Blanket sucking

[Alison Olsen]

Just wondered if anyone knew why our Bailey likes to suck his blanket? His paws usually knead like a cat's at the same time. It's obviously a comfort habit like suckling his mum but as far as I know he was a normal puppy who left his mum at 8 weeks old. (We got him at 13 months old). Will he grow out of it? Is there any harm in it? We let him do it if he wants unless he starts eating pieces of blanket.

[lyn hathaway]

hi alison my layla is 5 and she still does this when we go to bed.she just loves gettin her blankets its so cute seeing her treddle and hugging the blanket.she does not eat or chew the blanket she just cuddles it

[Sue and Cash]

My dog did this as well. He would drag his blanket around then bunch it up to sleep on. He humped it as well! But the only thing he ever humped so it was okay by us. I love hearing that others love their blanket too. He took the throw off the couch the first few weeks we had him and wouldn't let anyone else use it. We gave in and just let it be his and now that he is gone I will admit that I sleep with it most nights as it makes me feel close to him. We loved watching him drag it up and down the stairs the most because it took quite a bit of effort to not trip over it and he looked so darn cute doing it as a pup. I say no harm in it. Self comforting is what we try to teach children as well so why not our dogs.

[Jo Ottinger]

I have a friend whos dog sucked and kneaded her blanket until the day she passed. She was the only dog I have ever seen who did this. Interesting that there are others who do it. I do not see any problem letting Bailey do it.

[lyn hathaway]

lovely picture of nemo jamo i like to see layla doing it with her blankets

[Agnieszka Rola]

Conner does it as well!!! he is over 4 years and still it is his daily routine, specially evening routine :))) it is his relax time, I love watching him during his trance so never thought about stop him. He has his own favourite blanket since the first day at us (as 8 week old puppy). You can see him with it on my video. He also likes to suck his ikea toys (specially rat and lion :) ) and he never destroys toys doing it!

I know that Conner's half brother has the same.

[lyn hathaway]

lovely pics agnieszka ill have to get some of layla doing it .i thought she was the only one that did it .ive had 2 setters before and they did not do it but then i thought it was due to her been blind she did it

[silvia]

ohhh YES!!!! looks as Oberon! plenty of toys in his bed, but NOTHING can compete with his blanket! I am not sure is compulsive behaviour, really, is just that playing time is usually, after dinner,  dragging his blanket around, playing  with it, shaking heads,   sucking, curling into it, rolling, and so and so, we can go on forever:)

I call him Linus (after the cartoon character, if this makes sense to you :)

[Agnieszka Rola]

I think we could create the group ;))) of sucking setter's owners ;)

[Susan Stone]

Interesting to see quite a few dogs enjoy sucking their blanket. I was curious about the origin of this behaviour and looked it up in Steven R. Lindsay's 'Handbook of Applied Dog Behaviour and Training' Vol. 2. What I found is this:
quote
Cumpulsive Behavior Problems (Licking, Sucking and Kneading)
A common compulsive habit observed in dogs is sucking and kneading of blankets. This behavior is highly correlated with removing a puppy from the mother too early in its development. In many cases the sucking-and-kneading compulsion does not appear until after puppies reach maturity, sometimes not until after 1 year of age. Dogs exhibiting this habit rhythmically suck and knead on a blanket as though quietly nursing on it. Owners note that it most often occurs when dogs appear slightly stressed by environmental events or are bored. In most cases the habit is not self-injurious and is left untreated, partly because it gives such dogs so much apparent pleasure. The habit is best controlled through prevention. Puppies taken from the mother prior to normal weaning times should be fed by a method as similar to natural nursing activity as possible. Levy (1941) suggests that the sucking compulsion may be driven by frustration. He carried out an experiment in which puppies were given adequate milk to satisfy their nutritional needs but not enough time feeding to satisfy their sucking needs. The control puppies, on the other hand, were given adequate milk to satisfy their hunger , as well as time to satisfy their sucking needs. In contrast to the satisfied group, the frustrated puppies exhibited increased sucking activity directed at nonnutritive objects (e.g., other puppies, their paws, and a variety of objects). In addition, as they matured, frustrated puppies enganged on excessive licking of their food plates.
end quote

[Agnieszka Rola]

I was also wondering years ago why Conner does it... he was taken from mother when he was 8 weeks and as I know he had enough natural nursing when he was a baby, that litter had their mother as normal and also flat coated nurse who had false pregnancy that time.
Conner is very calm and steady dog and doesn't seem stressed and frustrated everywhere we go and almost everything we do, and also was normal and quite steady puppy (as the puppy could be steady ;) )
so that causes of this behaviour seem to not fit to Conner...
or maybe for him 8 weeks was still to early...

[sammi pease]

My last boy...Teddy...was also a blanket sucker...he did it his whole life...only really at bedtime...he was otherwise very well adjusted...extremely affectionate...the only time it was a problem was when he was still quite small and actually sucked the whole corner from his 'duvet' and then proceeded to unstuff the entire thing...:-))))

[Helen Moore]

My setter does not do it as far as she is concerned blankets are for shredding into as many small pieces as she can. I think she is having a competition with my racing greyhound bitch to see who can turn a blanket into the most pieces. But William my other greyhound sucks not blankets but teddies when he can get them without Button shredding them too. My mum has an old JRT that has sucked his blanket since he was a tiny pup.