Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dogbehavior

Weimaraner behavior issues?

muscat — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:51:05 -0800

Any Weimaraner owners? Have some questions... My wife and I are getting really close to choosing a dog breed, and Weimaraner is the front runner... I have some lingering misgivings...

Note up front... we are looking at a rescue first, but are really concerned about our cats. In the end we may need to end up getting the dog as a puppy for the sake of the cats, and have made peace with this.

Anyway, back to the Weimaraners...

1. If they are raised with cats, will they be OK... especially fluffy ones that look kind of like rabbits (ie... prey they were bred to hunt)?
2. Are they really that needy? My wife wants a dog that will pester her to wake up and go for a run... the Weimaraner seems ideal for this... but will it always be in our faces otherwise? Begging for food, etc? Will we be able to take vacations without it chewing its skin off?
3. Is the gastric bloating thing really common and problematic?

Any other potentially problematic behavioral traits you may think to mention would be very helpful!

Dog Experts, I Need You. So Much.

taz — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:26:14 -0800

I need advice from people who are great at understanding canine behavior and solving related issues for what is a rather thorny (and potentially tragic, dog-health-wise) situation for this inexperienced dog owner. I'll make it brief, then tell the (much, much) longer story inside. We have a new rescue dog (our first dog; female, a little under 2 years old) who is just now beginning to feel really at ease and at home after being with us for a month, and all our efforts towards house training have finally paid off, and she is doing beautifully... But, we are going to have to take care of a friend's un-neutered young male dog for two-four weeks in our small apartment, and there are very many things that worry me a great deal, and I really need good advice. Nearly full explanation follows, and it's very long - so sorry! - but it's important stuff to me. Bear with, if at all possible. I'll begin by saying that it really isn't an option to refuse this favor, for reasons that I won't get into simply because it will make the way-too-long-post twice as long without offering any information that will help you help me.

Here are all the relevant facts:

Our dog is a female rescue mixed breed of around one and a half years old that was spayed (and had a pregnancy termination) six weeks ago. She's been with us for about five weeks. She weighs a little under 30 pounds (12 kilos), and is about 17 inches tall (42 centimeters). She's at risk for an immune disease that could result in her death, but the more healthy and stress-free her life is, the better her chances are - and she can possibly go from borderline to what is considered "negative" we are told, with a great, healthy home life and a little luck.

The dog that will be staying with us for 2 to 4 weeks is about nine months old, a miniature poodle mix (probably), un-neutered, adult, who weighs... I don't know... 15 pounds (7 kilos) and is (again, a guess) about maybe 11-12 inches (28-30 centimeters) tall. Before we got our dog, he stayed with us before, for two weeks, and then again for a week, but as a puppy, which was a totally different kettle of fish.

Our dog was very submissive - way overly submissive - and depressed when we got her, and it was a struggle to house train her because she was terrified to pee in front of us... so she would hold it for ridiculous lengths of time, then pee when she couldn't hold it any more, only when we weren't looking, usually in the house. All of those problems are solved, but just recently. She's become happy, jaunty, much, much more confident, relaxed, and pees like a hero on our walks. She never goes in the house any more, and has been on a totally regular peeing/pooing schedule for a solid two weeks. Great, great, great. We've been so happy about all this. She is still extremely anxious about any possibility of separation from us, and that will be our next hurdle - but not the immediate problem.

The immediate problems related to the doggy-visitor-to-be are these:

The male sprays/marks and pees anywhere where there are other dogs; he will have anxiety from being separated from his owner, and being here - which is now the obvious territory of a different dog, though he once stayed here alone. From these facts, and stories about why he now can't stay at other places, I expect all the spraying/marking/peeing behavior to be super bad. Super. Bad.

He was here for less than an hour last night, sprayed, maybe peed... and our dog who has been perfect for two weeks peed on the floor right in front of me about ten minutes after he left. I can't let my house become a dog latrine!

He tries to hump her, non-stop. NON-STOP. srsly. I am not going to be able to let them be together except for extremely limited, supervised periods, it seems to me, because she will eventually either bite him if she feels up to it, or he will shred her to ribbons with his sharp little claws grabbing onto her (usually right around her shaved belly with incision) and turn her into a drooling lunatic with this incessant assault.

Our dog is at risk, health-wise. She has an exposure to an illness that most of you won't be familiar with because it almost doesn't exist in the U.S. and U.K., but is very common in the Mediterranean basin. The best way to imagine it is like HIV vs. AIDs; she is healthy and asymptomatic, but it is important for her immune system to be strong, and her stress level low. She does not test positive for the disease, but she does not test negative - she's on the cusp. We have been told that her levels can improve with a healthy and less stressful life, which is exactly what we've been trying to establish.

