Banjo, our two-year-old long-haired Chihuahua, has recently doing something we find a bit odd.
If he eats all his dinner, then we give him a treat, usually a small-size Milkbone dog bisquit, which he enjoys very much. In the past, he’d simply chomp it down when we gave it to him.
Recently, though, he’s started to carry the treat through the house, whimpering. He walks from room to room as if he’s looking for something, whimpering, whimpering, whimpering.
He’s an inside dog, he only goes out into the fenced backyard to pee/poop and of course, we walk him 3 out of 4 days and weekly trips to the park or Petsmart for socialization, He’s a great little doggie.
Our dog also does this, but with either a cookie (homemade) or one of her chew sticks. She’s also a chihuahua (mix). The best I can figure out is that the treat is too big to eat or the chew stick is too tough (they seem to be variable in thickness and hardness).
But I don’t know for certain, and it’s certainly not every cookie or every chew stick that provokes this.
Well is his tail up and curled toward his back while he whimpers? Then it might be excited whimpering, or he’s looking for someplace to bury it properly (try providing a pile of lumpy blankets on the floor, my chihuahua buries everything in any lumpy cloth he can including laundry). Is his tail straight down, or tucked between his legs? Then he may be looking for someplace safe to consume it (as in he was eating at one point and felt pain or nervousness, and he may do well with a crate or similar to feel safe in, although this takes time and effort to make it feel ‘safe’).
If he is full from eating all his food, he would probably want to bury it to keep it safe until he’s less full. This can be a bit of a stressor, with worries involved with finding the safest spot.
I never gave my dog dog biscuits because, like his mother, he has this urge to bury things like this. This is the reason why we never gave him dry dog food too. Oddly, when we fed him “Kibble and Bits”, he would only eat the kibble and leave the bits. Before going to bed, I would always take all the blankets and sheets to uncover his buried treasures.
…or, a lump in his throat that only hurts when swallowing something hard and grating, instead of the usual soft dogfood.
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On psycho dog behavior - mine would go nuts when she saw a worm. She’d put her *ear * on it, grind it with her head, then throw her body around & roll on it with her back! :eek: Keeping in mind that dogs’ sense of smell is 1000 times stronger than ours, do worms smell like something that sends certain breeds of dogs into a frenzy, like cats with catnip?
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