Internet Inquiries: “My Dog Won’t…”

00:00 — Kati introduces internet searches beginning with “My dog won’t…” and warns listeners about the…

What are the most common internet searches that start with my dog? Won't. Quite a variety for you guys today. Thanks for joining me. Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered Trigger Warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the Truth in Dog Training.

Hey everybody, thanks for joining me. I am Kati peppy, owner of Diamond Canine Dog Training in Biddeford, Maine. We specialize in eco training. We do off leash obedience to it, nice, reliable off leash behavior, and also a strong focus on behavior modification. So helping people stop unwanted behaviors like barking leash, pulling, jumping up on people, you name it, we can help with that. Um, also more serious stuff like reactivity and aggression, anxiety issues and love doing state of mind work with nervous, fearful and and anxious dogs. We also offer puppy programs, so that's who we are and what we do, uh, in this podcast is our way of just sharing everything that we're seeing and talking about and doing with the dogs day in and day out, uh, with you guys.

So, uh, sometimes the stuff we cover is really difficult to find, um, because in today's culture there's a very, very, um, strong push with the purely positive ideology.

And unfortunately, that's only a, a small piece of the puzzle. Um, very, very powerful tool. We use a ton of it, but unfortunately a lot of the other stuff that's important either gets overlooked or outright buried because, um, again, there's just an agenda out there and it's hard to find the truth. So we are very happy to share that with you and this information, um, just put it out there for those who are looking for it because it is so hard to find, there's so much garbage out there on the internet between the ignorance and the lies and the judgment.

Um, so very, very happy to be doing this. And today, uh, we do these episodes called, uh, internet inquiries, and it's really just kind of a fun thing. But in the process we actually come across a lot of really, uh, interesting problems or good questions, uh, that I think are common. <laugh>, obviously they're common, right? Because everyone's searching for them. That's how I'm getting these suggestions. So if I type into my browser, my dog won't, and then I let you know the auto suggestions for completion come up. What I get for a list starts with my dog won't eat.

03:00 — Kati begins with dogs refusing food, explaining why owners commonly panic when appetite temporarily…

And this is something I've actually covered before, and so I'm gonna cover it again. And I kind of like this one because it's really common. Oh, hold on. My dogs are playing and they're just being really noisy. <laugh>,

Okay, I'll put the kibosh on that. No more fun. <laugh>, no more playing. No, I'm just kidding. They're, they're still having fun. But, um, I'm, I took that particular toy away because you see, one of my dogs is a pug, and when he has that particular toy in his mouth, uh, he really just can't breathe well and he's very, very loud <laugh>. So I did take that toy away and they can play with something else. Um, so anyways, my dog won't eat. Super common and I, I love this one because when dogs first come into me for a bored and train, a lot of them are a little uncomfortable.

They are a little anxious. You know, it's a new environment, new people, some of them are scared of strangers, um, and they don't eat. And it's not particularly a problem in that instance, but it's, people tend to freak out.

And so I like to cover this one. So first of all, let me just preface this by saying if your dog won't eat at all, then there's probably a problem, right? That doesn't mean you should panic immediately, um, unless there's other symptoms that are concerning. Um, but if you know your dog goes a couple of days and like they haven't eaten anything or hardly anything, then I would be very concerned by that, right? I'd be raising some eyebrows, but generally speaking, like if your dog won't eat anything, I wouldn't panic right away. Um, unless you're seeing other symptoms that there's a problem or, you know, something happened in the past that could be causing a problem, like if they ingested something, right?

So if you have a dog that tends to swallow rocks and socks and hairbrushes, <laugh> and that sort of thing, and I don't mean chewing on them, but you have a dog that actually swallows this stuff, even if you didn't see it happen.

But, you know, that's their tendency. Like they have pica. Um, and then one day they're not eating anything. In that case, I might go straight to the vet, right? Because I know my dog has a tendency to ingest things that they're not supposed to. I know that can be a hazard and now they're not eating at all, which is certainly a, potentially a symptom of an impaction, but right? But my mind wouldn't jump there otherwise, unless I know that's a tendency for my dog. Or if I saw that they ingested something, um, then yes, I would be worried about that.

