Animals with security objects?

My 18-month-old Australian Shepherd, Sky, has what I call his "baby", a stuffed elephant toy he can't live without. Ever since I got it for him, on the recommendation from a friend because it's a supposedly borderline-indestructable toy and he shreds his toys within minutes of getting them, it's been his favorite. Luckily it's lasted a few months now, which is months longer than anything else I've gotten him, because I'd hate to have to keep getting more to keep him happy since it wasn't cheap.

Sky takes his elephant everywhere. He won't sleep without it and will carry it around the house with him. After vet trips he goes and cuddles with it first thing. I've been told that when I'm gone for long he cuddles with it and licks it (he has separation anxiety due to being abandoned before I adopted him).

Just out of curiosity, does anybody else's pet have a security object like this? I'd never seen anything like it before Sky attached himself to this elephant.

That is so cute! Sky looks like a total sweetheart.

One of my dogs (well, my parents' dogs) started to do something similar within the past couple of years. She's an 8 year old black lab/terrier mix of some sort, and she's always had a bit of an anxious personality. Not separation anxiety so much, but she is a teacher's pet and gets very nervous if she thinks she's in trouble or someone around her is in trouble. No idea what the first 8 months of her life were like and if they contributed or it's just part of her demeanor. Anyway, her anxieties have definitely intensified as she's gotten older, and so has her habit of holding toys in her mouth for hours at a time. She prefers her pig or hedgehog, but if her little brother has them (a lab/corgi mix without a care in the world!), any toy will do. I think she likes those because they've lasted so long. The pig is one of those indestructible fabric toys, although I've sewn it up a few times already, but the hedgehog is just some old stuffed animal, not a real dog toy. She often falls asleep with them in her mouth, and the pig isn't easy to hold onto. It looks like it must be uncomfortable! But she loves it.

Here's Daisy sleeping with her precious pig:


(her brother Teddy is curled up next to her)


This was when she got a new toy-a lobster!-and had a new favorite for a week until it was torn to pieces:


And here's her with her little hedgehog:

That's so funny! I've never seen a dog fall asleep with a toy still in their mouth. It must be some kind of comfort thing. Daisy is adorable.

I know this is an older thread but I had to comment. I had an Australian shepherd as well. Best dog in the world. He lived almost until his 14 birthday.he had smaller bottom teeth on one side so his tongue always hung out

My other dog sleeping with her toy and her elk antler bone, she never sleeps without her toy. My odie on his last Christmas, if you notice his legs are shaved, it's because he had pancreatitis, they didn't think he'd survive, we actually went to the vet to put him down and found him standing waiting for us. He lived another 5 months but never regained all of his strength. His back legs were a little wobbly. But that didn't stop him trying to chase squirrels

My high school friend's cat, Lilly, had a pink stuffed bunny (it was just something that could have come from the dollar section of a store on Easter) that she lugged around everywhere. When it was time to sleep the cat would curl up with the bunny, when a stranger would come to the door she would hide in her carrier with the bunny--my friend was just her foster Mommy. Turned out the bunny was something the cat had gotten at her previous home.

The thing with labs, is they like to carry ribs around in their mouths. The black lab I had years ago was forever packing some thing around, as I recall every time I saw her mother, she was doing the same. Has to do with that retrieving instinct. As to why the Australian Shephard carries around a snuggle toy, maybe it's a comfort thing. My first job out of high school was working for a kennel that raised fox terriers, and one poor little mamma list her only puppy. She was so sad we gave her a little stuffed toy and she treated it like it was her own lost baby for quite a while after.

*edit Toys, not ribs, tho I'm sure they do that too.

Marcusmom said:

T My first job out of high school was working for a kennel that raised fox terriers, and one poor little mamma list her only puppy. She was so sad we gave her a little stuffed toy and she treated it like it was her own lost baby for quite a while after.

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Aww, that's quite a sad image brought to mind. Nice that she got some comfort from the toy though.