Why Your Dog Loves to Steal Socks and What Can Do

You’ve probably heard other dog owners talk about how their dogs take their socks, and you went, “Oh, my dog does that too,” while laughing about it. Have you ever thought about why dogs do it? Read on, and you won’t only find out why dogs do it but also find help for stopping this behavior the right way.

The Nature of Dogs

Dogs naturally gravitate towards hunting and retrieving, and they express this behavior through chasing things, collecting them, and even hiding them. They may have just seen your socks as “prey,” and decided to keep them as their hunting treasure.

Fun and Play

Sometimes, they just want to play and may be bored with their toys, so they see your socks as a toy that can provide them some excitement. These items are soft enough to chew and light enough to move around.

Seeking Attention

Sometimes, they just want to play and may be bored with their toys, so they see your socks as a toy that can provide them some excitement. These items are soft enough to chew and light enough to move around.

Comfort and Familiarity

Dog’s strong sense of smell is one reason humans keep them. However, this smell can also trigger them to take and hide your socks. If they smell things they are familiar with, they may want to keep them for comfort.

Teething and Chewing

In the teething phase, dogs want to chew something so they feel more comfortable in their gums. When they have nothing better to chew on, they may settle for your soft and fluffy socks. As for the grown ones who love to chew, they may just see it as a chew toy.

Possession and Guarding

Some dogs have great guarding instincts, so they want to prevent others from taking what they consider valuable or their property. If they find your socks valuable, maybe because your smell is on them, they may take them and keep them in hiding.

Anxiety and Boredom

When dogs try to cope with being anxious or bored, they may engage in activities they don’t normally dabble in. Instead of lying around without any activity, they may create one by taking your socks. Your scent on the socks may also help them feel better when anxious.

Pack Mentality

Dogs love to belong in packs because that’s their nature. But even when there is no pack, dogs still exhibit pack behaviors like resource guarding. This is where they keep things that they consider valuable, so they feel like they have more than other dogs.

Habitual Behavior

Positive reinforcement is one way to guide a dog’s behavior. Hence, if the dog feels rewarded for stealing socks—maybe they get attention or play from their owner—they will see nothing wrong with it and may do it again to get the same result they got before.

How to Respond

While some may find it amusing, others may find it frustrating. Besides, a dog that chews socks may swallow it and suffer an internal blockage. To prevent this frustration and keep your dog’s health safe, here are some ways you can stop them from behaving this way.

Keep Socks Out of Reach

A simple way to fix it is to keep the socks in places where they can’t reach them. You can use pet gates to block the areas where you keep your socks or keep your bins for socks higher than where they can reach. When deprived of socks, they may eventually lose their taste for them.

Provide Alternative Toys

Some reasons dogs love socks is because they are soft enough to make chewing enjoyable and light enough to carry around. Look for toys that possess similar qualities so they can serve as healthy replacements. Get several toys and keep rotating them so they do not get bored.

Use Positive Reinforcement

Reward your dog whenever it plays with the right toys; that’s how you let it know that it should play with other toys and leave your socks alone. You can reward it with more playtime, a treat, or even praise. Eventually, it’ll start to match your responses with its actions and adjust.

Teach “Leave It” and “Drop It”

These two commands are helpful in keeping your dogs from handling items they shouldn’t. “Leave it” is for cases where the dog hasn’t carried the object yet, while “drop it is for when they have already picked it up.

Consult a Trainer or Behaviorist

Have you tried different things, but your dog remains invested in taking and hiding your socks? Professional dog trainers or behaviorists can help. The trainers will know how to train the dog to respond to commands, while a behaviorist will figure out why the dog has the behavior.