Dogs Understand Gift-Giving
Even though gift-giving is not practiced by all dogs, some love greeting their owners with a gift in their mouth.
This is usually their favorite toy, so it is also possible that if they love playing with your socks, they will greet you with socks in their mouth.
Therefore, if you are not in any distress and your dog brings you socks, just know the dog is trying to give you a gift.
Canines have a natural habit of retrieving and hiding items and this comes in handy when hunting.
For instance, a wild dog carries his prey and caches his meals almost the same way a squirrel hides nuts all over the woods for emergencies. A wolf mother will always return home with prey for her cubs.
We can therefore infer that it’s this intrinsic quality of canines that makes your domesticated dog continue with the retrieving habit.
But it is not purely natural—some of this behavior can be blamed on our breeding tactics.
Years of selective breeding have led to breeds that love fetching stuff. For instance, Retrievers know how to “soft mouth” prey and hand it over to the hunter.
Similarly, most Terriers were bred to kill small vermin, so whenever they bring socks to you, they are responding to an innate desire to carry things back to their owners.
But even though the gift-giving ability of dogs can be blamed on genes, it might not always be the case. More often than not, dogs just want to make you happy.
Nothing matches the feeling of your dog greeting you at the door with a toy in his mouth—and sometimes, he will bring you your socks instead of a toy. And it is his way of expressing love and affection.
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He Senses You’re Distressed
Dogs are very smart and your dog knows when you are distressed.
Your dog wants you to be happy, so he may instinctively bring you ‘toys’ such as socks to cheer you up.
Your dog bringing you socks in this situation is his way of telling you that he knows you’re upset and he’s doing what he can to help you feel better.
Because your dog cares about your well-being, he may do whatever he can to cheer you up.
New research now shows that dogs will make a conscious effort to cheer up their people – not just by using socks, but by changing their facial expressions.
If your dog makes his eyes look bigger or raises his eyebrows when bringing you some nice, smelly socks, he is doing this on purpose!
Reasons Why a Dog May Bring You Socks
Your dog may bring you socks either to comfort you, bring you a present, or return something that belongs to you.