He has to have something in his mouth...

does anyone elses dog have to have something in their mouth at certain times?

whenever someone comes home, jake gets so excited and has to have something in his mouth, no idea why. he doesnt care what it is, he will pick up slippers, toys, even stuff empty packets out of the recycling bin and if he cant find anything he runs frantically searching, every so often running back to the person, and then off again to search anyone elses dog do this? or know why jake does? lol.

lily does this and it also happens when she's excited. her favourite time to do it though is in the park when she has been spotted running away with various bits of rubbish in the hope some dog will chase her!

one time she had a kebab box that was nearly as big as her! she kept tripping over it and sommersaulting across the grass, all the time followed by a very bemused looking group of dogs!

We actually trained our dog to do this, and my outdoor window sill is full of old slippers, balls, ropes, anything in fact, to shove in her mouth when we arrive at the back door, otherwise she leaps up and scratches us, and it was the ONLY way of stopping it!

If she accidently leaves it outside when she comes back in following me or o/h, then she frantically looks around to pick something else up, but I really don't mind, at least this way all four feet stay firmly on the ground which is what I intended! I always thought it was just a labrador thing, always bringing you a slipper Every visitor is handed a slipper on arrival at our house, hopefully, she'll grow out of it one day, but I just had to stop that jumping up with my o/h, he was getting clawed to death each night!

Chloe always grabs the nearest thing to bring to me or run around with when I have been out, she also does it when she is excited .

I think it is to do with an excess of excitement and not quite knowing what to do with it, so picking something up is a way of channelling the excitement into something, so it is a sort of displacement activity

I find it very endearing except when the nearest thing to grab happens to be my knickers off the clothes horse..

Lots of dogs do this on greeting- giving you presents!!
I think slippers and shoes are so popular as they smell of you too!!

Goldens are noted for it, and many love tennis balls. I think it is an invitation to play, chase, tug of war, or at least fetch. Dogs settle for fetch since its hard to get many people to play the games they like.

Daisy rushes for a toy when we get visitors, but that`s so she can train them to play with her.
I had a lurcher once who carried her Teddy round when excited. That was very cute.

Yep! my eldest one does this, normally he grabs a tea towel!! and often shreds em too! Trying to discourage my younger dog from doing it as I do not want her picking up ALL his bad habits.
DT

aw, that was so cute having an image of wee lily doing that jake picks up litter all the time on walks luckily he drops it as soon as he is told to though... i always worry people think its my rubbish though lol. another favourite on walks is leaves

lol, your prepared!

jake is a nightmare for jumping up scratching! he only does it for a second now though, coz then he goes on his hunt for something to find lol.

oooo thats a good point! coz jake only does it with certain people (me, my parents, neice and nephew and my bf) so he is obviously more excited seeing us than other people...

i think its endearing too, my mum always laughs at how frantic he gets trying to find something and at the stuff he picks up

the last bit made me laugh! can just imagine her running up to a visitor with your undies in her mouth

aw, i never thought of it that way although if thats it, jake hasnt got the idea of what a present involves he doesnt let whatever it is go

i always used to think it was a lab thing, and my last dog who was a BCxLab did it, but as far as i know jake doesnt have any Lab in him. and others on here say their non-labs do it lol

aw, thats so cute! jake always picks up my nieces upsy daist slippers, which is very cute. can just see a big pink thing sticking out his gob

aw lol, you must go through lots of tea towels

Yes Ben does it when I come in - seems to be a way to calm down his barking cos if he dosent find something he barks at me

It is cute to see him running around to find somehing to greet me with