[easttexas]

Yeah, I have a question, I found this site because I searched “my dog thinks her toys are her puppies” …ur explanation above sounds completely logical but I think our situation is somewhat different. She has always loved her toys and pretty much played with them when we would get her interested…but we recently had her spayed and a day later she was obsessed with her toys…all 26 of them, various shapes and sizes. She knows if one is missing, she crys if she can't find them, she baths them, she has all of them in her bed and lays with them. She will not leave the bed, when before she would always have to be in bed with us, NOW she refuses to leave babies... she has lost weight and won't even leave the bed to eat, we had to bring her food and water to her bed. The vet said she was “nesting” and gave us some meds to give her…he said that she would be over it in a few days and she actually was over it in a day or so, with the meds she cared nothing for the toys, but now that we are out, its right back to being SUPER MOM!! What should we do, just keep medicating her or what??

THANKS, stressed out SUPER OWNER!! Hahahaha

[Wondergirl]

I moved your question to its own space. Please don't piggyback on someone else's thread.

Our dog expert in Australia may be online during the night (her day) and will respond to your question. Otherwise, most of the other experts are in the States, so will be online in the morning. I'm sure you will get good suggestions. Please be patient.

[shazamataz]

Take all of the toys away. You need to break her out of this behaviour as it is obviously stressing her out.

It sounds mean, and yes she will be upset when you take her 'babies' away but it's a lot kinder in the long run. It's actually quite common especially in entire b*tches having a phantom pregnancy.

How old is she and is she desexed? What medication did the vet give you?

[LadySam]

I'm curious about what meds they gave her too.
Shaz, she states that she was recently spayed and this behavior started about a day afterward.

[shazamataz]

Oh shoot, sorry I missed that part. It could very well be the shift in hormones causing it and confusing her after the spay.

I still say definitely remove any and all toys to stop the behavior, my mothers poodle had a rubber lizard that she used to do the same thing with, we took away the lizard and she was upset for a few days and was looking for her 'baby' but then she got over it. It's the same when a dam whelps a single puppy who dies, they learn to cope with the missing puppy but it takes time.

[Lucky098]

I agree with shazzy. Take all her toys away and throw them. Start doing other stuff with her such as more walks and more visits to the dog park. Once she is normal, purchase new toys one at a time and see how she does

[angela408]

Sorry I have to disagree.
Currently as I am typing this, my zu mix has a cage full of stuffed animals that are "Her Babies". This is her second go around, and both times it has happened about 4 to 6 weeks after she has been in heat. I read up on this last time, and the answer that made the most sense was to just leave her be, and when her hormones are done fluctuating, she'll be over it. That's exactly what happened. Slowly one by one, she lost interestest in about two weeks, and they just became toys again. She sleeps with us also, but we have to bring the whole gang to bed with us every night. Heaven forbid if we forget one, especially "Lamb Chop" who was her favorite last time too. Then I just take them all the next day, and nicely place them back in her kennel. I don't "Encourage" it nor do I "Discourage" it, but if she needs something, I try to help her out. She is worth every little bit of extra effort, and I know she will be fine in a couple of weeks. Besides, she is not hurting a thing

[Lucky098]

Angela.. spaying your pet would eliminate this problem all together. I'm sure its not fun going through a period in your life being paranoid and extra needy.

Besides.. this behavior is just a "dog" thing.. typically the dog on the lower end of the stick and are trying very hard to please the leader (in the wild, the alpha female is the only one allowed to reproduce).

Although this is a normal behavior for dogs, its also a pesky one.