Doppler has developed a strange behavior. It has to do with a “Busy Bone.”
Busy bone chewbone treat with the meaty middle. Its delicious taste and fun twisted bone shape make Busy Bone the perfect alternative to rawhide chews. Some pet behaviourists have shown that toys and treats like Busy Bone also provide dogs with healthy outlets for acting upon their natural instinct to chew. – Busy Bone sales schpiel from Amazon
Doppler is small, but even the small dog size Busy Bone looks oversized when in her mouth. She used to take these bones and chew them up. That’s what dogs are supposed to do.
No more!
Doppler now treats the Busy Bone like some sort of companion or toy.
Last night’s 4:00 AM trip to the front lawn is typical of what’s going on. She showed up at the front door with the bone in her mouth as if it were a stogie!
She’s been taking it upstairs, leaving it on our bed or sometimes her bed in my office. She’s been taking it downstairs, parking it on the sofa or in her crate. The only thing she’s not doing with it is eating.
Her current Busy Bone is getting ready to enter day four. It’s uneaten, but well loved.
Four days must be some sort of Busy Bone record!
Doppler needs a visor and some armbands! She obviously wants a place at the poker table.
it’s her “binky”.
ROTFLMAO! Geoff only you could come out with a line like “as if it were a stogie!” You remind me of my Uncle Bud! (With that name, any wonder what his status was? Yup, the best!) That was a Buddy line! lol And that was the first thing I thought of when I saw her cute little face with the object of her affection in her mouth! 🙂
Are you sure she’s not having some kind of tooth (pain) problem? Does she eat dry dog food or chew anything else like that?
Just a thought…..
Hi Tom – Almost 100% sure. She is in totally good spirits and isn’t favoring any body part nor has she changed her eating habits.
OMG. How funny is that? Apparently Doppler has decided that this Busy Bone is her favorite thing. She’s carrying it everywhere because she’s being territorial. Sometimes dogs will go outside and bury their favorite things. Not to worry. Doppler is just being a dog — a very cute one at that.
My lemon and white beagle, Jasper, loves BusyBones. He gets them two or three times a week for a special treat. Here’s the weird part, sometimes he devours them right away and sometimes he just sits near it and guards it with his life. If the cat comes too close, watch out, he’ll growl at her protecting his ‘prize’. I always have to make sure I have some in the house. Thank goodness they now come in an 8 pack! Glad Dopler is amusing herself with hers!
My dog does this to. She has a few of them hidden all over. She likes to sleep with one to. Sometimes she will eat one. It is like she is proud of them.
I love how she has the tv clicker right beside her too…Only thing missing,, a glass of White Ziff… She is set for the evening.
My Howard the Great Dane has been known to do this as well, he gets the monster sized ones. I think it has something like catnip for dogs in them. And it is so fun to find it in bed with the gooey end. Yum! She just does not want you to get any! As long as she is not aggressive when you try to take from her i would say she is just in love!
Do I recall that recently you’ve started leaving her alone for short periods of time? Maybe that’s related.
Before you got her, she was abandoned (presumably with no food) – maybe on some level every time you leave she’s thinking “well, if Mommy and Daddy don’t come back, at least I’ll have this to eat.”
(Now that I’ve made you feel guilty about leaving her – sorry about that….)
Jeff-
Our Beagle has yet to eat a busy bone, and she’s a big time chewer. She’s about the size of Doppler, and also walks around with the bone in her mouth like a cigar. When not in use it gets buried under the pillow of her dog bed “so the cat won’t find it.”
Any other treat is gone as fast as it can be eaten, but the Busy Bone just lurks around the house. We bought a 3 pack two weeks ago and and have yet to give her the 2nd bone. Now if it was a Frosty Paws, that would be another story!
every time I see Doppler, I can’t believe how beautiful she looks. What a contrast to the filthy, helpless abandoned pooch in the park! She’s a great advertisement for rescuing shelter pets. Love that you keep her a hot topic. She’s a real cutie!