Unbelivable dog :p

[Wildspirit]

My friend has a rescue pointerXterrier
She is bonkers, she climbs 12ft up and trees and loves swimming, shes an absolute sweety really, but she carries quite a bit of baggage and she has a few 'quirks' shall we say.

She is a little hard to train, she is possessive over some toys and bones, but her best one is that when you go out for long periods they leave her a chew, like a pigs ear, to keep her busy. You go out for hours, come home, shes sitting with the chew- hasn't touched it, yet when you come home, she tucks right into it.

Some people cant get their dogs to stop chewing but she wont when you're not there. Okay this sounds great she wont chew up the furniture, but shes not comforting herself if shes not chewing, not even bones or pigs ears.

They thought it might have been an anxiety thing, but i thought chewing was a way for dogs to release endorphins and release anxiety, any ideas on this one?

MJ

 

[CAYLA]

I would have thought more on the lines of being overly posessive...if she only tucks into the chews when there is potential competition around to take her posessions...i.e chews,food, toys...she feels no need to consume them herself unless she feels there is a threat of them being taken from her, it's the same for fussy eating dogs, place their food in the vacinity of another dogs and they are sure to munch it up

 

[CAYLA]

I would have thought more on the lines of being overly posessive...if she only tucks into the chews when there is potential competition around to take her posessions...i.e chews,food, toys...she feels no need to consume them herself unless she feels there is a threat of them being taken from her,and the safest place for them..in her gob

it's the same for fussy eating dogs, place their food in the vacinity of another dogs and they are sure to munch it up

 

[SnowandSunshine]

Our dog does the same thing. He will only chew things if there are people around. I don't think its a competition thing for him - he's not overly possessive. He just seems to lose interest if no-ones there. We don't leave him for more than a few hours but he'll stare at the wall and not look at you when you leave. I think he just loves company so much that he gets sad and disintrested when he's on his own. Makes me feel very guilty!

 

[CAYLA]

Some dogs will do it out of excitement, upon you returning after leaving them for a while...like when they pick up a toy and bring it to you, he may be a little to stressed and pre-occupied awaiting your return to eat the chews...however the OP mentioned the dog being posessive over toys e,t,c, so would surmise the 2 are connected with that dog, unless she is also a little over excited.