Quirky traits that your pet has!

SillyMangoX

Thought this might make for an interesting thread! Does your pet have any funny little traits that make them unique? For example my Cream absolutely loves to be carried around on his back like a baby, and if he scratches his left shoulder he just randomly starts licking the air! Peach really loves to groom my wool dresses and my eyebrows... Oh yeah we have a blanket on the couch to somewhat protect it from cat hairs, Peach like to crawl under the blanket and sleep in a dark little corner. We always know because the cushion will be knocked off the couch!

So does anyone else have weird pets?

Whispered

Harley sits on the couch like a person then keels over onto your lap, usually loafing you in the head on the way.

ElleEm

One of my cats is currently fast asleepin a small, plastic, uncomfortable looking wash basket. She will climb into anything!! She's fully grown but will try fit a shoebox/ handbag/ shopping bag, etc.!

The other fella always scrapes all the dry food onto the floor when he's finished eating... a couple of times a day we have to clean up after him!

Such a cute and feel- good idea for a thread, OP!!

borderlinemeath

Benson has taken to waiting to be invited up onto the couch. He walks over to it, sits down and looks at you, I'm usually sitting on the other couch so he has to turn his head around. If you don't notice him he starts grumbling to get your attention and then when you do look at him he looks at the couch. At this point you would expect that if you told him to get up on the couch that it would be the end of it. Oh no. I have to stand up, walk over and gesture him up onto the couch and only then will he get up:o.

planetX

my dog has just started hiding from me when I have wet hair.... is that a quirk, or just neurotic?
One of the cats is obsessed with opening doors - he has spent hours shut in cupboards, wardrobes, and the crawl space in the attic. I've had to tie the attic doors shut to stop him, but he still spends ages up there trying to get his paw in.

Knine

One of mine howls like a wolf at the Ice Cream Van! She also barks at her treats before she eats them:D

Madam

My cat comes running when he hears the hairdryer, he sits there 'till I'm finished, makes sure I'm done then off he trots back downstairs! He also loves to gentle bite the husband's cheek first thing in the morning(maybe a sign he needs a shave?).

james142

Mine eats her own sh!t. Saves me from cleaning up after her though :rolleyes:

tk123

borderlinemeath wrote: »

Benson has taken to waiting to be invited up onto the couch. He walks over to it, sits down and looks at you, I'm usually sitting on the other couch so he has to turn his head around. If you don't notice him he starts grumbling to get your attention and then when you do look at him he looks at the couch. At this point you would expect that if you told him to get up on the couch that it would be the end of it. Oh no. I have to stand up, walk over and gesture him up onto the couch and only then will he get up:o.

Eh lord muck does that here - if it's not made up to his liking with fleecy blankets and cushions!!

Where to begin with his quirks - one of the oddest is sitting on his football which he has done since a baba?! Also he'll sit holding a soft toy -usually his ikea football in his mouth for HOURS - it gets SOAKED and he still holds it giving it the odd soft bite and will even fall asleep with it in his mouth lol.
eg - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LHvr5XOb1U :rolleyes::rolleyes:

borderlinemeath

james142 wrote: »

Mine eats her own sh!t. Saves me from cleaning up after her though :rolleyes:

That isn't a quirky trait. That's a condition known as coprophagia and can be an indication of a nutritional deficiency.

Bannasidhe

My Dad's dog Tyson (no longer with us) used stand up and put his two front paws against a wall to pee - then he'd shake his right leg afterwards.

When Dolly pees she walks along with her hind legs in the air.

Grainne (sadly also no longer with us) liked to sleep under piles of just folded laundry - the amazing thing was she never knocked them over or caused even one thing to fall. Somehow she managed to get under the pile and have it look undisturbed. Many the 'Grainne is missing' panic until we worked out where she was going.

james142

borderlinemeath wrote: »

That isn't a quirky trait. That's a condition known as coprophagia and can be an indication of a nutritional deficiency.

