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Dog urinating on food?

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  • 21-02-2010 10:07pm
    #1
    babystrawberry
    Registered Users Posts: 292 ✭✭


    My boyfriends aunt recently rescued a small stray (pomeranian mix)

    The dog is in very good health now but has a very strange habit. When given his food he wees into the bowl and then eats the food?? :confused:

    He is always left water during the day.

    Anyone come across this problem before?


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    #2
    morganafay
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,534 ✭✭✭morganafay


    I've never heard of this so am only guessing, but maybe the dog wants the food to have his scent, to show he wants to be the leader of the pack? I know that if you want to be the leader, you should get your scent on the food by touching it, so that just came to mind. It might be kinda far fetched though.

    Or maybe, even more farfetched, he wants the food to be moist? Is it dry food? It doesn't really make sense though cos it would taste bad . . . I don't know sorry. Or there is some reason he likes the taste of wee or there is some nutrient in it that he wants, for some reason?


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    #3
    star-pants
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,429 ✭✭✭✭star-pants


    I would assume it's marking the food incase any other dog came along, so it would be ''his'' food. Maybe try to bring him outside before he's due a feed if he needs to pee he will outside, it might not work, but it might help.
    It also might just take some time for the dog to realise no one else is going to take his food.

    Our older dog when we got her, if you gave her a bone or anything she'd keep eating it until it was gone, even if it was huge, I think because there was competition in her previous home. Now she won't do it, she knows no one is going to take it off her.


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    #4
    Rancid
    Registered Users Posts: 1,434 ✭✭✭Rancid


    babystrawberry wrote: »
    ....The dog is in very good health now but has a very strange habit. When given his food he wees into the bowl and then eats the food?? :confused:
    My very wild guess would be that something about his food bowl makes him want to mark it as *his*.
    Perhaps there's some residual smell from the washing liquid used to wash his bowl and it's strong enough for him to detect.
    Maybe the owner is being too careful and using bleach to clean the bowl every time, or the area he's fed in?
    Another rough guess is that he doesn't intend to wee INTO the bowl, just onto it and his aim is a little off!

    And yes, a rescue animal will be way more protective of his food, and that should lessen as he settles in.


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    #5
    kylith
    Registered Users Posts: 17,736 ✭✭✭✭kylith


    As a solution; maybe try handfeeding, or putting the food a few nuggets at a time into the bowl, until he gets out of the habit of marking it.


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