Ask questions and share about your pet's health to help others.
My 3 year old toy poodle, bailey, is currently having behaviour issues. He is well trained and we have even had a trainer not too long ago but despite all of this he is continuously going through phases a misbehaving/reactivity. These phases started to occurred since he was about 1. During a phase he typically gets very possessive aggressive, temperamental, reactive and starts to ignore all of his commands! Does anyone have any tips to help or stop these phases all together?
Hello,
We are a group of individuals that help the street dogs in Turkey. We have a recent case of a baby girl that is below the age of 2 and has heartworm disease. She and a bunch of others were locked up into an abandoned shelter with no food and no clean water (there was water with only blood hence, bacteria and the disease). The medication advised to us by the vet (immiticide) does not exist in Turkey therefore, the baby girl cannot get the treatment. Is there a way you could help us out with this issue we are having?
We would be truly grateful.
The vet is ready to show videos, send necessary documentation and prescription etc.
Thank you in advance.
Hello,
Thank you for all you do. The American Heartworm Association has lots of information available on their site. Please go there. Also look into Advantage multi and doxycycline. They have some promise in treating if you don’t have access to duroban. Good luck!
Thank you so much for your quick and genuine response. We will definitely look into everything you mentioned!
We wish you a great day!
My dog was recently given the prognosis of intervertebral disc disease or herniated disc. His hind legs currently are not working and are possibly paralyzed but he still has feeling in them. The surgery for him to get better is something that we can not afford and our not sure what to do. Is there any way for him to walk again without the surgery? Is there any other treatments we can try?
Hello,
I’m sorry to hear about your pup. Some dogs can recover from this even if they don’t have the decompression surgery. It takes time, a lot of intensive at home care and assistance and patience. I have a lot of information on conservative management on my blog and YouTube channel. Please search my name and IVDD on both sites and you can see a patient named Hank who recovered without surgery. It took him almost three weeks to be able to walk again. It is absolutely imperative to have access to pain medications, and the time to invest in their care. It is also very important to have a vet who will help you. Good luck.
Hello,
I watched your videos and they were very helpful! I just have a couple more questions though. What type of therapy/rehab did u start hank with? Will starting therapy too early hurt the process? Do you think acupuncture is a good idea?
My dog ran out of my house and got bitten by dogs and returned back . The right front leg has some bite marks and that’s all. It’s day two and he is yelling in pain. In day 1 , he used to walk with 3 legs. But in day 2, he is struggling to walk at all. He got pain in the other 3 legs too. I think rabies is not the issue as it shows symptoms only after a week.
Please see a vet as quickly as possible for treatment.
A dog bite is always an emergency. Even if it looks small- chances are it is much worse and the chance for infection is very high. Please get to a vet if you haven’t already. I hope things are ok!
My dog is doing good now. He can now run with 3 legs. I haven’t seen any rabies dogs in my street. Can I consult a vetenerian after a week or a month? Because vets are hard to find in this quarantine.
No, this needs to be handled immediately due to the risk of infection. If untreated, infection can and will kill your dog.
Hi Dr. Krista,
My name is Yana and I have beagle mix Charlie who injured his neck on 07/08/20 last week. We took him 10 flights of stairs for exercise and 30 min later he started crying in the dog park then yelping in the car and screaming at night. We took him to the ER and he was diagnosed with neck disc injury and prescribed Methocarbamol, Gabapentin, Tramadol and Caprofen. He seemed to be fine, not paralyzed but screaming 1-2 times a day usually on potty brakes. Then he started having episodes when he became more stiff and lifted his front paws…usually in the morning after sleep. We took him to a neurologist on 07/13/20 but he said he is 1 from 6 and not that bad. He stopped Caprofen and prescribed Prednisone, Fentanyl Patch and Acepromazine with other medications from the ER. So we were spacing out medications because we were afraid to give too much. He did not seem to be improving and we started all meds. He seems better after he screams like pressure relieved and he can lift his head and move more free.
Long story short, we placed him in a boarding hospital due to us living in a studio in highrise on the 10th floor, working from home and being 7 month pregnant. We are planning to visit another neurologist on monday and hopefully get x rays or mri.
