digging in empty dishes?
 

This is my 1st post (not counting my new member intro) so I hope Im typing it in the right place.
This is a random behaviour question.
Bear, my (almost) 4 month old maltese/yorkie mix, digs furiously in his bowls when they are empty. Is this a normal behavior? It was hillarious when I realized what he was doing because it makes quite a racket. It is much more pleasant than barking and it does let me know when he is done eating, so I am not concerned, just curious. He also does this when he empties his water dish and I promply go over to fill it.
Has anyone else's pup displayed this behaviour?

What a little character :D!

Our Wylie will do this to his water bowl when it's empty too :p. It's cute. Though we try to never have an empty water bowl, of course.

My Oscar does the same thing when he wants more lol. I think it's a great trait :) I always tell him how clever he is, letting Mummy know that he needs more :)

Max does that with the water and food bowls when they are empty. It's his way of telling us we are not doing our job! And it is loud and irritating so he gets his way right away

Lol effective! Better than barking for us! He has a very loud high pitched bark and our vaulted tall ceilings just make it echo in an ear-splitting fashion.

In the summer, Mario digs in his outside water bowl when it is full and he can make quite a mess but he enjoys it :D.

Sounds like a trouble maker like my little boy! Adorable.

I have an almost 10 year old Yorkie who will slowly scratch at an empty bowl to let me know that it is empty. It is great for the Yorkie bowls as they are free fed, but he does this for our big dog who is only fed twice a day and eats his food immediately so all day long my yorkie is scratching the other dogs bowl to let me know that his buddy needs food. It is nice when they do run out of water and he lets me know that they need more.

The puppies on the other hand, if they have an empty bowl they pick up the bowl and bring it to me and drop it at my feet. LOL They have small lightweight stainless bowls and it is so funny to see them carry them across the room to me.

When their bowls are full and they are not hungry is even funnier though. They will cover their food dishes (water as well) with a blanket if they have a full bowl and are not hungry. I keep their food and water dishes in a large crate that is attached to a smaller crate they have to walk through to get to their food (to keep big dog out of it) and so I can't have any bedding in the crate because then they cover the food and soak the blanket trying to cover the water. I have caught the big dog trying to get into the smaller crate, which he can only get part of his front end into it and get stuck trying to get their food. He finally gave up after getting stuck a few times.

All Yorkies seem to have some kind of food quirk. LOL

JadeD that is just too funny!!!! Spice's food quirk is she will not eat her food out of any kind of bowl , it has to be placed on her placemat! But she will drink her water just fine out of her ss bowl.LOL

LOL! Love it! They are so smart!

Mario's only food quirk is he believes all meals are "to go". He is free fed, and he picks his food up in the kitchen and carries each bit to the living room to consume it. Then he walks the 30 or so feet to get the next bite, 30 feet back to the living room to eat it, and this continues until he is full for the moment.

At least he exercises while he eats :animal37 :D

Hillarious! Bear used to put his puppy stuffed animal face down over his full food bowl. Sadly, we had to toss that toy cause his is in a de-stuffing phase. He has gone through 3 beds in the past 2 weeks!!!