# Red pillow fetish



## Chocx2 (Nov 16, 2009)

Ok, this sounds weird but I have been dealing with this since my Aussie was fixed, had to by contract, and he was a little aggressive to other dogs.

Didn't change his aggression, or his fetish with pillows, red ones in particular. He humps the pillow until he locks himself out and then stops. I know weird, never had a dog that did this. But Thursday night he was doing this and my husband and I just ignore him, well when one of my other dogs jumped up where I was sitting she was covered in blood.  I thought something was wrong with one of my females. I looked at there feet and all of them they were fine. When I check my Aussie he was covered in blood, blood all over my bedroom floor, rugs, OMG, like a murder scene.

I called the vet and she told me he probably blew a blood vessel, he should be fine but bring him in for a check to make sure. 

Well he has rubbed his little weenie raw, when I saw it I was mortified. He can no longer have a doggie bed pillow I feel so bad for him, he is very sore.

I have never seen a dog do this let along a fixed male? Anyone have any suggestions, is he cook-coo? I take him to do activities and he is walked at least a mile a day, he runs loose in a preserve, he goes dock jumping , he is spoiled. I don't know how to get him to stop this.:wacko:


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## lily (May 16, 2011)

he seems obsessed with this behaviour.now its not the same obsession but my dog has been obsessed with scratching for the last 9 months,i too ignored it and tried all sorts of potions and lotions thinking it was allergy,we have broken the obsession by 90 percent ,everytime we see her go to itch we tell her a very firm no also we use a spray bottle on her and it has worked on her,its taken 2 weeks to break her obsession and has been hard work but for her it seems to be working ,obsessions are very hard to break but not impossible,karen


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## flippedstars (May 22, 2010)

I'm just curious why are you allowing him to continue this behavior? You need to NOT ignore it and instead correct it. You also need to remove the things you KNOW trigger the behavior (e.g. red pillows). Intact, not intact, really it doesn't matter. Young male dogs are prone to humping and sometimes things like rabies shots can make those behaviors worse. 

Deterrents can include;
-- a can/jar full of pennies to shake and distract him
-- take him for a walk to get his mind on other things, sometimes the behavior can be resultant of boredom or too much energy
-- a spray bottle w/ water and white vinegar - squirt him whenever he starts the behavior
-- crating him for a bit until he calms down

ALWAYS let him know you are displeased with the behavior. Reward him when he stops and is doing something else. 

It is NOT an appropriate behavior nor is it a necessary one. While I think positive training is best, at this point you need to stop the behavior and you need to create a negative association with it or he will keep at it. 

Ultimately though, talk to the people in your house. Pick ONE approach. Be 100% consistent. Everyone needs to be on the same page. One day of inconsistency will set you back 5 days of progress with behavioral issues like this. Do not be mean, impatient, angry, upset. Just deliberately teach him this is NOT an okay behavior. He COULD hurt himself while you are gone. So the sooner you teach him to stop this, the better off you will be.


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## Chocx2 (Nov 16, 2009)

I don't condone this behavior I train him, I didn't think he was doing any harm having his way with a pillow. There are lots of behaviors dog do that are hard to train out. I was just wondering if anyone else had a dog that did this, another Aussie. 

He is very stubborn and I work with him everyday. I don't use food for praise nor do I scare the dog from a behavior. I only use praise or a stern no for disapproval.


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## lauren43 (Feb 6, 2011)

I don't think you need to scare him away from the pillow, but it does sound a little obsessive. I personally would try to deter him from humping anything. You can do this positively by distracting him from the pillow with toys and have a little play secession or distract him and have a little training secession. You could also do time outs every time he humps the pillow (if you don't know what they are I can explain them).

I too don't believe in scaring a dog from a behavior. But I do think he has taken this behavior to another level because he is physically hurting himself.


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## Chocx2 (Nov 16, 2009)

Thanks for all the thoughts, he only humps certain pillows and I have removed them all so the behavior is fixed.

Just wanted to know if anyones dogs did this besides mine...Maybe he is just Kirby? One of kind?


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## Donna Little (May 31, 2011)

I have a Chihuahua that started humping one particular toy. I only saw him do it occasionally but then it became an obsession and I had to take it away. I put it back out for the dogs to play with after a few weeks and he was immediately humping it again. I have no idea why it's just this toy. So I took it away again. It's been in my laundry room up on the shelf for probably a year and I got it down the other day and gave it to the puppies in my foster building. They all got adopted Fri and I washed it and gave it back to my dogs and so far Camden has totally left it alone. 
Sometimes dogs just do strange things...


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## flippedstars (May 22, 2010)

Scarring and creating a negative association w/ something are two different things. Not all dogs can be trained with 100% positive association/treat training. I have raised dogs for awhile and some require different things than 'good boy!' and 'have a cookie!' to stop certain bad behaviors. So you have taken away the pillows at your house, but if you ever have to bring him somewhere, are their pillows safe? Probably not. And I am not sure many people want their pillows messed with by someone else's dog lol. Just something to think about. 

Donna Little - it didn't happen to be a loofah toy did it?


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## Chocx2 (Nov 16, 2009)

no lufa, it started out with a red pillow on my couch, so I threw it away and he stopped. Then I got a couple of Lands End dog beds and he was obsessed them, I took them away. The other dogs like dog beds so I got a different shape, it didn't matter, thats the one he injured himself on. Its in the back room now where none of the dogs can have it. I just didn't know if this was an Aussie behavior or just an individual one.
I have an intact male Lab, he doesn't hump anything?


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## Donna Little (May 31, 2011)

flippedstars;139915
Donna Little - it didn't happen to be a loofah toy did it?[/QUOTE said:


> No, it was just a plain old stuffed toy. It looks like a hippo and is close to the same size as the dog. Maybe to Camden it looked like a sexy Chihuahua from his past when he used to have his manhood. Whatever his reasons, he loved that thing and not in a good way....


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

Quite often herding breeds can become obsessive. I have always been very careful with my collies and shelties because of this. We don't play anything or allow mounting behaviors because they can become and obsessions wuite easily. They like they keep doing it. We don't play with lasers for the same reason - I do not like obsessive behavior of any kind. My pups learn very young the phrase "it's mine" That for my dogs means they are not to touch or put their mouth on the item. I use it for children, pillows, knick kancks, etc. Aussies can be very obsessive - they like to control everything ! LOL


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## Chocx2 (Nov 16, 2009)

Ok, that makes sense, I use time out, lol. When he was a pup, a vet told me that I had to establish dominance over him by making him lay on his side and not letting him up until he was completely submissive. She said that he was very dominant. This stopped some of his bad behavior when he was a pup, he would nip everybody and everything. It has taken me years to slowly have control over him. He also bit a couple of dogs at events when he was a pup, I couldn't stop him so I stopped taking him. Just recently started taking him dock jumping again, he seems to have leveled out. I also got horse play balls that he chases in a field to burn energy. He is six now, he has been alot of work lol. I guess I needed some sheep or cows when I got him.


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