Um, but you know, if your dog isn't lethargic, if they're still drinking water, um, if you know how to check their temperature, check their temperature, that sort of thing, if you're not seeing other signs that like they're not okay, then maybe, maybe it's nothing, right?

Maybe they just feel off today, no big deal. Maybe they'll feel better tomorrow. But again, you have to use your judgment and look at your dog. And just disclaimer, I'm not a medical professional, so my intention here isn't to give anybody medical advice necessarily. I just, you know, if it were me and it was my dog, that's the way I would be looking at it. Um, usually we look at the dog as a whole, right? What's normal for them? Is everything else seeming normal? Is there a high risk of impaction because we saw them chewing on something they weren't supposed to have or we know it's their tendency to do that.

Um, in those cases, I tend to panic a little bit sooner. Um, but dogs have off days just like we do and they just don't feel good, right? But if this is going on for an extended period of time, then there's definitely something off.

Um, and you should certainly have your dog looked at. Now, the more interesting cases to me are when people just say their dog won't eat enough, right? This happens often because people get puppies, puppies are growing fast, right? They're growing quickly and so they need a lot of calories, a lot of nutrients, and they're eating a lot of food. And then what happens is puppy gets to be, you know, eight months, 10 months old, those caloric needs start to drop off because the growth slows way down and people are still feeding them like they're five months old, you know, which is probably like peak food intake.

07:00 — Puppies often eat less around eight to ten months as growth slows and caloric…

Um, and so a lot of, some dogs will just continue to eat it, right? And then we see them get <laugh>, pretty chunk of monka. Um, but a lot of dogs won't right? You, so you keep serving them these puppy servings that are really big, they don't need it.

And they're not a super food driven dog, so they just don't eat it all. And then people start to worry about their dog and their dog's appetite and how they're not eating enough. And so now what the person does is they go and they put like gravy in it or chicken in it or bake, you know, whatever, just something that the dog likes and they dress it up and the dog cleans their bowl. It makes the person feel better. Um, but now basically your dog has number one just taken in calories that they don't really need.

And number two, they've started training you to put goodies in their bowl <laugh>. And so sometimes what will happen, right? This will happen two or three times in a row, 'cause again, the caloric needs have just dropped off and your dog's not super food driven, so they're just not eating all their food because they don't need it, right?

And so this happens two or three times in a row, and we respond each time by putting goodies in there. And so now we're getting into this pattern of a, trying to encourage our dog to eat food they don't need, and b, teaching them that if they don't eat it, we'll come put this yummy stuff in it, right? And so then sometimes they stop eating their food altogether until you mix it in with this stuff, because they've learned that if they just let it sit there, you'll come over and you'll put all these goodies in it, right?

And so now we have two bad things happening where your dog is learning not to eat their food if it's plain and your dog is eating way too much food. And then of course we see them get overweight and potentially become obese, and that's not great for their joints and their lifespan and, and all this business.

So, um, if your dog slows down with eating once they get, depending on like the size of the breed and their metabolism, right? Because of course every dog is a little different. I know I say that all the time, but it's true behaviorally and physically. Um, but you know, if you have a toy breed, this might start much earlier. If you have a large giant breed dog, it might start much later. Um, but you know, somewhere between the six and 12 month mark usually. Um, and I, I think for most like average large breed dogs, it's right around the eight month mark.

10:00 — Assess energy, water intake, and potty habits before worrying about an isolated appetite dip.

They really kind of start to slow down, um, with their intake. So, uh, don't be surprised if that happens. And again, unless you see something else off about the dog, their water intake, their potty habits, their energy level, don't worry about it, right? If they're underweight, yes, worry about it. Go talk to a vet or a nutritionist or, or both. But otherwise, if your dog's not underweight and everything seems fine, they probably just don't need those calories, is what they're telling you. So you should probably cut back and just keep an eye on their body condition, right?

And make sure they stay a nice, healthy, uh, body weight.

The next one that comes up, oh, before I move on, I will also add that if your dog is in a situation that makes them anxious, not eating is normal, right? So, like I said, when dogs come in for board and train, a lot of them, not a lot, but it's common for a dog. When we get a dog that is typically a little bit anxious, a little bit nervy, especially if they're not a food driven dog, they'll just turn their nose up at it and they'll turn their nose up at it for up to four or five days, okay?

