Dog Behaviour When I Eat

[flycow]

If this has been mention before can somebody direct me to the thread? I don't know what topic I should search under.

Diva is 3.5y.o mostly well behaved and her eyes follows me every second, not the OH, just me. That's an issue on its own but I'm more curious about something else.

Everytime when she's watching me and I started to eat something, she'd turn away. Today I'm on a sickie at home and ate my breakfast. She sat in front of me watching, after I took a few mouthfuls, she turned away and went into her kennel. Then waited for five minutes and came out to check on me, I was still eating and in she went again until I finished breakkie.

This is something she do, 99% of the time she watches me, sometimes creepily, other times curious and cute but if I were to eat anything, she'd look away, butt facing or walk away. It's the only time her eyes were off me.

Anybody's dog do that? I'm just curious what's on her mind

BTW I don't share food with Diva, she gets her food in her bowl after we eat, never from the dining table or kitchen bench, very strict house rules here because she was an extremely dominant puppy once. :D

[SeeGee]

this is my understanding and if someone has another opinion or wants to correct please do.

Dogs are pack animals. Your dog understands you are alpha and is waiting for you to finish in hopes that you will leave the scraps, or something more, for him/her.

When my husband and i eat, charlie sits and watches us (or lays with his head facing away) - as a rule. When we feed him, he goes and lies on his bed and waits until the food is in the bowl and we have left the room before he goes to his bowl. This is not something we have taught him to do.

When we had training (we had a trainer come out to us) we were told that this is the sort of behavior that is quite normal for canines.

As I said, this is my understanding and I'd be happy to hear others opinions/ideas regarding it, but that is my interpretation as to what is happening above.

*edited with extra info*

Edited January 14, 2010 by jacquilee81

[GeckoTree]

You have a very polite and well mannered dog

[Aidan]

Dogs do what works for them, whether we teach it intentionally or not.

[flycow]

this is my understanding and if someone has another opinion or wants to correct please do.

Dogs are pack animals. Your dog understands you are alpha and is waiting for you to finish in hopes that you will leave the scraps, or something more, for him/her.

When my husband and i eat, charlie sits and watches us (or lays with his head facing away) - as a rule. When we feed him, he goes and lies on his bed and waits until the food is in the bowl and we have left the room before he goes to his bowl. This is not something we have taught him to do.

When we had training (we had a trainer come out to us) we were told that this is the sort of behavior that is quite normal for canines.

As I said, this is my understanding and I'd be happy to hear others opinions/ideas regarding it, but that is my interpretation as to what is happening above.

*edited with extra info*

Wow dream dog

well based on my observation and limited knowledge on dog behaviour, Diva's turning away seems a bit different to what Charlie does. Diva is quite a dominant dog at heart and marks her territory often but she's definitely not the top dog, OH is. I suspected my position is more of an equal to her as she listens to me but does not really let me lead or correct much. From your description, Charlie seems happy of his place in the family and is not dominant? Lovely dog no doubt, I've to train Diva so hard to get her to wait for the food until we give the release command.

The eating behaviour wise, I'd try to describe it, she watches me, I start eating, she turns head away and throw a sidewards glance then walks away, throw a glance again sort of a dirty look, repeat this a couple of times, then turn her back. Sometimes she gives a grumpy face. That's the thing with this darling dog of mine, she has loads of facial expressions, she can suck in both sides of her muzzle in to look like she's been starved for days She's such a clown.

[SeeGee]

lol........i reckon Diva just wants what you got then

as for charlie being an angel .........lol......more like an

I tried, thats just what it sounded like to me, but....yea, maybe Diva just wants ur food