Puppy Obsessed with Shoes, Socks, Feet? (9 Facts + Help Tips)
Does your puppy leap out and attack your feet every time you go past?
Are all your shoes chewed?
Does your puppy sleep in a bed of socks it stole from the laundry?
What is it with puppies and feet?
1. Why Does Your Puppy Nip Your Feet?
Puppies play with each other by biting paws, ears, and tails.
When their siblings yelp, they realize they’ve gone too far. A young puppy may still try to play this way.
Alternatively, your puppy may see your feet as potential prey animals and try to catch or round up this tempting target.
Collies and terriers are notorious for biting heels in an attempt to herd.
Finally, your puppy may be teething, and your feet are handy objects.
How Do You Stop Your Puppy Biting Your Feet?
The signal to stop biting is a loud yelp. You can duplicate this with a high-pitched “ouch” and see if your puppy takes the hint.
Whatever you do – stop moving your feet.
While your feet are moving, your puppy will think it’s playing or feel it is chasing prey.
While training your puppy not to bite feet, ensure you travel with treats or a favorite toy in your pocket. When your puppy darts for your feet, stop moving.
When you have your puppy’s attention throw a treat or a toy and praise your puppy for going after the decoy.
You can enlist another family member to walk past while you distract the puppy to gradually lessen the attraction of playing with feet in favor of other activities.
While your puppy is in the foot attack phase, avoid novelty slippers because these will look like fun things to chase.
2. Why Do Puppies Lick Feet?
The urge to lick your feet is a bit more complex than the pounce and bite maneuver.
Your puppy may lick your feet because:
- Your feet are salty and sweaty, and your pup enjoys the taste.
- Emotional feeling – submission, anxiety, or friendly grooming.
- You reinforce the activity by squealing and moving.
- Your feet are available as a part of you to lick – puppies enjoy exploring the world with their mouth.
Should You Stop Your Puppy Licking Your Feet?
The occasional affectionate lick in passing is probably not going to bother you.
Still, if your puppy becomes obsessed with licking your feet, that can make you feel uncomfortable and may indicate a compulsive issue for your puppy.
Wear socks if you don’t want your puppy to lick your feet.
When your puppy gets access to your feet, distract it with a treat or an alternative activity.
3. Why Do Puppies Target Toes?
Your puppy may target your toes if you sit down and put your feet in the air; the toe is a tempting moving target, and it may look as if you are initiating a game.
When you come into a room, the first part of your foot that your puppy sees are the toes, and they may pounce and bite instinctively.
Your puppy won’t decide that it wants to attack your toes, but if your toes are available, it may be tempted.
4. What About Ankle Biting and Heep Nipping?
The hunting instinct for your puppy is to chase the prey animal.
If your puppy sees your feet as potential prey, then the part that is vulnerable to attack is the ankle or heel when it runs up behind you.
When your puppy attacks your feet, stop moving and let the urge to chase subside.
5. Why Do Puppies Steal Socks?
Some puppies fixate on socks as a desirable object and may go to great lengths to acquire your socks.
Your puppy may steal your socks because:
- You chase after it to get your sock back, and your puppy enjoys the game.
- The socks smell of you, and your puppy wants comfort because it feels lonely.
- Your puppy has odd dietary habits – known as pica.
- Your pup decides socks are a valuable resource.
Your puppy may focus exclusively on socks or a wide range of smelly laundry items like t-shirts and underwear.
Your puppy may favor your socks because of the intense smell from extra sweaty feet compared with other clothing choices.
How Can You Stop Your Puppy Fixating on Your Socks?
Prevention is better than cure.
If your puppy steals your socks, then remove the opportunities for your puppy to access your socks.
A secure laundry bin with a lid and enforcing the habit of putting your dirty socks from your feet straight into the laundry bin means no socks are available.
When it comes to changing your puppy’s habits – out of sight really is out of mind.
6. Why Do Puppies Chew Shoes?
Your puppy may seek out your shoes and slippers for the same reasons it fixates on your socks.
However, chewing on your shoes may give sore gums some relief if your puppy is teething.
A teething puppy will chew on anything available – a chair leg, your slippers, or your favorite sneakers.
After teething stops, your puppy may continue to see shoes and slippers as playthings, and some breeds continue to chew and destroy toys throughout their life.
If your puppy regards shoes as a toy, it sees no harm in tracking them down and playing with them.
The breeds that enjoy chewing as a favorite activity include:
- Boxers.
- Labradors and Labradoodles.
- Jack Russell and other terriers.
- Beagles.
- Collies.
- Bulldogs.
- Retrievers.
- Chihuahua.
- Weimaraner and other gundogs.
