The Strangest Dog Act I've Ever Witnessed

I promise not to make a habit of filling this blog with inane anecdotes about my dog, Dix; but I am totally flabbergasted by some odd behavior, and I wanted to share just in case some canine whisperer out there might have insight to share.

We were in the backyard breaking in some new dog toys and all of the sudden she got that "got-to-take-a-dump" look and started circling and sniffing for a place to squat. That's not the strange part, because she regularly needs to go. I was proud of her because she stopped circling for a second, looked at me sitting in my deck chair for a cue, which came back to her as, "Dix! Potty!," while pointing toward a back fence corner, which is where we are training her to deposit her little care packages for maggots.

She high-tailed it fleet-footed back to her customary dumping ground and did her business. I was so proud that I did not for once have to lead her back that I decided to feed her a dog treat, which she gets sometimes when she trains well. When she saw me get the treat, she flew back across the yard to me and took it. Still not the strange part.

She laid down like she was going to commence to crunching it. But all of the sudden, she hopped up, treat in mouth, wheeled toward a tree and started digging a small hole between two biceps-shaped roots. When I scolded her about the hole, she dropped the bone-shaped treat in the cavity and started raking leaves and dirt over it with her muzzle. That was the strange part to me. While I've seen dogs bury bones, I've never seen them bury dog food (which will more than likely end up as squirrel food by morning).