Cesar -

Every morning when my dog is eating her meal for the day, she takes kibbles in her mouth up to my bed in the master bedroom. She hops on the bed and proceeds to eat her meal. I am not sure why this is occurring. I am worried that this could be her exerting some type of dominance. How can I prevent her from doing this?

Thank you for your help!

Heather Celli

Dear Heather,

One possible explanation is that your dog is simply following its pack instinct. If you go to the bed during the dog’s meal and she still wants to eat, she may make an attempt to relocate her food in order to remain with you – her pack leader.

Whether or not that is the case, it seems to me from what you’re describing that either kibbles are left over on the plate at the end of the meal, or the entire meal itself is unsupervised. What we need to do is structure the feeding ritual again. This way, we can block the dog from having access to kibble outside of her designated mealtime. If the dog has no access to kibble, regardless of what’s causing the behavior, she can’t transport anything.

So you start again: with exercise, you make the dog hungry. When she’s hungry enough and you’re ready to feed her, you lay down her food. If she’s exercised enough, you shouldn’t see any kibble left. If you find that she has leftover kibble, and you want to block that hoarding behavior, remember: the golden rule is “once the dog is done, remove the plate.” Once the dog is finished eating, the meal is over. You will be the one that determines this. Eventually, the dog will settle into the new structure, and you will see an end to this problem behavior. The dog will eat what you give her, and there should be nothing left to hoard.

Stay calm and assertive,