I have always fed my dogs in the kitchen, where the floor is made of wood. Several of my dogs would take a mouthful of food and walk into the carpeted part of the house to eat. They would walk back and forth until all the food was gone. Why would dogs have a preference as to what type of flooring they eat their food on?
Anyone else have a dog that does this?
I don’t have any dogs now, but this has happened with several dogs that I have had going back to childhood.
If you’re not in the kitchen with them, maybe they’re just wanting to be near you?
I dunno, most of the dogs we’ve had have always eaten wherever we put their food. 2 basset hounds 
a yorkie, a toy poodle and a regular poodle. I have 2 huskies , one lays down and just shoves her face into the bowl and doesn’t leave until it’s all gone. The other will grab a mouthful and walk around while she chews it, all the while, bits are falling out of her mouth. At least she cleans up after herself though.
"If you’re not in the kitchen with them, maybe they’re just wanting to be near you? "
No, I would sit in the kitchen, and watch them go back and forth to the other room.
We had a beagle once that used to take his food to eat on the carpet, but he started to eat it at the bowl at some point when he got older.
Maybe it’s got something to do with how secure they feel?
My dog would always take his first mouth of food , drop it on the carpet in the living room , and then proceed to finish the rest of his food in the kitchen. He never would eat what he dropped on the carpet, so we just chalked it up to his daily offering to the god of the living room.
Maybe they learned that trick as a puppy, when food might be taken away from them by the other puppies? It sorta makes sense to grab your food and eat it somewhere away from the source and competition once you have it securely in your jaws. Just a thought. Or maybe it’s an natural instinct based on the same idea.
Then again, maybe certain types of floor and/or carpeting feels better underpaw than others.
Or maybe your dog, like mine, who also used to exhibit this behavior, is just completely nuts.
I have a cat who does pretty much the same thing. Our first theory was that she wanted to eat on the carpet in the dining area in order to be separated from our two other cats eating in the kitchen – you know, to make sure they have no opportunity to steal her food. But it turns out she prefers to eat on the carpet even when the others aren’t around. I’ve seen her grab a mouthful of food out of the bowl in the kitchen, carry it into the living room, then disgorge it and eat it there.
Perhaps the carpet feels like a warmer, cozier place to eat, as opposed to the cold kitchen floor tile?
I have heard that it’s a Spaniel thing, particularly Cocker Spaniel. My Cocker does this and my friend’s two Cockers do too. But Her Boxer just inhales the food over the bowl, and this is what most other Dogs do as well.
The Cockers will take a mouthful of food and go a few paces away from the bowl to eat it, then come back for more. After a while or when they have to compete with the Boxer, they stay close to the bowl.
My thought is that my Cocker wants to be sure not to miss any of “The Planet’s Funniest Animals”. It is her favorite TV show.
I owned an Irish setter mix once who did this.
A sub sandwich of dubious origin spent a bit too much time in my fridge, so I set it out for Jane to snack on - just opened the waxed paper and let her have at it.
She dragged the paper onto the carpet.
Scolded her and put the paper back onto the kitchen’s tile.
She dragged the paper onto the carpet.
<repeat twice>
Heard the paper rustle, glanced over, and found that she had drawn the paper NEAR the carpet, STOOD on the carpet to eat, but the food itself was ON THE TILE.
Well, now, how do you scold THAT??
Next time I was at the vet I told him this story. When I told him the first 3/4 he said “Well, she was a stray. It only makes sense she’d rather eat her food on a grass-like surface.”
When I told him the last bit he just shook his head and laughed, so…
Our dog does this too. She’ll take a bite into her mouth, jog over to the living room and munch it down. We always thought it was sort of, “Look, I’m eating! See?”
She’s also the only dog I’ve had who will drop about 1/2 of the dog food pieces on the carpet in various places around the room to enjoy later.
As a kid i had a Lhasa Apso that would refuse food unless it was on a carpet. She started doin the take some food to the carpet thing as a puppy. As she got older (9 or so) she refused to eat food from a bowl or a any surface that was not carpet. We tried to break her of the habit by only offering her food in a bowl, and she refused for a few days, anyways we broke before she did. We ended up giving her a bathroom mat in place of a food bowl (was a mess and had to be vacuumed up daily). This dog was chalk full o quirks though so i didnt think much of it till I read this thread.
Wierd thing is my dog now (Dobbe mix) is pretty much quirk free, but she has done the food offering thing as well. Very interesting that another dog does this! I always make her come over and eat the food she drops and she knows I get upset when she does it so it is kind of a rarity now but for the first few weeks after we adopted her it was a common thing. Now unless she is voraceously feeding (occasionally she’ll just scarf down a full bowl regardless of the flooing material) she does the walk over to the living room, chew a mouthfull of food, rinse repeat.
I have a 10 year old Boxer and he ALWAYS takes his first few mouthfuls into another room. Over the past few years we’ve moved a few times. Sometimes his food was in the kitchen, sometimes it was where they was carpet, regardless of the flooring, he always moved it to another room. Those little hard pieces of food HURT when you step on them in the middle of the night.
I’ve been told it’s an instinct thing, similar to the “spin, spin, spin, FLOP” theory.
My little rat-or-fox (anybody’s guess) terrier mix sometimes does the same thing- take a few morsels of food from the kitchen to the living room, and eat there.
Not all dogs do this, obviously, but enough do that I suspect this practice is a holdover from behavior in the wild, millennia ago. Picture a pack of wolves eating a moose. There’s a lot of competition for the best part, so a wolf who gets a choice morsel may grab it and run a short distance from the carcass, where he can eat without worrying about another member of the pack taking it away.
We have hardwood floors, and Marge will take each bite of food to an AREA rug to eat it. She does this with everything, treats, kongs, things she steals from the laundry…
I’ve always wondered about it.
J
My cat also does this - but only if it’s “special” food - like freshly-cooked meat. Regular cat food she keeps in the bowl. Bizarre.
The food is probably easier to pick up off carpet than a smothe floor. Just a thought. But not worth $.02.
My dog does this also. When I moved into my current digs, I set up her food and water in the laundry room, but I think she didn’t lke eating alone. She would bring a mouthful into the living room. drop it on the carpet, then consume it. I then moved her dish into the kitchen, which is visible from, and only a few steps to, the living room. She still brings her food onto the carpet. But she always cleans up every crumb, so what’s the harm?
I always looked at it like this: the food bowl is like a snack table at a party, you go over grab a handfull/plateful of snacks, go over to a comfy chair and as your munching away listening to everyone else chat it up you’re thinking to yourself “damn, this is good, im gonna get some more” so you hop back over to the snack table again and grab some more and make your way back to your comfy chair. after doing this about 2-3 times, your lazy ass just decides to stand in front of the snack table all together where you can easily mingle with whoever comes over as you shove your face full of goodies.
I thought I was the only one!
I have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. She’ll eat regular food from her bowl in the formica-floored kitchen, but takes treats (Snausages) onto the carpet to eat. WTF, little dog!
Maybe it is like wolves eating a moose. I’d love to see a pack of toy spaniels taking down a moose.
None of these dogs would like to eat at my house. We have tile all over the house. No carpets anyplace. Sorry doggies.