Hiding his chew bones

[AKittyGoesMoo]

So I have a question. We recently adopted a one year old puppy from a shelter. He's the sweetest thing ever, but he has the strangest ritual when we give him a chew bone.

 

First, he'll run around excitedly like any puppy does, running from room to room to show everyone in the house what he has. Then he'll sit down and gnaw on it for a while.

 

Then, he will work his HARDEST for AT LEAST two hours to find a place to hide it. I don't know why he does this, but it's rather funny. I don't think it's from thinking that people are going to take it, because he's perfectly fine when we take it from him, pretend to chew on it, and give it back to him. (We work very hard to make sure each of our dogs aren't violently possessive of their food.)

 

He works tirelessly to find a place to nest it. Currently, it's under a blanket under my desk. Once, I found it in a shoe in my closet. Last night, it was in my purse -- literally shoved into my wallet. He'll just move it from place to place for about a week, then finally eat the other half.

 

Any ideas?

[Mia_of_Doom]

What breed of dog is he? Some just seem to have the instinct that they need to store their food.

[hers]

I have no idea why he'd do that, especially if he's not food aggressive, but my god it sounds cute!

 

When I lived in a townhouse, Leeluu would take her new bones and go to every room of the house, jump on each bed, jump on the couch, and then finally go to the floor to chew it. It was like she was introducing it to the furniture. I made up conversations that were going on in her head about it too, b/c I'm cool like that.

[Zoey]

it looks like he hasn't found his safe place yet. Have you established a safe place for him? Safe place is a place where he feels comfortable and that it's his.

 

My dog was the same too when I first got her. I got her when she was a tiny little puppy. She used to sleep in my bed so guess where her safe place was for a long period of time. lolz Once I found a piece of dog snack hidden in my blanket. *eek!*

 

After that incident, off she went! I sent her to a corner of my house with a little indoor dog house which she calls her own... and she's been hiding her snacks there since then.

[DN]

link removed

[agent1607307371]

Once I found a piece of dog snack hidden in my blanket. *eek!*

 

 

Oooh, you're lucky. I have a friend whose dog once dug up a bone with meat still on it and tried to stick it under her pillow. While she was still in the bed.

 

So gross.

[Aurian]

My border collie did the same thing - he had no problem giving up bones or food, but he would hide his edible chew bones (toys never got hidden). He would "bury" it in blankets, under pillows, down the side of the chair cushions...

 

Bit gross to find one hidden under some clothes in an open drawer!

 

I think its just an instinct to bury food for later, and if the dog is inside the house all the time, that means he`s gotta hide it somewhere instead!

[nutbrownhare]

Dogs that have lived in shelters, dogs homes etc are notorious for this kind of behaviour. When we got our monster (who was a rescue dog, aged three months) he would hide particularly large juicy bits he'd found in his dog food - usually under cushions, behind curtains etc.

 

Once he realised we weren't going to be eating it, he stopped. It took about six weeks I guess.

[AKittyGoesMoo]

Thank you for all the insight! Fascinating stuff. He moved it again -- it's now artfully stashed behind a pile of books in my bookshelf. He literally tore all of them out, stuck the bone in, and covered it messily with books again. Dear me.

[Aurian]

If he knows you`ve found the bone, he will probably go hide it again.....

[1MoreChance]

It's normal dog behavior to burry left overs, if he is not acting anxious I'd not worry about it.

 

as to working to not make him possessive, taking his bone and pretending to chew on it isn't gonna teach him to not be possessive (that's the "eat before your dog, play in his food bowl, pretend to eat his food, be the leader" thing, right? . some dogs resource guard, some don,t and ther eis a genetic and an anxiety component to it.

 

If you want to teach your dog to LOVE having his bone taken away from him, exchange it with something wonderful that he loves even more, such as an amazing piece of chicken (you must know what your dog prefers). then give him back the bone (when people take his bone away, he gets amazing treats, AND he gets his bone back on top of it!).

 

for the food bowl, same principle. When you walk by his food bowl or appoach it, add food that is tastier than his kibble to the bowl. He will leatn that people walking to his bowl=amazing tasty food goes in.

 

he may jut never have / develop resource guarding. he is just not a resource guarder.

[1MoreChance]

it looks like he hasn't found his safe place yet. Have you established a safe place for him? Safe place is a place where he feels comfortable and that it's his.

 

My dog was the same too when I first got her. I got her when she was a tiny little puppy. She used to sleep in my bed so guess where her safe place was for a long period of time. lolz Once I found a piece of dog snack hidden in my blanket. *eek!*

 

After that incident, off she went! I sent her to a corner of my house with a little indoor dog house which she calls her own... and she's been hiding her snacks there since then.

 

great point!

 

this dog was adopted recently... they need time to adapt and feel safe, very true