Hi, I have a Chihuahua and she is two and a half years old. Last year she had her season and a month or so after she started to mother her toys and crying a lot. I spoke to my vet and he said it could be the early stages of a Phantom Pregnancy. She snapped out of it after a while, we kept ignoring her (it was really hard!) and still having her toys in the same room but just taking them off her instead of letting her fuss over them. Anyway she has started doing this again. She had a season a couple on months ago and now she has started getting really protective over her toys and constantly licking them and general concern as to where they are. I was just wondering if there is anything else i could be doing to stop it developing any further. I have started ignoring the crys and taking toys away from her but just wondered if anyone knows of anything else? I have heard people say to take all the dog bedding away and toys but this seems a bit harsh? We are looking into getting her spayed to stop this problem, we was hoping to breed her but my main concern is her well being and if this is going to happen after every season then i don't want her suffering.... Thanks in advance for any advice.

You could try taking her mind off things.  Lots of going out and walks - filling small toys with food/treats so she sees them as something other than pseudo puppies.

Certainly take all her toys right away. If she nests, then you may have to take her bedding away too. Phantom pregnancies are a perfectly normal condition in bitches, and almost all will have them to a degree - some will have almost no symptoms and others will go the whole hog and be really miserable.

Basically don't give her time to brood but keep her busy, cut down the amount of protein in her diet and give her loads of exercise.