I have a 9-month old Aussie puppy who lately has been refusing to eat his meals and on some days will refuse to walk.
First off: We've been to the vet and lungs and heart sounded fine, blood work came back normal as well.
But he still has those days where I know he must be hungry and if I give him his kibble, he'll just walk away. Sometimes he'll take a bit in his mouth and then spit it back out after chewing, as if I fed him gravel or something (his teeth are fine though and he's ok eating and chewing much harder things). Sometimes he does the same with water, even if I put it under his nose, but then I see him drinking most of it about 5 minutes later. With the kibble, he will happily eat my sister's dog's kibble and I've actually changed to that brand (from Pro Plan to RC) just to see if he likes it better but after about a week the same thing started happening again.
Since he's still so young I just don't feel comfortable letting him starve himself but at the same time I don't want him to start demanding toppers or whatever on every meal. I did get a packet of wet food as a sample at the pet store and have been mixing that with his kibble and now he eats it just fine.
On some days he's happy to walk normally and on others he'll just suddenly lie down after about 10 minutes of walking. The vet also checked for pain and he seemed totally fine. Also, if I walk away in those moments he'll come chasing after me at high speeds, and I'm guessing if he felt pain walking he'd also feel it running?
His behaviour is just very cryptic. And it's not like he wants to go back home necessarily either, sometimes when we turn back he'll suddenly pull in a different direction and when I give in we sometimes have a nice walk and sometimes he just finds another spot to lie down on.
He also suddenly refuses to pee on cue, even first thing in the morning. It was always routine, the first thing we do after waking up is put on the leash, go outside, have him pee a few steps away from the front door, go back inside for me to get ready and grab a bite, then go on a proper walk. Now he just looks at me all confused when I use the cue for peeing and he'll refuse to go to his pee spot. We can stand there for 5 or even 10 minutes and he'll just sit there, watching the environment. I've tried going back inside, putting him in his crate for 10 minutes and try again but he still refuses, even if I do it several times. If we then go on a walk he pees about 5 minutes in and it's always a lot obviously because it's been a whole night.
Some other things I've noticed: he scoots his butt on the ground a lot more than he used to, on average about once a day (used to be the most once a week), but the vet found nothing wrong with him. He also seems to feel itchy around his flanks because he often tries to reach those spots with his teeth. And he's generally much less frantic/energetic/motivated than he used to be and how I'd expect an Aussie puppy to behave.
What is going on? Is this puberty? Could it be a health issue? And how do I fix it?