Missing the mark, but it's the idea that counts

Those of you who know Sylvia might remember her habit of pawing the ground after leaving her...eh...ah ... after fertilizing the roadside. She often misses the mark in what looks to be an attempt to bury her treasure, by several feet. I sort of thought she might have been stretching, but this quirky habit, as a friend pointed out, might be some ingrained behavior left over from her ancestral wolf bretheren. It could also be some kind of Italian doggie thing.