Well we tried everything to get her to stop and the Vet could do nothing either so we just have to live with it

Pumpkinseeds

My former feral cat loves to pull out the bath panel, get in under the bath and pull the panel closed behind him. He will walk away from food he doesn't like and kick out and shake his back paws behind him in disgust as he walks away from it. He is also insane about dairy products, especially bio yoghurt, he'd almost climb into your mouth for yoghurt.
He'll sit on my head on the pillow and nibble my hair while purring in my ear each morning.

Our other cat will let out a huge 'meow' when he comes in late at night to announce his arrival back home, he then gallops up the stairs and spends the night between my ankles with me at an angle against my husband. A cat on the bed is the best contraceptive in the world:D He also loves to give me little nipping kisses on my arm and purrs like an engine.

borderlinemeath

james142 wrote: »

Well we tried everything to get her to stop and the Vet could do nothing either so we just have to live with it

What did you try? And what did the vet suggest?

Ziegfeldgirl27

Every evening when I let my dog into the house, she rubs her face on the floor, and then rolls over on her back.

My cat jumps into my arms and clings onto me like a baby monkey. At night he actually "hugs" me and licks my dressing gown that I wear!

littlebug

Has a nice bed in the sitting room, another in the utility room and a rug in the kitchen and yet they somehow fade into insignificance if there's a shopping bag around. if I leave the big bag of shopping bags in the hallway she'll pull them all out until she find her favourite, a really rough hessian bag. Also sometimes sleeps on my laptop bag or the kids schoolbags.

Comes haring in from whatever room she's in if someone sneezes, with such a look of concern on her face.

if I leave a chewy treat with her if I'm going out she stashes it under the blanket in her bed then makes a big deal about finding it when I'm home. Even if I'm gone for hours she still saves it. Backfired badly once when I'd left her a really really stinky tripe thing. We were going to be gone a lot of the day (unusual for her to be left that long) but still she saved it. About 2 hours of happy dog tripe chew stinkiness when we got home. ugh.

boodlesdoodles

borderlinemeath wrote: »

Benson has taken to waiting to be invited up onto the couch. He walks over to it, sits down and looks at you, I'm usually sitting on the other couch so he has to turn his head around. If you don't notice him he starts grumbling to get your attention and then when you do look at him he looks at the couch. At this point you would expect that if you told him to get up on the couch that it would be the end of it. Oh no. I have to stand up, walk over and gesture him up onto the couch and only then will he get up:o.

My Westie does this except its when he wants to jump onto the bed in the middle of the night! He'll scrape at the side of the bed and if I don't hear him, he will grumble and I have to get out of the bed to straighten the duvet so he can jump up. He will continue sitting staring at me if I don't get out of the bed. Yes, I know I'm mad but he's handy these nights as he's lovely and warm lol.

james142

borderlinemeath wrote: »

What did you try? And what did the vet suggest?

everything from changing dog food to one suggested by the vet, adding lemon to the food, adding tablets to her food and alot more..

He finally told us because she was the runt of the litter and was nearly always starved by the other puppies eating her food before we bought her, she resorted to eating anything she could find (including poop) so this trait just stayed with her.

No matter how much you feed her she will always eat anything she finds like she hasn't eaten for days. The speed of her eating her dinner is unreal

SillyMangoX

james142 wrote: »

everything from changing dog food to one suggested by the vet, adding lemon to the food, adding tablets to her food and alot more..

He finally told us because she was the runt of the litter and was nearly always starved by the other puppies eating her food before we bought her, she resorted to eating anything she could find (including poop) so this trait just stayed with her.

No matter how much you feed her she will always eat anything she finds like she hasn't eaten for days. The speed of her eating her dinner is unreal

Try putting hot sauce on the poop before she gets at it, it may just add extra flavor but some dogs hate it! Feeding pineapple in the food can also help prevent it.

frogstar

One of our dogs likes to belch in our face. Same dog gets scared if the door creaks or if I raise my voice and has a ritual of hiding behind the telly (knocking the wires out too!) the other dog goes mad cos he can't find her.

Male dog will eat anything. We've had to dog proof our kitchen. He has eaten a full tray of grease from the George foreman (now hidden), gotten the large tub of butter from the counter and ate half of it. knocked a plate off the counter to eat chicken balls curry sauce and rice.

