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Why does my Retriever push his nose around his food dish-does a little dance with his head
Before and after eating my golden retriever pushes his food dishes with
his nose-around it- as if he is doing a little dance. Does anyone know why this happens?? its really weird, it goes on for like 10-15 mins.. Any suggestions??? |
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Why does my Retriever push his nose around his food dish-does a little dance with his head
On Fri, 29 Dec 2006 12:36:29 -0500, montana wildhack
, clicked their heels and said: The simple answer is, "don't let the dog do that." The dog has trained itself (and you) that this is an acceptable ritual. If it is not acceptable, train the dog to behave differently. yep. Our bowls are all in holders of sorts. Lucy and Franklin have bowls in drawers that slide away when done. I got a new feeder/water thing for a convenient place for Rudy's bowl. He had been eating in his crate all of this time (not closed) but I decided that if I'm ever going to be able to get the crate out of my family room, the first step was to wean the eating spot. He still races in there, but has been popping back out to come to the bowl location, a little faster each day. I finally went cold turkey on the bedtime crate (a mesh crate without a door), because it was just taking up too much room in my not-so-big bedroom. He likes sleeping in crates (he had NOT been crate trained before arriving here a year ago), but likes sleeping elsewhere too. It seems the only way to get him to give up the crate is to take it away completely. I never did that with another dog, but I don't particularly like a crate as part of the decor. Mostly because it collects hair and dust and grunge around it, and there's no really great place to put it. -- Janet Boss www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com |
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Why does my Retriever push his nose around his food dish-doesa little dance with his head
monkey wrote:
Before and after eating my golden retriever pushes his food dishes with his nose-around it- as if he is doing a little dance. Does anyone know why this happens?? its really weird, it goes on for like 10-15 mins.. Any suggestions??? Get it on video tape and post it on you-tube? After you do that, if the behavior bothers you, follow Montana's suggestions. G FurPaw -- Better dead than Red. To reply, unleash the dog. |
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Why does my Retriever push his nose around his food dish-does a little dance with his head
monkey wrote:
Before and after eating my golden retriever pushes his food dishes with his nose-around it- as if he is doing a little dance. Does anyone know why this happens?? its really weird, it goes on for like 10-15 mins.. Any suggestions??? I've seen the ritual movements you're describing in my Goldens - not for 10-15 minutes though! I have to 2nd the suggestion of getting it on video! I got a clue what it might be when I fostered an injured baby squirrel - he would take a nut onto the rug and scoop-pat-pat scoop-pat-pat the air around it for 10 minutes or more. The movements were like he was burying it, even though it was still sitting there in plain sight, not even carpet fuzz covering it. Also, this couldn't have been a learned behavior since he fell straight out of the nest to the injury that landed him in my living room for the winter. I've since watched a dog "burying" a slimey, half-eaten rawhide (in my pillow!) and saw the same shoveling-type motion with the nose - this is what I suspect the "little dance" is: a vestige of the wild behavior of burying excess food as a cache for later consumption. Just be sure that you aren't actually giving the dog "excess" food and thus triggering that "save it for later" instinct. You should be able to easily feel a Golden's ribs if you run you hands lightly down his side. If you can't, he's too fat, and likely conflicted between the retriever greediness of eating anything and everything he can get his mouth on, and the instincts he inherited from the wild to stay in shape and save excess food for later. Now my poor deprived Goldens push their food bowls around after eating too, but no "little dance" - they're just licklicklicking them. In their case it's clear the reason is that there might still be a molecule or two of food left in the bottom. ;-) Susan Fraser, owned and trained by the (starving, starving I tell you!) AuH2Ok9s: SheBop, Shammie and Gris-Gris |
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