Hiding food/treats

[CallisMom]

Okay - first off Calli eats dinner well but barely eats breakfast or lunch. I'm not so concerned about lunch because she will be down to two meals a day anyway. Well in the morning I started putting her kibble into her kong - and this has made a big difference - she is eating the majority of it (although I have started to give her only 1/3 cup since clearly 1/2 cup was too much for her.)

Now - the funny thig is that with the food she doesn't eat - she is walking around the house and placing it in "special" areas - her crate, corners of the room, etc. - ONE kibble at a time. She runs off, places it in the corner, does this thing where she puts her nose on the kibble then on the floor in front dragging it to the kibble - she repeats this process over and over - goes back, gets another pieces and does the same thing somewhere else. - This is also what she does with her treats before she eats them.

I now have a house full of strategically placed kibble! Does anyone elses dog do this? It's kinda funny - but at the same time - I can have little kibbles all over the house either!

[Charms]

Conan, 5 months, does the same thing with his marrow bones. He takes them to a special spot (crate, corner of the room, behind furniture) and "invisibly burries" them with his nose. To us it looks like he's pushing invisible dirt over the bone. If a family member says something about the bone Conan goes right to it and "hides" it somewhere else. The family will talk about the bone in pig latin to let others know where it is and to save Conan from the "chore" of re-hiding it. A bone is one thing, kibble is another.

A few pieces of kibble are dropped out of the bag at feeding time and sometimes aren't noticed or picked up until the trail of ants leads us to it. I know that if kibble were hidden in my house we'd be infested with ants.

Charms

[SaFireCarin]

My Nessie did the same thing with her bones. She would bury them in the couches, the beds, the corners, etc. It was the funniest to see her "pretend" to dig them up when she wanted to eat them. These little guys have a mind of their own!

[mOmOfaBe]

Abe is almost a year old and he is still doing that with his treats, we will give him a treat to have while we are away (a consolation prize I guess) and when we get back, the couch cushions and chair cushions are all pulled out! Almost looks like we have had a vandal--oh wait, we did! A 4-legged one...LOL.....

[Guest Christina]

Harley is 8 yrs old and still hides treats. When you give him a bone his tail starts wagging really fast, and he looks at you to make sure you're not watching him. He will take off and go to a corner somewhere and pretend to cover it with his nose and walk away as if nothing happened. If I get up and act like I am going near where he just hid it, he races over to it, and grabs it and hides it somewhere else. They are soooo smart it is scary!

[wags]

Wes doesn't hide his treats, he puts them down in plain sight. But if he sees us looking at it, he hides it in his mouth.

I keep telling him we're not gonna take them away, so maybe next time he won't be so protective.

He used to run away with the socks and hide them, but not any more. I gave him a job. He has to help take my socks off. Now he just "sticks his tongue out at them" and walks away.

Now if I could only trust him with my shoes...

[CarCarDawn]

Hi! Riley will do the same thing with any treats he wants to save for later - - my daughter came home for a visit and found 3 different treats hidden under the pillows on her bed!!!!! I am constantly sitting on bones that were "hidden" in the sofa and chairs - - - he will re-hide them if he knows I know where they are!! They are precious!!!!!!

[kayharley]

Those stories are just too funny

I guess when you have 2 Cairns, hiding a treat just isn't possible. I have to give both my girls the exact same thing at the exact same time. Then they both leave their treat to go check out what the other has.

[Posey]

Nicky lays his treats out in the open and if you step on it in socks or barefoot-ouch! We are getting ready to go on vacation tomorrow and taking Nicky with us for the second time. He seems to know that something is going on. We put the door on his crate and he started wagging his tail. They are so cute.

[Guest Cristina Perez]

Our Scruffy is doing the same and up until now that he is 8 month old. It is so funny watching him do that! Most of the time he would pretend digging in his bed and leave it there for a moment and I guess when just about that time, he would remember it and pretend looking for it and then eat it. I love him so much..

[Eliz222]

Scout likes to take her bones and walk from room to room until she finds the "perfect" spot to bury her bone! It's so funny to watch and sometimes it takes her 20 min. of constant wandering to find the right spot. If I give her another bone, she just starts to find a spot for that one too. I have seen her, with bones that she buried weeks ago, all of a sudden APPEAR.

[MikeC]

Duffy does the same thing, only with his rawhide bones and treats. It's really funny to watch when he attempts to bury them in the couch. He will place the item to be buried between the cushion and the back of the couch and attempts to push it down with his nose, but what is so comical is that when he pushes his nose, it never touches the item. This process will go on until he is satisfied that his mission is accomplished, but the treat is still visible. Very funny. We have also found treats in his crate and on the stairs. I guess this is a Cairn trait since so many of them do this. Fortunately, he not attempted to use any of our potted plants as a burial ground yet!

MikeC

[Guest crisemm]

Great story Mike, Scruffy does the same thing everytime..

[toomanypaws]

My 8 mth old Abbey use to hide her treats in her bed until the 3 yr old Kiara started finding them. Now when I give them a treat, Abbey runs to her crate w/ hers so Kiara won't get it.

[Guest Grumpy]

Georgie Fuzzbutt also does this ...... glad to hear we arent alone!! She will take pieces of kibble and just put them down in corners or beside furniture....she makes no attempt whatsoever to hide them or "bury" them . Then she will retrieve a peice when shes ready and throw it around the room, or bat it around with her feet, and wont eat it until its been sufficiently "killed". We have learned to live with it.....and also learned to pick up the visible bits on our way to the front door when visitors knock!!!!

[Milopup]

What treats do people give their cairns? I would like to find something that he can chew on for a while (i.e., over the course of a few days), but don't want to use rawhides for fear of choking. I do use CET chews, but what used to last a couple of days, now lasts only a few minutes.

[CathyAnn]

Wondering if the peanut butter might give them 'poops'....??

Anyone?

Cathy

[Eliz222]

I've only coated the inside of a kong with peanut butter. I think it has too many calories for the pups, so I give very little, if any. I have also spread a tsp on the rawhide to give it more flavor. I, now, mostly give baby carrots. They love them and I can give as many as I want (within reason) without feeling guilty.