Puppy pawing and sniffing at my chest

[AppaTheSixLeggedFlyingBison]

Hi,

I have a nearly 4 month old puppy and over the past week or so she has started to paw and sniff at my chest (specifically my clevage and right breast).

She doesn't do this to my boyfriend, nor any other people.

She used to settle on my lap whereas now she will go straight to my chest and then sniff and paw.

Does anyone know what this means?

I can't think of a behaviour reason although dogs will paw arms and legs for attention. Does he do it to other females? I don't want to worry you and its probably nothing but it might be worth getting checked by your doctor as there are documented cases of dogs, with their amazing sense of smell, being able to detect diseases on their owners.

Have you checked yourself for lumps and bumps lately?

Came on to say the same thing as @coffeecupsandfairylights

My previous dog used to do that a lot. I never knew why. But no diseases apparent in the ten years we had him.

You’re not pregnant? Or any lumps or bumps in that area.

My dog went super weird with smelling me when i had Covid-19. She sniffed me all over them wouldn't come near.

If she's not doing it to other women it could be an infection or PG?

We had a lady come to our breast clinic who’s dog had pawed at her breast. Turned out she had breast cancer. Dogs are well known for picking up on things. It may be nothing at all but you never know x

The woman who set up Medical Detection Dogs had this with her pet Labrador (not trained to detect) and it turned out she had a deep and aggressive breast cancer.

Could be any number of things but dogs are able to smell cancer so I'd get a checkup at gp done.

Cats can too actually.

It could be something as simple as the dog thinking you're its mother and trying to feed......

The reason cats paw like this on humans is because as kittens when they do this to their mothers it stimulates milk flow. My (late) cat did this even as an elderly cat. I'm sure dogs do similar.

Thank you everyone. 100% not pregnant. I will check for any lump and bumps, in all honesty I am terrible at breast checks (they're on the larger size so I often struggle to feel for lumps) so might get a GP appointment just in case. Though I'm worried I might sound a bit odd going in with the reasoning that my puppy likes pawing my chest haha!

Fingers crossed she just likes the feeling or thinking I might have milk 😂

If the gp fobs you off and puppy persists go back and insist on a check - better safe and silly than sorry.

I've heard of GPs taking it seriously though as it is known for animals to pick up on it . Good luck and hope its nothing!

Please get yourself checked out, just to be on the safe side. My usually affectionate cat started to pull a face and recoil when he was near me and then avoided me altogether. I couldn't work it out. Shortly after I was diagnosed with breast cancer and I'm sure he could smell it. Dogs are very sensitive and there are dogs trained to sniff cancer. I really would get yourself checked just to be safe.