the bizarre table manners of my elderly canine housemate

Over the last several months my constant and faithful companion Emmitt has developed a few rather strange habits. Here is the sequence of actions that currently make up his dinner table etiquette

1. plop self down in front of bowl with a bear-like moan
2. place nose against bowl's side
3. commence with low volume, slow tempo whining (lasting up to several minutes).
4. carefully nose into the food; extract single nugget
5. amble over to little area behind kitchen table
6. whine some more
7. repeat steps 4-6 several more times
8. return to bowl and wolf down remaining nuggets in frenzy of hunger
9. lap up several gallons of dog-hair-dirtied water bowl water
10. nose up to front door
11. repeat whining until housemate opens door

He is part Rottweiler (I think) so he has always had the whining thing in his arsenal of weapons...er, I mean communication forms, but I had never seen this behavior before. I fear he has developed some sort of doggie version of obsessive-compulsive disorder. But that's okay - I love him more than anything in the world just the same :-)