This isn't a problem, but it is something I'm curious about.


Cubbe doesn't eat when we're not home. We often fill up her bowl just
before leaving to go out. When we come home, she greets us with the
waggy dance, then goes to the bowl for her meal. Sometimes we give her
lunch and then spend a moment putting on shoes and coats. She'll eat
while we're getting our things, stop to watch us leave from the window,
and when we come home, there's half a bowl of food that she finishes
once we're there.


Genny was free fed. She could eat whenever she wanted. And that was
always when I was eating. Over the course of her life, that might be
breakfast, lunch or dinner depending on my work schedule. Whenever I
sat down at the table to eat, she ate from her bowl. On those occasions
when I was taking all my meals out, she'd eat when I got a snack in bed.


(Sheppe's food was gone the second it was put down for her, so I can't
count her in the survey.)


Any ideas why?


--Lia

"Julia Altshuler" wrote

This isn't a problem, but it is something I'm curious about.
Cubbe doesn't eat when we're not home. We often fill up her bowl just
before leaving to go out. When we come home, she greets us with the waggy
dance, then goes to the bowl for her meal.

Our dogs also do that. They don't touch the food we leave out for them until
we return home and they've done the (in their case song and) dance routine.
On at least one occasion we were away over twelve hours (overnight) but when
we returned, the food bowls were untouched so far as we could tell.

--
Bob
http://www.kanyak.com

Lia said in part....
Cubbe doesn't eat her food when we are not home.......
____________________
My Lady girl is like that.....well, not exactly, because I can't leave
food down with 4 dogs. Lady wants to be praised and encouraged while
she is eating. She has always carried a few kibbles off from her bowl
to eat, and looked up to be sure I am looking at her approvingly. She
has gotten a lot worse in her old age. Jubal Early is similar. He
wants to be the last one to eat. He won't eat until he is ready.
Sometimes I put down his food for X amount of time, and then take it up,
till the next feeding. Other times, I humor him and feed him last,
encourage him etc. Jack and Buck, anytime, anywhere....it is gone!!!!!!


Be Free.....Judy

"Judith Althouse" wrote in message
...
Lia said in part....
Cubbe doesn't eat her food when we are not home.......
____________________
My Lady girl is like that.....well, not exactly, because I can't leave
food down with 4 dogs. Lady wants to be praised and encouraged while
she is eating. She has always carried a few kibbles off from her bowl
to eat, and looked up to be sure I am looking at her approvingly. She
has gotten a lot worse in her old age. Jubal Early is similar. He
wants to be the last one to eat. He won't eat until he is ready.
Sometimes I put down his food for X amount of time, and then take it up,
till the next feeding. Other times, I humor him and feed him last,
encourage him etc. Jack and Buck, anytime, anywhere....it is gone!!!!!!


Be Free.....Judy


In an attempt to mimmic pack behavior, Gretchen doesn't eat until after
the humans have eaten.
She sits quietly with an expression of intense anticipation, watching every
move
that is made until we are finished. She won't move until given a verbal
release,
then she jets to her table.

Peter

"Peter" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

In an attempt to mimmic pack behavior, Gretchen doesn't eat
until after the humans have eaten.
She sits quietly with an expression of intense
anticipation, watching every move
that is made until we are finished. She won't move until
given a verbal release,
then she jets to her table.

You first implied that she chooses to not eat until you've
finished your meal, then you write that you release her to eat.
Which is it?

My dogs wait for a release to eat, too, but I don't purposely
have them hold it while I have my own dinner. I dislike
hyperbole, but that'd be torture for Rocky.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

On 6 Feb 2008 19:02:08 GMT, Rocky wrote:

"Peter" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

In an attempt to mimmic pack behavior, Gretchen doesn't eat
until after the humans have eaten.
She sits quietly with an expression of intense
anticipation, watching every move
that is made until we are finished. She won't move until
given a verbal release,
then she jets to her table.

You first implied that she chooses to not eat until you've
finished your meal, then you write that you release her to eat.
Which is it?

Either way, the dog's behavior is not an attempt to mimic pack
behavior.

Mustang Sally

sighthounds & siberians wrote:

Either way, the dog's behavior is not an attempt to mimic pack
behavior.


Getting back to my original question in this thread, does mimicking pack
behavior explain Cubbe's not eating when we're not home?


--Lia

In article ,
Julia Altshuler wrote:


Getting back to my original question in this thread, does mimicking pack
behavior explain Cubbe's not eating when we're not home?

I guess it depends on your definition. Most dogs are "social" eaters.
If that makes it pack behavior, so be it.

I haven't had an only dog in a long time. All of my dogs eat whatever
is given to them, immediately. But they have each other.

Years ago, I would give my dog a milkbone before I left for work, come
home after work, knock on the kitchen window, and he would get up from
his favorite napping space on the deck, with the milkbone, bring it in
through the dog door, and eat it.

Teddy, my wonder Golden, would never touch a biscuit in a wide open and
full box that sat on the kitchen floor. I think maybe part of it was
when home alone, you don't eat. When we were home, he was fed and had
companionship and never went for it then either.

Most of my dogs don't seem to consume water when I'm not home either.
Not always a good thing, just what it is.

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

On Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:08:26 -0500, Julia Altshuler
wrote:

sighthounds & siberians wrote:

Either way, the dog's behavior is not an attempt to mimic pack
behavior.


Getting back to my original question in this thread, does mimicking pack
behavior explain Cubbe's not eating when we're not home?

If by mimicking pack behavior you mean the dog is mimicking its human
pack by only eating when they're home, I don't think that's what's
behind it. If you mean (or Peter meant) the dog is mimicking wolf
pack behavior by only eating when or after its humans eat, I don't
think that's the case either. Some dogs eat when their people are
home, some don't. Most of the dogs I know are happy to eat when
people are home and when they're not. Once in a while Gene doesn't
want to eat unless someone is in the room with him. Triss prefers to
eat without a human in the room. With Music, we're lucky he hasn't
eaten the house itself. Such behavior might be explained by the dogs'
bond with the owner, by personality quirks in the dog, by prior
experiences in a former home, or by a variety of other things.

Mustang Sally

In article ,
Janet Boss wrote:
I guess it depends on your definition. Most dogs are "social" eaters.
If that makes it pack behavior, so be it.

I think it could be a lot of things, depending on
circumstances. I have a friend whose dog is kind of
neurotic, and he won't eat unless she's home. Nobody else
will do. If you feed him and she's not there he'll ignore
his food and keep running to the front window and looking
out. It's a problem when she travels, which she does
rarely, and you have to be concerned about an anxious dog.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community