I wonder if it has something to do with the way the dog is raised when it is very young?

My last dog, who died a few years ago at the age of 15, and my current one, who is 3, both always have food in their bowl, and only eat when hungry and maintain their weight at what it should be.

It seems like food isn't a big deal to them, because it's always there and they don't worry much about it.

our dog used to beg for food, then when it got food, it would "hide" it by shuvving the bowl 4 feet away, and immediately come back begging

as if we humans are to stupid to notice the hiding procedure which wasn't really done in a covert/sneaky way, it was in plain view, and noisy, and the bowl was still visible

most our dogs were from the pound, and they all did it
my uncle had dogs with pedigree, they don't do it

i think that dogs , abused when young, will be more prone to hoarding food, then those who always were treated nice

Same with my dog who I got from the pound when he was 8 weeks old. On the other hand he would, if given the chance, eat "people" food until he couldn't get another bite down.

All these stories are making me nostalgic - I had a golden retriever and a chocolate lab growing up. They did the most ridiculous, confounding things, but they were so cute and sweet that you couldn't even get mad at them for it.

Man, I miss those guys.

My 2 dogs are complete opposites. The rescue from the shelter will bark at you in the a.m. expecting breakfast to be served. He'll eat till the bowls empty and start eyeing the other dog's bowl. "Strasse", the street rescue Shepard, wants nothing but petting and attention and could care less about food (except for pig ears).

She used to forget she just ate, only when she ate Chinese food.

This thread has me laughing quite a bit...I've posted about Farmer a few times. Ate 2 pounds of Godiva chocolates a few Christmases ago, as well as a sock that she threw up a month later, totally intact. Recently I was picking up doo in the yard and found a popscicle stick in a pile that had no bite marks at all. She's learned to open her food container--time for a new one. I also posted about her kidney failure and she's hanging in there--pound dogs rock.
Christian.

Cats and dogs who are "rescue" critters often are like this. They have been on the streets and have no idea when or where their next meal will come from, so when food is there they will eat it all.

My cat was like this for the first year or so, eating everything in sight until it could hardly walk. After a while it realized that the food was not going away and finally started eating only when hungry.

darn cat... fed him like 6 or 7 times today. he keeps coming back for more...
and finishing it all..

maybe he is bullemic...
or i should talk to the vet as to whats going on.
he is 15, still playful etc. but damned if he isnt eating a ton

Don't forget-dogs are pack animals. They manner in which they eat is deep-seated in their brains and food eating habits is probably determined by the time they're 6-8 weeks. FWIW, Whole Dog Journal is a very good source for lots of different topics.