Duke settles in with some fine china. Photo / Cathy Hoyt, via The Washington Post
Duke the golden retriever was getting settled in his new adopted home when one day he grabbed a pair of reading glasses and pranced off with them.
Then Duke moved on to fine china – picking up teapots, plates and cups in his mouth and gingerly placing them on his bed to cuddle with.
After that, he began thieving books, magazines and electronics from around the house.
He even nabbed a 12-pack of toilet paper and an entire lamp and dragged them to his bed.
“He wants these very odd items,” said Cathy Hoyt.
Hoyt and her husband, who live in Richmond, Virginia, adopted Duke 18 months ago.
They had been warned about his strange tendency to take and guard household items, but nothing prepared them for the reality of it.
“Every night and nap time, he will go get something to sleep with – something weird,” said Hoyt, who is semi-retired and works at the front desk of a local veterinary clinic.
At first, Hoyt started taking videos of Duke’s curious behaviour to show her vet.
The clips were so hilarious that friends and family urged her to start an Instagram account so they could keep up with Duke’s latest heists.
The account took off and now has a loyal following, with some videos getting millions of views. The Dodo, an animal publication, recently featured Duke in a video.
“It’s all kind of taken me by surprise,” said Hoyt, whose calm voice is always in the background of the videos.
Fans comment that Hoyt’s reactions to Duke, whom she often calls “Dukie”, make the videos even funnier.
She will sweetly call out to him, usually sounding taken aback, “Duke, honey, what are you doing?” as the dog saunters by, dragging a picture frame larger than his body.
Hoyt said she gives Duke different kinds of dog toys to keep him busy and entertained, and she makes sure he gets plenty of outdoor exercise to tire him out.
Still, he will abscond with pretty much anything that is not nailed down when he goes to his bed.
Before Duke came into their lives, Hoyt and her husband had recently lost their golden retriever Charlie, who had been with them for 12 years. They have another senior golden named Gina, 12.
“Duke is our fourth senior,” said Hoyt, adding that they’ve adopted all four from Southeastern Virginia Golden Retriever Rescue, Education and Training. “We love taking in seniors because we know it’s harder for them to find loving homes.”
A picture of Duke, now 11, appeared on the rescue’s social media, “and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh,’” Hoyt said.
She and her husband drove to Virginia Beach to meet Duke, and they brought Gina with them to make sure they’d get along.
“I fell in love with his face and his expression and his personality, and how loving he was toward Gina,” Hoyt said. “You get a feeling from a dog when you feel it’s right … He just seemed to need us.”
Before Duke arrived at the Hoyts’ home, his life had been relatively unstable.
He lived with a family that went through a divorce, and the owner who kept him died shortly afterwards.
He then went to an older member of the family, who could not manage his resource guarding behaviour – which is when a dog becomes protective over items it values.
From there, he went to a foster family and briefly to an adoptive home, but he snapped at a small child who tried to get an item back from him.
“It is very unusual; he is not like any other dog I’ve ever had,” said Susan Beckman, Duke’s former foster, who has taken in 12 pups. She is a volunteer and on the board of the rescue group.
“He took my entire computer bag with the computer in it and carried it to the sofa and laid down with it.”
Despite warnings about Duke’s antics, the Hoyts decided to adopt him anyway.
“The behaviours were a bit startling because we had never had a dog like this,” Hoyt said. “He is also a ‘counter surfer,’ so you can’t have clutter on your counter.”
While they adjusted to Duke’s quirks, his repeated pilfering brought the Hoyts some humour at a time they needed it.
“It was almost like he was healing my heart because I was missing Charlie so much, and Duke was making us laugh,” Hoyt said. “We would never give up on him ever, never in a million years.”
In most instances of resource guarding, a dog is protective over items that directly benefit it in some way, like treats, bones and toys. But dogs can also be drawn to items that offer them comfort.
“I think he does it for security,” Hoyt said, explaining that since Duke switched homes so many times, perhaps he clings to things that make him feel he has marked his space.
Although Duke will sometimes growl when Hoyt tries to get an item back from him, she said, he is not overly aggressive.
She will often trade him a treat for whatever item he has, or if she lets him have it for enough time, he will tire of guarding it.
“For the most part, we’re good, as long as we give him space,” she said, adding that he steals between three and seven items per day, and he is mostly gentle with human items – but destroys all dog toys.
“It’s just crazy,” Hoyt said. “He will have a room full of toys and find a teapot.”
Clive Wynne, a professor of psychology and director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, said he is a bit perplexed by Duke’s behaviour.
“It’s strange in this case because the object isn’t much of a resource to the animal; it’s just an arbitrary object,” he said. “Why a teapot should be of such importance to this dog, I don’t know.”
Wynne said it’s hard to rationalise why Duke’s behaviour developed, and whether trading for treats is actually rewarding and reinforcing it.
“It’s just a part of the glorious mystery of living with dogs,” he said. “The idiosyncrasies are a part of the joy of having them in our lives.”
In any case, “as long as he’s not breaking things, it’s quite amusing,” Wynne added. “It’s delightful, it’s fun, and here’s an old dog and he’s found some people who can enjoy his eccentricities.”
Hoyt and her husband agree.
“He’s just a lovebug with interesting behaviours,” Hoyt said.
She said she hopes her Instagram account for Duke brightens people’s days.
“We’re spreading a little joy, especially now in these times that are so negative,” she said. “Every single night, I lay down with Duke on his bed, and I tell him: ‘Do you know how many people you made happy today?’”
He seems to get the message.
“He’ll just look at me and lick me,” Hoyt said.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.