Kinky dog with panty fetish seeks edible clothing

February 8, 2009 11:15 PM

Why does my dog eat women's underwear and shoes?

I have an almost 6-yr old female boxer. Originally, my ex-wife got her when we were separated. When we got back together the dog moved in with her, and it was almost 1 year old, and long since fixed. The dog took to me as her daddy, and when I got divorced, I kept the dog.

When I was married to my ex, my dog would sometimes eat her shoes, underwear, and even bras. Some of this was no doubt just puppy excitement, as she chewed up a lot of stuff, including some of my clothes. But now she only eats women's clothing -- whenever I have a woman over, if she takes off her shoes or underwear and leaves them where my dog can get them, the clothing gets eaten.

So, why? Is it a jealousy/territory thing? A female bonding thing? A female pheremone thing? What?

posted by Saxon Kane to pets & animals (5 answers total)

Regarding the underwear, see this related question, which contains many anecdotal accounts of animals with a taste for women's used underwear.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 12:00 AM on February 9, 2009

Ceasar Milan believes that underwear-eating has the same underlying motive as butt-sniffing: It's an attempt to gather information about another individual.

As a side-note, my corgi mix loves women's underwear too-- (as well was ballpoint pens, older hardcover books with lots of glue in the spines, and gravel.) The underwear-eating almost killed her a year ago. She managed to knock over the laundry hamper and then gobbled up two cotton thongs, one of which she threw up, and one of which had to be removed surgically. We now treat all underwear and socks like ampules of morphine-- they're always carefully accounted for, and the hampers are kept in a room to which the dog has no unsupervised access.

Be very, very careful about this habit of your doggie's.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:52 AM on February 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

My female boxer is the same. Not to be too delicate about it but the more Mummy-esque it smells, the more my dog loves it. She has eaten her way through a pair of sweaty summer flipflops. She buries my socks in her bed. She nicks underwear from the hamper and carries it around in her mouth. She does none of this with any of my husband's stuff.

I'm pretty sure it's a pheromone thing. My dog loves me with a - literally - consuming passion and the opportunity to become one with me in this way is just too good to pass up.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:40 AM on February 9, 2009

Just to add a datapoint: When I had a bunch of pet ferrets, they showed a distinct preference for stashing my wife's underwear under beds and couches. They were all fixed female ferrets for what it was worth. Maybe female odors are just more pleasing to animals?
posted by JFitzpatrick at 6:19 AM on February 9, 2009

FWIW, human sebaceous glands on the armpits, genitals, and feet are special. Instead of secreting a normally saline, mostly-water fluid (sweat), they secret a milky-colored, oily, musky liquid. The armpit & genital secretions seem well-purposed enough: a sex scent that advertises gender, even if it's not a true pheromone. The foot glands are a bit more mysterious, since (AFAIK) the secretions are very similar; moreso perhaps because of the prevalence of foot fetishism...

But I digress. Dogs like underwear & socks because they are soaked in these sex scents. If women left underarm guards from their blouses/dresses, those would undoubtedly be sought-after as well.

Can't tell you why dogs/cats/ferrets might prefer women's clothes, except for the obvious fact that "OMG THAT'S GAY/STRAIGHT/WEIRD!!!" only matters to humans.

Anecdotally, I have known cats of both genders to go gaga over my sweaty clothes after strenuous exercise (and I'm a man). Curiously, even the male (fixed) cats display distinctly female-cate arousal signs (tail in air, rump lifting, head down). Insert "too manly for girly toms" joke here...
posted by IAmBroom at 2:33 PM on February 9, 2009