Its always something with Jeter. What does it mean when a dog takes his kibble and picks a few pieces up and drops it outside his bowl and then nudges the kibble with his nose moving it towards the bowl?

He also makes the same movement (like he is sweeping the floor with his nose) when there is no kibble there. This happens while he is eating breakfast.

He never does it with dinner.

This has been going on for a few weeks.

I should mention that his stool was very loose for a week or so while this was going on.

My wife said it was lose again a couple of days ago and again he is playing with his food but only the morning feeding. I think he doesn't feel well (probably got into something that is upsetting his stomach)but I am trying to find out the connection between not feeling well and using his nose to push food that's not even there.

Well, I'm recently (OK, today) reconsidering my own bed-licker/air-licker who also has OA and HD that is pretty well-managed .... and considering what relationship there is between such odd behaviors (particularly of repetitive motions) and discomfort. (Yes, I do know how far-fetched this sounds. )

I don't know. I'm tentatively thinking (and researching) a possible connection between being unwell or in pain and self-distracting behaviors.*

I am interested in any confirmation of such self-distracting behaviors in dogs who later prove to have been in pain or otherwise unwell.

This is way reaching, I know, with the described food-pushing, so please don't let this idea interfere with other suggestions!



* Think of a dog in pain who licks himself obsessively. Of course, that would (or probably would) involve endorphin-release, which would probably not be a part of air-licking, fabric-licking, food-pushing .... and again, I do see the far-fetchedness.

But I'm kind of seeing/reading possible connections between distracting behaviors and discomfort.

but that wouldn't explain why he only does it at breakfast and not dinner.

if he's unwell, wouldn't it be across the board that the behaviour shows up?

just curious

does he eat the kibble he drops?

Alec, if you feel that it might help, I would recommend starting a log.

The biggest connections I've made between my allergic dog's treatments and allergy-relief, for example, have come initially from my journals of weather, diet, fish oil, antihistamines, time of day, and so on, with the worst episodes of itchiness.

Patterns are not readily discernible for me until I have many days' or weeks' worth of notes.

 Quote: wendy lefebvre

but that wouldn't explain why he only does it at breakfast and not dinner.

if he's unwell, wouldn't it be across the board that the behaviour shows up?

just curious

does he eat the kibble he drops?

Well, again I'm reaching (so I can go over in Betty W's "all by myself" corner and you guys can point and snicker ) .... but my OA senior's most difficult time of day is early a.m.

All right. Let's just say "start a log" instead of presupposing my far-fetched hypothesis.

Just a thought, but could it be he is not all that hungary in the morning either because he is not yet feeling all that great or with warmer weather?

I just ask because I do have one that sporadically will not eat breakfast and the reasons vary. He is much to lazy to rearrange it but will sit and stare (with a look of disguist) at me until I remove it.

added: always the AM meal never the PM meal

I don't know but based on the experience I had one time, but with a cat.....I would purchase an other bag of food from a different place & see if you get the same reaction, if so I'd look for pain, bored dog, just not hungrey..,maybe too much food ..hungrier by night time...etc.etc

Had a cat that was barely eating enough food to stay with us ....had ALWAYS been a big eater ....tried 2 different bags from the same order of food ...special food that had to be ordered. This went on for about a week. I ordered another bag overnighted & the cat at like a pig. Decided that he knew something we didn't about that bag of food. Contacted the manufacturer with all the numbers on the bag etc. They reasearched & found that the food had somehow gotten moldey (smelled ok to me). Sent me a couple of new bags. I never had the problem again.

Don't know if this might be the problem, but worth a bag of food if it is that bad of an issue.

He does eat the kibble he drops, albeit slowly.

Jeter loves to eat the girls underwear. The thongs sometimes show up (whole) in his stool. I have repeatedly told the girls in the house that they MUST put their dirty underwear in a place where he cant get to them.

Hampers are not even a challenge for a 70 lb Pitbull so I suggested that they put the hampers in the closet and then the underwear in the hampers but teenage girls are thicker than thick not to mention sloppier than boys.

I mention this because I have concerns with blockage. There is elastic in these underwear and it wouldn't take much for them to get stuck and then we have big expensive potentially deadly trouble.

I assume as long as he has bowel movements and is eating (in spite of the new breakfast behavior) that he has no such thing...yet.

Now lets talk about Dakota and how she plays into this scenario. You guys may recall that a while back when I used to feed them at the same time and in the same room they began to display unwanted behavior. They would begin to lower their heads and give each other what I would call dirty looks while standing over their bowls and you all warned me that this was a big fight waiting to happen.

You were all right so I began to feed them one at a time and the routine has been going fine. Dakota would wait about 15 feet away in the living room while Jeter eats in the kitchen. Then when he was done he would go to his crate (door open) and wait while she eats. No problem any more with dirty looks or posturing from either one of them.

So fast forward to present time and now when jeter goes to eat his breakfast along with the other behavior I have described he seems to be looking around the wall while Dakota is waiting and he is distracted by her sitting there. He will drop some kibble outside his bowl and push with his nose and every few seconds he looks around the wall at Dakota.

I am wondering if this is similar behavior coming back at feeding time between the two of them. Maybe I should have one locked in the crate while the other is eating.

Last thing...Dakota guards her resources aggressively.

Oh gosh, I missed this VERY important point, blathering about keeping a journal, etc.

If a normal-eating dog starts to refuse or pick at the commercial food, I would believe the dog.

I will never forget the heartbroken owners in 2006 who basically forced their animals to eat the usual food, assuming a bout of pickiness, and finding out too late that the melanin-contaminated gluten from China was killing the animal.

I was struck by the horror of having such a thing happen (as it did with thousands and thousands of companion animals with the terrible recalls of many dozens of brands of kibble) ....

I'd save the suspicious food in a container with the label and lot number and try a different food to see what happened.

THAK YOU, ANNE!

Alec, I don't allow any dog to eye the other dogs' dishes at all.

No threat, no uneasiness, no looking for possible aggressors, no ANY trigger for food-unease (leading to guarding).

"I used to feed them at the same time and in the same room they began to display unwanted behavior. They would begin to lower their heads and give each other what I would call dirty looks while standing over their bowls and you all warned me that this was a big fight waiting to happen.

You were all right so I began to feed them one at a time and the routine has been going fine. Dakota would wait about 15 feet away in the living room while Jeter eats in the kitchen. Then when he was done he would go to his crate (door open) and wait while she eats. No problem any more with dirty looks or posturing from either one of them.

So fast forward to present time and now when jeter goes to eat his breakfast along with the other behavior I have described he seems to be looking around the wall while Dakota is waiting and he is distracted by her sitting there. He will drop some kibble outside his bowl and push with his nose and every few seconds he looks around the wall at Dakota.

I am wondering if this is similar behavior coming back at feeding time between the two of them. Maybe I should have one locked in the crate while the other is eating. "

Yes, you should have one locked in the crate while the other is eating. Not only in the crate, but not visible to each other.

IMO, food-aggression (with regard to other dogs, like this) is simple (not always easy, but simple) to avoid, and I vote for giving the dog a completely stress-free mealtime. Always.