Questions:
In your video with Hank he was paralysed and recovered in 17 days. So far I don’t see much positive progress in our dog and he is not paralized. How much chance do we have or what we should do moving forward?
October 2019 he had a similar episod and I took him to the vet, no x-rays were performed. Two reasons indicated neck or teeth. More towards teeth inflammation which I was focusing on by brushing and adding supplements. Medications prescribed Cephalexin and Carprofen. He got better in 3 days but his screams were not that severe. Should we try Cephalexin?
Any help, suggestion on advice will be highly appreciated! If we can bring him to your facility for boarding and recovery at least till he doesn’t have those screams we would like to do that! Please let us know how much it costs since it adds up quickly and I know that surgery is very expensive.
Hello,
I’m sorry to hear about your dog. I’m also sorry but I don’t have a clear picture of what’s going on now or what you are worried about.
I cannot order advice on which medications to use as I don’t know him or his condition.
I have lots of videos on YouTube and lots of advice on my blog. Maybe they can help?
My 11yr old Lab/Mastiff mix was diagnosed with a mass on her spleen. It’s currently not bleeding, but we are trying to figure if we should go ahead with the surgery or not. I feel in my heart she has still more life in her, but I also know that if it’s cancerous she won’t have long. I know in the long run it’s my decision, but I just need to hear what others think.
Hello,
In my experience I have found removing it before it starts bleeding and becomes a serious life threatening issue is far better than waiting for this to happen.
I have a 2 year old pug that has started acting strange since Monday the day he went to get his anal glands expressed. Hey has stopped welping at the table when we eat , he has also stopped eating his canned food and only eats his kibble at night, and he has stopped snoring at night like he used to. The thing I’m most worried about is that he has lost two whiskers this month.
My question is should I be worried
Hello,
If a client calls me with concerns like this I always tell then to listen to their concerns. You know your pet better than anyone else and you are their only advocate. Isn’t it better to be safe than sorry?
I have a 6 month month old puppy that is afraid of people and other dogs. Have taken her to just walk around in pet stores. If someone wants to approach her she squats and pees. If another dog wants to approach her she poops? I live with my son, daughter in law, 2 granddaughters (7 and 13). They have 2 pit bulls and she is fi with them. How do i socialize her outside the family?
Hello,
This is a very common issue that I see all the time. The great news is that your puppy is so young and you are very proactive in both identifying and trying to resolve the problem. That’s wonderful! The first piece of advice I can give is to call around for local References on puppy classes. That’s a great place to start. Next start taking walk with the dogs she is used to and see if they can help her build confidence. Next start to find out where her discomfort zones lie. How close does she need to get to someone before she starts signaling she is unsettled. From this you start working very gradually on reducing the distance. It may mean you sit at a park bench 20 feet away (if that’s her radius to anxiety) and just watch the world pass her by for a few trips. Then the next time try for 15 feet. No interactions. Tell people you are in training and they should not approach her. This is allowing her to be challenged very gradually on terms she is comfortable with. It needs to be slow, consistent and full of rewards when she is doing well. And understanding but not being harsh or reprimanding when she needs more time and patience. You can also ask for a positive reinforcement trainer. But be careful as she is demonstrating submissive anxiety now. I fear with hard reprimand it might turn to fear which can lead to aggression if treated unkindly. Be kind. Gentle and supportive but help her face her challenges. I hope this helps. I also love the training books by Victoria Stilwell. Try them. They are very helpful.
Hello! What a great site this is. I’m really hoping someone can help us here, as we’re stuck with our dog situation!
We have a 10 year old female Maltese called Yuca. She is the light of our lives but is getting old 🙁
She’s healthy but tends to sleep a lot, and we read that keeping older dogs active is essential to keeping them alive!
We both work, and although she’s totally happy by herself, we decided it might be good to get her a companion for the times we’re not around. We hoped this might keep her entertained and engaged more during the day. As we’re both working from home at the moment, we thought now might be a good time to grow our little pack…
So we got another Maltese female, Coco, who is about 5 months old now. We’ve had her for just over 4 weeks. She’s amazing. A really cute little ball of fluff. But things don’t seem to be improving with regards to their relationship.
