ok, I hope I can explain this, its a behavior I have observed for years, many different dogs, same thing.

You put a food bowl down full of kibble, they sort of brush their nose across carpet around the bowl and knock the bowl...brush nose on carpet, knock the bowl, eventually dumping it...sometimes not.

What is this? is it the bowl? Not hungry? bored? is it a game? are they communicating something? what is the reason they do this? I see it so rarely , but when I do I think, " I have to ask someone why they do this?"

And how come I've been scooting my butt across the kitchen floor some days before dinnertime? LOL! Just kidding, couldn't resist.

I have seen this, I think it is a bury the food "till later thing. I will tell you , if you feed dogs all together , it will stop in a new york minute !

It comes from their wolf back ground. It is a mock way of burying their food.

I usually see this happen when one of my girls has a young litter on the ground -- bury it to save it for later.

Johanne

WOW!! When I observed it this morning, it was a bitch who is about to whelp, so the burying it for later thing TOTALLY makes sense!

see...I knew one of you would have a million dollar answer!!!

Yes, it is burying the food. Archie used to literally bury food, I could never figure out why he'd have this dirty nose, but there were no holes. Finally I was gardening one day and I saw just the tippy top of an apple. I looked closer and there were about a dozen apples neatly buried in the flower garden. Guess he wasn't hungry right when they fell off the tree but didn't want the girls to steal them from him. :)

At least yours doesn't pee in the bowl when he is finished, and I don't pick it up quick enough. Mine does!

One of my boys uses his for a pillow when he's done
He flips it over and rests his cute little head on it

LOL, I haven't seen that with mine, but maybe you'll know why my one male has to do a full on body rub against the wall after every meal. My oldest bitch will do it against the couch. Sometimes she bends her head down and looks like she is going to do a sommersault!