Q. My 11 year old toy Poodle is drinking excessive amounts of water, urinating more often and for longer periods of time and seems to be pantin…

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. You need to take it to your vet as soon as possible for an examination and investigation. It could be a fever, diabetes or possibly a pyometra if she is an unneutered female which is potentially life-threatening.

ANSWER : A. If she’s young, then this is just normal puppy behavior. Don’t worry about it. The thing about puppies is, they explore using their mouths. If your puppy grabs a coat hanger, or a slipper, you should roll up a newspaper, and smack yourself on the head with it for leaving those things out.. your puppy is going to explore things, that’s normal! It is 100% up to YOU to keep those things away from your puppy when your puppy is unsupervised… even for just a moment.

Remember to never scold your puppy for grabbing these things. They are just curious little cuties, and they don’t chew things up to bother us.. Dogs do not have intentional thought, so they aren’t ever doing anything ON PURPOSE to us.. The most important thing you can do when your puppy is chewing something you don’t want her to be chewing is TRADE her the inappropriate item with a toy of hers, so she understands “no honey, that isn’t what puppies chew on… THIS is what puppies chew on!” and then begin playing with her using her toy to show her that TOYS ARE FUN.. Way more fun than a boring ol’ coat hanger.

Another helpful thing you can do is have two bags of toys. In each bag is many different kinds of toys. Lots of chew toys, lots of soft squeaky toys, lots of rope-type toys, a bunch of balls.. All kinds of things! For one week you have bag#1’s toys out for your puppy to play with.. At the end of the one week, you collect those toys, and you bring out bag#2! The toys will be more interesting/feel like new to your puppy, which will in-turn, make her chew less inappropriate things. Her toys are too fun to care about that dumb Wii-mote that you left laying around.

Hope this helps!

ANSWER : A. For the most part, this sounds pretty normal to me. English Bulldogs can be like this. What you can do is teach him bite inhibition. He needs to know that biting gets him nothing. Each and every time he nips, even gently, you immediately yelp like a puppy would, stand up, cross your arms, and ignore your puppy. Once he is ignoring you, go back to calmly playing with him WITH A TOY. Remember to always use a toy when playing with/petting/interacting with puppies. They will be teething very soon, and they don’t understand that biting you is inappropriate, so using a toy to redirect their attention is important. He needs SOMETHING to bite, or else he will choose your hand. Give him more options.

Another thing you can do is have a toy that YOU OWN. This can be a soft braided rope toy or something of the like. Dot not allow your dog to have this toy whenever he wants. This toy disappears when you are done playing with him with it, and reappears when you want to play. Never allow him to “win” games with this toy. Eventually, the toy will hold so much meaning, when he sees it, he will be instantly interested in the toy instead of your hands.

It also helps to have two bags of toys. Bag#1 is full of chew toys/rope toys/soft toys/etc. It comes out for one week, and then disappears and out comes Bag#2. Bag#2 has the same types of toys in it. This will keep the toys feeling like “new” to your pup and make him less likely to chew on you during play!

ANSWER : A. When it comes to poop eating, you want to consider a few things. First off, what is his diet like? Maybe something is lacking in his diet that is causing him to want to eat his own poop. This is the most common reason why dogs eat THEIR OWN poop. Try a higher quality kibble like Taste of the Wild, Ziwipeak, Orijen.. and try feeding three meals per day, instead of the more common two meals per day. Remember to gradually switch his kibble. Add a little bit of the new kibble and reduce the old kibble very slowly.. little by little every couple of days until the bowl is mostly new kibble! You should also be cleaning up his poops IMMEDIATELY after he does them.. I mean like, you have a bag in your hand, and you are low enough to scoop it up RIGHT when he finished so he doesn’t have a chance to eat his poop.

When it comes to nipping there are a few things you can do. First, you should yelp as soon as the teeth touch your skin, stand up, cross your arms, and ignore the puppy until he is ignoring you. Once he is off doing his own thing, swoop down and calmly reward him by playing with him WITH A TOY so he doesn’t nip your hands. Whenever you pet him, or interact with him, you should always have a toy on-hand so you can give it to him. This toy should be a soft braided rope toy that YOU own. This means, your puppy is never allowed to have this toy on the floor, and your pup can never “win” tug games with this toy. This is YOUR toy that disappears when you’re finished playing, and reappears when you want to play. If you keep this up, in a weeks time, your puppy will be so excited to see that toy, that as soon as you bring it out, he stops nipping you because he wants to play with the toy. Another thing you can do is have two bags of toys. Bag#1 is full of chew toys/soft toys/squeaky toys/etc. After one week, Bag#1 disappears and out comes Bag#2. Bag#2 has the same types of toys as Bag#1, and it only stays out for one week. This keeps the toys feeling like new to your pup!

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. Changes in urinary habits can be caused by a number of things, especially in neutered male cats. Attempting to urinate or have accidents in places other than the litter box can often be a sign of a urinary tract infection, or crystals and debris in the bladder causing problems. Pets may need to go more frequently, may dribble or urinate in small amounts more often, may have accidents or may have blood-tinged or cloudy urine.Infections are usually treated with medications and changes to the diet, however in some cases of large stones or crystals surgery may be needed.

Male cats can also experience urinary blockage. This is due to a unique anatomical part or the urethra that forms a U-shape before exiting the body in male cats. If a cat has crystals or other debris in the urine, it can block at this point preventing urine from being able to exit. Cats may attempt to urinate without producing anything, may become very vocal (indicating pain) or may have a hunched back, full abdomen or pain in the abdomen (protecting the very full bladder). Urinary blockage IS a medical emergency so if suspected, your vet or local emergency clinic should be contacted immediately. Treatment usually involves a hospital stay and catheterization of the bladder to remove the blockage and allow urine to drain followed by medications and a change in diet to prevent further problems.

It is best to try and collect a sample of urine and make an appointment for your cat if he has had a change in urinary habits. If you do suspect a blockage, then contact your vet ASAP is best.

ANSWER : A. If he continues to drink excessively for the next few days you should take him to your vets for examination and blood test. Excessive drinking can be related to several conditions including hormonal imbalance, diabetes, kidney or liver malfunction or even a tumour.