Social Role of Food in Canine Societies

The feeding behavior of dogs often includes anecdotal evidence or haphazard interpretations. The management of resources, and specifically food, is fundamental in animal societies. Frequently, access to food is ritualized, requiring well developed communication, once the essential needs are covered. In human societies, when food is abundant, meal access and eating have a social value. This ritualization causes the members of the group to consume the food (or at least to adopt the associated behaviors) for reasons other than hunger. Our domesticated dogs are placed in an identical situation as most of them have sufficient food. The management of their food is therefore more often guided by the needs of communication than by hunger. Humans and dogs share a number of common points when it comes to communication around food. However, the minor differences are the cause of serious misunderstandings that leads to education problems, dietary disorders and even pathological conditions. It is also conceivable that, beyond their specific characteristics, some diseases or pathological conditions will lead to disruptions in dietary behavior. Practitioners who observe a dysregulation in food intake must evaluate the type of dysregulation and expect to encounter effects in both communication and behavior.

Gérard MULLER
DVM, Dipl ECVB-CA

A qualified veterinarian educated at the National Veterinary School of Maisons-Alfort (France), from which he graduated in 1982, Gérard Muller has been a local medical practitioner since 1985 and vice-president of Zoopsy (international defense group of the French animal psychiatry school) since 1998. He was awarded his diploma as a Veterinary Schools Behaviorist and now teaches the subject. Gérard is also a Charter Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Behaviorists for Companion Animals (ECVB-CA).

1. Social Role of Food in Canine Societies

A pack of wolves. In canid societies, the dominant animals control access to the whole group’s food supply. The other animals eat very quickly, because access to the food may be refused at any time. (© A. Jansson). Just like many social species that live in hierarchical groups, for dogs access to food resources is based on a precise chain that reflects the hierarchy. The alpha animals that control reproduction have primary access to food resources. This hierarchy means that the resources are reserved for the strongest animals and this results in the selection of the most influential genes (Goldberg, 1998).

A ritual is a behavioral sequence that has lost its initial function, used as a means of communication in a social group. The use of a ritual binds and soothes the group (Heymer, 1977).

The rules established in a given group are maintained and constantly reinforced by the application of rituals that replace and so prevent energy-sapping confrontations.

There is usually a shift between objective and symbolic, as privileges gradually become a symbol of power. In dogs, the control of the food is a symbol of a high hierarchical position, even when the supply is abundant.

It is therefore conceivable that the dog produces a certain number of behaviors aimed at controlling the food in the group without the involvement of appetite or hunger in the determination of these behaviors (Scott et al., 1965; Fox, 1978). So, a dog that begs at the table may be doing so not for taste or hunger reasons, but to show that it has access to the group's resources (in the representative sense).

Besides control of the food, which acquires a ritual function for hierarchization, the behaviors allowing one animal to eat before the others, while others wait and watch, also have a social significance. It is clear that the dominant (alpha) members not only take the best food first, but that they also oblige others to attend the meal and patiently wait their turn (Muller, 1998a).

Domesticated dogs exhibit many of the behaviors that are undoubtedly motivated by the need to impose periods of "respectful" observation on the master when the dog eats. For example, difficult dogs often love to attract attention when they eat.

Yorkshire Terrier. Small dogs live more easily in contact with their master (in laps and chairs, etc). As a result, they are more exposed to bad education and dietary errors. (© Y. Lanceau).