How do dogs know that burying their rawhide will make it soft and chewable?

They’re just following centuries of instinct. When they were wolves, they didn’t want another pack member to get their bone so they buried it for safekeeping.

I doubt that the right amount of time for seasoning it for proper “chewiness” entered into the picture :D

They don’t, my dog does this with bread.

Like what was previously said, I doubt they bury it for chewiness. Domesticated animals all have instinct left over from their wild ancestors, some more strongly than others. Burying is simply so they can ‘protect’ their food and get it back at a later date.

Dogs aren’t smart enough to discern what is ‘real’ bone and what is the manufactured stuff. It’s like @Buttonstc said, it’s instinct to bury food.

I think it’s a hoarding instinct too. Prince did it with pizza crusts.

It’s called caching.

@syz +5 Makes total sense…“It is easy to see when individuals have been caching as they have the telltale “brown nose” from tamping down the cache site. So the next time your dog has dirt over their nose pad you now know why.”

They don’t. They bury it just to save it for later, not to change it’s texture.

The question that comes to my mind is, “How do you know that after ‘x’ number of days the rawhide will be soft and chewable?”

It’s just a question that occurred to me. I don’t really want to know.

from a Veterinary website: ’ The most common foreign bodies found in the esophagus of dogs and cats are bones, sharp metal objects such as fish hooks and needles, rawhide chew toys, and sometimes balls. These objects lodge in the esophagus because they are too big to pass and/or they have sharp edges that become embedded in the esophageal lining. Most patients present with acute symptoms of gagging, excessive salivation, retching, loss of appetite, and/or respiratory concerns or distress.’

I have two relatives that work in the field and they say that as long as people give their dogs rawhide bones, they have job security. Don’t give your dog rawhide chews. I guess your dog has learned how to manage, but many dogs don’t.

Your dog wandered around the house with a huge boner in its mouth…the wife did that with me once, the house staff didn’t know where to look.

@kritiper I respectfully disagree and here is why. I have seen here bury her very hard tough rawhide bones…then dig them up weeks later…give them a test gnaw and re-bury that bone and only after it has reached the consistency of a cooked noodle will she bring it in the house and devour it post haste.

^ In that case, maybe she just learned this? Because they are so different from us, we tend to forget how smart dogs are.

Well, it only stands to reason if a dog buries something that’s too big or hard to eat now, and when doggy digs it up it’s too big or hard to eat, doggy re-buries it? Repeat.

@Cruiser Dogs are smart. They can learn to do some amazing things but they can’t think (reason). They only do (instinct). They don’t have conscious, thinking minds like humans do, only subconscious, reactive minds.

^ That very much depends on how we choose to interpret the available research.