[little_mcturtle]

I am doggie sitting my in-laws' german shepherd/border collie/ St Bernard/ Heinz 57 dog for the week. She likes to eat her food outside. (She eats inside at my inlaw's place, but my house is smaller and she's not 100% sure about the cats.) I noticed when I put her food in the bowl that she would stick her nose in and then snort and not eat. I put her food on a plate and she ate it. The next time I fed her on the plate she nosed the grass all around the plate and then ate the food. I thought maybe she was trying to hide the food because she wasn't really hungry, but gave up and ate it anyway. The next time I waited to feed her until she was sniffing the old plate and looking for food. She repeated the nose shovelling and then ate. I thought maybe she wanted a little grass with her food... This morning she repeated the nose shoveling behaviour. I don't really care about the grass in her food, but this morning she made her nose bleed. Any ideas why she's doing this nose shoveling? She doesn't actually uproot the grass.

Tonight I will try feeding her in the house. Poor nose!

[german sheep]

hi little_mcturtle,

first possibility is: your dog has no hunger and is not able to hide all the little bits and pieces of the food (I guess you don't barf), so she leaves them on the plate and tries to hide the plate as integral whole
the other possibility is: she marks her feeding place through shoveling her nose on the ground, therefore she leaves her smell all around and gives the information, maybe to the cats in case they are out goer, that this place belonges to her.

What does she do, when you hold the plate in your hands during feeding time? Does she eat? Is she shovelling as well?

LG
gs

english version

[skivvies]

My dog does that too sometimes. She eats inside, but she'll rub her nose on the carpet before eating. I think she's trying to bury it. She'll eat it afterwards too...I guess she thinks that since she can't bury it, she might as well just eat it.

[german sheep]

reduce the food for a while because this feeding situation is pure stress for the dog.

It has too much of it, doesn't want to eat but has reasonable doubts to find the food after a certain amount of time without being touched. So the only possibility is to eat it right now, against its food instinct and the biological and important stop of eating.

Reduce the food and take the stress of your dog.

LG
gs