My Dane whines

Question
Hi and thank you,

I have a 130 lb stud harlequin great dane that just turned 2 in October. Lately I've been noticing some strange behavior when it comes to feeding time. Before he eats, he nudges his food with his nose, like he's picking through it, whines or wimpers while he's doing this, and then he will scrape his nose on the ground from top to bottom, and then does it all over. Eventually he eats as normal. He doesn't do it all of the time. He eats from a stainless steel bowl. He inherited the demadex mange gene from his mother as a pup, which we have completely treated and is nothing but healthy.. Is there something bothering him about his food or dish? What causes this? We give him SportMix Large Adult Breed dog food and Iams for Large Breed. Both in large chunk form. Is it anything to be worried about?

Answer
Hi Kaylon;
This is just his THING he is doing.
Dogs are NOT just all instinct, and they play games, have little personality quirks, and do some strange things.
Our sheltie has a wacky thing like that he does with his food.
He plays in it a lot, nudging it with his nose.
Sometimes he just moves it from side to side in the dish, and sometimes he stands there flipping the kibble out of the bowl.
My husband made a wooden stand about 4 inches high, and their water and food  bowls are ion that platform.
Laddie will flip the food out,  evenly distributing it on the platform, around the bowl.
It is just a quirkyy little thing he does as play I guess.
Can't see any purpose to it, but it dopesn't hurt anything either, so we just let it be.
My little Lhasa will lay his chin in the outdoors water bowl, get his chin hairs wet and then go rub his chin in the dirt, and get muddy. Then he comes to someone ald looks up at them like, "Ain't I cute?" LOL
When he was a baby, he got wet in the sprinkler, and rolled in the dirt and got covered with mud. My neighbor and I were standng by the fence, and when he ran around, just a little mud ball, we laughed. That did it, not he thinks getting mud on him is cute and get a laugh. He is 8 years old now and still doing it. LOL
Trying to figure out what your dog means by this is a lost cause, because you will never be able to o it. Just enjoy the laugh.
We have 4 dogs and my friend has come to live with us here, and she has a little Yorkie. All the dogs have different quirks that are funny, and with 5 on them now, we really don't need a TV to stay entertained.
Charlotte