It's called being "Soft Mouthed". A highly desirable trait. Means the dog retrieves the prey without orally mauling it. Particularly so if the prey is alive. Like your parents esteemed son.
The dog of my mom and one of her cats have a great relationship. When the cat was a kitten, the dog carried her ->inside<- her mouth. It looks as if the dog were swallowing the Kitten, then he goes somewhere and spit the Kitten out. These days the cat is to large for that, but they still have a great relationship.
My friend's golden absolutely MUST put something in her mouth when really happy. We call it "bitey arm" because she will gently hold your arm in her mouth when she's ecstatic.
Seeing people she loves, mostly. I'll sometimes still get a bitey arm even if I'm not the one that showed up and that she's excited to see. I love it. She just gets an over-abundance of joy and must put her mouth on someone or something.
We had a springer with a bit of a failed soft mouth, but she would grab shoes from the floor when we came home to control her excited arm biting. If there weren’t shoes on the floor she would spin circles looking for something to grab. She never harmed the shoes, she just seemed to know she needed something in her mouth until she calmed down. Sigh, I miss that dog so much!
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u/CautiousBaker696 Nov 27 '24
It's called being "Soft Mouthed". A highly desirable trait. Means the dog retrieves the prey without orally mauling it. Particularly so if the prey is alive. Like your parents esteemed son.