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  • My 7-month-old male toy/miniature poodle eats literally everything — walls, wood, toys, even fabric. I’m desperate for help.

    Hi everyone,
    I really need some advice about my 7-month-old male toy/miniature poodle. He’s an amazing, loving dog and has improved a lot with training — but there’s one problem we just can’t solve.

    He chews and eats everything he can find. I don’t just mean biting or tearing things — he actually eats them. He chews the walls and the paint, digs through the plaster, gnaws the wooden table legs, and tries to swallow pieces. Every toy we buy (rubber, plastic, soft toys, even beds) ends up destroyed — and he swallows the parts instead of just chewing them. A few days later, we literally see the toy pieces come out in his poop.

    We play with him a lot, take him outside twice a day, and try to redirect his energy with toys or training. Still, he finds new things to chew and eat all the time. He even ate foam and fabric from his bed.

    He just turned 7 months old, and in many ways he’s improving — he’s learning commands, goes potty outside, and has a calmer personality than before. But this “eating everything” problem is exhausting and scary. I’m worried he might hurt himself one day.

    Has anyone dealt with something similar? Could this be a sign of anxiety, boredom, or maybe something medical (like pica or missing nutrients)? Any tips or routines that helped your dog stop this?

    We love him so much and just want to help him live safely and happily.

    submitted by /u/bayemiran
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  • Puppy will not stop biting me

    So my friends found a little puppy dumped in a park a week ago. It was 6 PM, she was on hole 10 of a disc golf course deep in the woods nobody was around. She’s only 12 weeks old and temperatures dropped to 32° that night so she probably wouldn’t have survived. Not an important detail, but it still hurts my heart to think of what would’ve happened had they not found her. She was stained with her urine and feces and starving so she was obviously dumped. They couldn’t take her so they asked if we could and since we foster dogs, we took her in. Contacted animal care & control, all that, nobody claimed her in the week she’s had her. We took her to the vet, found out she was parvo positive so she’s been quarantined from our other dogs (we had her quarantined anyway as that’s what we do for 3 days with fosters and since she had never been to the vet, we knew there was a risk so I’m glad we were safe).

    Now, we are not sure if we’re keeping her. The shelter said after 30 days she’s ours or we can contact a rescue and put her up for adoption. There’s lots of reasons we will or won’t keep her, we’re weighing it all right now but that’s neither here nor there because we are struggling while we do have her. (We will not take her to a shelter, we foster so this isn’t new to us but a puppy is).

    She will NOT stop biting us. We visit her every 2-3 hours for at least 30 minutes as she’s in our foster room in our basement at the moment and cannot be with our dogs for another 3 days. We know she’s teething, we know this is normal but no matter what we do she is not deterred. When she starts biting, we stand up and walk away. She just follows us and sits in front of us. Then we sit down with her and does it all over again. This goes on for 10-15 minutes but it never stops. We try to give her a toy but she just immediately goes for our hands. My hands are COVERED in bites and scratches.

    She has a whole bin of toys down there, all scattered around her room. I have a 1 year old dog who I have all her puppy and stimulation toys from training her. She gets a frozen kong twice a day, she has teething toys and I know she’s uses them because she has them in her bed in her kennel. (She has a whole room to herself equipped with a covered kennel but the door is left open, a large bed with blankets on it, she has a fluffy bed in the kennel and the kennel is filled with blankets and then toys everywhere.)

    Is she bored? I feel terrible that she can’t be with us upstairs but the vet said to keep her quarantined for a week even though she’s not showing signs of parvo, it was a faint positive and she could be fine but it was better to be safe than sorry. Our girls are vaccinated but the vet said it’s not worth the risk and we’re heeding that advice.

    I’m doing my best with visiting her, giving her all the toys she can ask for, frozen treats, stimulation and playtime when I’m with her but I cannot handle this biting anymore when no matter what I do it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

    If it helps to know her breed we believe she’s a pitty.

    Shes perfect otherwise. Has 1 accident on a towel in the 8 hour nighttime, goes straight to pee and poop when we take her outside, knows sit and come, and all that but this biting is just not giving up. If we take our hand away sometimes she starts growling and showing her teeth, is that common or something bigger?

    We introduce her to our dogs on Tuesday, and I’m worried about her biting them. They’ll be supervised at all times but we’ve been working on this biting for a week with no progress.

    Any tips appreciated! Also, if you have any toys or homemade items that helped with your puppy teething that’d be amazing!

    submitted by /u/anecdote92
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  • Puppy food aggression

    We have just got a 7 week old puppy from a rescue. She is not food aggressive with us but is with our other dogs. Luckily our dogs are all very well trained so they just walk away but she prevents them from eating and will push them out of food bowls even if she’s not hungry. We thought at first it was just with high value treats/chews but she has been bullying our smallest dog and not letting him near the food bowls and recently snapped at our biggest dog. We have been feeding her by hand and it seemed to be going well so we tried feeding them out of the bowls again and she was instantly pushing the dogs out of the food/body blocking it and growling and if we switched or led the dogs to a different bowl she would follow. Would feeding in a separate room get rid of this? It feels like avoiding the issue because we do give lots of treats and I don’t want a scrap of food on the ground to cause Armageddon in our house.

    submitted by /u/IntrusiveCamel
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  • Can/do dogs mimic human behavior?

    Unfortunately I’ve had issues with tardive dyskinesia the duration of my dog’s life subconsciously sticking my tongue out, but have noticed for many years my dog does the same thing. She will stick her tongue out and seemingly lick the air. What I’m wondering is she mimicking my motor techs or is this something all to herself that has nothing to do with me?

    submitted by /u/smdifansmfjsmsnd
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  • Shelter puppy peeing too much?

    We just brought home a shelter puppy yesterday she is about 6 months old and she seems to be peeing a lot. I’m not sure if I should be concerned yet or give her a few days. She seems to be peeing every 30ish minutes and she’s been drinking a lot of water. Could it be stress?

    submitted by /u/Tree_Fairy5
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  • Sliding Glass Door Opener

    I’m looking to install a sliding glass door opener. My senior dog needs regular trips outside during the night. I want one that opens and closes when triggered by a collar tag.

    I was excited about wyzen but then read that the collar tags work inconsistently and i can’t have her stuck outside at any point this winter, day or night.

    Autoslide seems to be the other big name. Much more expensive but I’d do it if it was worth the money.

    Which ones do you have and how well do the collar tags work? I do not plan on using Alexa or the app to let the dog out. I want to strictly use the collar tags.

    Thank you

    submitted by /u/Rock_Out1
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  • Incontinence – belly band recs

    I have a 10 y/o chihuahua/poodle mix who recently began leaking urine, generally while sleeping. The vet, and a urinalysis can't identify any issues. All of our furniture is covered with waterproof covers and blankets. He also now wears a belly band/diaper. While not ideal (I'd rather he wasn't incontinent) the belly bands are fine, easy to use, and he's used to them now. The problem is that the band won't stay on the entire day when both humans are at work all day. Any tips or belly band brands/types that can withstand 9 hours? If it helps, he's shaped kind of like a dachshund, with a long body and short legs.

    submitted by /u/SyrahC
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  • Where do y’all get dog sweaters?

    Hello! I have two very anxious, easily cold dogs who LOVE sweaters especially when winter starts. I have bought several sweaters from Little Beast and I feel like their quality is not what it used to be and the sweaters are easily ripped/thinner material. I love the turtle neck and long sleeve style and it really seems to soothe my dogs. Where do y’all get sweaters and is there an affordable brand that is better quality? Thanks in advance!

    submitted by /u/throwing_away_3508
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