Need to hide the turkey at Christmas!

nala2012

james142 wrote: »

Mine eats her own sh!t. Saves me from cleaning up after her though :rolleyes:

nala was really bad eating poo like some days she'd puke from eating so many. Anyway i tried everything including putting hot sauce on them and giving her tablets and pineapple, i spoke with the vet about all the health conditions i'd googled that might cause it. In the end training leave it was what worked, it took a long time and i was lucky that she goes to daycare and they helped a lot there i also gave her kalm aid but i'm not sure if that helped or not. Oh and she used to be a savage with food too but now she's much more relaxed and even skips a meal the odd time!

mojesius

Paddy seems to enjoy watching documentaries about marine life. He just stares intently at the television when they're on.

borderlinemeath

james142 wrote: »

everything from changing dog food to one suggested by the vet, adding lemon to the food, adding tablets to her food and alot more..

He finally told us because she was the runt of the litter and was nearly always starved by the other puppies eating her food before we bought her, she resorted to eating anything she could find (including poop) so this trait just stayed with her.

No matter how much you feed her she will always eat anything she finds like she hasn't eaten for days. The speed of her eating her dinner is unreal

What food did the vet recommend? Some dogs are fairly intolerant to certain foodstuffs such as wheat which is the usual filler in most dry foods. Also, some dogs literally inhale their food, irrespective of whether they were the runt or not. (something like a frozen kong of food might work well with her as it will take her so much longer to eat the small amount of food)

Training could work if she is so food orientated. Persistence is the key though, and it's easiest if she's kept on the lead every time she goes out to the toilet. If she goes to eat the poo call her away and try and keep the same command such as 'leave it' and give her a treat for not eating it. The treat will be far nicer than the poo so the dog will associate going to the toilet, leaving it and getting a nicer treat. But you must be persistent to make the training work.

nala2012

Nala puts a blanket in her mouth and then kinda massages the rest of it with her paws before falling asleep with the blanket still in her mouth!

mikemac1

Jake is a fan of double standards

He's sit beside you and beg with the sad puppy eyes when you eat your dinner. :rolleyes:
Put a sandwich on the coffee table and leave the room for a second and whooooosh, the sandwich is gone!


However....when he's eating his dinner and you walk past he'll growl and tense up. If you try to pet him he'd snap at you
Very aggressive if you disturb him with his dinner bowl.

In fact if he spots you watching him eat he'll stop and won't eat until you go away

fatmammycat

Every morning my GSD goes upstairs with my other half, waits to see him settle into his office chair, then hurries back downstairs, OPENS our bedroom door, checks my feet and my hands to see if I am awake ( in that order each time), then goes around to my OH's side of the bed, climbs on, gives a BIG sigh and goes asleep until I get up. It's not a quirk per se, but he does this every day- and even though we were all 'NO DOGS IN THE BEDROOM' before we got him, now we all, 'aw, but he's so cute.'

sparkle_23

Smudge always darts into my room and hides under the bed. She won't come out until I'm lying on my bed. She sits at the edge of my bed looking up at me with wide eyes and then jumps up and makes herself comfy! Everytime! If I lie on my stomach she climbs on my back and curls up and sleeps. I was a bold girl when she had her cone of shame... She slept in my bed 3 nights in a row! :o:o She kept battin my face at 6am one morn and when I sat up she moved onto my pillow where my head had been... Cheeky!

Jake has his own bed but he would rather lie on smushed up cardboard boxes or try and squish into the cats bed. He's a springer spaniel not a hope in hell of him fitting in!! He's obsessed with slippers, if ya go outside wearing slippers he will lick them and do everything his power to get them off your feet!!

Sparkle has figured out how to open a window fully when it's only a tiny bit open. She opens it, jumps in and makes a lil brrrrrrrrrr kinda noise when she lands on the windowsill! Her and Smudge love sleeping on shopping bags too... they don't feel very comfy to me!!

Whoa this is a long post.......:o:o

mr bungle.

our dog ziggy always has one back leg up in the air when he goes for a poo.every few seconds he will swap legs.he looks very awkward and can barely keep his balance while doing it.weird!

