Community Chat

[lucylover64]

Our 18-month-old, 90 lb black Lab has started a new behavior this week that is most annoying: she will grab a mouthful of food during mealtimes and immediately spew it all over the kitchen floor....sometimes even carrying it into other rooms, dropping it everywhere, and then rarely cleaning it up despite our direct and patient disciplinary efforts. And with her size, her mouthful is indeed a mouthful. Any thoughts or suggestions would be most appreciated! Thanks so much in advance!

[ccassaday]

I don't have any advice but our little puppy does the same thing.

[Anglophilly]

Maybe a visit to the vet is needed. Could be a dental or swallowing problem.

[Marp2]

Did you just open a new bag of dog food this past week? Perhaps there is something different that she doesn't like. Is there a particular part of the meal where she does this, i.e, just the first few bites then goes on to eat? If so you might try letting the food sit for five minutes to "air out" before serving. Is she eating most of it or is most being "disposed" of?

In any event my first impulse would be to check for a change of some sort in recipe or packaging. If it persists a call or visit to the vet would be a good idea.

[gardenman]

In my experience big dogs do this so they can eat where their people are. Instead of eating where the food is, they take the food to where they want to eat. I've seen it with our German Shepherd and Golden Retriever both, and a friend's Saint Bernard/Shepherd mix. They get peckish and want a snack but don't want to miss out on anything so they'll head to the food dish, grab a big mouthful and then bring it where the action is and dump it out to nibble on at their convenience. I'd be shocked if it was anything more than that. Dogs are social animals and don't want to eat alone, so they bring the food to their group for a snack. I don't see any way this is a health issue. To me, this is pretty much the norm for big dogs.

[Anglophilly]

Fascinating and sounds right on the money for big people-loving dogs.

We had a small neurotic poodle who had false pregnancies (she was spayed). She would move her food around but not eat until the invisible puppies were shooed away.

[Mama Mia]

Of our three dogs only Andrew, a little black mix, looks like a lab nose, cocker ears, and doxy body, takes food in with him to eat, he is so cute, before he goes out, he runs over to the food dish and grabs a bite to take along. I think, as someone else said, dogs want to be with us, no matter where.

mm

[lucylover64]

Thanks to all for your comments....we have been observing her and suspect that she is indeed wanting to be with the "pack" (i.e. us!) but also having a bit of fun with doing it! Sigh....we love her dearly, but admittedly she is the biggest dog we have ever had. The next biggest one was also a black Lab and she actually did this behavior as well but not often and was dainty and tidy about it! LOL! We are going to continue to watch her, though. We have not recently opened a new bag of food and she eats well but just randomly spews out a mouthful--we have also noted she has been cleaning most of it up....eventually, in her own time! Clearly not a life-changing issue but has been a new behavior and I am very curious about others' experiences. Thank you!

P.S. My husband commented that her spewing, especially on our hardwood floors, sound like someone throwing dice....so now if we're in a different room and hear the dice, we say she's shooting craps! LOL!

[CrazyDaisy]

When you put the food down watch her. When she is done eating or starts playing with it, pick it up. Leaving food out is never a good idea with most dogs.

[gardenman]

I'm pretty sure you'll find this is just a natural behavior in bigger dogs. They just like to take their food where they want to eat it rather than eat it where you put it. It's nothing to be alarmed about.

I sometimes think you could post here that your dog wagged it's tail at you this morning and posters would pop up warning you to take it to the vet to get it checked out. I don't know if we have a lot of vets, vet techs, or what on the forums, but a whole lot of posters are either trying to drive business to vets, or are very, very frequent customers of their vets.

In this case, it's a pretty typical behavior in bigger dogs and is in no way a medical issue. If you ever watch nature documentaries you'll see wolves, coyotes, hyenas, etc. tear off a piece of the food and then run a ways away before eating it. That's essentially what your dog is doing. If you're lucky he'll be very good at cleaning it up, but in our case lots of little pieces would be left behind that made for noisy vacuuming but caused little trouble other than that.