[tlambertsen]

I've noticed when Atticus eats he will take a mouth full of food and run away to eat it off the floor nearby. Any ideas on how to help stop this? I'm thinking it could be due to prior competition for food with litter mates? Any suggestions welcome.

 

[Kirska]

Anabelle does this all the time too. I don't bother to try to correct her, except for when she hides food and doesn't eat it. She was a stray and probably experienced competition for food, as well.

 

[Esther]

basset thing.

they say my cuz from back in the day did it all the time.
mom'n'dad say "get used to it!" cuz a whole buncha us houdies do it.
just wait till Atticus lets a pig's ear marinate in the dirt outside for a month during the summer and then brings it inside, stashed neatly under a jowl for undetectable transport, and then stashes it, unbeknownst to you (until you wanna put on underwear), into a pile of clean laundry... Order of the Evil Basset Empire...
BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

[LoveMaxwell]

Maxwell and Hannah both do it too. They each have their favorite place to go. They do it with food, treats, and bones. It's pretty funny to watch.

 

[tlambertsen]

Order of the evil basset empire.... HA! that is classic.... Thanks for the heads up!

 

[MollyMcFrecklesMom]

My Cockapoo Zoey used to do that too. She'd take a mouthful of food from her bowl in the kitchen and walk into the living room and eat it where we were. I think she just wanted to hang out with us. I never bothered to correct her. Just cleaned up the pieces she dropped when she was finished.

Molly doesn't do it. She keeps her nose in the bowl until she's finished eating. There's always serious concentration going on at mealtime.

 

[Mikey T]

I'm thinking it could be due to prior competition for food with litter mates?

If you are suggesting it is a means of befending a resource not very likely beacuse in order to do so he is abondoning a much larger resource. So in order for a dog to take food from his food bowl and go else where to eat it it must be pretty confortable it will still be there when he comes back. That is one way to end the behavior as soon as he leaves the food bowl it gest picked -up. It may take a few day but he will learn to atleast stay close to the bowl.

Having a greedy hound over can help as well as soon as atticus leave his bowl and another steals it all he will be less inclined to do this. In multple hound households this behavior is a lot less prevelen for the reasons stated, Competition actual forced the dog to stay close to the food source to defend it.

She was a stray and probably experienced competition for food, as well.

A hungry dog does not hide food they eat it. This type a behavior is a possible indication the dog is being overfed.

I think she just wanted to hang out with us

That is a more realistic motivation or the dog is not as comfortable where the food bowl is ie a hard cold surface vs soft warm carpet where invarriably the take the food. If you feed where the take the food you see less of this habit which sort of suports the notion they are moving where they are morcomportable either physically, or psycologically.

 

[CatherineM]

I had one that liked to pick up his bowl with his mouth, and jump up on the bed to eat. That was a hard one to break.

 

[SophieB]

Back in the mid 80s we had a gorgeous Basset that we adopted from a family who worked all hours and she had a metal dish for her food and she always stamped on it, tipping her food out onto the floor and ate it off the floor! It used to amuse us and any visitors we had at feeding time!

 

[vb3]

Rosco will pick his bowl up when he's done eating sometimes and carry it out to us. It's ceramic and it is heavy so when he drops it on the floor it makes an impressive sound. We think it is his way of saying he wants more food.

 

[tlambertsen]

Great comments !

 

[Lightning&Stomps]

Lightning used to tip his food bowl over intentionally and spill his food all over the kitchen. It drove me nuts, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. Then I got Stomps. Problem solved!