What is my dog doing?

jess60

He does this thing with blankets or when he's laying on his bed where he bunches a bunch of it up between his front paws, bites it and then just sits there with it in his mouth, no chewing or anything. He just holds it in his mouth for a few minutes. Occasionally he will knead it like I've seen cats do, but never a dog. He's an 11 month old terrier mix. Anyone have any ideas?

Hesterlicious

He's being cute.

nanabanana06

Did you get him as a puppy? Like from breeders. It sounds like they took him away from the mother much too soon. That's typically what little bitty puppies do to get milk out. Sometimes if the dogs been taken from their mother too soon then they end up doing weird things like that for comfort.

AshasaurusRex

Nana_Osaki06:

Did you get him as a puppy? Like from breeders. It sounds like they took him away from the mother much too soon. That's typically what little bitty puppies do to get milk out. Sometimes if the dogs been taken from their mother too soon then they end up doing weird things like that for comfort.

Aw, that makes me sad.

jess60

Nana_Osaki06:

Did you get him as a puppy? Like from breeders. It sounds like they took him away from the mother much too soon. That's typically what little bitty puppies do to get milk out. Sometimes if the dogs been taken from their mother too soon then they end up doing weird things like that for comfort.

We adopted him from the Humane Society last April when he was approx 4 months old, or so they thought. They had no known history on him besides being transferred from a shelter in another state.

What you said makes total sense. I'd bet you are right that he was separated too soon. At least it's a cute behavior like Hester said and not destructive. He just gets my blanket wet when he does it. Haha.

MrsCodeMonkey

Maybe he needs his own security blanket or a teddy. Very cute. Our dog wasn't separated prematurely and he will paw his bed, circle around a few times, and then plop down.

Eleventy11

I had a pit bull that we got at around seven weeks. She would do the same thing, but would actually suck on the blankets. You could see her little throat moving and she would paw the covers. We later found a stuffed baby that had a nice head on it...she would suck on it until she went to sleep. Our vet diagnosed her with "issues"...that was just her way of self soothing. We actually buried Sucky with her...poor thing had been stitched back together until there was almost nothing left.