Aackkkk!! What happened?

[leslie123]

Who swapped my well behaved puppy for this wild beast?? Today when I was playing with Sulley he started to get all crazy so I slowed the play down. He then got his teeth to close to my hand (right beside) and I said ah-ah and turned my back and folded my arms. He then began to nip on the back of my legs and got a pretty hard pinch in. I yelped a couple times and kept turning from him. He kind of stopped but the yelp didn't seem to make him pause and really take notice. I waited 10 seconds and then tried to pet him in a calm manner. He was still wound up and I had to repeat a couple more times. He ended up just walking away from me so I have no idea if he got the message or not. The other thing he's been doing recently is snapping at the air. He does it when we're holding his toy and he wants it thrown and sometimes he does it near the cats which certainly doesn't win their friendship! Its not aggressive. He kind of swings his head back and forth and snaps always maintaining playful body posture.
We had suspended tug play for a while because his nipping with the kids was getting bad. He had always kept a very soft mouth with me if he even mouthed at all. This is the first he's gotten truly nippy with me for quite a while. He was doing very well and just yesterday I played tug with him. When I play I stop often and ask him to drop it, always trying to make sure he knows I'm the one in charge of the game. So thats one thing that is different recently is the re-introduction of the tug game. The other thing is that since last Friday we had been giving him Benadryl to get the edge off his itching as he scratched one sore under his front leg and of course we're trying to make him comfortable while we try and pinpoint the cause of his allergy. I'm happy to say that today he wasn't scratching hardly at all and for the first time in three days he isn't on Benadryl. Since it makes him drowsy could it be he's extra rowdy today because he's not in a fog? I hope we don't have to suspend tug forever. Its such a fun game for all of us. He loves playing fetch too, but of course he can only do that for so long. So are we already getting into the stage of him testing us or did we just bring back tug too soon? I know we have to get right on top of this behavior though because his bite is much harder than a month ago! ouch!

[runlikethewind]

regarding the Bendaryl, I noticed you expressed an interest in raw feeding. Have you tried it yet - only you may find some relief from the itching from a change in diet.

[leslie123]

regarding the Bendaryl, I noticed you expressed an interest in raw feeding. Have you tried it yet - only you may find some relief from the itching from a change in diet.

We haven't tried yet. I'm in the process of gathering information. Sadly he was back to runny stools tonight so obviously he's having at the least an intolerance to something in his diet. Its so weird because his morning stools are almost always normal. Thanks for asking run, I will keep you updated when we begin.

[leslie123]

It looks like the raw diet isn't going to happen My husband isn't on board with it so it won't work unless we're both committed. To be honest this isn't the first time we haven't agreed on an issue with the dog. I don't want to go into a lot of personal details here on the forum, but its been a bit difficult and upsetting at times.

[jethroandskipper]

I can relate! My 7 month old puppy was doing great with recall and now he has started pretending he doesn't know that I want him to come to me. With regards to the raw food diet, we had no idea about raw food until we adopted our shelter dogs and they were sent home with a 50 lb box. The theory behind the diet makes perfect sense, but the cost of these individually wrapped packages, and keeping them frozen, and particularly disposing of the awful plastic bags didn't work for us. I had a food processor, and it has now become the daily dog food maker. It is very easy to manage the whole process and the dogs are so healthy. You might try arguing the cost and carbon footprint of dry or canned food with your husband. We buy ground chicken (bones and all) from the local butcher, so we are supporting a local business as well. Also, the butcher has these beautiful bones, and also - we have started buying meat for ourselves there as well. It surprised us that making our own raw dog food would be economic, sanitary, and a more sustainable alternative.

I can commiserate on the puppy stage (which I had been warned of but thought somehow my puppy was immune!). He's back to chasing crows, which he has ignored for a couple of months. Lots of reactivity and now the recall. Back to the long line!