We actually have 2 issues with our puppy that I would deeply appreciate feedback on.
For context, we adopted her in early May ‘25, and she was born in January ‘25, so she’s 9.5 months old. Very sweet, very playful mutt, looks like she has some lab, blue healer, and maybe a little corgi (long body). Medium, about 35 pounds.
If I leave a room and start doing things that make noise out of her line of sight, she growls and barks. Huge problem on waking up—I get up and walk her, and my wife is still sleeping. I return, she runs back into the bed, and I feed our cat (male). If I make noise in the kitchen, she starts barking. If I’m in the bedroom as we’re winding down at night, but go into the bathroom to brush my teeth she barks. She barks when I’m working in my office later than my wife and come to the bedroom. Even midday (I work remotely) when I come to the kitchen from my office, if she’s on the living room couch, she barks. Each time, she doesn’t really stop until I get close enough, then she’s super excited and comes for pets.
She also has been relentlessly chewing her left front paw. Seems like it’s only that 1, and she chews her nails down as far as she can go. She has a dewclaw and she yanks at it and bites like she wants to rip it off. Only way she stops is if we give her a rawhide treat or a bully stick.
In general, she’s well behaved for a puppy…can be a little whiny or a little quick to anger if you get in her space when she’s resting. By and large, extremely sweet and fun.
We’re taking her to the vet to make sure the nail/paw chewing is not due to allergies, but we’d love advice on both of these issues. Re: barking, I immediately tell her it’s me from the other room. When she barks at random noises we pretend investigate, act like it’s all good, and sometimes treat her, always praise her. This is what we’ve started since we realized that getting on her case about it was obviously no good.
Thanks for the help!
submitted by /u/viktoreremita
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