change in behavior all of a sudden - Page 1

my gal is 12mos old and hvn't spayed yet.

she showed her change in behavior recently as she always sleeps in the crate in garage where i leave my living room door open for her to walk around. but when its sleeping time she never walks around and she loves her crate since she came to my home.

almost two weeks ago she was winding(making noise) at nite around 3am and i woke up and looked at her and she is fine but she was looking for her tiny squeaky toy which she never cares about and always lying around the house. its like one of animal shape.she got it and put it close to her and slept.

from that day onwards, even in the day or nite she always keeps that toy with her infront of her nose and looks at her and sleeps. in the day time also she does the same and she doesn't stay with me like as before in the living room. she goes to her crate right away and stay with the toy.

as far as her health concern she is great and goes crazy to play and loves to go out. but the minute she is home she wants to stay close to that toy.

i'm getting clueless. is this normal? if she used to show this behavior earlier i'd understand but this toy she didn't use to care and lying around the house.

would be glad to hear.

If she was in season within the last month or two she may be having a false pregnancy.

she was in heat last march about little over two months now.

what is meant by false pregnancy?

she gets kinda more alert and keep watching not sleeping like laying down everything....more of a alert sleep like in down position. before she used to sleep with leg strechted like puppies.

The timing is about right for a bitch to be suffering from a phantom pregnancy - their hormones get a bit screwy and they think that they are pregnant and or had puppies.  The bitches can display all the usual pregnancy signs such as increased hunger and increasing nipple size and some go on to produce milk.  One bitch I knew of actually went on to be a foster mother to a litter of puppies who lost their mum during a c-section.

Her obsession over the toy is very typical of this.  Unfortunately I have never had this problem and cannot offer a solution - although Im sure there will be others out there who can.

remove the toy!!!

squeeky toys can make bitches totaly neurotic if it is a phantom this toy is her pretend pup.

we had this years ago with a bitch and it turned into a compleat nightmare .

so please heed my advice throw the toy away.

trust me agresson follows this type of behavior.

I've also heard that if you just remove the squeaky from the toy, it helps significantly.  (Not sure how true this is.)

My girl went through this, it was pretty pathetic. She however did not adopt a squeaky toy, she had a teddy bear; toted it around everywhere, would lie down & nudge it toward her abdomen, like she wanted it to nurse...she gradually lost interest, she did not become aggressive; but we kept her with us as much as possible, gave her extra TLC....poor thing. But she finally had her pups, and was a great mom...so I suppose some of these girls just have a lot of maternal instinct; after all human girls play with dolls & pretend to be 'mommies' (some anyway). I think it's much the same...my advise would be to strengthen your bond with her, give her lots of attention, gradually withdraw the toy, replace it with something else, maybe a yummy bone. Let her know she's a special girl. jackie harris

Kool, google - false pregnancy dogs - and you will find a number of articles about this condition.

My girl didn't go to quite that extreme but a couple months after her first heat she began digging frantically on my bed, on the dog beds, in the yard etc. trying to make a den. It passed after a couple weeks. She just went thru her second heat, now I am wondering what this will have in store for her.

My Shadow is just being weened from her puppies and started doing the same thing.  Our vet said mothering a toy is very common, take the toy and get her interested in something else.  Shadow and her mom have done the same thing and turned out to be GREAT mothers.  Shadow's mother took care of a sqeaky toy with her last litter, she remembered a sqeaky toy from the prior year. 

Take the toy give her a nice treat, and keep her busy with training or playing.  It hasn't even been a week and Shadow has forgotten already.

Best wishes and good luck.

Susan