Carrying Food to the Carpet??

[Jodi S.]

This is a new one on me and Ashley is my third Rottie. EVERYTIME she eats her kibble, she puts it in her mouth and carries a mouthful from the kitchen to the carpet and splats it on the floor and eats each individual piece! It is hysterical but she must get exhausted walking back and forth carrying mouthfuls. She will track me down, if I am in my bedroom and walk all the way to my room with a mouthful of kibble, and drop it on my bedroom carpet and individually eat each kernal! She is such a character.

We have NO idea why she does this, but I have a feeling there might be other Rotties with the same silly behavior. If so, please share .,


Jodi and Ashley in Portland, OR
Ashley (2) Rescue Rottie
Mae Ling (9) Rescue Siamese cat
Eddie (11) Stray Orange Tabbie who adopted me!

[Brooke&Ryan]

Nope, Julius has never done this although he gets his food twice a day for about 15 minutes each. He's either put in his crate to eat or out in our fenced in area. :) But I would NOT be too happy about Julius bringing his food on my carpet. I'm picturing beef heart & chicken necks EVERYWHERE.

:)
Brooke

[carolynnl4]

Athena does this...if we let her. Since she's on a raw food diet, she eats on the balcony. When she ate kibble, she ate in the kitchen, with a baby gate up. She's not as good of a hoover as some people think she is!
Carolyn

[LavenderRott]

Yes, Chase did this when she ate kibble. She has tried it a couple of times with her chicken, but I take her back to the kitchen.

[shybird]

My Kinder always carried her kibble to the carpet. I would give anything if she were still here doing that.

[Carina43]

Originally Posted by Brooke&Ryan

I'm picturing beef heart & chicken necks EVERYWHERE.
Brooke

Me too!
Both Daphne & Dutch tried this (I've never fed them kibble, just raw) and I quickly had to redirect them to the kitchen. They usually eat outside, but they've learned food is to be eaten in the kitchen when I feed them in the house.

The kitchen floor is easily cleaned, the living room carpet would get pretty gross if I let them dine on it every day.

[Storm's mom]

Mine too like to carry their food to the carpet. The only thing I can think of is that they get more traction on the carpet.

[Rott-Wiley]

Mine loves to lay on the dining room rug and eat whatever she gets. BUT since I feed raw, she is not allowed to drag her food to there. Etch! Raw chicken and rug don't mix ! :) :) :)

[Luvs]

Our dogs are pretty good about keeping their food in the kitchen, unless I happen to forget to thaw their dinner out. Then Akasha likes to take the frozen chunk of whatever and carry it over to the living room carpet. I usually go pick it up and place it back into her dish.

For some reason when I give them bones they ALL want to eat them on the carpet. I put towels down for them on the floor but inevitably they move it back to the carpet every time. I have even tried putting the towels on the carpet but they want their bones on the carpet. They now get their bones in their crates. Giving bones in their crates also helps prevent the bone theif (Akasha) from stealing everyones bones as soon as they look away ;)

[RAVENMOM]

My friends dog does this from time to time. She thinks he was the "runt of the litter" or at least otherwise had to compete for food. She thinks the behavior related somehow to an old habbit he created thinking he wouldn't be "shut out." In truth, I'm sure the kibble bowl was emptied in the mean time by hungry brothere and sisters.

[woofus]

Mine both do that... we've kind of dubbed it "TV snacks" (Although they DO have a TV in the kitchen). :p

Woofus!

[Mary Bouchard]

My rescue female did this when we first got her now she lays down in front of the food dish and pigs out there...

I'm not sure that's an improvement?

[Ilovemypuppy]

Just some ideas.....when we got Bailey as a puppy (she came from a large litter)..she used to take some kibble a little ways away from where her bowl was and eat it there and then return to her bowl for more..I thought it might have been because there was a lot of competition for food at feeding times in a large litter. Her raised feeding station is on a carpeted area, so it wasn't like she was carrying it TO a carpeted area. I always moisten their kibble dinners, so it was kind of messy, but I kept re-directing her and picking up the kibble and putting it back in her bowl and eventually she would just stand and finish all her food without carrying it. Maggie never did this, although she was also from a large litter , but they were free fed as puppies.

[bcarlsen]

Our Rottie Girl is getting on in age and feels it from time to time but still ahs some funny habits. She too likes to take her food to the LR carpet. However we have done the same in redirecting her to her bowl. The funny thing now is we have made a special corner for her in the LR where she must retreat when we have food in the LR. it took us three days to train her to "rug". Now we say it once and she goes and stays there until we give the release or she sees us taking empty plates back to the kitchen 9she sometimes gets a scrap or two). we also give special cooked bones (raw bones in my house are just not a good thing!) at her "rug". In fact our second dog ( a Tibbetan Spanial -who is bossier than the Rott) must share the rug too during bone time or durning our eat time. We ahve not tolerated any fighting or other aggressive behavior from either of them during theses times and they both respect it.

One more thing, I think your Rottie, is just trying to be near you as it eats. I might even suggest that it could be a sign of submission? Think of how pack society works. Perhaps there is a clue here.

Our girl tries, every once in a while, to climb the social dog ladder, but we are supposed to be smarter than our dogs!...and she finds that she is indeed a good Rottie but that Mommy and Daddy are the BIG dogs! Still, its funny when "needs" to have mommy (me) in the same room with her, or least within eye-shot if she is going to eat. When we have had to board her, we have asked the kennel owner to stay near her or she will not eat...sometimes days at a time!

Try staying near your dog in the kitchen, or wherever. IF the dog is trying to take the food away from where its owner is, there may be more than just carpet preference going on here. Maybe pouch is afraid Big dog is going to take the food and trying to wolf it down, out of sight, before something happens to it? Hmm...just some thoughts.

love them Rotts!

Barbara

[JeanT]

bcarlsen, I think my dog likes to be near me when he eats, too. Most of the time if I don't stay in the kitchen area when he eats, he comes out to check on me a few times. A few times he has carried his whole bowl out to the room I'm in and eaten it there.