Our new dog, Sasha, is barely over a year old. Which essentially means she’s like a human toddler – bringing us joy one moment and driving us a bit crazy the next.
One habit that cracks us up is her obsession with our shoes. Sasha loves to sleep on them, but she also enjoys taking them away from our pile in the laundry room and distributing them all over the house.
Our other dog, Elli, used to do this years ago, but not quite to the extent that Sasha does. Elli would take one of my slippers and bring it to her bed, thankfully never chewing it up. Sasha also doesn’t harm my shoes, but she likes to increase the quantity and variety of placement.
Intrigued by this behavior, I researched why dogs like to take their owner’s shoes. It turns out that shoes strongly carry our scent (not the best scent in my opinion … but hey, dogs are often gross as many of us know). Dogs feel tremendous comfort from our smell, especially when we’re away from the house.
If you visit the Shankland household, you can expect to see a trail of shoes like this one. (Photo provided by Amy Shankland)
Sasha, however, loves to carry shoes – especially mine – all throughout the house even when I’m home. In fact, she moved on to socks last weekend. As I was sitting on our back deck reading Sunday, I decided to remove my socks and go barefoot since it was such a nice afternoon. I left them on one of our deck chairs.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her stealthily approach the chair with cautious footsteps. I didn’t think much of it until I caught a furry flash of brown and white holding something that looked like a tiny white flag. I chuckled and filmed the evidence of the theft with my phone.
“You are busted!” I exclaimed.
In my research, various sites talked about how to stop this behavior, with the obvious suggestion of putting shoes elsewhere and out of reach. Stop the behavior? I thought. No way.
Granted, if you have dogs chewing your shoes and socks to bits, of course things can’t continue. However, Sasha never harms our shoes, and these antics are a source of joy for us. It’s always a “hide and seek” adventure for most every day and makes us laugh.
As I mentioned in a previous column, pets can help us during the initial phase of the empty nest stage of life. With both of my sons officially moved out of our house now, having Sasha, Elli, and our cat Chilly around bring my husband and I great comfort.
It’s fun to see Sasha’s antics. Just like a toddler, she keeps us on our toes. Plus, she’s like a lot of girls who adore shoes. We’ll let her build her collection, one pair at a time.
Amy Shankland is a writer and fundraising professional living in Noblesville with her husband John, two sons, two dogs, and a cat. You can reach her via email at amys@greenavenue.info.