Now that's something that freaks people out. Some people they find out their dog missed a meal and they freak out, but I can assure you it's normal. Your dog's fine. Dogs are designed to fast. Sometimes it's actually not a bad thing for your dog to fast sometimes.

In fact, if you've ever had a dog with gi upset, you may have had a vet tell you to fast your dog for 24 hours to just give their system a little bit of a break and let it heal. Um, so fasting isn't necessarily a bad thing. Um, and dogs can do that and they can do that much longer than we realized because it would be so uncomfortable for us to do it. Um, but we have had dogs that come in here and they're anxious enough when they come in that they just, we, and we offer them food, we offer it to them twice a day in the morning and in the evening, and they turn their nose up at it for four or up to five days.

Um, but guess what? They always start eating. They always start eating. So you can't let that creep into your head and make you panic.

The dog has to eat and they'll eat, they'll eat when they're ready, I promise you. Like they always do, always. We've never had a dog that didn't start eating. Uh, and most dogs when they turn their nose up at food, it's only a day or two. Um, but sometimes we do get one that will go longer, um, four or up to five days. Uh, but usually on that fifth day, they turn that corner and they decide they're going to eat. And after that, they often just clean their bowl every meal. So it's just, you know, a matter of waiting until the dog is ready and comfortable enough to eat in that environment.

And then we're usually golden at that point. I have never, never had it become like an actual issue where we had to send the dog home or anything like that. Um, they will eat, they'll eat when they're ready.

And the important thing to me is to just be offering that food twice a day. We don't offer it a hundred times a day. So if the dog turns their nose up at breakfast, I'm not gonna offer it to them at noon and at 2:00 PM and at 4:00 PM we don't do that. And honestly, it makes the food less appealing and less of a necessity to the dog, right? Because they know it just keeps coming back. It keeps coming back, or it sits in the kennel all day. Neither one of those are good. So dogs that tend to not eat enough, which is rare, most dogs will eat enough to sustain a healthy body weight, but some dogs don't and they always look like they're just a little bit underweight, right?

If you have a dog like that who's just not that into food, not food driven is a little bit underweight and they tend to turn their nose up at their meals, don't let it sit in there all day, guys.

14:00 — Offer food twice daily for fifteen to twenty minutes, then remove it instead of…

Don't make it available all day. Make it scarce, right? It goes in in the morning and then it comes out. If you don't eat it in 15 or 20 minutes, I'm gonna take it out. It isn't coming back until dinner. And yes, they might eat a little bit less that day and the next day, but what's gonna happen over the course of a few days a week is you're gonna set a strong pattern of I put the food in and you either eat it or it goes away. And a lot of dogs are going to start cleaning their bowls.

So we've seen that pattern a lot before too. We've had dogs come in that don't eat well at home and they come here and they start eating like champs. Um, so that's usually the best approach. And free feeding isn't great anyway. 'cause it can lead to obesity, it can encourage resource guarding, all these things.

Uh, I just don't love it. So goes in in the morning and that's it. It goes away until the evening. Alright, next, next, next. My dog won't drink water. Well, I don't have a ton to say about this one, except that again, take into account the entire dog, the entire picture. Are there any other symptoms or problems? Um, water is something that obviously is even more necessary than food. Your dog cannot go as long without water as they can without food. Um, so I would be much quicker to get vet attention for that, um, if they really weren't drinking any water at all.

However, again, people tend to get all hyper bent outta shape about this just like they do with food. <laugh>. My dogs are acting up again. They're playing now. They have, they have a ball. But, uh, the pug is just very, very, he's a very noisy breather.

And, uh, he started squawking as well. Oh, hey, come on. I don't, this squeaky barky thing is, is new. Uh, people tend to get bent outta shape really easily about this. So if they have a dog on kind of a hot day or if they've been doing some training, which obviously I see a lot because I'm a dog trainer, um, then they're just certain their dog needs a drink. Um, and if they present their dog with water and their dog doesn't drink it, um, they tend to get a little upset about this. And they keep trying to encourage the dog to drink and they're like shaking their hand around in the water and they're pushing the water toward the dog and all these things.

And don't worry about it. Like you're off. You offered it. You did your part, you offered your dog water, you made it clear it was okay to drink the water.

