Q. I have a older Weim that has been drinking a lot of water lately, which leads him to have to go out all the time. Could something be wrong? …

ANSWER : A. Firstly, you should quantify if your dog is actually drinking an excessive amount of water. In a 24 hour period, a dog should drink about 1 fluid ounce (or 30mL) per pound of body weight. Therefore, the recommended amount of water intake (in fluid ounces) equals your dog’s weight (in pounds). For example, if your dog weighs 8 pounds, he/she should drink about a cup of water in a 1 hour period. This will be slightly increased if your dog gets a lot of physical activity or lives outdoors.

You can measure your dog’s water intake the following way: in the morning, measure a specific amount, a little bit more than you think he/she will drink. 24 hours later, measure the remaining amount. If the amount of water your dog drank is significantly greater than it should be, then you should take your dog to a veterinarian.

Causes for mildly increased water consumption include: food changes, increased ambient and body temperature, increased activity, urinary tract infection, and general illness.

Common causes for greatly increased water consumption include: diabetes, urinary tract infection, kidney disease, steroid use, and other systemic diseases. With large increases in water consumption, you will also usually see increased urination. Please take note of urinary patterns to discuss with your vet. Greatly increased drinking and urination is ALWAYS a reason to see a vet.

ANSWER : A. Drinking water in excess means that something is wrong unless the weather is been extremely hot. Is called Polidipsia and is related with Diabetes, Cushing’s Syndrome or Kidney/Liver failure. Bring your dog to the vets ASAP.

ANSWER : A. It’s all about management. Do not allow the 7yo’s to interact with your 14yo unsupervised. You should be there each time they interact so you can redirect the 14yo’s attention onto some toys, or onto some treats when the 7yo’s are around. It sounds like you need to help your 14yo make positive associations with being around the younger pups. You should be trying to feed him treats each time he interacts with them, and doesn’t snap at them. Pet and praise him each time he is around them, or any time they are near. As I said, keep the separated when you cannot supervise their interactions because if you aren’t around when he is snapping at them, you could end up with a fight on your hands.

It could also be that they spend too much time together. Imagine spending 100% of your time with somebody, day in and out, doing everything together… including going to the bathroom.. that might bother anybody. I think you should give them more time apart from each other. Take them all on separate walks, separate them to play with them individually, separate them when you take them to potty, separate feeding times in separate rooms, etc. This can help alleviate the stress your older dog is feeling due to living closely with other dogs. You should always be giving individual activities in a houseful of dogs anyway.. when you expect them to get along 100% of the time, that’s when you find trouble.

ANSWER : A. Good on your husband for realizing that scolding is not the way to potty train! Hopefully these tips can help both him and your pup get back on the right track and make pottying outside successful.

If your dog is still a puppy, that is good news as you may be able to more easily time your potty outings with your dog’s schedule. Even if your dog is older, this schedule may help. Dogs generally have to go potty about 15 minutes after eating, drinking, waking up or playing. Knowing this, get your husband to start taking out your puppy at these key times, so puppy gets used to going out with him, and the urge to potty may be higher than any fear to go. If the potty is successful, have your husband reward the dog with a favorite treat! For bowel movements, dogs may take a little more time, and you may have to stand outside for a while (sometimes even 10 minutes) to give your dog a chance to go. If she doesn’t go, take her back inside and play some, then try again in about 15 minutes. Again, a success equals a treat which most dogs will like right away!

For any indoor potty accidents that occurred, an enzymatic cleaner is great for cleaning up urine and stool. Not only does it remove the stain and smell, but it breaks down the enzymes in the urine and stool your dog can smell, which may deter her from going potty there again.

ANSWER : A. First, avoid scolding him and acting aggressively towards him if you don’t want him to be acting aggressively towards you. There are other methods you can use to communicate to your dog that you don’t want him to continue doing what he is doing. I recommend you stop telling him “no”, scolding him, or raising your voice at him. Everything coming from you should be 100% positive and 100% calm.

