Why do dogs bury bones? My sister’s Chocolate Lab doesn’t even do this. I’ve never seen any dog I’ve ever had do it before either. Yet, I know the phenomenon exists because of cartoons and cultural sayings and humor. I certainly wouldn’t expect a small, indoor dog to engage in this mysterious behavior yet nonetheless, Sophie seems to have inherited the instinctual gene because we have seen her do it multiple times in recent weeks.

Sophie’s Daddy sent me an email this morning detailing another incident in which Sophie decided that she wanted to bury her chewy in the bed. She started digging at the head of the bed and then promptly set her bone down near the pillows and proceeded to pull the pillow case over it to cover everything up. It is decidely the most adorable action we have ever seen her partake in. I consulted Google about the phenomenon after I received the email, deciding that this was a great topic to blog about…

Back in the days before dogs became man’s best friend, they hunted for their food. Often, they found themselves with more food than they could eat at once and because the next meal wasn’t guaranteed in a timely manner, they carried the bones, which were filled with nutrient-rich marrow, back to their lairs and buried them nearby. When food was scarce, they could always rely on the bones to keep themselves fed.

The process is called ‘caching’ or ‘hoarding’, and it’s common behavior among dogs, wolves and foxes. It’s the same idea with squirrels gathering nuts and storing them in their habitats. Modern day dogs still carry the caching trait and bury their bones, or even their toys, in the backyard to guard against a possible shortage of food.

Sophie definitely doesn’t have to worry about food shortages. She’s a piglet. She’ll eat anything. Toliet paper included. (She’s gotten ahold of two rolls in the past two days). It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen when she has her bone in her mouth and starts wandering around looking for a good place to tuck it away. More often than not, she picks one of the couches. The other night, she seemingly decided that Mommy would keep it safe for her and started digging under one of my legs. She placed her treasure underneath my knee and proceeded to push it more securely with her snout. What made me laugh out loud with sheer disbelief was when she grabbed her favorite red blanket and covered my knee with it. I actually felt privileged to be so trusted. It’s the sweetest thing ever.

She always comes back to the bone or chewy in about 20-30 minutes or so to reclaim it; sometimes to engage in more chewing or other times to find a new place to put it.

So, why do dogs bury their bones? Because it’s in their nature. And I for one think it’s one of the most marvelous behaviors I’ve ever witnessed.

I’ll try to capture some video. It’s a must-see event.

We spent this past weekend at my sister’s house. She lives just over an hour away from us near Daytona Beach, FL. It was a fun weekend. Sophie LOVES to play with Molly and they certainly wore each other out. Sophie hates being left behind and while I was packing for the weekend, she was anxious and following me everywhere because she knew that I was leaving. She was so happy when I pulled out her leash and told her she was coming too.

Sophie’s not a big riding-in-the-car fan. She whines a lot and stays glued to me the entire time. I was proud of her this time, though. She actually ventured to the window and looked out for awhile. I’ve found it’s less traumatic for her to ride in the backseat so I ride there with her and put a blanket down and some of her toys just so she feels comfortable. She’s coming around I think.

Molly had a look of horror upon her face when she laid eyes on Sophie. It’s not that Molly doesn’t like Sophie. She’s just not very well socialized with other dogs. Sophie is aggressively playful and won’t take no for an answer so Molly got quite a bit of exercise throughout the weekend. It was cute. Molly does get possessive of her toys and more importantly, her big backyard. It used to have grass but Molly’s worn it all down to nothing but sand and a couple of sprigs of green.

Molly is Sophie’s role model. She follows her around everywhere and watches everything she does. Molly’s a good dog, so I’m okay with that. After they calmed down a bit, they were the best of friends…

Sophie of course was her usual crazy self, despite the good behavior example…

Here’s some video of playtime. Molly’s bark sounds worse than it is. She would never hurt a soul. She’s just protesting a bit here lol…

When we got home Sunday evening, my sister informed me that Molly was completely worn out. Playtime is exhausting.

Why do puppies chase their tails? It’s the funniest thing I have ever seen, especially with this particular dog. I’ve been going through some of my older photos and videos of Sophie and wanted to share this aspect of her personality.

Tail Chasing Sophie at 3 months old

I was so surprised that she put on such a show. I’d been waiting for it since we got her, camera in-hand and ready. It’s amazing when you look back at photos and videos of your puppy. I can’t believe how little she was! You never take notice of growth in animals or children (of your own anyway) until you look back at the photos and videos. It’s weird how that is…

Tail Chasing Sophie at 6 months old

I am excited for the weekend because Sophie and I are going on a mini-vacation over to my sister’s house. Sophie’s cousin Molly, a full-grown Chocolate Lab, is going to be in for quite a weekend. Sophie loves Molly and Molly isn’t quite as socialized as Sophie is and doesn’t quite know what to think about such a little brown ball of fuzz coming at her so aggressively playful. She’s a good girl, though. I’ll have plenty of photos and maybe a video or two from our excursion. It’ll be fun. Here’s a picture of Molly. She’s sometimes referred to as ‘The Pumperknickle Puppy’ (mostly by me lol) because of her very chocolatey coloring. Pretty girl.

