Doggie Toy Addiction Is Real

Sunday, 12 October 2025, 19:00 Dr. Tar Uncategorized 16

discovery magazine

In a new Scientific Reports study, researchers found that some dogs show addiction-like behaviors toward their toys — traits that mirror human behavioral addictions, such as gambling or internet gaming. About one-third of the 105 highly play-motivated dogs studied met several criteria for addiction, including craving, lack of self-control, and agitation when toys were taken away.

Dogs appear to be the only non-human species known to spontaneously develop such behaviors without experimental induction, giving scientists a rare opportunity to study the biological roots of compulsion. More

16 Comments on Doggie Toy Addiction Is Real

  3. My step nephew has what looks like a pit bull mix. She’s relatively sweet though she has a bad habit of coming up to you without being called. She also likes to show you her latest toy, not to have you throw it or to share it with you, but to show you her new toy. I had thought it strange behavior, not so much anymore.

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  5. IOTW TRUE STORYtm
    I was visiting a place enroute to moving over seas.
    Went to a big name Pet Zone type of store to stock up on some favorite chewey treats to have on hand for the big trip.
    As we were walking from the car to the store we witnessed the following happen. One of those “If it had been recorded it would have won AFHV Millions”.

    A guy was walking into the store with a big lab on a leash. He went in first and was pulling the dog’s leash. The dog had squatted and started pooping right in front of the door. The owner didn’t see it happen and was pulling the dog into the store. Meanwhile. . .

    From the left hand side of the parking lot another guy had gotten out of his vehicle and was jogging towards the store front. Kind of a brisk walk if not a jog.

    We’re about 20 or 30 feet away and are seeing what is about to happen.

    The brisk walker does not see the poop on the front door stoop. It looked and was a real life version of the banana peel slip. His right foot hit the mark, slipped and he went up in the air. He landed on the poop to add insult to his ordeal.

    We all looked at each other in amazement at what we had witnessed and could not help busting out laughing. We were laughing so hard we couldn’t go in the store and drove to another location. Laughing the whole way. To this day the memory is making me laugh.

    13

  6. Idk about toys, but some horses get addicted to “cribbing” where tgey grab a fence with their teetv and suck air and swallow. It can be quite bad for them and cribbing straps were developed to put around the horses’ nevks to try and stop it; they still try. Fortunately, none of my horses had this addiction. Awful.

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  9. For my dog, ball is life.
    Don’t even think about trying to take it from her or think you can hide it from her.
    She will make it her mission to make your life miserable, should you try.

    8

  16. My brother had a Tom kitty that would fetch a small red foam rubber ball. Until he dropped from exhaustion. I tied it to a string once, and he would perform spectacular yet unnecessary flips in pursuit when I’d swing it back and forth. But that was the only thing he would respond to. Go figure.

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