Q. My chihuahua was asleep&just randomly started yelping as if he was in pain,not to the touch. Since then I haven’t seen him poop…

ANSWER : A. It could be the type of food you are feeding. If you are feeding a lower quality kibble, it will be packed with fillers. These fillers will cause your dog to poop more than is necessary, and it can cause your dog to poop indoors because of the excess poop. Finding a higher quality kibble like Taste of the Wild, Orijen, or a high quality food like Ziwipeak, or Honest Kitchen, will help with that issue.

Remember to NEVER scold for accident indoors. The more you scold, the more fearful your dog is of pooping in front of you, the less your dog will want to poop in front of you outdoors, the more he will poop indoors, the more you scold… it’s a vicious cycle.

Have you been cleaning messes with Nature Miracle? Pick up a bottle, and try cleaning with that instead of regular cleaner. It will eliminate the smells deep down (even to your dog), which will discourage him from potting in that spot again.

Maybe he needs to be taken outside more often, and maybe he needs to be kept outside longer each time. He should be allowed at least 10 minutes of roaming outside before he has to come back inside. Allow him 10 minutes every single time you bring him outside, just in case he has to poop. He needs every opportunity you can give him. Bring him outside every hour if he’s full grown, every 40 minutes if he’s an adolescent (6-10 months), and every 30 minutes if he’s a puppy (2-6 months). If you have a doggy door, you should still be bringing your dog outside yourself to encourage him to stay outside longer, and poop. When he does poop outside, you should praise him, and reward him with lots of treats!

ANSWER : A. Restrict activity to leash walks to eliminate. No excessive running, jumping or playing. Monitor for lethargy or lameness. If he is eating normal amounts, he should defecate in the next 12 hours. If the behavior continues, see your vet for an exam. Rule out soft tissue injury, muscle strain/sprain, or neurologic deficits.

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. A lot of dogs do this, and sometimes it is just because feces tastes good.. sometimes it is due to something lacking in their diet.. but a lot of the time, it’s just fun and tasty. The only way to handle this situation is management. You should be cleaning up your two dogs poops immediately when they happen. Scoop them up, throw them into the woods, or into a can. You cannot give your pup access to the poops.

You could also try adding things to your pups diet. Things like canned pumpkin for dogs (not the pie filling you find in the grocery store, that has way too much sugar in it). Or you could feed your dog raw chews like marrow bones, or beef tendons. You’ll have to add things to his diet in order to find out what is missing from it. If you allow him to continue eating poop, even if there is something lacking in his diet, he will continue eating poop when you’ve solved his diet issue because it will become a LEARNED behavior. This means he will continue eating poop because he learned he CAN eat poop. You could also try feeding him three meals per day. Feed him the same amount of food, but break it up into three feedings per day. This could help him feel a bit more full throughout the day.

Clean up your yard, and clean up after your pups immediately when they eliminate outdoors. Do not scold him, there is no need.. it isn’t his fault.

ANSWER : A. You should look at taking her to your veterinarian to be seen. Sounds like she could use a good antibiotic for the gut to help soothe it and bring back her regularity. Just a little gastro intestinal upset. If she starts vomiting then you really need to be worried about dehydrating. If you want to try something at home u can try a bland diet and see if that helps at all.

ANSWER : A. If your cat is vomiting there could be several underlying causes. I guess the first thing I would want to check is the thyroid level, since I have definitely seen cats that were at one point “controlled” on a specific dose of medication no longer be controlled, and the dosage has to be adjusted. This is why we always recommend rechecking thyroid levels yearly, even in hyperthyroid cats that are clinically doing well.

If the thyroid levels have recently been checked and are stable, then I’d start looking for other causes, such as GI disease. Other possibilities include kidney disease, which can definitely cause vomiting and typically goes along with hyperthyroidism (as well as just being a geriatric cat). Always a good idea to check liver values as well, as liver disease is a common problem in older cats too.

So since your cat is hyperthyroid the first step to diagnosing causes of vomiting is running full blood work – complete blood count, chemistry panel, and urinalysis – to look for some of the things I mentioned above. If nothing turns up, imaging with x-rays or ultrasound or both will likely provide a lot more information. Good luck.

ANSWER : A. The very first thing to do is to make sure your dog is getting sufficient physical and mental exercise every day. A tired dog is a good, happy dog and one who is less likely to bark from boredom or frustration. Depending on his breed, age, and health, your dog may require several long walks as well as a good game of chasing the ball and playing with some interactive toys.

Figure out what he gets out of barking and remove it. Don’t give your dog the opportunity to continue the barking behavior.

Ignore your dog’s barking for as long as it takes him to stop. That means don’t give him attention at all while he’s barking. Your attention only rewards him for being noisy. Don’t talk to, don’t touch, or even look at him. When he finally quiets, even to take a breath, reward him with a treat. To be successful with this method, you must wait as long as it takes for him to stop barking. Yelling at him is the equivalent of barking with him.

Get your dog accustomed to whatever causes him to bark. Start with whatever makes him bark at a distance. It must be far enough away that he doesn’t bark when he sees it. Feed him lots of good treats. Move the stimulus a little closer (perhaps as little as a few inches or a few feet to start) and feed treats. If the stimulus moves out of sight, stop giving your dog treats. You want your dog to learn that the appearance of the stimulus leads to good things.

Teach your dog the ‘quiet’ command. Oddly, the first step is to teach your dog to bark on command. Give your dog the command to “speak,” wait for him to bark two or three times, and then stick a tasty treat in front of his nose. When he stops barking to sniff the treat, praise him and give him the treat. Repeat until he starts barking as soon as you say “speak.” Once your dog can reliably bark on command, teach him the “quiet” command. In a calm environment with no distractions, tell him to “speak.” When he starts barking, say “quiet” and stick a treat in front of his nose. Praise him for being quiet and give him the treat.

As in all training, always end training on a good note, even if it is just for obeying something very simple, like the ‘sit’ command. If you dog regresses in training, go back to the last thing he did successfully and reinforce that before moving on again. Keep sessions short, 15-20 minutes max, and do this several times a day.

ANSWER : A. As dogs become older they may begin to have behavioral changes. This is because their senses are starting to weaken. They may begin to have difficulty hearing or seeing, because of this they can start to feel nervous and we very wary of their surroundings. They are easier to scare and startle. Pain and discomfort can also be displayed as growling because she may not want to be touched. As always children should be monitored when interacting with dogs. If she is unhappy with their presence then it is highly recommended to remove her from the situation. Make her a comfy place to rest while they visit and keep them separated. This is the best way to prevent any serious confrontation.