Random behaviour??

[Tabbi]

We have a 11 month old choc lab/retriever who we got to train as a gun dog (to which she is coming on great with the initial training) anyhow the last week or so she has been whining quite a bit and we have noticed she seems to have a 'thing' for small cuddly toys! (she has collected 7 so far!)

I have never seen this behaviour in dogs that we owned when I was younger and just wanted some opinions on why she is doing this!

She has not been spade and I have put it down to her hormones (even though she is not in season at the mo) and that she wants to mother something.

Any other thoughts on this behaviour?

Thanks

 

[CorvusCorax]

Just keep an eye on her or even a precautionary trip to the vets. My old bitch had a phantom pregnancy (which developed into pyometra) and mothered items, she ended up swallowing two pairs of tights leading to a very expensive op to remove them from around her intestines!!!

Or she might just be in training to be a super-dooper gundog. But I would see the vet, just in case, from my previous experience!

 

[Tabbi]

OK Thanks will book into the vets. thanks again.

 

[jasmine2009]

My boy used to do something like that but it was more of a screaming bark lol so i contacted the breeder and found out his father does it to so he has to sleep with a big teddy or with there bitches. It turned out to be separation anxiety. But my boy wouldnt settle for toys he had to have us with him, so we bought another dog and he was fine...never made another screaming bark sound since. Hope this helps.

 

[Tabbi]

Thanks

I think Molly does suffer with seperation anxiety as she often turns the living room into a bomb site! There are days when she is really good and the next day all the cushions are off the couch (and sometimes if we are really lucky she rips the stuffing out of the seating!

).
But she has only recently started whining loads and sort of "nesting" the teddies so they are comfy and carrying them around everywhere in her mouth.

Still I would not be without her even tho she trashes my living room!

 

[jasmine2009]

lol yeah it sounds like it could be either of the two, my boy trashed the place he used to bite the top of the kitchen door (its like a stable door) pull the bars out of the baby gates and to top it all of he pulled the letter box out of the door, but same as you we would never of been without him, sadley we lost him back in feb. But yeah sounds like the sort of stuff my boy used to do! So much fun guessing what they might have destroyed when you arrive back home lol ;-)
x

 

[MurphysMinder]

You say she is not in season now but when was she in season? Sounds like fairly typical phantom pregnancy signs to me. Buffy used to have them, if it coincided with autumn she used to collect windfall apples and try and mother them. There is something pathetic yet funny about a full grown GSD pushing apples up against her flanks trying to get them to feed

She has now been spayed.