[hsteepe]

As I have such respect for all you guys I figured I would ask probably a simple question to answer. This is my first post. Back in May we rescued our GSD whom is now called Buddy. He is a BIG dog 100 lbs,so here is my question. Whenever we fed him he would lay down with the dog dish hugged between his front legs. So we purchased an elevated dish holder which worked well for several weeks. Now Buddy is in the habit of taking mouthfuls of food over to the carpeted area to eat. We thought at first it was because we were gradually switching him to new food and he did not like the new shapes as the bits do seem to be bigger so I cut back on the new food and he still does this even with his smaller food bits. Any suggestions?

 

[DSudd]

Rocky does this all the time. Not sure why. The only time he wont is if we give him a special treat (such as shredded cheese) with his food. Will be interesting to see if anyone know why our furkids do this.

 

[Elmo's Mom]

Are you guys in the same room with him as he is eating? My parent's dog does this if everyone is in the living room and his food is in the kitchen. He'll bring a few pieces of kibble over and eat in front of everyone. Then, go back and get a few more.

 

[hsteepe]

It just may be because we are sitting in the livingroom well within eyeshot but not within the same air he is breathing!! Ha Ha! Good point! We have noticed with the hotter weather that his eating schedule has changed. We worry about him not eathing and if we stand beside him and tell him "It's alright, you can eat" then he will but he won't eat it all and of course Bob gets tired of standing there too. Another laugh cause Bob 'thinks' its because he stands there and its HIM that is telling Buddy to eat!!! I just don't know what we did with all our time before Buddy came long, I laugh every single day!! Gotta love him!

 

[Elmo's Mom]

They definitely provide lots of joy in our lives. Please post pictures of Buddy when you can. We love pictures.

 

[kbigge]

It's probably a personality quirk. I got Kodee at 7 weeks old, and he has always drank water from the far side of the bowl. He will lean over the bowl (it's a big one), and lap water from the opposite edge.

He will also drink from a cup this way (I get him ice water at the drive thur window after our walks).

He's a weirdo.

BTW-I just started a thread on another board asking about the safety of elevated food/water dishes. The consesus was (what I suspected) is that elevated dishes increase the risk of bloat. The dog supposedly swallow more air. Just FYI. If the dog has arthritis or something, I might use them, but not for any other reason. JMO.

Good luck and have fun w/Buddy!

 

[BlackGSD]

Both of my GSDs like to lay down with the bowl between their legs. Even the puppy has started doing it most of the time. Wrangler is a "food carrier". He carries a mouth full of food away from the bowl, spits it all on the carpet and then eats the pieces one at a time.

You might want to re-think the standing there and encouraging him to eat. It could become a habit for him and he could refuse to eat unless you are standing there.

As long as he is healthy, he will eat when he is hungry.

 

[CampPappy]

It seems every dog I've had (GSD and others) has done that! LOL They like to eat the food off the carpet! I wish I knew why. And it doesn't seem to matter where 'we' are either. Axl had been especially bad at this....so now I say a calm 'no' and take him and his food back to the bowl. He's getting better......but it still makes me laugh when he does it.....what's he thinking?

 

[Ewilliams]

I have my own theory about this. Almost every dog I have ever had has done this to some degree. Here is part of my theory and why-

We have one dog who has been with us for 8 years now. We bought our house and moved in six years ago. The new house is ALL wood floors and the old house had linoleum in kitchen, carpet everywhere else. When we lived at the old house, my girl, Sophie, used to get her food out of the bowl in the kitchen, carry it to the edge of the carpet, eat, repeat.

When we moved to the new house, she continued this. We had a huge area rug in the LR, with her food bowl nearby. She carried the food over to the rug to eat. Then, I fostered some puppies that peed all over the area rug. So, I finally decided to take the rug out after having to clean it 10x a day.

That is when Sophie strarted eating at the bowl. She still doesn't eat over the bowl, but right next to it.

I think it has something to do with wanting to see the bits (morsels) of food that are dropped during chewing. If they fall back in the bowl, I think the dog thinks they just lost that food. BUT, if they eat over carpet, it is much easier to see the dropped bits.