The male dog barks and growls at everyone who passes our door. We are on the bottom floor (everyone passes our door, in other words) and have four neighbors in the building (plus whoever visits them, visits us, delivers pizza, etc.), and this means a lot of barking, at all hours. It's a really, really, quiet neighborhood, and the barking sounds like suddenly turning your stereo up to max for a minute or two, over and over. And over. (When he was a puppy and stayed with us, he didn't do this until the last three days he was with us... and it was nerve wracking. Our neighbors were not amused.)

I am not going to be able to provide the exercise he needs. He will be here in July - the hottest month in Greece (it was 103F here today, and it's still June). I am going to have to walk them separately, because there is no way I can handle the two on the same walk, and I'm not planning on taking him very far afield at all, because he challenges other male dogs (and he's tiny), and there are lots of dogs around here... lots of dogs on leashes (which will just be embarassing) but also lots of loose dogs (which could be tragic). My female is okay, but I'm not going to feel safe taking him much further than up and down our street. Even if I could, I don't know how much more walking I can take in the extreme temperatures. I plan to let him out in our extremely limited outside space when the temperature isn't ridiculous... but I can't do this at sunrise or sunset when the mosquitoes are bad, because they are a vector for the disease I mentioned above (my girl is actually probably less a risk as an agent than other loose dogs around the area). I'm a little hogtied in this. I can't let them play together for extended periods in the house, unless his behavior towards her becomes far, far less aggressive.

I am terrified that there will be a bitch in heat somewhere in the neighborhood, and he will go insane. Dogs can be in heat for two to four weeks, and this makes me tremble. He lives at the top of an apartment building where there are no other dogs, and he's in perpetual frenzied lust... I don't think our friend realizes what this difference in setting and location is actually going to mean now that he's an adult, but it's not possible to talk rationally with her right now.

He smells bad, a lot. Not from not being washed (for sure), and *probably* not even from anal glands... I don't know. Something to do with being so horny, I think - and it makes me feel ill. It's not all the time, but it's a lot - and when it is happening, I can barely stand it. In fact, I can't get it out of my nose. I don't even know when/if it's stopped, and just lingering. The idea of living with this smell for at least two weeks, and maybe a month, is making feel sick right now.

VERY IMPORTANT: I live in Greece... We are incredibly backwards in terms of products that could help with a lot of this stuff. Think "super basic". I'm not going to be able to get the nice mama-dog-lactose-smell thingy that calms dogs down, or anything above the level of a society that still pretty much views having a dog in the house as bizarre behavior. We have some things... we have almost no sophisticated canine/feline products.
______________________________________

Okay! There's your stimulating challenge! Help me if you can, suckers! My puny plans so far are these: Try to get a sturdy toddler playpen (nope, can't get a pet playpen here) so that I can separate him from my dog, without closing either one away from the rest of the "pack" (we can move the playpen wherever everybody is, living room, bedroom, whatever); To make a "Belly Band" (nope, can't buy here) for when I let him play in the house out of the pen, to keep him from marking/peeing everywhere; To give him as much time outside on our tiny deck as possible, with play, given the ridiculous weather; I bought totally disgusting some-animal's-feet-or-something kind of things (at rather great expense) for him to chew on to involve/distract him; I have other toys for him, and will be picking up and putting down toys, chewies, etc. as separation allows, since my girl is possessive of her own stuff; I'm going to try the coins-rattling-in-the-can thing for the barking, or squirt him with a water pistol when he does the guard-barking. (hate to do it, but it's going to be intolerable.)

He is only acting naturally, and I want the visit period to be as good and anxiety-free as possible for him. But I can't let him spray/pee all over my house (and I think even with the precautions I've come up with, my dog's super-nice current house training is going to be fucked), and I can't let him harass my dog into life-threatening illness. I'd rather not have all our neighbors totally hate us, and, preferably, I won't spend two-to-four weeks in miserable, miserable July feeling like puking up my guts because of that weird, awful smell thing (but that's really last on my list).

I really do need help here.

and for what it's worth, I did advise our friend to have her dog neutered when he was a puppy... and she acted like I suggested having his head removed to make dog ownership easier. She's actually at an even less rational level at the moment, and it's crazy, but, just... we can't say "no".

In need of advice: what should be done with a dog that has deliberately attacked its owner?

myodometer — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:36:36 -0800

Last night, my dog attacked me and took out a pretty big chunk of my finger. What should I do? I have a seven year old Shiba Inu who has an incredibly dominant personality. When my girlfriend and I first adopted her from the animal shelter, it was immediately apparent that she had been abused by a previous owner as she would cower anytime someone raised their hands - even in conversation where the dog was several feet away.

As dominant as she is, she also happens to be very aggressive towards other dogs. We have attempted to try and socialize her by exercising her to the point of exhaustion and introducing her to new animals on numerous occasions. These attempts, however, always have ended in her lunging for the other animals as soon as she is within striking distance.