Try to figure out ways to clearly communicate what you want to your dog. If you want your dog to leave something or someone alone, I strongly suggest teaching your dog commands like “leave it”. Here is a link to a video in which I explain how to do it:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1TS5nA7z5Q

Another thing I suggest you use is a no-reward marker. This clearly communicates when your dog has done something wrong. No-reward markers have to be introduced during your training sessions. You should be doing at least three training sessions per day, that are something like 3-10 minutes long (working on different things each training session). If you are teaching your dog something BRAND NEW, do not use the no-reward marker, as you do not want to discourage your dog from performing behaviors for you. Use the no-reward marker for known behaviors only. Here is another helpful video about this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdU5a6fXKlg

Lure each new behavior (as shown in the video) using high value treats. Let’s say you’re working on “down” which is a behavior your dog knows fairly well. Present the treat to your dog. Ask your dog to “down” (only ask once). If he does not go “down” immediately, say, “uh-oh” or “eh-eh” in a gentle tone, and then place the treat behind your back. This communicates to your dog that they did something to make the treat go away.

After you place the treat behind your back to show your pup “that was wrong” you need to communicate to your pup “let’s try again” by getting your pup to walk around for a second, and then start the behavior all over again. If your puppy is very young, chances are you haven’t taught him a solid “down” behavior yet. So, as I said, do not use this method until you have lured each new behavior as shown in the video.

This is the order in which you should teach behaviors: Lure using a high value treat as shown in the video. After a few successful food lures, lure with an empty hand. If the pup is successful with the empty hand lure, reward with lots of treats. If the pup is unsuccessful, then go back to food-luring a couple more times. After a few successful empty-hand lures, you can begin to add the cue. Say “sit”, then lure with an empty hand, and then reward. Once your pup understands the cue, begin to work on the no-reward marker.

ANSWER : A. There are many causes for shaking/panting. The shaking and panting are both signs of stress, and your dog may be dealing with anxiety, or stress, related to an event that happened, or is happening. I realize you cannot answer questions on this, however, I will ask some questions that you can ask yourself. Have you recently moved? Have you ever hit or yelled at your dog? Has the weather been bad lately (storms)? Have you had any new guests stay over recently? Have you had any dogs come to your home recently? Have you had any dogs or cats in your yard recently? Was your dog frightened by something initially (a falling pot/pan; a loud bang from the washing machine; a gunshot; a backfiring car/truck; someone screaming in your home/a fight)?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, it could definitely be that. Dogs don’t typically hang on to something for very long, but if it really frightened your pup, then she/he could be feeling serious anxiety related to that specific event, and relating other events to that one.

Do not yell, or hit your dog. I’m not assuming you do, but if you do, please stop doing that right away. It could be that your dog is afraid of you specifically, and you notice the shaking/panting when you are near, because that is the only time your dog is doing it.

If you’d like to purchase a consultation with me (I know, it’s a lot to ask, but I really feel like I could help) I’d be more than happy to ask you many questions, and together we can figure out what the heck is going on here. It’s important that your dog is comfortable, and if your pup is always feeling anxious/uneasy, then his/her quality of life is in jeopardy.

ANSWER : A. Please bring her to the vet. The blood may be coming from her urine or her vagina. If she is vomiting every time he drinks water, there could be something seriously wrong in her intestines, and she will quickly become dehydrated. Time for a vet visit, immediately.

ANSWER : A. If he has only vomited once or twice, I recommend withholding food for 12-24 hours. This will give the gut a chance to rest. Let her have water, ice cubes to lick if she seems to want to gulp the water. After 12-24 hours, give her a tiny amount of her regular food, and wait for 30 minutes. If she eats it and it stays down, repeat the small amount. If all continues to go well, keep feeding her very small amounts until she has had her normal ration. If, however, she does not want to eat, continues to vomit, develops a fever and/or lethargy, get her in to see your vet or to an emergency clinic right away.

If he has been vomiting multiple times over several hours, he should be seen by a vet as soon as possible. Continued vomiting is very concerning and can lead to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance as well as low blood sugar. He might have eaten something that either disagreed with him or something that has gotten stuck somewhere in his gastrointestinal tract. He could be sore from a hidden injury you are unaware of, he could have been exposed to some sort of toxin or irritant in his environment or this could be early signs of another condition or disease process.