Hi everyone. My parents adopted a standard poodle puppy in May. She's now 8 months old and the city we live in just got a big dump of snow. It's her first time seeing snow and my dad told me that she seemed a little unsure of it, not sure where to do her business.
I've walked her a bunch of times since I visit my parents often, and I was on dog walking duty for the first 4 months of her life with us because my dad had knee surgery and he is usually the one to walk the dog. She rarely pulls when I walk her, and we train during walks with treats.
This time, just a few hours though, I take her for a walk and while it's not actively snowing, the snow has stuck to the ground so I notice she's a bit more active with her sniffing than usual. But I also noticed that she's spitting out treats or straight up rejecting them whenever I praised her for walking well, and not as attentive with her "look" command when we passed other dogs. She was also a LOT more skittish on this walk. We live in a big city, and she's been used to loud noises like busses, cars, car horns, etc. and hasn't flinched. On our walk tonight, a car horn beeped and she freaked out. I got her to calm down and when I praised her and went to reward her, she rejected the treat and wasn't interested. When we were almost home, she started going haywire running back and forth on the grass so I thought she had to poop. Her tail wasn't tucked between her legs but her backside was kind of hunched to be in that position. She lunged at a guy walking past, which she has never done while on a walk with me, though my dad said she's done it before on walks with him.
When I get home from the walk, I let my dad know and I ask if anything bad or scary happened to her on a walk recently that might make her more afraid of walking. He said nothing has happened and that she seems to just be adjusting to the snow/doesn't like it. He did mention that she hasn't been finishing her food. We adjusted her food intake with advice from a vet since she's growing. This just started a morning ago, and my dad's theory is that her growth is slowing down so she's not as hungry. She tends to finish her food later on in the day if there's food left over. Do puppies transition to open feeding/grazing? We had a dog who would graze, only eating when we ate our meals (like during breakfast and dinner).
I'm not sure if I'm overthinking or overreacting or what. My parents seem pretty nonchalant about it, so maybe I'm just being overbearing. My parents are on the older side so I also worry about her enrichment during the day. They aren't incapable, I just think I worry more than they do.
TL;DR: took my parents' 8mo old dog for a walk tonight and she was behaving differently than normal, rejecting treats, and not finishing her food for the past day. My dad thinks she's just adjusting to the cold weather and snow, which is a totally new experience for her.
submitted by /u/gquex
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