Puppy whines and hides treats

[mara]

undefined

Hello,

We have a 5 month old Westie terrier puppy, a female, named Portia. We picked her up when she was 7 weeks old at the breeder so we have had her almost from the very beginning. She's a great pup, has gone through one set of obedience classes and is a great companion to my husband and I.

Something that has been happening for a while, though I can't recall exactly when it started, was when we give Portia a treat, sometimes she eats it, but sometimes she hides it. I'm not really concerned with the hiding of the treat as that seems very terrier or dog like in a pack household. The funny thing is that her 'hiding' place is usually somewhere very open, aka the corner of a room or right next to a toy of hers. Definitely not concealed, but apparently enough to make her feel good.

What does concern me slightly is that she started whining while she carries the treat around looking for a hiding spot. This was very infrequent originally but now happens about 3 times a week. It's sad for me to hear her whining, I originally thought something was wrong with her when she did this, or that she had hurt herself eating the treat or it was stuck or ...etc etc. But I realized that she just was carrying it or holding it in her mouth and whining. Eventually she finds a place for it and hides it and stops whining.

What could be causing this? She gets alot of treats throughout the day and is pretty spoiled, so it's not as though she is starving or should feel as though her treat will be taken away. Plus she hides it in the open anyway! She doesn't do this with her food, and we hand feed her treats as well for training purposes and to discourage possessive behavior with foods. She will let me take food away from her without any outward anxiety, and she has a big stash of treats from her hiding scenarios around her area. 50% of the time she never retrieves the treat and we throw it away, but sometimes since it's in an obvious spot, she eats it within a day or two. These are all hard treats of course, or cookies, biscuits, etc..which won't expire within a few days. Nothing soft or perishable..she eats any perishables or soft treats right away.

My husband doesn't think we should worry about it because it doesn't seem to be a real problem, and she doesn't keep whining after hiding...but I hate to hear her cry. Anything we could be doing to stop this? I read on another forum that one gal stopped her pup from hiding treats by taking it away when he hid it, and then he got the message that if he did not eat it right away, then it would go away. But I am hesitant to take them away from her because she is already crying....so obviously she is anxious about it in the first place? The only thing I have been doing when she starts to cry is tell her to stop it, or tell her it's okay but she just stares at me like I'm the insane one!

Other than this, she does not exhibit outward anxious behavior at all, and as I noted, is not aggressive about food or treats at all, which is why this is such an odd thing for us to watch.

Suggestions appreciated, or tell me if I am just an over-paranoid puppy parent.