobie does, but has an odd
habit of of leaving one (sometimes 2) single
bits of kibble in his dish after eating. He
eats like there's no tomorrow so I know he's
hungry. Just wonder if he's leaving me My
part of the meal. LOL..
It's an interesting question..Maybe we'll
never know why they do these things.
P.S. Bud's ears rotate like 'dishs' too,also
does the 'yoda look' when he's unhappy...

[kobieeli]

I had no idea so many dogs did similar weird things when they eat! Seems like Carrie's theory of it being something instictive, like storing or saving food for lean times, might be a good explanation of why so many dogs do variations of Kobie's little trick.

My first dog was a beagle who absolutely INHALED her meals, so Kobie's thing kind of freaked me out...

[Annie'scat]

How do I stop my dog from pick pocketing, he
just loves to steal tissues, and raid the
toilet, help undefined

[carrie]

Again, this is not unusual - do the things detailed above.
This is only yukky because we are people.
This is not yukky to your pet because it is a dog.
It really is that simple.
As the pack leader you have to show that this behaviour is not tolerated by you.