[Jeru]

Hello guys! This morning as I was out with Chester I was surprised with a little gift. He had ran and gotten something and I could tell he was carrying something. He then goes to me and then drops a dead mouse at my feet and then looks up at me expectantly.

It was really cute and sweet of him, but I also have some concerns. I hope the mouse had no parasites and/or diseases. Should I possibly do some checking on this? If so how?

Also I was wondering how common do dogs present their owner's with little "gifts" like this. Please let me know if your dog(s) do this too.
Thanks for your time.

 

[cos]

My dog brings me dead seagulls at the beach! Once he brought me a dead frog that smelled so bad I was gagging on the way home because I couldn't get the smell off of him!

I was worried at first about parasites but my vet informed me there's not a lot of worry unless he's sitting there eating it. Most parasites apparently can't live outside of the body long so the ones that would be a problem would come from the guts if your dog was chowing down.

I personally discourage it though because he sometimes carries them around and flings and tosses them. Gross!

One of our cats refuses to live inside and she eats mice all the time. We have her checked regularly and she's never had any issues shockingly

 

[StormyPeak]

I think as long as your dog has vet regular check ups, flea/tick control and deworming routines, the mouse isn't going to be a big deal.

My dog HaHa, when he knows I'm upset, or sees me crying...he will bring me his toys. Place them by my feet and wait and look at me to see if I'm still upset then go get another toy and bring it over. He doesn't do it like he does when he's playful, he's solemn and a little worried looking when he brings the toys.

I think he knows something is wrong with me, that I'm upset and maybe he's trying to divert my attention or perhaps ally his own worry about me being worried. The first time he did it, he brought like 7 or 8 of his stuffed animals...I didn't really notice he was doing it until about 4 were piled up at my feet.

Stormy

 

[Tilden]

My boy did kill a mouse that had gotten into my garage last fall, but since it had tried to build a nest in my car's air filter--which ended up costing me $85--I thought he was doing me a mitzvah. Other than that, nothing. He'll chase the occasional squirrel up a tree or my neighbor's cat out of our yard, but he's not serious enough about it to catch anything. I'm kind of surprised he caught the mouse. He didn't present it to me either; I just found it with its neck neatly snapped and dropped by the back door. Since he'd just been out, and I knew I hadn't killed the mouse, I assumed it was his work.

Really, when I saw the title of this post, I thought it was about whether or not your dog gives holiday gifts. Our pets have always given small gifts; just this past Saturday, I bought hand knit dish clothes with paw prints or dogs knit into them from a local Search and Rescue Dogs booth at a craft fair for my dog to give to a few friends at Christmas. I figured they were practical and in his (the dog's) price range, plus they had a doggie theme and the money went to a good cause. Oh, and my friends who knit are always looking for new small projects with which to use up yarn left over from larger projects.

 

[Liminal]

When I give him a cue he's not sure about he sometimes defaults to directed retrieve and brings me the nearest, likeliest-looking thing he can get his mouth around. Does that count?

 

[RaiderBaider]

Raider brought me a chicken once. And it was still alive. It's still living with no injuries what so ever.