This is a patterned behavior that forms when a dog is stressed, bored, or under-stimulated. When a dog repeats the same loop over and over, it can turn into a stereotypic behavior, similar to what you see in zoo animals who don’t have enough mental enrichment or structure, and a lack of biological needs being met. Dogs naturally create jobs for themselves when we don’t give them one. And the more they rehearse this pattern, the more automatic and hard-wired it becomes. It can even turn into an O