My Dog's New Girlfriend is Beneath Him

January 7, 2007 11:36 PM

My dog has developed a romanitic interest in his doggy bed. What to do?

I left my dog, a six year old nuetered mutt, in the care of some friends over the holidays. He was a complete prince during our absence, except that he was compelled to do the Humpty compulsively on the new sheepskin dog bed we left with him. He's never displayed humping behavior before, and at first I assumed that he was trying to assert dominance in the most unassertive way known to him, i.e. making a show over his new puffy dogbed. Now that he's home, he's still romancing his new S.O. Maniacly. So my question is this: If I leave him to his own devices with his new puffpal, will he be more likely to expand his behavior beyond the sheepskin? Am I making a big deal out of typical dog behavior? Should I just craigslist the bed at a discount and forget about it?

posted by maryh to pets & animals (21 comments total)

Real sheepskin? My cats, not dogs, flip out territorial or something over flesh-derived objects. Can't let them near my uggs or any leather or pissy pissy. Could it be like that?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:20 AM on January 8, 2007

What harm does it do? If he gets pleasure from his bed, then good job in buying him an excellent gift.
posted by KingoftheWhales at 1:13 AM on January 8, 2007

Read the question again KingoftheWhales.

I personally have seen very little transference of this type of behavior, however IINA-pet psychologist. If you don't get better results for this question this may be a better spot to ask.
posted by edgeways at 1:56 AM on January 8, 2007

I had a rabit who's only fetish was fuzzy white socks. On human feet.

You might need to warn any visitors who wear fleece boots
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 2:08 AM on January 8, 2007

My dog has a feather quilt we call "Boyfriend". When I brought it home about 10 years ago, he kept pulling it off the bed so he could hump it. After a few days, I let him have it.

The behaviour hasn't transferred to other things. My feather filled pillows haven't been molested. One visitor to my house got upset, but that is the only downside I've seen.

But, what do I know? Call your vet and ask.
posted by QIbHom at 4:48 AM on January 8, 2007

have you thought of washing the bed? Or having it dry cleaned? Getting the scent out might be a way of getting his mind on other things (like hanging out with you.)
posted by parmanparman at 5:26 AM on January 8, 2007

My dog has a stuffed dog that's her boyfriend. It's the only thing she humps (I think she figured out the toy wasn't going to hump her...), I've never seen her get frisky with anything else, not even another dog. I hide the toy most of the times, but I'll bring it out once in a while when I leave the house. (Everyone deserves a little private romance now and then, right?) Anyhow, moral of the story... if he loves that bed it doesn't mean he'll start loving everything. But if you reward him for loving the bed by letting him continue, then he's not going to stop. Why would he? If you don't like the behavior, get another bed & put that one in the garage. Take away the thing that's making him act up.

If he has pent up energy, maybe he really just needs more exercise. A tired dog is a good dog.
posted by miss lynnster at 5:58 AM on January 8, 2007

If he is that in love with his bed, washing it might not matter really. Dogs can smell EVERYTHING, you probably won't be tricking him.
posted by miss lynnster at 6:03 AM on January 8, 2007

It's his lovetoy. There might not be anything you can do about it. However, if you let him run his course with the new bed (and by that, I mean destroying it), he'll most likely be finished humping other things. At least that was my experience with family dogs.
posted by jmd82 at 6:38 AM on January 8, 2007

the new sheepskin dog bed we left with him.

Is he part sheepdog?

I think you can let him go at it without the worry he'll shift his affections to your mother-in-law's leg or whatever. Remember to keep it clean, particularly if he's making good progress with his imaginary friend. If he's doing this at embarrassing times, put the bed out of the way when company calls.

And remember, if sheepskin, so can your dog.
posted by pracowity at 6:42 AM on January 8, 2007

Yeah, my mom was thoroughly disgusted that my dog was so unladylike in front of her... so I definitely learned to keep the boyfriend hiding in the closet when people are coming over. It's one of those out of sight out of mind relationships, it seems.
posted by miss lynnster at 6:57 AM on January 8, 2007

Our little spayed female dog has four beds (one for my car, one for my husband's car, one for home, one for my husband's workplace).

She makes sweet, sweet love to one of the beds only--the one from my husband's car. I don't know what's so very special about that bed--she'll ignore her home bed, snuggling up in it occasionally, but as soon as my husband brings his-car dog bed in... MAD HUMPTY begins.

I'm okay with it, as long as she's not trying to express dominance by humping us (which she did, for exactly one weekend).
posted by Savannah at 9:31 AM on January 8, 2007 [1 favorite]

Our puppy was neutered (by/for the rescue that had him) at 7 weeks, and has had a passionate physical relationship with his fluffy bed ever since we got him and it. He'll hump it madly for a while, then fall over and blow himself. I prevent it from happening for an audience, but otherwise leave him be. He doesn't generally try this with anything else, and it doesn't seem like he's going to hurt himself. Hes about 18 months now.
posted by dilettante at 10:29 AM on January 8, 2007

I wouldn't get rid of the bed. Its on outlet for something, and removing it will cause some other behavior, either humping something else or maybe another behavior, like chewing up furniture. Maybe if he gets more exercise, the behavior would stop. Maybe not.
posted by allelopath at 10:46 AM on January 8, 2007

Damn. That should be "he's about 18 months", above. My apostrophe fell off.

And like Savannah's dog, ours only has this relationship with one bed - he never even hits on his larger, cuddlier winter bed.
posted by dilettante at 10:47 AM on January 8, 2007

From the OP: Am I making a big deal out of typical dog behavior?

Well, probably you are, unless it really bothers you. Lots of dogs do this with one or more stuffed toys, a bed, what-have-you. It's a good outlet, and preferable to having them do it to another dog and making unplanned puppies, or having them do it to a person! :-)
posted by Robert Angelo at 2:49 PM on January 8, 2007

Apologies all, I have nothing of substance to contribute, except:

I love this post's title! And, I love miss lynnster's contributions lately!

That is all.
posted by rob511 at 3:27 PM on January 8, 2007

Have the bed put to sleep.

Unwashed wool has a steroid hormone in it, Lanosterol, which the Merck Index calls "The core steroid from which all others [including all androgens and estrogens] are derived by biological modification. From wool fat of sheep..."

I think this could have triggered an instinctive behavior pattern in your dog which is part of the program to respond to a female dog in heat.

Your story makes me think two additional things:

1. Aha! So that's how all those spinsters got through menopause in the days before hormone replacement therapy.

Well, more likely, really, so that's why older, childless, unmarried women were given the job of spinning-- wool has enough steroid hormone in it to interfere with fertility and possibly compromise the sexual development of the fetus.

2. The Lanosterol is mostly likely one of sheep's weapons in the war between predator and prey; if it can do that to your dog, it could probably screw up the reproduction of an entire pack of canines who attempted to prey upon the sheep. A very subtle and potentially effective strategy, I think. It could even interfere with the act of predation itself, if the wolf making a final charge suddenly found itself wanting to make love instead of a killing.
posted by jamjam at 4:24 PM on January 8, 2007 [2 favorites]

(3.)Not to mention shedding some new light on all those old stories of shepherds and their sheep.
posted by jamjam at 4:30 PM on January 8, 2007

Dear god this thread is disturbing.

I mean awesome.
posted by oats at 7:45 PM on January 8, 2007

Thanks for everyone who answered this thread. I wish I could point to a definitive answer, but my wise-beyond-human-years pooch puh-chunked this question off the field by ignorining his galpal in favor of a puffy toy hedgehog. He's happily occupied now, which is more than I could wish formy self.
Thanks!
posted by maryh at 3:55 AM on January 10, 2007