Of course, Coco is totally obsessed with Yuca. She will run to her and try to lick and play, but Yuca seems terrified of her. She backs away quickly and hides. Yuca has never been an aggressive dog, never. She doesn’t growl or bark or bite, ever. But she also has never been a dog dog, always avoiding them in public when out for walks.
We thought this was just a matter of them being strangers.
She has never once growled or barked or bitten Coco, she chooses to simply run away from her, even when Coco is trying to bite her playfully.
When Coco is calm, usually in the evenings and midday, Yuca is better. They will sit in the same areas, with Yuca sometimes letting Coco get quite close, but always with a cautious eye on her. The best moments we’ve had have been in bed in the evenings, with both of them sleeping almost touching! But then the day comes around and Yuca goes back to being her timid self again.
We’ve tried a lot of things to get them closer, and to help Yuca get used to her being around. They both have their own beds, food and water, and Yuca has a space she can be alone when she wants it. The problem is, she would choose to stay there the whole time! SHe seems anxious about walking around the house, which is not ok for us. We want her to feel dominant and have no fear of being anywhere at home.
We’ve tried using treats to bring them together, which works well in the moment. Yuca is a greedy lil thing and Coco’s existence doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference when there’s a treat around. She would take the treat from our hand even with Coco being right there next to her. But once the treat has gone, Yuca reverts back to scared mode.
We’re being firm with Coco on the rough play, although she’s tiny and couldn’t hurt a fly if she tried! We’re separating them for periods of time, so Yuca has her space and then trying controlled meet-ups several times a day. Of course, with us both working full time, this has been difficult and we’re very concerned about when we have to go back to the office.
We’ve made sure to give Yuca extra love and attention, always treating her as the alpha and giving her attention and food first. She doesn’t appear jealous at all.
As time goes on, we really hoped they would become close but we’re not seeing much improvement. There’s some improvement for sure, but it’s very slow progress. We really just want them to be friends. That was the whole point in getting Coco in the first place.
I really hope someone can help us. We love them both and just want them to get along.
Thank you for reading.
Tomas and Fernanda. Yuca and Coco.
It’s possible that Yuca simply doesn’t enjoy puppies. And that’s NORMAL and perfectly okay! Puppies are annoying. Your best bet is to put a LOT of attention on working Coco’s brain more. A tired puppy is a good puppy, and the BEST way is to work their brain. This would be obedience training, beyond basic sit/stay/down. I know group classes aren’t really a “thing” right now, but I’d look into classes through Denise Fenzi’s dog sport academy: https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/
Maybe work Yuca while you’re at it. It’s a good way to keep her engaged, and working them together can help.
Thank you for the reply Laura! I will take your advice and look into that for sure. It’s a shame we can’t walk Coco yet, as she still hasn’t had her final round of vaccinations. Next week hopefully! I’ve heard that walking them together will help the bonding process?
It can help, but the majority of this problem has to do with age disparity. Training is key.
I agree with laura. I have an eleven year old dog. When his companion passed away I got a 4 month old. He was driving my older dog nuts. So I got a puppy for my puppy. The two puppies play endlessly and occasionally the old guy jumps in for just a little while. It is keeping him young and active but he isn’t being relied upon to be the single source of the puppy playtimes. Everyone is happy and healthy.
Thanks Krista. So your advice would be getting another puppy for the puppy? Ha! In an ideal world maybe, but we can’t afford that right now.
From the dog trainer perspective, do not do this unless you’re prepared to deal with possible littermate syndrome.
(Yes, it’s real, and it can affect any like-aged dogs. It can be as minimal as one dog is shyer than the other, or they could want to kill each other. I’ve seen both. The latter isn’t worth risking it unless you’re VERY experienced with dog management.)
