Hello All,
My wife and I just shared some of our late night snack with our Chow Chow/Shepard mix. He is a great little guy and always right next to us. It is obvious that he cares for us, but a thought popped in my head. Whenever we eat anything he is right there wagging his tail and expecting us to share a morsel with him. It is like it is more than a treat to him, almost like a bonding for the lack of a better term.
So, he knows we will share and expects us to. It is obvious that he understands the concept of “sharing”, however neither he or any dog I have ever known has ever offered to share its food or treat with us (not that I would want a bite of his tasty milk bone). Has anyone ever known a dog that on its own tried to share what it had with its human? Or is that too much to expect out of a cannine? He can be so loving and caring it would just make sense that he would put two and two together and recoprocate.
Good question or am I just really really bored tonight?
You are erroneously anthropomorphizing your dog’s behavior. Your dog begs for food because he has been conditioned to do so through positive reinforcement. Every time you give him food, he learns that he can get food by wagging and making doggy-eyes at you. Sharing doesn’t enter into it.
He’s not interested in sharing food with you because you have never reinforced such a behavior.
Good point and I understand that he hasn’t been taught to share. But my question is more has anyone ever known and animal to share by its own free will. Not trained to share, but actually offer something to a human (or other dog for that matter) because it wanted to “give” something a a gesture of caring or goodwill. I just assumed that animals are unable to process emotion like that and have no understanding or concept of taking care of others. But just when I thought that I got a great big doggie hug and lick, not for a treat, but just because. So it does seem possible that dogs show affection because they care. Or maybe they just do it for the petting and attention that happens when they do.
My wife just said dogs share because she saw Tramp push a meatball over to Lady once. Har Har … she is a riot isn’t she?
Cats have been known to present their humans with prey, by leaving whatever they’ve killed somewhere the human will find it. I always assumed my late feline overlord was offering me food when he did that.
I have to laugh and agree with you there. My cat Joey (who I sadly had to give to my wife’s sister as she is allergic) used to hunt lizzards on our pool deck. I used to call the doorway to the pool the “Lizzard Zombie Graveyard” for the pile of little lizzard corpse left for offering.
Good example I should have thought about that myself. Okay, now onto mans best friend.
Since we have good nutritionally complete and balanced dog foods to feed our dogs, they are better off physically the less human food the better. However, yes, sharing small tid bits does help bonding. I tend to be very negative on human food partly because it is the rules for the service dog puppies we foster. But even I bend a little on sharing.
The way I understand it is that dogs are pack animals, and, hopefully, you’re the alpha dog. Thus, you eat first and share the rest with the lower members of the pack. He probably won’t offer you food, but would, again hopefully, give up his food for you if you tell him to.
Since the OP is asking about personal experiences, this is better suited to IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Well, yeah. that’s a defining trait of the dogs. When an animal doesn’t share food then it is very strong evidence that it isn’t a member of the dog family and pretty much proof positive that it’s not a member of the same genus
With a few exceptions amongst the most primitive dogs they have special adaptations of the stomach that have evolved *solely *to allow them to share food. They do this mostly by regurgitating food on command, and that regurgitation is prompted by other dogs licking their muzzle. When a dog licks our face, it isn’t being friendly, it’s literally trying to make you sick to get you to share your food. Of course dogs don’t always share their food by regurgitation. Small prey such as rodents are more likely to be carried back to the other pack members in their mouths, and amongst the more primitive dogs that is the only mechanism that they use, and it’s all they need because they don’t hunt large prey.
There are a couple of reasons why sharing behaviour is less common in domestic dogs than in wild dogs. In natural dog communities this sharing is done for the benefits of the young and for the baby sitters. Since these animals can’t hunt for themselves, the rest of the pack brings them food. You are the one that goes out all day and comes back with food. Your dog is asked to stay at the den while you are out and watch for intruders. To a doggy mind that makes you the hunter and him the baby sitter. Hunters share with baby sitters, not the other way around. What have baby-sitters got to share? Added to that, domestic dogs have been bred to be more infantile than wolves, they are essentially permanent pups, as such they don’t feel as much inclination to share as adults.
However most domestic dogs will attempt to share their food. I think most dog owners have had dogs drop disgusting pieces of food on the floor near them. Bones that have been buried for a few weeks seem to be favoured for this. It usually results in a scolding, and the dog eventually stops doing it.
Of course a dog isn’t going to attempt to share a milk bone with you. That is food that you have given to him. Why would he attempt to give it back? But food that he can’t remember you giving him, like old bones, those will often be shared.
