# Strange behaviour with squeaky toy



## cardaph (Aug 12, 2009)

Don't know what to make of this. On Sat after training class we bought Bessie a small hedgehog toy that squeaks. She showed immediate interest in it and couldn't wait to be given it once we got home. Since then all she has done with it is carry it around crying all the time or she jumps up beside me on the settee and puts it down, then lies on it, like she is protecting it. I have taken it away from her now as it was just upsetting her but am wondering why she would behave like that. She had her first season in March son dont think it is anything to do with hormones. Any thoughts?


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## hutch6 (May 9, 2008)

Ha ha ha my mongrel does exactly the same!!!

If I squeeze it and squeak it over and over agin she tilts her head back and gives a right good loud and proud husky howl for about five minutes and then dances about all over the shop having a mad puppy disco burst.
If I give her the exact same toy apart from it gs no squeak in it there isn't a whimper. Only when she squeaks the working model does she cry and whimper by my feet. Must be the squeak that invokes something in her. She's just been spayed too. Wonder if her ovaries squeaked and she misses them?


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## ArwenLune (Jan 3, 2010)

Wonder if the squeeking trigger some sounds-like-puppy-in-need instinct?


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

wonder if some dogs aren;t just excited by squeaks, and possessive of new toys?  

my Akita + my Doxie-X-Basset both were more attached to new-toys than old-toys, but neither *lay on* their toys - 
however, neither had to share toys in a multi-dog household, nor around children.


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

hutch6 said:


> ...She's just been spayed too. Wonder if her ovaries squeaked and she misses them?


hmmm, dunno, hutch! :huh: mine never squeaked. 
maybe hers squeaked, and are / were defective; maybe mine NOT squeaking means mine are defective...  oh, dear.

_*oooh, OOOooh, Ooohh! :001_tt1: lets invent a new-toy for children - 
lifelike molded 100%-rubber testes and ovaries, of a wide range of mammal species - 
think of the teaching potential! :thumbup: its BRILLIANT...

should squeakers be mandatory or optional? :huh: *_


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## MerlinsMum (Aug 2, 2009)

If she had her season in March, then around now she could well be having a false pregnancy.


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## wooliewoo (May 27, 2008)

My girl just got over false pregnancy and she was like this with her toy, even tucking it under her tum for milk!!!!!!! .......soon took it off her when she wasnt looking though!!!!!


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## cardaph (Aug 12, 2009)

Yes I think it is a false pregnancy and she was tucking it under her tummy, her mammory glands seem a bit enlarged too. How long did it last wooliewoo? She seems better since we have hidden the toy, we are going on holiday at the end of next week and want her to be ok.


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## luckylou (May 30, 2012)

oh my goodness, i have just come across your old posting due to a google search. My 5 year old golden retriever is also displaying very strange behaviour when she has her blue spiky hedgehog toy. she holds it in her mouth, paces around making a whiney, squeaky cry sound. she won't settle and is a general pain!! we tried hiding it last night as she was still going on at 12.30 last night. she wouldnt even go for a walk tonight and just cried with the hedgehog in her mouth. i think its going in the bin!! so glad i read your post, it seems the spiky hedghog creates wierd behaviour in lots of dogs not just mine.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

cardaph said:


> Don't know what to make of this. On Sat after training class we bought Bessie a small hedgehog toy that squeaks. She showed immediate interest in it and couldn't wait to be given it once we got home. Since then all she has done with it is carry it around crying all the time or she jumps up beside me on the settee and puts it down, then lies on it, like she is protecting it. I have taken it away from her now as it was just upsetting her but am wondering why she would behave like that. She had her first season in March son dont think it is anything to do with hormones. Any thoughts?


You dont say when in March but even though proestrus and estrus only lasts around 18/21 days approx, which is when the vulva swells, you see a discharge and when she would have been fertile and likely would flirt and allow mating this isnt the only part of the actual season. Although after this time visually it looks like everything is normal, they are still going through Diestrus, Diestrus lasts or can do around 60/90 days, during this time progesterone levels are still high and the reproductive system is also going through changes because of it. Its Diestrus that Phantom pregnancies can happen and infections too.

Collecting up toys and "mothering" them are classic some even nest and produce milk too. So depending what her dates were in March it may be possible. Its not until the 4th stage of the season that comes after diestrus anestrus that the reproductive system is totally static this period lasts again 3/4 months.


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

S-D-H, 
Excellent summary! :thumbup: 


Sled dog hotel said:


> It's not until the 4th stage of the season, [which] comes after diestrus, [& is called anestrus],
> that the reproductive system is totally static - this period lasts, again, 3 [to] 4 months.


hopefully the confusing terms are a bit easier to connect to estrus-stages... 
& i hope U don't mind my meddling, S-D-H.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

leashedForLife said:


> S-D-H,
> Excellent summary! :thumbup:
> 
> hopefully the confusing terms are a bit easier to connect to estrus-stages...
> & i hope U don't mind my meddling, S-D-H.


Must admit I even forget sometimes and get the an/di/pros mixed up and have to think about what comes where


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