The 8 Possible Reasons Why Your Dog Pushes Its Food With Its Nose
Sometimes your dog just enjoys playing with its dinner, but the behavior can have a purpose. If your dog is a picky eater, seeking attention, curious or bored, it may push its food with its nose. It could also be due to a problem with the food bowl, vision problems, or dental issues. Also, they might be more interested in the food you’re eating.
Some dogs are stashers and will hide their food for later; this behavior comes from their ancestors. Your dog could be moving its bowl around to hide some of the kibble beneath the dish or spilling it out to move it to another location. If your dog noses its food and leaves some behind in the bowl, watch to see if it comes back later to eat it.
Your dog may just be curious. You may have noticed this behavior before when your dog finds interest in random things. If you have changed your dog’s meal, your pet’s sense of smell will make them curious about what’s in the bowl, and they will use their nose to investigate.
Your dog may be in search of attention. They may want you to notice them, and by nudging their bowl, it grabs your attention, and the attention you give them reinforces their behavior. Try not to respond if you suspect your dog is seeking attention to prevent reinforcing the behavior and turning it into a habit.
Your dog’s boredom is often caused by a lack of stimulation. If your pet hasn’t indulged in its regular daily activities, like walking and playing, it may be nudging its food to have fun. We understand life can get busy, but even if you can take your dog out for a short walk or a few throws of its favorite ball, your dog may not choose its bowl as a play toy.
This nosing behavior is often an innocuous one, but exceptions are always a possibility. For instance, some dogs nose away their food because theyre sick and have either no appetite, or a reduced one. Appetite changes can signify a handful of medical ailments in canines, from kidney disease to heartworm and cancer. If your pet seemingly out of the blue has zero interest in eating, instead preferring to push his food bowl using his nose, its time to take him to the veterinarian for a thorough checkup. If you have any health concerns at all related to the nudging, the vet is the individual to consult.
Your dogs behavior of nosing away his food could be a hint of his wild heritage. Life in the wild isnt about easy food as it is for the typical domestic dog, after all. If your pet, for whatever reason, is too full to eat his meal, he might try to “bury it” for later enjoyment. Though your dog might not be hungry at the moment, hes fully aware that whats in his bowl is valuable. By nosing away the food and pushing it off to a clandestine nook, your dog is essentially trying to conserve it for a later point — when he actually does need it and is hungry. Your dog doesnt want to give the sustenance to others — whomever they might be — so instead he opts to store it away.
If your dog is doing it for fun or for storage purposes, nosing away food isnt usually a big deal. If youd rather your dog stop and focus on his meals instead, however, you might want to invest in a food bowl that is a little sturdier — and therefore not as easy for your pet to nudge away.
Canine behavior is as bewildering as it is endearing, one of the reasons dogs continue to delight and fascinate their human owners day in and day out. If your sweet pooch has a habit of nosing his food bowl away, hes not a weirdo — he has his reasoning.
By nosing away his food, your dog could also just be having a little simple fun, investigating his surroundings and using his bowl as a toy of sorts. If your dog realizes that nosing his food bowl piques your curiosity — and leads to your focusing more on him — it might even inspire him to amp up the behavior and do it more often.
#3: Your pooch craves your attention
“I’m starved. ATTENTION starved to be exact, hooman.”
Dogs and kids alike have their own ways to get their parent’s attention.
Some kids even get silly because of attention deprivation.
Just like when they intentionally mess around with their food. Because their parents are busy talking. And they want to get noticed.
This could also be the case for your fur baby. You might’ve been too occupied with chores. And you don’t pay attention to them anymore.
Especially if you usually look at them when they’re eating. And praise them for having such a good appetite.
A study shows that attention seeking in dogs is likely to happen due to a strong attachment to their human.
However, food nudging due to attention seeking might also become a…
Nose Nudges! What Do They Mean?
Any dog owner knows that dogs do pretty funny things, and nosing around food instead of eating is one such example. There are a couple of reasons your dog might do this, but none are cause for real concern. If the nosing irritates you, or if youre concerned you might trip over your pal before youve had coffee, there are steps you can take to minimize it.
If your dogs bowl rests on the floor, he may appear to be nosing the food or the bowl when eating because the action of eating physically pushes the bowl across the floor. Placing the bowl in a corner may reduce food nosing since the bowl cannot slide past the corner. Provide an eating mat or another floor mat to stabilize the bowl and minimize sliding. Alternately, use a larger bowl so that your dogs snout does not touch the side of the bowl when eating.
A University of Alaska Anchorage study determined that dogs want the same type of food as their pals. Accordingly, dogs in a multiple dog household may get a whiff of something tasty on their pals breath during dinnertime. Your dog might nose the food to try to determine if they have the same tasty treat as his brother or sister. Theres not much you can do to quell this sort of food nosing, aside from feeding dogs in separate rooms and not allowing them to interact until after mealtime.
It can be tempting to guess why your pups nosing the food instead of eating it. Some might think the dog dislikes the food, the food bowl or the meal location. Others suspect the pup is bored or trying to get owner attention, or acting out of hunting instincts. While there may be anecdotal truth to some of these reasons, experts have not confirmed it.
Since dogs dont talk, you wont get a concrete answer as to why shes nosing the food. You can discuss this behavior with your vet if it concerns you. Since this behavior doesnt indicate any sort of canine health problem, this isnt necessary but it may help you feel better. If you like, you can switch food brands, food bowls or other aspects of mealtime to see if she stops nosing the new kibble.
A successful website writer since 1998, Elton Dunn has demonstrated experience with technology, information retrieval, usability and user experience, social media, cloud computing, and small business needs. Dunn holds a degree from UCSF and formerly worked as professional chef. Dunn has ghostwritten thousands of blog posts, newsletter articles, website copy, press releases and product descriptions. He specializes in developing informational articles on topics including food, nutrition, fitness, health and pets.