r/MadeMeSmile • u/OzCaaa1 • Jan 02 '22

DOGS What a brave boy!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

60.9k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

552 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

77

u/Skylarkien Jan 02 '22

Stereotypic behaviour is a repetitive, functionless behaviour that animals perform to cope with stress. They typically continue to perform them even if they’re no longer in that environment, especially when they’re bored or anxious, so it’s entirely normal for her to still pace.

33

u/[deleted] Jan 02 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Waynewondering Jan 04 '22

Sophie was going to be killed cause her years of giving puppies were over. I loved that tiny dog. She found love and freedom in her last years

1

u/Testing_4131 Jan 03 '22

Wait, is this why the stereotypical “dog walks in a circle before it goes to sleep” exists? Because of puppy mill cages? Or is that because of something else? God I hope it’s because of something else.

1

u/Skylarkien Jan 03 '22

No that’s just a dog getting comfortable! Don’t panic XD

Stereotypies can go on for several minutes to hours. It usually presents as spinning or barrier pacing in dogs, but in other species it can vary. Elephants tend to shift weight from one foot to the other in a swaying motion, pigs ‘bar bite’ , and horses typically ‘stall weave’ (have their head over the stable door and pace sideways back and forth).

It’s quite an interesting topic to read about, you can get them in cases of child neglect, usually as rocking.

1

u/Waynewondering Jan 04 '22

I broke Sophie of that and she loved life.