Does anyone know why Labradors eat socks!??!!!!!

Is it the scent? I read somewhere that the wiring in a labs head is all wrong and they can't differentiate between food and non food items!!!

Em

I thought EVERYTHING was food to labs? ROFLMAO

Exactly so is that the answer?  Do they not know that it isn't food? I mean psychologically....

I think they are just a bit nuts :D

I do think they think everything is food, maybe its to do with their taste buds?

My toy poodle likes socks as well - clean or dirty, no preference and she knows where they live, so if you leave the drawer open even a tiny bit she tries to stick her nose in enough to get some out.  She doesn't exactly eat them, but she does chew them and makes holes.

The other day she very daintily took my sandal into her bed when she thought I wasn't looking, fortunately I noticed before she could do any damage.  :rolleyes:

Errrmmmmm Henry eats them WHOLE...no chewing...just gulps them down!

After his last episode we have been so careful but last week one fell out of the washing machine as my mum was collecting stuff up and oh.....along came H and down it went before anyone could grab him!

He threw it up today tho :-)

OMG imagine eating the WHOLE sock!    Thankfully Roxy couldn't manage that even if she tried!

Tohme,
Everything IS food to labs. Its just the ease that it comes out the other end which determines whether it is SUITABLE food or not! The definition of food suitable for a labrador is that it doesnt require a £400++ vets bill to remove it! ;-)

Havoc (who has been there, bought the tee-shirt, and is now trying to stop his labradors from eating the tee-shirt!)

Well toilet roll middles done smell of anything and are still a favourite 'eat' in our house. Having said that one of ours could probably live off of cardboard.

Yep!!!!!   my Boxers eat socks aswell, any kind, thick ones ,thin ones,dirty or clean, then they usually sick them back up, or worse, they come out the other end,  its not very nice when you are out walking, and you have to pull a popsock out of there backsides, because they STRETCH!!!!!!!

Eva has taken a liking to my dads underwear and reguaraly runs round the garden with it so ammusing.

My goldie eats socks on a regular basis, despite us hiding them! SHe always seems to find them and the first thing we know if it is when it comes out intact out of the other end!!!

At least socks aren't QUITE as revolting as dirty nappies out of the Napisan bin that Simba used to enjoy as a snack.......

Yeugh!!!

Margot

Oh yes Moose has done that ! She then decided to leave one under our bed. It took me weeks to suss out where the foul smell was coming from :rolleyes: (under our bed used to be a dumping ground so it was not easily visable :D :D  )

Yes the latest victim in our house was a pair of my (always seems to be my shoes) pink flip flops which I really liked. I came down to a floor completely covered in pink bits of rubber :D

Another question is why do they insist on destroying things into millions of tiny pieces making clearing up a mammoth task :D

Lucy
xx

from what you have all said, how on earth did they manage to produce an advert for a well know brand of toilet tissue, surely the puppy would have eaten it instead of runnin round the house....

I believe that Lastar's offspring enjoy dirty knickers in America, I have been asked if Lastar is the same but I don't think I'll try it out :d  Sorry Terri, I think that you'd better be on your guard with Tangle !!

Surely if you can eat it, it's food!

I think it was a case of very small puppies and big toilet rolls :D :D Some of them do grow out of the worst of it. And look on the bright side it makes people clear up after themselves at training class once I upset the daughter of a new owner when she said she had lost 15 pairs of designer shoes to the pup, I said that after the first pair she should have made sure that they were well out of the way.

Yes that is true making sure things are not left out but they have a very good knacked of leading you into a false sense of security making you think they are 'over' the chewing stage and so you do leave things out again and yes they do it a again  ! :D :D

Oh yes and that is normally when they do all of the damage!

So thats where all my missing socks have gone!! LOL :)

My boy is a 22 week old Golden Retriever, whom loves to swallow stones, I have caught him a couple times with a sock when he's been helping me with the washing......he sneaks off into the sitting room and hides it under his paws......Never thought he might actually swallow them....

He's a funny little sole, but at least he's not the only one eh?  :)

Try and discourage the stone thing as it could cause a very big problem that could lead to him having to have major surgery to remove them ;)

Lucy
xx

The one that really makes me laugh is when they have something hidden in their mouth and are walking around not looking at you to try and hide it.

You do need to be careful of the stones a friends dog had to have them taken out of its stomach, if I remember rightly they took out about  1Lb!

Yes my lot do it with things the size of a cat and they think we can't see what they are doing ! :D

Our Bella used to insist on bringing us things, and wouldn't leave us alone until we'd taken it and thanked her. We couldn't understand why she kept pestering us, then noticed that her mouth wasn't quite shut. When I held out a hand and told her to "Give" she found she couldn't get the tiny piece of paper (one of those circles of paper from a hole-punch) off her tongue, so just stuck her tongue out till we got it off! :D

Our Springer does too. In fact knickers, bra's, underpants you name it it goes out into the garden. He done it when we had friends round for a bbq. Died of embaressment.

Ha Ha Ha LOL :)

We had aproblem last week and I thought it might have been a stone that had got caught....

I was about to ring the vets after reading posts on stone eating and the problems they cause, when he had the worst poop i'd ever seen and in it was a handful of gravel....my garden has lots of gravel and stones :(

He seemed to perk up after that, so I think he was very lucky...  :) I keep an extra watch over him in the garden now, I hope he grows out of it soon......

Nicky :)

Are labs walking dustbins.
My friend came to my house once and disapeared upstairs.
In my back bedroom was a sack of dog food not opened.
It was when we realised where she was.Eaten bits of bag and was woofing food like she hadn't ever eaten before.
Every time she came to my house she was up them stairs like a flash.I was wise always shut door.
Didnt think about pack of butter on unit.Gone paper the lot.
I learned never leave anything around when Labs about.LOL
Dog

Are the socks still wearable?

Oh yes thats a Lab! MIL now caters a portion of dinner extra because Hook always manages to steal something. As for shutting doors NO PROBLEM given enough incentive ours can open most internal doors, including cupboards. Dog food is now stored on top of the wardrobe :D

my spaniels are dustbins too ..and yes - socks are wearable although if I suspect they have eaten something they shouldnt I have the soda crystals down their throat pronto to make them sick , as I so nearly lost one of my girls a few years back due to what she had eaten that caused an obstruction and her stomach twisted and a large part died off. She is now a good few feet of intestine less. Thinking about it, it was a springer that I had that was the worst - any underwear and an obsession with coal - I was alwasy frightened he would burn himself as  couldnt have fire open without the guard as wanted to get into the thing to eat the coal...My setter can open the fridge door and help himself or jump onto the table or work top. Any food not to be consumed straight away has to be put in the microwave for safe keeping.

I think in answer to my post....LABS ARE JUST DUSTBINS!  It's official.  It should be listed on the breed standard..... :-)