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Rubbing his nose before eating? Bizarre!

32K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  MycrazyGoldengang 
#1 ·
Hi there!

My almost-3-year-old "pup", Beamer, has his share of quirks. He goes in phases with his food, where at times he'll gobble it down and even wait to be fed, others it seems he has no interest in eating.

During the times it seems he has no interest, he does this weird thing after we pour the food into the bowl!

He rubs his nose on the carpet under the bowls repeatedly, walks around the bowl, as much as he can, nudges it sometimes, and sometimes he'll even "push" water from the water bowl into the food bowl with his snout!

We've been feeding him Taste of the Wild Buffalo, and likes it sometimes, seems like he doesn't others. After doing the water thing a couple of times, we started wetting it with water or chicken broth, but he still does the water thing so it's not to make it softer. We even tried giving him wet food in case he didn't like the hard, but nothing seems to make a difference in his behavior.

He still LOVES treats, so we're thinking maybe it's the food... but we switched it from Taste of the Wild salmon, so I have no idea what his issue is!

Any ideas?
 

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#3 ·
LOL...My dogs did this, I think they are trying to bury it myself. I'm not a behavioralist but I asked about it when we were taking classes and that's what the trainer said...made sense to me since they only did it if they didn't eat it right away or finish it...
 
#4 ·
LOL...My dogs did this, I think they are trying to bury it myself. I'm not a behavioralist but I asked about it when we were taking classes and that's what the trainer said...made sense to me since they only did it if they didn't eat it right away or finish it...
Yes, that's right! It really does seem like this is what he's doing.
 
#5 ·
Could be! We actually took him to the vet today for his annual checkup and told the doctor about it, in hopes she knew what was going on.

She laughed and said that in the wild, dogs will gorge on one thing and won't eat for days. She said he's probably just not hungry, and that dogs do not have to eat twice a day (if they don't want to).

About the burying thing, that definitely could be true because of the way he flings water on to it. We thought it was to moisten, but maybe he's trying to cover it!

Anyway, nothing "wrong", just a quirky behavior. Thanks all!
 
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