Dog eating tissue!

ncmc

Bit of a weird one, but just wondering if anyone has any insight, my 6 ½ year old Cocker Spaniel had become obsessed with eating tissue! Toilet paper, kitchen roll, Kleenex, she goes nuts for them all. She always ate them if she got the chance, she’s a great one for taking your tissue out of your pocket and running off with it, but recently she’s stepped it up a notch. She now has started pulling toilet tissue of the roll and eating it and if there’s unflushed tissue in the loo, she will try and get at that too :eek: She gets manically excited if she finds a tissue in your pocket and runs off and gobbles it before you have a chance to snatch it from her! It makes no odds to her if it’s fresh or used, so I don’t think it’s about our scent.

Has anyone else experienced this? She is in good health and her poo seems fine, but it’s just a bit strange

Gael23

We have a 13 year old cocker and he does this all the time. So far it has done no harm but if we ever catch him with one its always taken off him. Hes not as bad as yours though, he will just go routing in the biin or if there are any sticking out of the top of the tissue box on a table they will be gone.
I wouldn't be too worried, like I said, take it off her if you catch her with one or if you catch her doing it, try to stop her

bluecherry74

Oh yes, I can identify! My last dog was obsessed with tissues. I have no idea why. She'd steal them out of bins and rummage into people's pockets for them. My dear old aunt used to keep a tissue tucked under her bra strap, which could have been embarrassing only for her being a huge dog lover.

One of my current dogs is starting to develop the same interest but isn't quite as intrusive about it. I just have to keep bins and tissue boxes out of his reach. Neither he not my other dog ate other weird things (aside from when they were puppies) so I've always just put it down to an odd quirk. Would be interested in hearing if there's any known explanation though!

The Bishop Basher

We've had a number of cockers over the years and all of them loved ripping up tissue. I've heard it from other owners as well. It seems to be a trait of the breed. Yours does sound a bit nuts though !!

bluecherry74

My two aren't cockers - my previous tissue gobbler was a Vizsla and the current one is a Setter, so maybe it's a gun dog thing?

ncmc

LOL, I’m glad to see she’s not the only nutter, laughing at the one retrieving the tissue from the bra strap!

It’s strange, as she always loved tissues, but has gone mad into them in the last few weeks, she gets a mad wee addict head on her When I saw her trying to fish the tissue out of the toilet bowl though, I couldn’t believe it (by the way, I’d only used it to blot lipstick – I don’t think even she is that gross!)

jsabina

my puppy setters love tissues as well...
well, to be honest he loves to destroy everything
anyway I don't think it's strange?

Dunny

Lola does it all the time ffs!

Binka

I see a common theme here. My pointer, Jacob, who is approx 4 is completely obsessed with tissues and kitchen roll. He wrestles with me to get them out of my pockets and if I leave one unattended it is gone in seconds. Fortunately they go through him and come out the other end in one piece.
But I'm thinking, gun dog, and maybe some kind of chemical/hormone used in the manufacturing process that mimmicks game??
Does anyone have any clue on what the attraction is. It worries me a lot because I have a fear of him getting a blockage in his colon one day.
On the up side I'm relieved I'm not the only one.

Mountainsandh

mine is no gun dog, he's a shih tzu cross, and has a tissue fetish too.

It's gross and spooky, no matter where he is, he now recognizes the sound of us blowing our nose, and appears, sits right in front of the "blower", and stares... watching... waiting for us to put away the tissue... He's well able to pull them out of your pockets, so I took to sitting over my tissues (putting them under my thighs) so he couldn't reach it, but he just stays there and waits, patiently, until I forget about it and move.
He's like a friggin' bird of prey ffs.:D

Thankfully he hasn't copped on to the toilet, and after strict cross voice training, he has stopped attacking the toilet rolls. But any packet of tissues is game, he'll steal them off the outside pockets of kids' schoolbags, sneak under the table, and gleefully proceed to pull them out, one by one, and shred them.

He shreds, but doesn't eat the tissues. I often think though, anyone calling unnanounced, there could be shreds of tissue anywhere in my house ! :eek:

Binka

Mountainsandh wrote: »

mine is no gun dog, he's a shih tzu cross, and has a tissue fetish too.

hmmm... interesting! Any idea what the cross is?
My conspiracy theory is that there's something in the manufacturing process that is like doggy heroin! Anybody out there have a cat problem with tissues?

Mountainsandh

Oh I know what he is exactly, he is a shih tzu x bichon frise. I tend not to say it because some people get up in arms about "designer" breeds.

I don't know what the hell is in them tissues... my cat has never ever been interested. In fact judging by the way he looks at Gizmo frantically sniffing and shredding, the cat finds it utterly despicable and undignified .

edit : then again, he seems to find every thing that little doggy does utterly despicable and undignified.

Binka

Same as, my cat has no interest and neither does my lurcher.

mymo

Well we appear to have a pair of andrex puppy wannabes too!And now the kitten soft kitten has competition!
It's not just tissue/toilet roll/kitchen towel, any news paper is fair game at times, Mouse(kitten) has a Thing for the whole rolls, she can hug and shred at the same time.
Dogs will tear off sheets and shred.
I often wondered myself why, assumed it was the noise!

ISDW

One of my huskies is the same with tissues, so not just a gun dog thing

sparkle_23

My Springer loves tissues! If he see me with one he grabs it out of my hand and he's off like a shot! He shreds them too.. He also at 11 years of age has decided he likes socks.. A lot! Comes in grabs a clean one off the radiator and takes off down the garden. Think he just likes the chase! So it must be just an odd dog thing!

bfocusd

My dog isnt a gun dog either and she shredds toilet roll, ive seen her try a couple of times to eat it, but nothing to the extent to what the op is describing, I was going to suggest putting it up high, but id say hed easily jump up to get it, my dogs small so its easy to keep stuff from her

careful_now

My dog does the same! He's a King Charles cross. He's a year and a half and has been doing it since he was a puppy. He'll poke his head into my pocket, knowing that there's one in there. And when he gets it he races off delighted with himself. It's funny though. I wonder what the fascination is. We let him have a roll of toilet paper on Christmas morning :-)