If they don't want it, they don't want it, okay? Now, if your dog just isn't drinking water at all, they go the whole day, they don't take a sip of water, maybe you should be concerned, right? Especially if their potty habits are off and they're not peeing the way they should too much or not enough. Um, then maybe you need to get some vet attention. I don't, again, I don't have as much to say about this one, um, except that I think people tend to get bent outta shape in certain contexts where they think their dog should need a drink.

<laugh>, which is different than like your dog just never drinking at all. Um, obviously that's more of a concern if that happens. I will say too though, that if you have changed your dog's dog food, it may have more or less moisture in it, which can change things.

I know for one, when I switched my dog to a raw diet, uh, his water consumption went way down, which is very normal. So if you feed your dog a raw diet, uh, and I don't mean like the freeze dried stuff, but um, an actual fresh, like raw diet, uh, there's a lot of water content in the food. And so your dog will just naturally need less water. And that's very, very normal. Okay, my dog won't poop. Well, again, my, my info that I have to share on this stuff is mostly from a behavioral perspective.

18:00 — For dogs that will not poop, give them a reasonable outdoor opportunity without assuming…

I don't have a lot of medical info because I'm not a medical professional. Um, but I will share what I have to say about dog not pooping. Number one, people get bent outta shape because they take their dog out to go to the bathroom and the dog won't go.

And I totally get it as a dog trainer, this is something I run into all the time, but I learned pretty quickly that it doesn't matter. Like I have no control over whether or not the dog goes poop. So I don't care if they're not gonna poop, they're not gonna poop, we'll go out, we give them a chance and that's it. So move on with your life is my suggestion, right? But if you have a dog that goes in the house like he'll potty on the floor, then when you bring him out, he has to go, otherwise it's go inside and you go back in your kennel, right?

So you can't take that chance. If you have a house, crapper, <laugh>, you have to, you have to give him a chance to go outside. And if he goes, great, you can go back into the house and things are good if he doesn't go back into the kennel, right?

But I'm not gonna stay outside all day trying to get a dog to poop. Are you kidding me? My schedule is nuts. I'm already behind all the time. I can't imagine. Like, and some trainers do this and I'll, I'll see them like when we're talking on Facebook that they're just outside walking around the block a thousand times trying to get the dog to poop. Who has time for that? I mean, give them a chance to go and they either go or they don't. I have heard some people have a trick of putting a matchstick in a dog's bum.

I wouldn't recommend it and I've never tried it. Um, but people swear by it that you can stimulate your dog to defecate if you insert the tip of a match. I assume a wouldn't match into the anus. It's not for me, and I don't recommend it for you, <laugh>.

It's just what I've heard. I'm just telling you what I've heard. Um, seems a little crazy. But, uh, if it works for, for them, that's great. And lastly, my dog won't let me cut his nails. Well, boy, isn't this a common one? So, uh, and this one, this one I have some stuff to say about. So number one, start early if you can when your dog's a puppy, right? But obviously people that are asking this question are already in the boat where their dog won't let them cut their nails. Uh, and the thing is, even if you do start with their pu when they're a puppy, and even if you do do everything right, that doesn't mean at some point your dog's not gonna decide he doesn't wanna do it anymore.

That, so a lot of people think if you start doing things when the dog's a puppy, that it will just never be a problem.

And that's just false. Especially things like resource guarding. We see people, oh, I'm putting my hand in the food dish right when he is a puppy. And he's gonna learn that, that's fine. It's like, it doesn't matter. Like if your dog's cut out to be a, a real resource garter, it's just not gonna matter. Your dog's still gonna be a resource garter. In fact, he might even be more likely to be a resource guarder, right? Because he is probably gonna get sick of you screwing with his food. Um, so that's not necessarily gonna matter. But anyways, not to get off topic, but you know, just because you start when they're a puppy doesn't necessarily mean, um, that they won't put up a fight later on in life.

Um, but I think it is less likely, like if they're just used to the routine, um, I think that's better most of the time.

But you know, not always. And so if you have a dog that won't let you cut their nails, the most important thing is you have to do it right? It has to be done and they're gonna have to deal with it. So if you have a dog that's actually a biter, you need to muzzle them up for safety for two reasons. Number one, we don't want anybody getting hurt. And number two, we don't want your dog to learn and continually learn and cement the behavior that if they do try to bite you, you're gonna let go.

