[musch]

We have a 10 month old female mini dachshund & we gave her a small fury toy for Christmas. Since then she has begun to mother this thing... licking, made a place for it in one of the bedrooms. She now spends most of the day in bed taking care of her "puppy". Is this normal behavior? Will she get over this or should we take away the toy?

[shazamataz]

Yes it is normal.

She is at the age where she would be coming into heat soon so her hormones are going wild.

One of my mothers poodles had a plastic lizard that she did the same thing with, she took her lizard everywhere, cleaned it, tried to feed it.
Eventually it got out of hand so we took it off her. She was upset for a day or two but she got over it and was back to normal.

Spaying would fix this behaviour and your doxie is at the right age to do so.

[micnbug68]

A lot of dogs will do this. They think that the toy is their puppy. Since she is 10 months she may also be close to a heat cycle. Don't worry about it and don't take her toy away because it may cause her to look everywhere for her lost puppy.
(vet tech 12 yrs)