In these cases, my girlfriend or I will quickly try to control the situation by pulling our dog off of the other dog and rolling her on her back until she settles down. In some of these instances, our Shiba will be so aggressive toward the other animal that she has bitten us, however, these bites are nothing more than 'warning bites' and she quickly rolls over submissively upon realizing that she's bitten one of us.

Last night, however, in attempting to socialize her with a dog that we are dog-sitting over the next week, when she bit my hand, she bit it hard. I ignored the bite, however, and continued to try and get control over her, as I expected that bite to be the last one before she rolled over. Instead, she released my hand and then bit my finger, shaking it like a piece of meat.

My worry is that this attack was in no way a 'warning bite' and that the dog has now escalated her aggression towards humans. If she had gotten my hand from another angle, I would have easily required stitches from this attack.

I've been told in the past that a dog that will bite it's owner is likely to bite just about anyone and should be immediately disposed of. However, my girlfriend and I love this animal and would have an incredibly hard time putting her down. We also don't have the kind of funds required to pay for a 'Dog Whisperer'-esque behaviorist.

So, is this something that I should be this worried about?

Dog biting

munchingzombie — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:53:50 -0800

Why has my perfectly nice dog with no history of biting suddenly doing it? Please help me save my face. I feel a little awkward asking my vet this question, so I thought I would ask all you wonderful people. Ben is a Newfie/Retreiver mix about three years old. He has always been a very loving dog who just melts if you pet him, which is his favorite activity when not sleeping. So, he has no history of biting or snapping.

We moved to a new apartment a month ago; any anxiety he felt surrounding the move dissipated within a few days of moving. But in the last week he has snapped at three different people on three different occasions.

1) The first was a six year old girl who was over with her parents for a BBQ. She was acting a little frightened around Ben and thankfully he just jumped up at her and bonked her nose.

2) Later when everyone left we just had two friends over. A friend was playing with Ben and he snapped at his face but thankfully missed. The friend had played with Ben before and the dog did not seem in an odd mood at all.

3) Then, this morning we had just returned from our morning walk. Ben had played with a few dogs, which is not uncommon. He was laying down on the floor and I bent down and was petting him in the same way I have done countless times. Then, snap. I have a puncture wound under my nose and on my chin.

Why might he be doing this? He has never bit anyone or anything (he even sniffed a live squirrel without taking a taste) and then three times in one week he does it. Before and after he does it he is perfectly placid. No bursts of aggression of playfulness. Just Ben on second, snap the next, and back to normal the third.

Any additional information you guys may need yours for the asking. Any suggestions on how to handle the situation would be very appreciated.

Thank you hivemind.

Lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick...

printchick — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 14:19:21 -0800

How do we keep our dog from obsessively licking the floor? I have looked online for answers, and our vet seems puzzled as well. Anyway, the dog is a 4-5 year-old beagle mix. He's very friendly, loves walks, loves lazing around with us on the couch, etc. Last January he had a couple of siezures which led to him going on the anti-siezure medication phenabarbatol. That stopped the siezures, but after that, the licking began.

The vet seems to think this may be connected, that there's some sort of short-circuit in the dog's brain that makes him do this. He licks our wood floors and the marble floors in the bathroom. He hasn't done this at any other houses, like my mom's or my in-laws. He does this constantly when we are getting ready in the morning, sitting to eat breakfast, and sometimes when we're at home at night and settled in (it's not like he senses we're leaving and gets nervous.) He can do it for an hour at a time or so, or maybe it just seems this long to us.

He gets two 20-30 minute walks a day and is home alone from about 9 to 4. He doesn't destroy anything in the house while we're gone, but may tip over the occasional trash can. He gets lots of attention and love when we're home.

I'm not sure if spraying bitter Apple spray or something like that on the floors is necessarily the solution, (that's a lot of spray for a lot of floor) and when we tell him to stop, he just acknowledges us with a tail wag and keeps on licking.

Ideas?

Dog Behavior

ferociouskitty — Sun, 04 Apr 2004 08:40:04 -0800

Why do dogs behave differently towards different people, and how can an owner adjust that behavior? (More inside) We have an 8-month-old miniature pinscher mix (Keebler) who occasionally thinks he’s a tough guy, but more usually soaks up love. He’ll sit at the window and bark when people walk by, but whenever he’s around anyone – strange or familiar – he just wants attention. Until yesterday when my brother-in-law and his wife dropped by for a visit. She is terrified of dogs; he’s not crazy about them. My little cuddle-bug barked at them like I’ve never heard him bark before. Finally, he settled in enough to approach my brother-in-law, but did so with tail tucked and ears back, as if he was afraid. He accepted some petting, but differently than he normally does with other visitors. Any big movement from brother-in-law set off the barking again. I’m guessing Keebler was responding both to their uneasiness and my nervousness about their uneasiness, but since I’d like them to feel comfortable visiting without confining the dog, any suggestions as to how I can make everyone less tense?