Summer's Edge

I have a friend who has a 5 month old Spaniel - not sure if it's a cross with anything or what type of spaniel it is. He used to be really friendly, affectionate and quite relaxed but in the last week, he has started to act strange and has been following the ground with his nose as if he is following a sent and has been looking up at they sky and jumping at things like he is chasing something. It's not just outdoors it's inside as well and it's constant. Vets are currently looking into things including testing for lead poisoning but there's nothing jumping out physically and so far not much expect "high stress" has shown up on bloods. Does any have any experience with this or has anyone heard of anything like this before in another dog?

He/She is quite probably going through the "fear" stage (which I've read up about in books - How to train your Siberian Husky - not personal experience) - you just need to reassure your pup that what he/she is afraid is actually nothing to be afraid of at all. According to the book, if you cuddle your pup when he's afraid, he'll associate that with praise thinking it's ok to be scared of the other dogs, instead, walk up to the other dog and touch it saying "look at this, it's ok". Hope this helps.

Hi, Walking now is fine. It's best to start with short walks say 15 minutes for starters then gradually build up to 30 minutes. Make sure you are doing the walking on a flat surface. You may find that he wants to walk for longer which will be fine but you just need to make sure you don't over do it because they are still growing. It might take a while to get him used to the lead so give it a try in your back yard first. Keep talking to him the entire you are walking, teaching him to heel and praising him for when he is being good. Good luck!

Hi There, do you have any old pillowcases or pillowcases you don't mind your dog pulling off the line? IF so then grap some balloons and fill them with water and stuff them inside the pillowcase and hang those on the line. When the dog jumps up to pull the washing off, the balloon bursts and instead of getting nice fresh clothing in his face, he gets a face full of cold water - which he won't like. He will soon associate the washing line/clothes with a face full of water and won't go near them again.

Hi, from my personal experience it can be a behavioural thing. When she pees don't get upset with her, simply remove her from the area and take her outside and instruct her to toilet on the lawn (or wherever). Getting angry with them can encourage them to keep doing it as it can be out of attention so don't make a fuss, just ignore the fact she has peed, pick her up and take her outside and say "this is where you potty". Our Sibe peed on the carpet 6 times in one afternoon because we were giving the cat attention or eating dinner which we didn't share so we we just continued to ignore and put her outside, it stopped pretty much straight away (well after the 6th time)!

Because she's had free run since day one and is now 6.5 months old. And the other Sibe isn't crated.

Thanks, both females and it's the pair of them doing it though. I don't think it's a health issue, I think maybe behavioural? The older one did both inside this morning and the younger one did wee again last night! When she was younger, she pee'd inside 4 times in one day and found that everytime she pee'd it was either because we were eating or we were paying attention to the cat. She stopped doing it and then started having accidents when she got really excited - now, she has accidents when really excited and for reasons unknown. Two weeks ago, the pair of them did 4 pee and poops in the house in a space of a few hours! GRRR

I'm hoping someone can help! I have a 6 month old Sibe who is fully toilet trained and back in January this year as she was getting rather lonely, we introduced at 1 year old Sibe to keep her company. The pair have become great mates but they have both just recently started weeing and pooping in the house and they manage to do it without us noticing. The little one when we first got her settled in fine our room then preferred to sleep in the hallway with no dramas. In the last few months, she has taken to sleeping outside (not something we wanted) and when we put her inside to sleep to she starts whining and crying. She eventually stops and goes to sleep but we wake to find presents!!! Could she possibly be scared of the dark? Bizzare I know but the minute the light goes out, the whining begins! Because she whines, we put her outside where she proceeds to do her own thing until around 630am when she starts bashing at the door, play fighting with our other Sibe (same mother, different father) and chirping! We don't really want to crate her as I'm pretty sure that would stress her out even more. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.