FutureGuy

Our cat Oreo plays fetch. He'll play for hours and then sleep for half the day. He hides some of the balls in a secret stash (he thinks its secret anyways) so if he misses where we threw the ball, he will have a fake look around, enter his stash and bring a replacement as if to say "yep, saw where you threw that and brought it back". Too bad it's a different colour!

He also loves showers and sinks. When he's at my parents house, he will spend the day in the shower or beside the sink. The second we turn on the water he makes a bolt for the water and is happy to drench himself to catch the water.

Put him on the floor and he will happily allow us to spin him on the wooden floor until he is dizzy. He even stiffens up his back so we can spin him faster.

Oh and after buying him a fancy cat house with all the trimmings, he prefers a pink blanket in a pink washbasin.

cjf

nala2012 wrote: »

Nala puts a blanket in her mouth and then kinda massages the rest of it with her paws before falling asleep with the blanket still in her mouth!

My Doberman does this too!! He has a 'blanket' that he carries around with him and likes to suck when watching tv or going to sleep at night. He knows the word blanket and if u ask 'where's your blanket?' He runs off to get it - its like a doggie pacifier! Always wondered if it was just him!

My female builds forts from cushions or duvets - often walk into the bedroom or sitting room and just see a little nose poking out of a mound of cushions or blankets. It's a very precise science she could spend 10 minutes nesting about getting it just right!

Morf

Bertie has taken lately to ripping up tissues and kitchen paper.

It's quite annoying.

Bubblefett

My cat sits on my shoulder like a parrot He also loves sticking his head under the tap when its running then trying to catch the drops dripping off of him.

My dog tries to shoplift in petshops! If I bring him in he'll pick up a toy/treat and refuse to put it down.

chriity139

Bruno will sit up on an armchair like a human and will gladly watch the telly for a good hour or so.

Raminahobbin

Kayla likes to put the blanket that's usually on the back of the couch over her head, then snap and snarl at your hand through it. It's this whole vicious sounding game we play, but as soon the blanket slips off her head and she feels/sees your hand, she stops and knows not to bite

The same blanket she will pull down for my mother to cover over the two of them for their nap time in the afternoon.

It's also IMPOSSIBLE to bring an umbrella with you if you think it might rain while walking her. She just HAS to carry it! There has been several occasions where she has refused to give it back! If you don't have an umbrella, she will find something to carry home, like a bottle/stone, or more unusual items like a kids lunch box, filled with an uneaten lunch or a car hub cap. She once found a flowerpot so large, it covered her head meaning she couldn't see where she was going AT ALL and still refused to drop it.

She has also decided that it's her job to bring in the post from the porch, but has figured out that she gets more attention if she brings the letters in one by one instead of all together

Cocker spaniels really are nutjobs.

baby and crumble

Isabella (Syrian hamster) likes to sit on my shoulder when I walk around the house. She'll stay really still and quiet as I walk with her head up and stuff. Sometimes she'll just start grooming herself up there too!

I have a riser for my laptop, it's a sheet of plastic bent so there's a space underneath so your laptop sits at an angle. Anyway, when she's out wandering on my desk and I'm working she'll go in underneath it and fall asleep, I think because its dark and warm from the heat of the laptop. Occasionally I'll just hear her in there nibbling something that she's pouched in her cheeks along the way!

Oh and if she's on my bed she'll go to one particular spot and fling herself off to get onto the floor. It's only one spot, and if I move her back to the centre of the bed she'll run straight back to that spot to try get down. I let her once, and she was so surprised she'd managed it she just sort of say there until I picked her up again!!

Little weirdo.

