The pacifier obsession ... ?

In Portugal, many babies suck on a pacifier... or security blanket . This behavior makes them feel calm and secure; so many parents tend to encourage this behavior to avoid crying.

Ricardo and I always said "one day ... when we have kids .. there will be no pacifier "!!! Well… we shouldn’t have said that, we should have bite our tongue, because you never know what the future holds for you.

Our little furry frind (PU) decided to make a "pacifier" out of all his stuffed animals…

Yeah, as I had told you in my previous posts, he loves to suck on his teddy bear. It keeps him really ZEN.

Notice his "Leave me alone face.... can´t you see I´m doing my thing...?"

This behavior was funny when he was a little puppy, but now that he is 33 kg and huge, we began to think if it was normal or not.
So we questioned an expert in the field: Zhyph. She’s is a VET student with a very interesting blog, and she’s extremely dedicated, and helpful with any questions.

Here are the answers (in Portuguese):

http://vetpunctura.blogspot.com/2009/03/ainda-chucha-cont.html
http://vetpunctura.blogspot.com/2009/03/duvidas-ainda-chucha.html

Briefly :

• Sucking the teddy bear does not cause future behavior problems, just have to make sure he doesn’t swallow anything.
• We also have to find out what led to this behavior (some common causes are: separation anxiety, stress, or simply boredom (I think this is the case of PU)).

We think that Pu uses his “pacifier” when he is bored, or when no one plays with him, so it should not be anything to serious.

We can discontinue the behavior (using the methods described by the vet), or simply let him have his ZEN moment.

We are still thinking about it ... but most likely we will begin to tell him that is wrong, and try to substitute the stuffed animal with a chewing bone or something else.

What do you think?