Dogs and Laundry

I forgot how gross dogs can be; they roll in poop, eat worms and bugs, and drag around dirty underwear, and yet we still love them like crazy.  Does your dog have a thing for laundry?  Ours does.  In particular, she loves stealing socks.  Matt throws his socks in the corner, and it doesn’t take any time for them to appear chewed up on the living room floor.  If I’m folding laundry and leave several pairs of socks balled up on the bed – even just for a couple minutes – I have to go searching for them.  Once we gave her a pair of Angry Bird socks that Gray had outgrown, and you’d thought we’d given her a giant steak.  She was beside herself excited.

There are several reasons why dogs take to laundry …….

1. Scent.  We all, including our dogs, have our own scent.  Dogs are pack animals, but since they’ve been domesticated, being part of the family equals being a part of a pack to them.  One way of being a part of the family is to get your scent on them from your dirty clothes or to put their scent on your clean clothes.  In addition, a dog’s sense of smell is approximately 40 times stronger than ours.  Laundry, whether clean or dirty, is awfully appealing to them.  Until I started this blog I thought of it as annoying, but now I think of it as endearing.  She really does love us. 
2. Boredom.  When we first got Macy, she had a bed full of toys, but it hasn’t taken her long to go through her toys and destroy most of them.  All that’s left are a couple of chew bones and a tennis ball, so she roams through the house looking for stuff.  Because I like to have everything in its own place, she doesn’t find much…..but on occasion I leave the laundry room door cracked or Gray doesn’t put his clothes away and of course, there’s Matt’s sock corner. 
3. Thrill.  So I catch her with a sock and immediately I’m fussing at her; she turns it into a game by running, darting, and taunting me while carrying a sock.  Apparently this is all part of their ploy to both entertain themselves and get attention.  Bottom line is to keep things out of reach.

According to lots of online articles out there, bored dogs are the ones that tend to get into things.  There are all kinds of articles out there that give tips on how to keep our dogs entertained.  I am including a link from Puppy Leaks on 33 Easy Ways to Keep Your Dog Busy because the video under number 23 of the baby giggling while Fido chases bubbles is totally worth watching.  We spend time with our dog daily, nightly play time and two nice walks a day, but who has time to entertain a dog all day?  My solution, of course, is to simply keep laundry and things picked up.

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