Good morning. One of our shepherds used to get this way from time to time. It turns out that even though we are consistent, with him we had to be extremely diligent and consistent. Any change in routine would set him a little off. So for us it was a long road of patience and repetition. And walks. A LOT of walks. Going for a leashes walk where you are in charge is like a reset button in my humble opinion. It reminds them that you are higher in the pack order. The key is to catch the unwanted behavior right as or right before it starts-easier said than done. This helps you figure out the trigger and then in turn you can start to desensitize them to it. It is definitely a process of rewarding wanted behaviors and ignoring and redirecting where bad behaviors are concerned. Definitely a full time job, but it can be done. You may want to look into a certified dog behaviorist rather than a trainer. They can help you get started and would really be worth the money. Very best of luck.
Hiya, thanks for getting back to me! I have started to get a really good routine since I got back to work. He has also started to only be allowed on the lead as I’m starting to see a more reactive/aggressive side to him and he is usually at heel to walk until I let him sniff about. I have been referred to behaviourist from the vets but I have to wait til I get my own house due to my living situation the now, unfortunately.
In the short term, look into Nothing In Life is Free (NILF). I agree with Sarah, there’s likely something setting this off. Try to keep logs of what happens to cause these relapses, so you can figure out how to avoid them in the future.
I’d also love to know more:
-Do you have any other animals in the house? How about children?
-Is he intact?
-What sort of training do you do on a regular basis, beyond basic commands?
-What sort of grooming routine do you have with him?
-When was his last bloodwork done, and when you had it done, was a thyroid panel part of it? Have you ever brought this up with the vet? Have you ever checked him over to see if anything hurts? Bad behavior can also come from physical discomfort, eye issues, coat issues, teeth issues, osteo issues from long nails, ear infections, etc. Is this the same dog with chronic pancreatitis? I’d bet that’s playing into it, too – sick dogs don’t always behave well.
-Did you get him from a breeder or a rescue? If the former, have you talked to the breeder about this? They might have insight for you.
Hiya, thanks for getting back to me! I’m going to get that sorted tonight as I’ve just had a look into it and it seems to be really good. I have to keep a log of his food he eats, how much and if he’s had a good or bad day with his pancreatitis, I have noticed with that log that he acts out when he’s having good periods with his pancreatitis. I have a guinea pig but he seems to have a very good bond with him, he also has daily contact with dogs as family members own dogs and I work in a groomers(he comes to work with me). I currently live with my parents and their children have no respect for him, so I can’t do any crate training or that. I constantly having to tell the kids off but because my parents don’t it makes no difference, I am hopefully moving out in the next month at the latest! With his training we do tricks, obedience, some agility, off lead training( he is not getting to that the now due to his relative/aggressive tendancies currently) and grooming training. I am currently doing retraining by basically go over every command he knows for at least 2 days each but building it up for him. He had blood work at the end of last year but I have found that he behaves badly when he’s feeling better. I did speak to the breeder but she didn’t really have anything to help my out and I know a good few dogs she has bred from the same mum and dad just different litters and they are all fine.
What’s your normal training routine? And you’ve gotta advocate for your dog – he’s very small, children are usually larger than toy poodles and often don’t respect their space. Eventually chances are he’ll bite one of the kids if they aren’t respecting his space.
This might mean separating him from the kids. It might mean crating when you can’t be there to supervise 100% of the time.
Well he’s never in the house now when I’m not there and if he can’t come with me I get other family to watch him. We usually do 2 sessions morning and night, for about 10mins. He unfortunately had a seizure today when we were out so I think his behaviours more than just acting up. He will have a vets emergency appointment tomorrow morning so I will hopefully know more then.
Oof, yeah. That may explain quite a bit. Is this is first ever seizure? I hope you get some answers.
Yes, me too but I’ll let you know what they say tomorrow!
Definitely let us know. I’ll keep you guys in my thoughts.
At the vets today they took blood but all his vitals were fine and the only thing wrong with him physically was he was a bit sore on his spine, which we believe that’s due to hurting himself during the seizure. If the blood tests don’t come back with anything he will go and get a head scan.
Did they do a full thyroid panel?
Hiya, his blood results came back clean but I’m going to need to look into something else to do more tests as since he had the seizure his behaviour has became more aggressive rather that reactive.