Any ideas as to why a dog would suddenly begin such behavior?
Actually eating poo is a condition called corpophagia and it's sorta common-gross I know! One universal problem with dog behavior is that we don't always know why they do things. Here are some ideas as to why your pup would be starting this behavior... *Imitation, mom dogs with new puppies will often clean up their poop to keep the area clean. This is an instinctive but temporary behavior. The theory goes, if a puppy sees mom eating the stuff, she figures that she can snack on it, too. *Diet Issues, If you are overfeeding your dog, her under digested poop looks a lot like what she had for lunch. If you are underfeeding your dog, she is scavenging for food and is willing to lower her standards. If your dog has a vitamin or mineral deficiency, she may be looking to cure it. *Boredom, She may be eating the poop for the same reason that she chews on your shoes or digs in the yard, she needs something to do. *Medication, some dogs have been known to start eating their own poop when they are taking certain antibiotics. *Habit. Whatever began the behavior, your dog will continue it just because it has become a habit. Dogs are as habit bound as we are, and once they have picked up a bad habit, it will take some patient persistence to break that habit. It will not harm the dog, but worms can be ingested this way from a dog eating infected poo. It's just an extremely gross habit to start! If it starts to become a problem they make products out there called For-Bid and Deter that cause the poop to taste really bad! Yeah, I can't really imagine it ever tasting good to start with but lol none the less it works. Or even picking up the poop right away. Best of Luck
My 4 year old is regressing in behavior?
Most likely, your son is acting like a baby for the same reason many adults enjoy watching cartoons or playing games they enjoyed as children. Because it’s easy, and it relieves stress. At age 4, your son is experimenting with his surroundings and dealing with the responsibilities of aging. The behavior you mention isn’t common, but nor is it particularly rare. Some older children enjoy being held and rocked occasionally. It comforts them and makes them feel safe. That’s nothing to discourage, and eventually your son will no longer need that kind of treatment. The baby talk and the bathroom accidents are more problematic. Strongly discourage the baby talk. Don’t pay attention to what he says, and don’t respond to any requests he gives you unless he uses his words. If it persists, punish the behavior. Same thing with the accidents. Don’t tolerate them. Respond to his infantile behavior with punishments suitable for a 4-year-old who knows very well how to use the potty. Seeking comfort in a rocking chair before bed is one thing. Behaving like an infant instead of speaking or using the toilet is another issue. Allow the harmless behavior, but crack down on the actual regression. A combination of love and firmness should do the trick.
Question about my dogs behavior? (pic)?
My dog is one of those really sweet tiny dogs, picture: http://de.tinypic.com/view.php?pic=316ke... Anyways, I've noticed that at time he gets really agressive. I'm going on 17, and my brother is going on 14, but we like to fight sometimes, like I'll hit his leg, and he'll hit back... and my dog (Merlin), will hop between us and nip at my brother. And, well, this is kind of understandable, but when strangers enter the house, he attacks their feet. But only certain people- I'll bring my friends over and he'll cuddle with them, and my brother will bring his friends, and he'll attack them barking (though he never actually bites). And when I take him for walks he is always afraid to go anear other dogs and hides behind my legs, but when dogs walk by the house he runs at them, niping at their ankles. I don't know why he does it, but just so you know he is almost 2 and a half, and our other dog, Rollie, was recently put down (she was thirteen, a black lab, and had really horrible cancer... and she was never neutered). I'm just wondering why he's such an angel at time, and then suck an a*shole at other times. We treat him like a little kid, and we love him so much, but it bugs me as his owner when he is scaring people by running at them. How can I control it. Thanks for reading. :) By the way, that picture was taken around Easter (the reason for the bow), and his hair isn't that long now... that's his Winter hair.
Dog with strange behaviour after seizure?
st week my dog aged 14 had a seizure [grand mal],, he seemed ok afterwards , but over the next few days his behaviour and personality changed dramatically. he just wanders aimlessly around in repetitive circles in garden and in the house, he looks disorientated and lost , he eats too fast and drinks excessively. he wont sleep at night ,he just continues to wander around ,banging into things, he is salivating all the time, he does not seem to recognise the family ,. he is none responsive to anything anymore , he is panting also .he did not even appear to understand what was going on when i put him on his lead for a walk, before this seizure he was a typical 14 year old dog , off to see vet about him , but it does not look good , it reminds me of my father on the day he had his stroke . i hope he is not in pain and is unaware of whats happening to him
Human Behavior: Is the "any reasonable person" hypothesis helpful to you in understanding motives that might otherwise seem obscure?
Yes. Mostly I feel like I don't understand other people, although anyone around me would say the opposite of me. Mostly it is because I would not do what others do, so I struggle to understand why they do what they do.One of the most helpful things for me was doing NLP Coach training. One of the NLP assumptions is that people are doing the best that they can with what they have. First this allowed me to see myself and stop feeling bad about how things sometimes turn out. When I started getting on myself for a decision that had bad results, I would say to myself: I am doing the best that I can with what I have at the time. Next, it helped me understand others. If I take as a basic assumption that others are also doing their best, then if the result doesn't seem like the best to me, I can look at what their limiting factors might be instead of blaming them (which is what I think I had been doing). In practice this means that when I experienced a robbery at my apartment, I felt compassion for the person who did it. What conditions must they be under for this to be the best that they can do?Is it actually true that it was their best? I will never know. But I find it incredibly useful to have the experience of believing it.Not everyone, I assume, wants to be reasonable. So I like the "doing their best" because it allows for their values to be different than mine. In their mind and heart, they do the thing they think is reasonable/acceptable/least-bad, etc. That is not to say that people are not self-sabotaging. For me that just fits into the limiting constraints of what is their best, which I have compassion for too.
