It Smells Like You
Let’s face it, dogs do things that are pretty gross to us humans. Digging in the trash to eat tissues that are covered with your snot is pretty high up there on the gross continuum. Why do they enjoy this stomach-turning snack? It might be because they love you. They love you so muchthat they literally want to eat you up.
Your bodily fluids smell like you and not just the obvious armpits after a long workout variety. The part of a dog’s brain that is dedicated to deciphering olfactory information is proportionally 40 times bigger than the comparable area in a human brain. Using a comparison we can all see clearly, former director of the Sensory Research Institute at Florida State University James Walker said, “If you make the analogy to vision, what you and I can see at a third of a mile, a dog could see more than 3,000 miles away and still see as well.”
A dog’s sense of smell is insanely keen. They smell you in your used tissues, dirty underwear, and socks and because of this, they often consume them in a statement of ultimate rapture.
4 Possible Reasons Your Dog Eats Tissues
If your puppy is eating tissues or anything else she can wrap her muzzle around, it’s likely that she is simply satisfying her curiosity. Just like their human counterparts, juvenile canines learn about the world through their mouths. Biting, shredding, pawing, and eating tissues is funand comes with the bonus of teaching her new information about this place called home.
Puppies aren’t the only ones who like to party, though! Adult dogs gotta get their kicks and when bored or feeling anxious in your absence, they will find something to pass the time. Tissues and toilet paper are readily available and may even activate your dog’s ancestral hunting instinct. Expert contributor to the Canine Corner blog on Psychology Today, Stanley Coren made an interesting observationabout the behavior. He said that when dogs put tissue in their mouth it feels like feathers or fur and, therefore, activates the dog’s innate urge to rip, tear, and even eat the material.
What to do about your dog eating tissues
Below are some options you have when dealing with the behavior.
As mentioned above, it could be the case that your dog has learned that eating used tissues is rewarded. Instead, it would help to avoid giving your dog extra attention when it does it and to reward it when it behaves the way you want it to.
The easiest thing to do would be to limit your dog’s access to tissues by making sure to keep the bathroom door closed and tissues out of its reach.
As mentioned above, it could be due to an issue with its diet. It would help to ensure that it has been eating enough calories and that it has been getting the right nutrients in its diet.
If you are unsure of why your dog has been doing it, it has been eating tissues excessively or it has been behaving unusually in other ways, the best option would be to take it to a vet. By doing so, you should be able to get expert advice tailored towards your particular dog and to rule out medical causes.
Why Do Dogs Like Eating Tissues So Much?
If your dog has been eating used tissues, this post will show you likely reasons why and what you can do about them.
So, why does my dog eat used tissues? The most likely reason why your dog eats used tissues is that it likes the taste and has learned that the behavior is rewarded.
There are actually a number of possible reasons why your dog eats used tissues and it could be due to a combination of reasons. However, there are a number of things you can consider to help figure out the main cause and there are a number of things you can do about it.