Molly

Sophie loves to play. This is a given for any dog, I suppose but Sophie’s crazy. Let me lay out the scene for you…

You’re sitting on the couch, catching up on some of the stuff in your DVR, minding your own business when suddenly a whirl of brown fur comes flying at you from out of nowhere. She’s barking, insistent, forcing toy balls and stuffed animals in your face. She’s come at you with her entire puppy arsenal. And worse, she’s due to have her nails clipped.

Here’s some photos…

Zooming in on the kill…

Leaping faster than a speeding bullet…

AHHH! She got me!

Play with me NOW!

Sophie is more often than not a very happy, excitable, crazy, silly puppy. So when she demonstrates an exact opposite mood, I can’t help but worry or at least feel anxious enough to try to snap her out of it and return to the ‘norm’ despite how annoying it can be. I wish there was an audio book or program out there entitled ‘How to Speak Dog‘. And I wish it really was a viable language that could truly be understood. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched episodes of ‘The Dog Whisperer‘ and completely got what Cesar was trying to say or do. But to apply it to my own sweet little puppy is quite another thing altogether.

Mommy and Daddy live on their toes, waiting to see what Sophie will do next and when she demonstrates behavior like in the video posted here below, we really don’t know what to do.

Maybe she’s annoyed with US! LOL it’s not impossible, I suppose. Anything that Sophie does (almost anything) just seems too adorable to really consider a problem. Every dog has their moments and I feel like we really get the best out of Sophie. We could just do with more moments demonstrated in the video above, I suppose. At the very least, we could do without the biting.

Sophie will soon be learning a whole slew of new things with Preston as her new role model!

Sophie loves to burrow and hide underneath anything that she can. She sleeps in bed with Mommy and Daddy and burrows underneath the covers all the time. She hides under the bed, plays under the coffee table… She’s got TWO crates now and won’t go in either of them because Mommy and Daddy failed in Crate Training 101. Now she identifies them with punishment when she’s bad and beyond wild. We try to warn her with words like ‘Time Out’ but I think she’s laughing at us because she knows how hard it will be to catch her. The worst trait in Sophie thus far that we’ve noticed is that she bites too much and doesn’t seem to understand ‘No-Bite’ no matter how many times we say it to her. And when we won’t play with her, she starts barking at us and running around like a crazy puppy. I know it’s a problem with redirecting her energy, or at least that is what Cesar says.

She attacks our legs when we’re standing, bites and chews on any part of us she can get a hold of. She constantly scratches the sides of both of our couches. Sometimes it seems like she’s sitting there just waiting for us to drop something or leave it within her reach just so she can grab it and take off to hide underneath the bed.

When I come home from work, she freaks out and starts mewling while she starts biting, chewing and gnawing on me. She can’t seem to get close enough to me. I know these are symptoms of separation anxiety but I have no idea what to do with it. It doesn’t seem to matter how calmly I enter the house, or which voice I greet her in. And you can forget ignoring her. It’s not possible. I have to sit down on the couch or on the bed and bundle my hand up in a shirt or a blanket (to protect my skin!) and let her chew on that while I try to calm her down by petting her. This whole act usually lasts for sometimes 10-15 minutes and I can usually end it by distracting her with a treat. I know this is seen as rewarding her behavior. But it’s like she reverts to ‘Baby’ mode and all I want to do is comfort her while saving my own skin.

If anyone has any advice regarding any of this, please feel free to comment.

Sophie is a sweet little puggle puppy with tremendous attitude in a very cute and small package. This is her blog. Welcome.

Sophie’s Mommy & Daddy found her one day while browsing around in a puppy store and couldn’t resist. She was the cutest of the bunch and we fell instantly in love. She was nine weeks old and so very tiny. There was a slight issue with a kennel cough that turned into pneumonia, which dampened the whole ‘new puppy’ experience a little bit. But all we wanted was for Sophie to be okay. She was healthy and we were able to pull her through and you’d never know she had a problem.

She’s as sweet as they come and I wasn’t exaggerating about the attitude thing either. This dog is full of it. She has eaten clothing, shoes, paper (at least 3 rolls of toilet paper now), and all kinds of things she has no business chewing on. She’s even torn a couple of her Mommy’s favorite books to shreds. One of her favorite things to try to get a hold of are the caps to water bottles. She LOVES those!

Her favorite game seems to be ‘Catch me if you can!’ and she’s VERY good at it. It’s hard to grab her when you really want to grab her. She cheats by hiding under the bed and there’s no getting her once she’s there. Sophie is 6 months, 2 weeks old now and has grown into quite a personality. We see a little more of it every day. She’s very sassy and seems to have her own ideas about how things should be.

I just really need to watch more episodes of ‘The Dog Whisperer‘. I hope to use this blog as a format to chronicle the many adventures of Sophie. Plenty of photos and videos to come. Stay tuned!