How do you find a good breeder for a specific dog breed?
Hi Jason. We got a purebred pug but not from a breeder. My kids wanted a pug & I knew too many people who had absolutely horrifying experiences with breeders so I said we would go a different route. I decided to see if there were any pug rescues expecting to come up empty handed. Im in California. I found 2 HUGE rescues in So Cal AND 2 HUGE rescues in Nor Cal! And there were many more smaller rescues. This is for a breed that isnt the most popular! I thought the rescue would maybe have a couple dozen dogs. We showed up and there were Over 100 dogs. Of one breed. PLEASE check out rescues for the breeds your considering. I was told by people at ALL the rescues I called that they get alot of purebred dogs directly from breeders who didn't sell all their puppies who are now growing and they would like to breed their mothers again and don't want to deal with growing dogs. Please look into a rescue or even the humane society. Thats where my sister has adopted purebred: teacup poodle, great dane, doberman pincher, german shepard & bichon . Not all at the same time though! If you look there are rescues in every state. There are already enough dogs alive that would love a good home. Good luck on your search!
Strange dog behavior- training question?
I have some suggestions; 1-Have you had any bad breakups or divorces? Because if you cried or something the dog would probably sense that and dogs are clever enough to figure out the reasons behind things like that. 2-Was he adopted? I know a family who adopted a dog who has never been comfortable around men. Women and children are fine. Boys are fine, but he just has something against men, probably due tp his past experiences before he was rescued. If your dog was adopted, even as a puppy, this may be the reason. 3-It could just be that he is a protective dog. Dogs as a rule can have many owners, but only one that they are fully obedient to and closest to; you? Women may not be seen as a threat, but men are bigger and stronger (not always but usually) and could, in your dogs eyes, cause more damage. Especially if you are short or thin or injured or sick or vulnerable in some way. 4-It could be that your dog is claiming alpha male status, and he wants to be in control of everything. Your father and boyfriend may be seen as invaders into his pack. Unlikely but still possible. 5-My final idea, linking with the 3rd point is that the dog may have watched you grow up, and may still think of you as a child.... or a puppy, that needs protecting from anything/anyone threatening. Your dog may have taken on parental responsibility for you and guards you against anything he feels concerned about. Well good luck with your dog! I hope I have helped you! :-)
How come dog owners on Quora feel that it's OK to answer dog-training and veterinarian questions based on their own experience with very few dogs?
Like Karen, I have, at any given time, more than one dog, plural. I've had dogs my entire life, other than when living overseas as a military family. All of my dogs have been taught basic commands, some since puppyhood, some after I rescued them from some pretty uncivil situations.I also have worked very closely with Registered Therapy dogs, and so know a bit about that drill, too. I've never gone through the whole process, but I've been a handler. Plus, because of my experience in SNFs and ALFs, I've learned a great deal about motivation, which is fairly easily applied to creatures other than human.Am I an "expert"? I wouldn't describe myself that way, but my dogs don't try and sneak out of the gate, they don't drag me down the street by their lead, they don't urinate and defecate in the house, they amuse themselves while I am at work without chewing on my shoes, and they don't bark their fool heads off just because, well, it seems like a good idea. So, perhaps not expert, but good with dogs.My current project is Charlie. Charlie was abandoned in the Sonoran desert; we don't know for how long, but when rescued, he was one big mat and scared of being alone. He was a human's dog at one time in his year-long life, because he knows doors and windows and how to stand still for a petting. But he is also skittish at being alone, just learning social dog-behaviour after a week, and cried as soon as it got dark for the first two nights unless he was sitting right next to me. He thinks green pea pods and carrots are not-food (more for the rest, think the rest) has learned sit, stay, no and stop in one week, and is turning out to be a pretty good dog.Charlie at one week post-rescueI think we'll keep him, and I'm sure he'll be a fine addition to the pack- Lucy likes him, anyway. Although she doesn't want to share her fetch ball with him.
What does your pet do that is not normal?
The question is, What does your pet do that is seemingly unique?I’ve come to believe that we generally fail to notice how closely our pets are watching us instead of us watching them.My example is my budgie (budgerigar parrot, one species of parakeet). I had brought her home only a few weeks before she showed me how closely she’d been watching my hands. I had tried to lure her from her cage out into the apartment by using YouTube videos showing budgies chattering to each other. She immediately responded with “location calls” when she was in her cage in the bedroom but soon showed she was eager to ‘be near the budgies” on the computer monitor.But from there she changed to actually coming to my desk and grabbing my fingers or pulling hair on my the back of my hands so that I would lift her up and bring her closer to the screen. At first the hair pulling just puzzled me until I experimentally tried lifting her to the screen. From that point on her behavior developed into a clear pattern: go to hand, climb onto hand, then pull hair on hand, get lifted to the birds on the screen.This little 1.2 ounce bird doesn’t talk but communicates her desires every day by such actions. She knows what I mean when I ask, “Go up?” and jumps or flies to my hand to be lifted UP to one of her favorite places where she likes to perch all day. But that happened only after I’d “demonstrated” to her that I would lift my hand in an upward motion to some place she liked to be. She clearly understood the meaning and connection between the action and the question, “Go up?”She even goes to the computer mouse and tries to move it around by pulling on the cord because she has seen me use the computer mouse to bring “the other budgies” onscreen. That’s with no training or even demonstration by me. She’s clearly watching my hands to see what they are doing then decides how she can use them to get things she wants.But none of this is “unique.” All parrot species have this level of intelligence and understanding of human beings. It is us human beings who’ve failed to notice until very recently that parrots have the intelligence of chimpanzees and some are as smart as a 4 year-old human child (smarter than chimps).