Why Does My Dog Eat His Food Away From His Bowl? | Dogalize
Sometimes may happen that your dog takes a mouthful of food from his bowl and goes away to eat it. Then he repeats the action until the bowl is empty. It doesn’t seem like an efficient way to eat — not to mention that he’s getting dirty the floor you’ve just mopped!
So, why does your dog behave like that? The answer lies in his ancestral origines.
When dogs in the wild make a kill, the outranked animals drag pieces of food away so they don’t have to fight the leader or a more dominant canine for it, says Dr. Julie Albright-Keck, an assistant professor of veterinary behavior at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine.
“Fighting is obviously very risky, so most animals, especially subordinate ones, will go to great lengths to avoid an altercation,” says Dr. Albright. Although the competition in your house may not even be real — particularly if you only have one dog — it’s his evolutionary instinct taking over.
Another possibility: If you use a metal bowl, the noise of the food moving around in the dish or even his collar tags hitting the side can be frightening or annoying, notes Dr. Albright, so he may be taking the kibble away from the trigger of the sound.
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Federica Lauda
Source: vetstreet
Photo: Flickr/Jim Winstead