ShaShaBear

Shadow has an endless amount of quirky traits. We've had him from a pup, and there was an incident with the underside of a coffee table and him forgetting where he was, so I figure it might have something to do with it :rolleyes:

After Shadow eats (be it a single nut of food, the crust of a sandwich or the crumbs from crisps that escape onto the floor), he likes to roll and spasm on the floor, making growling and howling noises. Goes on for about ten seconds and then he comes back to see if there is more food (not a veterinary problem, we checked )

Shadow absolutely point blank refuses to retrieve - he will take the toy as close to you as he can get and will play with it there until you try to take it off him. A very odd game ensues where i have to use my feet to try and sweep them under his paws. He growls and snarls like a mad man, in the play position with his paws tucked under his chest. If I stop, he takes his paws back out and looks at me. If I sit down and continue to ignore, he'll put a deliciously slobbery squeaky right beside me, and then pretend like I stole it from him and he can't figure out where I put it!! :eek:

Lastly, and this is a new one, he has taken to sleeping ON my partner's legs in bed at night. Not between us, or at his feet, but actually putting as much of his body on as much of Pierce's legs as he can possibly manage. The only way for peace is for us to make space under the duvet so he can sleep like a child in between the two of us, we both have to face and cuddle him.

To conclude, my dog is stark raving mad. If he were human, I'd actually have him assessed. Makes for a great life though :P

dodderangler

My Akita will randomly start attackin my foot when he's bored and when he gets has his ears rubbed he'll kick the ground
My ferret fatso has a thing for coke bottles
Has a full on war with it
Sneakin behind couch and attackin the bottle from all angles
My other two ferrets will then join in tho one of them will join the bottle and attack the other two

OldNotWIse

Knine wrote: »

One of mine howls like a wolf at the Ice Cream Van! She also barks at her treats before she eats them

lol reminds me of a cat I once had who used to "attack" hot food

Osky loves trying to bury my wallet for me under the duvet on my bed. Or anything with a shiny wrapper. He'll let me take it back of course, but if mum goes near it, he's having none of it!

bluecherry74

Brilliant idea for a thread, love reading everyone's stories!

Both my cats like to drink out of the water glass beside my bed during the night. I regularly wake to the sound of lapping and a little furry bum in my face. I need to start using a bottle instead...

One of them will meow to be let into the kitchen, but he doesn't just come up to the door and meow - he starts at the top of the stairs and meows all the way down to the kitchen door. Presumably he's learnt that by the time he gets there I'll have already opened the door so he doesn't have to wait.

One of my dogs won't play fetch no matter how hard I try. When I throw the ball she'll look at it, look back at me, sit and then look away. It's as though she's saying "NOPE".

Same dog gets very nervous if we come across a rubbish bag dumped at the side of the road. She stops dead and stares, and I have to coax her along. As soon as we get close enough for her to sniff it she's all interested. I have no idea where this came from, nothing else in the world fazes her.

The other dog has this funny little routine in the morning when I left him out of his crate. He dashes out, up on to the bed and over it, into my ensuite and out again, out the bedroom door to the top of the stairs, back into the main bathroom to say hello to the cat (see below), down the stairs, into the living room to say hello to the other cat, and then finally into the kitchen to be let out. You can imagine how much fun this was when he wasn't 100% trained.

One of the cats likes to sit in the bathroom. It used to be their safe room when they were kittens and I had a baby gate across the door. Their litter tray is still in there but their beds and food bowls are in another room, but she still goes in there and hangs out for a while.

baby and crumble

I forgot to mention the weirdest thing. If I've taken soluble painkillers and have left the empty glass out, she will do her damnedest to get in. She managed it once...

IvySlayer

If I give my Sam a treat, he'll run a few laps of the house with it before eating it And I have to throw the treat, simply putting it near his mouth or leaving it on the ground, he won't take it, dunno why, always been like that

metaoblivia

Samhain, my cat, does not act like a cat at all. This was confirmed during a recent visit to the vet. Firstly, she doesn't meow, she chirps and trills. I don't know how else to explain it except that that's what everyone who meets her says, including the vet - "Your cat is chirping at me!"
And if you talk to her while she's chirping, she'll chirp and trill at you more, like you're having a conversation.
Secondly, she is not shy around people at all. She loves to explore new places and people. At the vet, she was into everything - the counter space, the cabinets, the tables, the jars and things on the tables and counter tops. She rubbed up against everyone in the room multiple times, chirping and trilling away.
And finally, she loves to head bunt, which isn't unusual for cats. But she'll leave her head pressed against yours for as long as you let her. She'll just stand there with her head pressed to your head and not move until you move. Even if you put your finger on her forehead, she'll just sit there and not move and purr. She's a funny little cat.

