Why do dogs push food out of the bowl?

Answer by  OceanTiara (158)

Dogs tend to push food out of their bowls as a natural instinct to sort of 'hide the bone'. In the wild, animals had to bury and hide food from other predators, so hence this is deep in their genetics to do so. When they are pushing the food with their noses, this is what they are trying to achieve.

Answer by  dr84bhl (2789)

When the dog is eating his/her dinner he only has his mouth and teeth to grab the food ,so when he eats the dogs nose pushes the food up the side of the dish and over the top onto the floor. I think this action is an accident not intentional.

Answer by  johnashley (30)

It goes back to their animalistic instincts of hunting its prey. They are still animals and never eat food out of bowls or anything like that. They are making sure there aren't any pest that might harm them like in the wild. They like to push the food out so they can sniff around.

Answer by  Anonymous

I have two dogs. My outside dog likes too nudge dirt over the bowls with his nose to bury them and my inside does the same but only manages to push the bowl around because it is on the kitchen floor. I think it is instinct, to protect the food.

Answer by  Anonymous

Because the bowl is too shallow

Answer by  samar (124)

They usually push it out of the bowl because they may find the bowl small to put their mouth into it or maybe they are just not comfortable eating inside the bowl and they rather take it out be comfortable eating it.The other reason cab be they they need to cut the food into pieces.

Answer by  Anonymous

Our maltese only pushes her food out of her bowl when she is mad at us...like when we leave the house. She never eats it off of the floor and she never pushes it out of the bowl at any other times. So what's up with this?