Odd Behavior in Adult Dog

[Jill]

Winston, my 8yo shih-tzu, has always done this nursing behavior a lot like some cats will do. He will get one of his stuffed toys and pretend he is nursing from it. He closes his eyes, does the paddy paw thing to the point his entire body is like rocking and also makes a sighing sort of noise as he does it. He seems to do it mostly when he is really happy about something. I think it's adorable and just part of who he is. I also think he probably does it from being weaned too early (we purchased him as a puppy, but it was from a dog dealer type situation).

I was curious if anyone else has ever had a dog do this nursing behavior as an adult? Winston does it daily really. I've never before seen another dog do this.

 

[Cronewolf]

: Dogs and cats who were weaned too early have that habit and most of the time it's for the rest of their lives.

 

[Jill]

Both of my himalayan cats do this and I am sure they were weaned too young, but throughout my life, I've had cats who do this. Actually, my himis "nursed" from Keeper, my boy Maine Coon!!! I mean, they were on his nipples and everything. It was pretty funny to see them as little kittens pretend nursing from that FAT boy cat.

I've never seen another dog do it, though. I know that it's a result of something bad as Winston should not have made it from an Oklahoma breeder to a Virginia puppy dealer by the age of 8wks if he were not weaned too young. We responded to an ad in the paper (and it was a house, but they had a variety of breeds we saw once we got there). I'd never recommend a puppy shop but had my heart set on a puppy when we got there and Winston is of course my best friend

:

Even though I know Winston does it because he was taken away from his fur mom too soon (which is a bad thing), it's just so adorable to see him do it.

PS here's a picture of the himalayans with one of them pretending to nurse. They are grown up now, but about 1/3 the size of a regular cat... which is about 1/6 the size of Keeper who is bigger than my shih-tzu's!

 

[chandab]

While, I've never seen a dog do this, our barn cats do this to my poor 10 year old spayed Aussie. They cats follow her around and as soon as she lays down, they are kneeding on her. Only the 1-3 year old cats do this. It drives her nuts, you tell by the look on her face, but she won't retaliate, as she isn't allow to touch the cats. So, she gives me this look...

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[justagirl]

This behavior is not as odd as you would think. It's a natural thing for some dogs and cats and can often be observed in animals both awake and asleep. Both animal and human babies have a suckle response and even when asleep they will seemily "suck" and knead their "mums" .

And I also believe it can have a lot to do with being weaned to early. I've even seen a kitten whose mother died and was bottle fed and would nurse and knead it's canned food. I found it fascinating and can only say reason that it must have something to do with the need to suck.

I've seen other small breed adult dogs that do this, though I believe most animals loose this suckle response as the get older.

Jill, this obviously seems to soothe Winston, but I bet it's quite a sight.

 

[Warpony]

Yes yes yes!!!! I have seen this so many times that it doesn;t even seem weird to me any more, hehehe!

I've seen it in dogs and cats both. I have a set of brother cats who we took in as orphanes when they were 2 weeks old, one weighs 22 pounds and the other weighs 18 (the 18 pound cat is lean and muscular, his brother is just a huge lard butt) and they will nurse on each others face. The fat cat, Irvine, get a bald spot on his cheek from it. I think they are 4 years old now.

The dog my husband had when we first met, who has now sadly passed on, used to nurse himself to sleep on his stuffed puppy.

As others have mentioned, I've seen it almost entirely in animals that were weaned too young. Having raised many orphaned kittens in my rescue days I've seen it a LOT in cats.