Any puppy can develop a chewing habit, but these breeds have a high percentage of puppies that enjoy reducing their toys to bite-sized pieces.
How Can You Stop Your Puppy Chewing Your Shoes?
Allowing your puppy to chew its way through your footwear is an expensive undertaking as shoes typically cost more than puppy chews and toys.
Proven strategies for preventing puppies from chewing shoes include:
- Removing access – lock your shoes away in a wardrobe, inside plastic storage boxes, or on a high shelf.
- Distraction – provide appropriate chew toys and chewable rawhide treats or dental sticks. Appropriate chewing helps keep teeth clean.
- Spray your shoes with a “chew-stop” formula – the same principle of using a foul taste to stop you from biting your nails applies to teaching your puppy that these objects aren’t for chewing.
- Use scent sachets to mark your shoes as off-limits – there are some smells that we find pleasant that your puppy will hate – citrus, rosemary, and mothballs all protect your shoe storage.
Are Old Shoes and Slippers Suitable Toys for Your Puppy?
Your puppy will never understand the difference between the old shoe it can chew and the new shoe to leave alone. Allowing your puppy to chew old slippers is giving it mixed messages.
Plus, your footwear is not puppy-friendly.
Your shoes may be treated with poisonous chemicals to improve durability and keep your feet odor-free.
When your puppy chews your old footwear, it may get fibers trapped in its teeth and may swallow small pieces.
Send your old shoes to a recycling bin and give your puppy appropriate toys and chewable treats.
7. Why Do Puppies Attach Shoelaces?
If you watch your puppy in the garden, you will see it snap at flying insects.
Your puppy’s brain causes it to snap at moving objects in its line of sight.
You get the same response when you walk past your puppy and your shoelaces flap, and your puppy reacts instinctively to snap at the small moving thing.
While your puppy learns about the world, it hasn’t made the connection between the interesting flapping shoelace and your feet.
Your shoelaces, fancy bobbles on your slippers, and flapping trouser legs can all seem like potential prey or playthings.
Part of your puppy’s socialization is learning that feet, shoelaces, and trousers are not potential prey.
8. Will Your Puppy Outgrow Its Foot Fetish?
Most puppies outgrow the phase of attacking feet, licking toes, and stealing socks. But for some puppies, it becomes habitual behavior.
The behavior you accept or encourage in your puppy will persist into adulthood when it is neither cute nor attractive.
A small puppy attacking your feet may be amusing, but an adult dog represents a hazard.
Responsible puppy parents focus on:
- Training their puppy not to bite humans – hands, feet, clothing are all out of bounds.
- Teaching the difference between puppy possessions and yours.
- Discouraging unwanted behavior like sock stealing or foot licking.
9. How Do You Divert Your Puppy’s Attention?
In principle, it sounds easy to offer a toy or a treat to prevent your puppy from playing with your feet.
But what if your puppy is unwilling to be distracted?
When your puppy goes for socks and shoes that are not on your feet, it is straightforward to tidy them away and prevent your puppy from accessing these items.
When your socks and shoes are on your feet, it is not as easy to divert your puppy’s attention.
When your puppy attacks your feet, stand still – a non-moving target is less exciting. Remain calm, but a sharp “no” or “stop” command will act to alert your puppy to your presence.
It is essential to stop the feet attacking habit from forming and becoming a routine for your puppy.
One successful technique is to break the pattern by substituting a command like “sit.”
If you train your puppy (not while attacking your feet) to sit automatically on command using an appropriate reward-based system, then the engrained order to sit will stop your puppy before it reaches your feet.
Remember to keep giving your puppy a treat and praise when it sits and does not attack your feet.
After a few days, the puppy will lose the urge to attack your feet because you break the link between seeing feet and attack.
You condition your puppy to see feet and sit expecting a treat.
Once the habit stops, you don’t need to keep giving treats because your puppy moves on from seeing feet as potential playthings.
Finally
Puppy training means reinforcing desirable behavior (play with this toy and not that shoe) and discouraging undesirable behavior.
For most puppies, the phase of attacking feet is short-lived and usually resolved quickly with a sharp no.
A puppy that seeks out and takes your shoes and socks and guards them like a dragon with a hoard needs more active management.
Preventing access and substituting another valuable resource like small soft toys may refocus your puppy’s attention.
Part of the puppy’s interest in getting your socks and shoes is the challenge, so hide the desirable toys so the puppy must hunt them down.
Your puppy’s focus on your feet and footwear expresses normal canine behavior of learning to hunt, social grooming, and acquiring resources.
Your puppy is adaptable, and you can refocus your puppy’s attention to toys and chews, leaving your precious toes alone.