Think of it this way- when I dropped an earring on the carpet, I could see it right away, but when I drop the same thing on the wood floor, it takes a few minutes to find it. Same thing can happen with tile, linoleum, etc, depending on the color and lighting.

This is just my theory. It makes sense to me. Maybe someone else has a different theory?

 

[GunnersMom]

Gunner doesn't like to eat over his bowl, either. He'll take a big mouthful of food, drop it on the nearby throw rug, then stand there and eat it.
We use an elevated feeder, too and I noticed that the buckle on his collar would hit the side of the bowl and I think it bothered him. The boys don't wear collars indoors anymore, but he still eats this way, so I don't know if it's just become a habit for him now, or if there's another reason.

 

[IsisUnselke]

My dog grabs a kibble or two or three and then walks around the kitchen crunching it! She's so funny, it's like she can't sit still long enough to eat so she does laps while she chews!

I think it's cute but it drives my BF crazy, lol, probably because he used to have a GSD that would lay infront of his dish with it between his paws and slowly munch his dinner.

 

[DSudd]

Rocky does it whether we are in the room or not. LOL Wondering if I should just start dumping the food on the floor. (LOL J/K he would probably decided he doesnt want to eat off the floor)

 

[hsteepe]

I can't tell how many times I giggled reading all the posts here and I really do appreciate your sharing. Get this...I did ask the vet about Buddy 'hugging' his food bowl and the vet calmly told me "I don't think he has has a lot of food in his life" I wanted to scream "No Duh! He is a rescue and you told me he weighs 80 but is 25 pounds underweight!" The one thing that I read here that hit home is the clanging of the collar. Buddy wears a choke chain. When we first got him of course we were very unsure how he was going to be so Bob thought a Choke Chain would be the proper thing to get. Little did we know that we could have just a string on him and he would have followed us anywhere. So I do believe the noise from it may have alot to do with it. Thanks again guys and I will post pictures as soon as I figure out how to do it.

 

[DSudd]

I would be careful with the chain. Rocky doesnt wear a collar or chain unless he is going out with his leash. It is to easy for a collar or tag to get hung up on something.

Just a word of caution, be careful especially if he is being crated wearing the choke chain.

 

[hsteepe]

I appreciate the words of caution. Buddy does have a very large crate that from time to time he will go lay in but has never been locked in. I never gave a thought to him having the chain on and will discuss with Bob tonight.

 

[sklippstein]

I don't think this is an uncommon trait (eating laying down with bowl between the legs)....Lola sometimes does this and my previous shepherds have also done it.

 

[DSudd]

In his early days Rocky not only got his collar tag stuck between the bars on the crate (yes his face was stuck to plastic) and he also got it stuck in the floor vent in the bathroom. When I got home the vent was stuck to his tag.

The bathroom thing happened first, and never though about the crate till it happened. He has not worn a collar unless we are going out and he needs it since.

I also had a friend's dog get her paw stuck between her collar and neck (no idea how) but they had to cut the collar off because they couldnt get the paw out.

 

[3K9Mom]

While we're issuing warnings, elevated food bowls were a contributing factor in bloat according to the Purdue Bloat Study. So you might want to consider tossing that out that as well.

http://www.vet.purdue.edu/epi/nondietary_risk_factors_gdv.doc

As for food-carrying dogs, I've had one. She would wait to eat her kibble dinner until all of us (including dogs) were in the living room watching tv, in the bedroom talking, or computer room. Then she would transport mouthfuls of food back and forth (and the computer room is at the far end of the house from the kitchen where her food bowl was, so she was probably burning more calories than she was ingesting). She was my social butterfly and my heart dog. I am absolutely convinced that to her, dinnertime is a social time, and she just wanted to wait to eat until her pack was assembled and she could enjoy us all together. She would happily crunch with a grin on her face, tail wagging rapidly. My feeling is that if something so small made my dog so happy, you know? Why not?

She died a 1.5 years ago. I'd give anything to turn around from my computer and see her chomping on her kibble off the carpet right now.

Some things, I'm pretty compulsive about -- health, where the raw-fed dog eats HIS food, that sort of thing. Where the other dog transports and eats her kibble, even if it leaves a bit of saliva on the carpet? Not so much.