My dog doesn't really have any quirky traits, except that he'll chase the cats, but he won't pass them. What I mean is, if one of the cats happen to be standing or sitting near his food bowl or a door he wants to go through, he'll just sit there and whine until someone moves them, but he has no qualms about play chasing them through the house.

Nody

Hmm, Alice (our stupid cat) likes to steal raw potatos and take them into the bathroom (but only if no one is looking at her!). Alice will also randomly fall in love with strangers and then the next time said person is over completely forgotten that the last time we could not pull her away from said person's attention the last time (leaves some odd impression on guests).

Tiggy (our smart cat) will come running to our bed every night, sit down on my side of the bed looking at me until I sit down, reach out to cuddle her when she will run away over to my wife's side of the bed and settle down for the night. Tiggy has also figured out how to open our drawers, go into them and then walk down to the closed drawers further down; how ever by doing this she can't get out so a frantic search is done every so often to see if she's stuck in a drawer or not.

TerrorFirmer

My father usually brings the dogs out twice a day, but I suppose being 10 years old, they're getting on a bit, and whilst Max is an excited about the second evening walk as much as the first, Millie gets this panicked look in her eyes, starts walking backwards away from Dad, and dashes off to find Mum, and when she does, she jumps on the bed/couch/wherever mum is, wriggles under her arm and just stares until Dad eventually leaves with just Max. So funny. She does this every time my Dad asks the two dogs if they want to go for a walk in the evening time.

Also, she went through a phase of barking at black people - and I do literally mean, only black people. Very awkward. Seems to have passed by now though....

Niamho!

I have an Alaskan Malamute and If we;re out walking, or in a park, and she gets onto a patch of slightly longer than usual grass, she goes ape-s**t!! Starts running around in circles in a playful way like a lunatic. As soon as I see the signals I have to firmly plant my feet on the ground if I have a hold to her lead.

Nead21

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Also, she went through a phase of barking at black people - and I do literally mean, only black people. Very awkward. Seems to have passed by now though....

Thank god we don't have the only racist dog!! :eek:

Kaiser always has to sniff the post before you take it off the floor. He's won't let you pick it up without doing so. It's as if he's deeming it as safe

He's OBSESSED with hands, goes mental when you put your hand up your sleeve and then uncover it.

He loves to lick the floor and his bed...could do it for hours. We are trying to get him out of that habit though.

Mountainsandh

Gizmo our Shih tzu cross has grown up with our mature cat since last February. He's now a year old, and I think he sometimes forgets he's a dog

He sits below the shelf where the cat is fed, and "shih tzu miaows" at him (awhoo, awhoo, aww awwhoo) to beg for food (he's well fed with dog food), he even does the "standing" trick to impress him...
he's got a perfectly clean bowl of water changed daily, but no, like the cat, he has taken to jumping into the bathtub to go drink in the cat's glass... (cat will only drink from a glass left in the tub)
I'm ashamed to say it, but yes, he has also chanced his arm jumping on top of the table, just like the cat. If he physically could he'd go for the countertops as well.

He's afraid to go for a pee on his own in the garden at night, I've to go out and shine the torch light on the grass for him... :rolleyes:

Popey is so clever with doors, he has the push and pull techniques all sussed out (dog hasn't learned that off him yet !). I had to put a baby lock on the fridge door long before the kids were born since he got busted one night feasting on a whole chicken on the kitchen floor.

frogstar

My partner uses bryllcream in his hair and when my dog is on the bed she will lick his pillow forever. I've replaced four pillowcases already as she has licked straight through causing a big hole in them.

mumo3

One of my tom cats wont let you sit on the sofa if he is already on it .. he only sits in a corner but before your bum cheeks hit the sofa he meows real loud and if you sit on it anyway (**** you cat as my husband says) the cat doesn't shut up just gets louder and louder until you move

The second tom loves nothing more than been wheeled around in my daughters dolls pram

p.s kids can sit where they like cat knows better.. if he doesn't move he is going to turn into rag doll.

OldNotWIse

This thread makes my misfits look normal lol