non GSD, but a doggie question- very wierd behavior - Page 1

   O.k , i have a female rat terrier that just turned a year old. about 2-3 months ago she went into heat, we were totally not expecting that so soon (we did not realize she was old enough yet-to go into heat or to be fixed-seem such a short time since we got her) well she is my huby's dog and he defintly did not want her to have puppies (we also have a male), so we pinned her up, well thank to my kids, she kept getting lose and she did hook up with my male at least twice, but she did not get preggy.

  so..if that was about 3 months ago, would now be about the time she would have had the pups, had she been preggy? i am asking because for last two days, espc today, she has been acting very weird. she has claimed two small stuffed animals, one a little puppy and the other a little bird....i have seen many times, the way a mother treats her pups, and she is completly treating these stuffed animals this way. normaly she would play/chew on something like that, but not these, she is very gentle with them, and refusing to move from them.(she has not stepped away from them all day, except to potty, she is normally very active dog) if i move one she will go get it, very gently, and place it back where she had it, sniffing the area around it and nudging it with her nose<--like a mom does right? but the main thing is the way she is treating the male dogs about them, if they come near her/them she completly freaks out, attacks them....shes never done that before....i know that sometimes when a dog loses pups, they have been known to claim another dogs litter, even a totally different kind of animal, but a stuffed animal? can a dogs instinct to mother- and the timing- be so strong that they would do this even when they never got preggy in the first place?

~julie~

She's having a false pregnacy.  :)

Gestation time is usually 60 to 63 days, so she is long past that.

Gestation is usually 63 days but can range from 59 to 65 days. If she isn't pregnant, she might likely be going thru a false pregnancy. In a false pregnancy, the dog will act like she really is pregnant and gonna give birth; nesting, mothering and/or protecting inanimate objects, lactating, abdominal distension, etc. If you do want to spay her, its best to wait till the the false pregnancy is over or you could prolong the false pregnancy.

~Lauren

wow, thanks, come to think of it i believe i have heard that term before..lol...its so weird..how long will this last?

here she is with her "babies"...notice the look she has on her face when i reach for them....right now her daddy (my hubby) is laying down and she tries to go lay by him, but everytime one of the other dogs so much as moves in the directon of her 'babies' she jumps up and runs to block them,pacing back and forth between them and other dog, then sniffs them all over (mainly in the butt area) to make sure their ok, its kinda sad and pitiful, i feel bad for her....should i take the stuffed animals away from her and hide them or should i let this run its corse?

I'd let it run it's course.  Is she doing any nesting.  Poor thing.   Hormones!

I'm not sure how long it will last though.  My female shows some hormonal behavior but nothing like that.  Mainly nesting and mammary gland enlargement. 

Maybe spay her maybe in a month or so.  You just don't want her coming into heat again, then you'd be stuck right back here again.  And now the pup might be interesting now too.  :)

nesting...hmm..not sure, i think she has picked this spot on the recliner...lol....woulda sucked if it woulda been real pups huh? i think she feels safe in that spot cause its 'daddy's' chair and thats where they both sit together to watch t.v...

A friend of mine once had a female that tore up two couches nesting during false pregnacies

oh sh8t, you mean by digging at it? i havnt seen her doing that today, tho i think she was the other day, bout a week ago, but not enough for me to really pay attention, i remember thinking she was acting like she couldn't get comfy...there is one thing im worried about...is it possiable that  she could have been preggy but misscarried and the dead pup is still in her?, ...for a few weeks after she went in heat we thought she was preggy cause she looked like she gained weight and her teets (is that right way to say that?) were getting bigger, but then that just went away, her teets are still somewhat bigger than normal, maybe she coulda been preggy with one pup so she didn't get very big/fat?

I really doubt it.  She would be very sick or dead by now if that was the case.  When they have a false pregnacy they can go through all the motions just as if they are pregnant.  Some even get totally engorged with milk.