This sharing is most easily seen in some of the hunting breeds. When a retriever returns a duck, or a deer hound stands over the animal it just brought down and bays, it’s attempting to return the food to the pack.
Wolves are very highly social animals and have a highly developed sense of taking care of others.
Yes because he wanted you to regurgitate your lunch so he could eat it.
That’s not in any way correct. Begging for food is an instinctive trait in all the dogs. It’s instinctive in most juvenile carnivores, but all dogs retain the instinct throughout adulthood.
Begging is an instinctive trait, but adult dogs only do it if the behavior is reinforced. They don’t waste their time once they realize that it won’t work.
A friend of mine decided to do an experiment with his new puppy. He would NEVER give the dog any food from his hand. The dog food was poured directly from the bag into the dog’s bowl. He lived alone and told all visitors about the experiment.
Still the dog begged. After a few months, my friend began to softly scold the dog by saying, “No begging”. The dog quickly caught on to what the words meant and would walk away. However, the dog soon developed the habit of begging from across the room, eyes on whatever food was in someone’s hand. The living room was quite large and the dog sometimes was 10 or 15 feet away sitting in his begging stance. My friend called it “long range” begging. At times the dog would beg from another room (but still in line of sight).
After a year or so, my friend give up figuring that his not giving the dog any food from his hand didn’t matter.
Dogs beg, period.
Odd call.
It’s a factual question with a factual answer that can be found in any decent ethology textbook. It’s not like observations of provisioning in wolves or feral dogs are not commonplace in the scientific literature.
Do you have any evidence for that? I’d be surprised if it were true.
I haven’t experienced dogs offering to share with humans, but I often watched dogs share with each other. When one of our dogs got so old that we had to keep him tied up (he couldn’t see or hear well), the young dog would go out and fetch him stuff to eat in the pasture or at the beaver pond.
Cats do share with humans. My cat will often bring his kills and lay them at my feet. Then he sits and looks at me, waiting, I suppose, for me to take a bite.
My dog Sophie has brought me the back half of dead rabbits. I thank her and throw it where she can’t get atit.
StG
I don’t think Sophie cares. She has clearly already eaten the best bits.
Last winter I witnessed a truly unusual thing, and I don’t mind saying it brought tears to my eyes. Never seen anything like it before.
My 75 lb Gordon Setter, Kharma, was laying on the old quilt I leave on the floor, chewing on one of the favored chewies, called Pork Chomps. They have a tightly twisted thin center and the outside is wrapped with a strip of smoked pork hide. My dogs all go bananas over these, they are a really special treat.
The little Papillon Bunny laid down on the quilt next to her, watching intently as Kharma chewed, and then Bunny began taking her little paw and ‘patting’ at Kharma and the chewie. I began watching closely at this point because I didn’t want Kharma getting ticked and biting the (much) smaller dog.
Instead, what Kharma did was grip the chewie between her front paws, grab the center in her mouth and pull it out…and then laid it down by Bunny and went back to chewing on the outer layer! Bunny was delighted, grabbed it up and started chewing, and I sat there with my mouth hanging open and tears running down my cheeks. I would not have believed it had I not seen it myself.
So yes, it may be rare, but dogs DO share!
Licking in dogs is a bit more complex behavior than you’re letting on.
“(One) theory is that dogs lick you because they were taught to do so by their mother from birth. Female dogs that give birth lick the new puppies to stimulate them to start breathing and to clean them up. Licking is important to the survival of puppies. The licking process is a natural instinct that they quickly learn from their mothers…Licking is also a submissive gesture…By licking you, the dog is showing you that you are the dominant being and you are in charge…Another reason that dogs lick humans is to gather information about them. Dogs use the scent receptors located in their nose and mouth to process information about a person…Eccrine glands release moisture that contains salts, water and waste products. Some dogs love the taste of salt…Dogs also enjoy licking because the act releases endorphins that allow the dog to feel pleasure and a sense of security and comfort.”
By the way, in trying to come up with a collection of phrases that you’d be most unlikely to hear from a dog, at the top of my list was “No, you have the last piece”. 
If I were to reach down and take my dog’s food bowl she wouldn’t stop me or even be angry or confused, she would be just fine with my taking food from her. She would not bring me food as a gift or anything though. I think she would be fine with sharing if I made it clear I expected it and took what I wanted but she will never volunteer to give me noms as a present.
Except, when you see a dog “beg” and you give him food, the dog doesn’t see it that way. The dog sees it as a stare down wherein he’s challenging you and demanding that you give him your food. So if you give him a morsel, he thinks he was successful in his challenge and may try to challenge you again later in other ways (like disobeying your commands.)