Dogs most often choose to bury the stacks they have received, as well as their toys. They bury their prey in the ground, but it also happens that they choose their lair as their hiding place. Dogs very often behave this way not because of rational reasons, but because of their inner instinct.
What will you learn from this article:
- dogs usually bury their treats and toys
- burying things is often the result of a dog’s innate instinct rather than a real need
- dogs can bury things not only outside, but also at home
The dog buries his things not only in the ground
I get the impression that one of the typical dog behaviours, next to shoe biting, is burying their belongings. I admit that when taking care of a pooch, I did not think that the digging by my four-legged friend would also apply to me. Why? Since I live in a flat, I assumed that the pooch would not be able to bury his things at all. However, as it soon turned out, I was very wrong.
Yes, most of the time when we talk about a dog burying things, we mean creating a hole in the ground. However, as it turns out, our dogs can be much more creative than it may seem. So my pooch became a huge fan of burying his things in different parts of the house, for example under curled blankets on his lair.
That is why I am coming to you today with an explanation of why the dog is burying his staff and what this behaviour is aimed at.
Why does the dog bury his stuff
Dogs are able to recognize what things in the house are theirs. How can they recognize it? First of all, by observing whether any other household member shows interest in a given thing. If the item is owned by the pooch, his smell will definitely dominate it.
Moreover, your pooch is a really smart pet. He knows when you are giving him something, both food and a new toy. He can read your hand gesture or a nod of the head.
A pooch’s experience is that he has to take care of his things in some way. This mainly concerns the treats he gets, sometimes toys, but much less often.
The dog buries his treats
Why does the pooch bury his treats? First of all, so that no one else can access them. Interestingly, dogs behave this way even if they are the only pets in the house, so there is no one who would want to eat their delicacy.
Your pooch is burying his treats and wants to create a kind of supply for himself. Don’t take it personally, it doesn’t mean that the pooch sees you as a bad guardian who may one day forget to feed him. In this situation, we are talking more about the pooch’s natural instinct, which he cannot simply get rid of.
What determines what treats your doggie decided to bury? There is no rule for this. Therefore, you cannot assume that when you buy a doggie a certain kind of treat, which he has not buried so far, he will never do it in the future and this way you will protect yourself from this situation. Unfortunately, as it turns out, this matter is much more complicated and complex from the point of view of the quadruped.
The dog buries his toys
While burying treats is mostly a problem for your pooch, because if he wants to eat them later he has to get them out of the ground, for other things the problem is a bit bigger.
My pooch had a tendency to bury his toys during his puppy period. Luckily, he chose mascots in most cases. Later, my task was to clean them of sand.
The most frustrating moments were when my pooch was burying a toy while we were out for a walk, so to be able to go home I had to find this place first. I would mention that my dog is very attached to his toys and he knows when one is missing.
Of course, he was able to bury the toy just when I literally looked away from him for a moment. Looking at his paws and mouth in dirt, I quickly realized what had just happened. In such a situation, I now had to check the immediate area in search of a buried toy. I must admit that it was quite annoying for me.
Why does the pooch behave this way? His innate instinct speaks through him. He treats the toy as a kind of prey which, after catching it, he intends to hide from others. He realizes that he is unable to hunt new prey when he has to keep an eye on an already captured one. Therefore, in effect, he decides to hide it – burying it.
The dog buries things at house
Burying either treats or toys by your dog is something of an unconditional reflex. As I mentioned before, your pooch is talking about an internal instinct, not a real need.
Of course, assuming that your pet feels completely safe with you and there is no need to compete with anyone for food or toys. Otherwise, this behaviour could be the cause of a real problem that your pooch is experiencing in his daily life.
Where the dog most often buries things at home
I realize that the statement that a dog buries things in the house sounds quite abstract, but unfortunately, it is a completely genuine situation. I myself had the opportunity to observe this event in the case of my pooch.
It doesn’t matter if your pooch buries his belongings or food inside or outside the house. His behaviour in both cases is due to the same emotions. We will also not find any differences in why the pooch buries things in the ground and why in the house. The doggy’s motives are the same.
But let’s focus on where your pooch can bury things in your home. Most often he will do it within his space. In the case of my pooch, it turned out to be in his lair.
My dog’s bedding, apart from the fact that it consists of a base and a pillow, also has my dog’s favourite blanket unfolded on top of it. This is the perfect set for the pooch to try to bury something there.
One day, wanting to remove the cover from my dog’s lair so that I could wash it, I found my pooch’s treats hidden in this place. He must have been collecting them there for some time because some of them were absolutely unfit for consumption.
I always make treats for my pooch on my own, so I know that due to the lack of preservatives, they do not fit for consumption for a long time. If you want to know my recipe for DIY dried delicacies, please refer recipes I shared on this blog.
This discovery made me realize that my pet was not going to eat these delicacies at all. They were completely untouched by him. So the reason for his behaviour was not so much the desire to postpone the treats for later but was driven by the basic instinct.
What to do when the dog buries his belongings
Does it even make sense to fight a pooch burying his things? It all depends on how difficult it is for you in your daily life. It irritates me when the pooch buries his toys, but he does it so rarely that I am not angry with him for real 🙂
So I am of the opinion that if your dog burying his belongings isn’t something that upsets you, then you don’t have to fight it. You don’t have to control every behaviour of the pooch and try to rid of his natural reflexes.
Burying things is a manifestation of your pooch’s natural instincts. Isn’t it interesting to be able to observe a pooch following his innate intuition? So if you don’t want to, you don’t have to fight hard to convince your pooch not to bury his stuff. In this matter, I completely let go.
Does your pooch bury his stuff or treats? If so, what does he most often try to hide from others? Write to me about it in the comment.
If you have any questions for me, want me to bring up a topic in the next post, be sure to drop me your idea in comments section.