They're gonna get away, or you're gonna give up and stop the whole thing altogether, right? Because then we're just encouraging that behavior and reinforcing that behavior and it's gonna get worse. Um, so muzzle is really important for your safety and for your confidence. So you don't reinforce the dog for being nasty.

22:00 — Use a muzzle for safety and confidence when trimming nails, reserving sedation as a…

Um, but once you decide to do it, you're just gonna do it. It has to be done, right? And so for some dogs, if they're really, really, um, a disaster when it comes to nail cutting and they're just absolutely outta their minds, sometimes it takes multiple people to hold the dog still while someone cuts their nails. And if that's the case for you, I hate that for you, and I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is. There's no fairy dust, there's no magic. Um, yeah, it, it just has to be done. You must let the dog, you get the people to help you and you just do it, right?

Or you can have the dog sedated, which sucks. Um, but usually this is the way to go because you actually have a hope at getting the dog over it, right? If they're just sedated, if they're actually like put under when their nails aren't getting done, then they're obviously not learning anything in that situation.

They're not learning how to tolerate it. So, you know, I think it's best to do it with the dog awake, um, and just dive into the deep end if possible. And that way you have a hope of them actually coming out of it with, you know, a learning experience that says, Hey, I don't like this, but like, I need to just tolerate it and then it'll be done. So that's my vote. And you know, here's one of the biggest things that I think people miss when it comes to nail trimming is that most of us aren't doing it that often, especially if you have a dog that's terrible when you do it, right?

So we're only doing it every month or every two months or maybe even longer. Well, that frequency is just not enough for your dog to get better. So if you truly want your dog to improve with something, you need to do it frequently.

Imagine if you were trying to teach your dog a new command, right? And you only practiced for like five or 10 minutes every couple months, that's not gonna go well, right? And it's even worse when it's a behavior you're trying to stop, right? We're trying to change, right? Teaching him a new behavior that's still not great, right? It's gonna take you forever to teach him. But when we're talking about stopping a behavior, changing a behavior, it might never happen because there's just so much time that goes by in between that the dog has fully regressed.

Um, back to its normal default, crappy behavior. So the key with nail trimming, really the first time you do it, not the first time you do it, but when you're trying to get the dog accustomed to it, is to do it frequently. So you muzzle the dog up, you get help if you need help.

And instead of doing a full nail cut, what you do is you just trim the tiniest little sliver off from every nail and or just do every other nail, right? And that way now you can come back to it, you can come back to it later on that night. You can come back to it in a couple hours. You can come back to it in the morning, right? But you can come back to it and do a little more and then come back to it and do a little more, right? And you wanna draw the session out.

25:00 — Take tiny slivers or alternate nails across frequent sessions instead of attempting one long…

Now, if you don't wanna just do one nail, like, you know, do a little bit on every paw, and maybe sometimes you're not even really trimming it all. Maybe you're just touching it with the nail clippers. Maybe you're tapping it, right? Maybe you're just applying pressure, right?

Because sometimes it's just that pressure on the nail that makes them freak out. But you're going through the process of nail trimming or something extremely similar to nail trimming, and you're doing that for a few minutes and you're gonna revisit it frequently, like every few hours if possible, or at a minimum every day. And the dog starts to learn after 3, 4, 5 of these sessions that number one, there's no way to get out of it. And number two, if they cooperate, it's not actually that terrible, and then it's over, right? And once they start making better choices, if you wanna incorporate a little food, you can, right?

And some people will just like smear peanut butter on the floor or on the wall and let their dog lick it while they trim their nails. And that's fine. Like, I'm not opposed to that. I wouldn't wanna do it, but that's okay.

But if you have a dog that's like so freaked out, they're like trying to bite you and they're flailing and thrashing, they're not gonna be interested in the peanut butter anyway. So it's not, it's not really a solution for those people. Um, but food is okay if your dog's making good choices, most of the time. You know, if a dog's that stressed by it, again, they, they might not be into food. Um, and it's not necessary. Like praise is fine, right? Even a little affection is fine, like if your dog is doing a good job, right?

But one of the most important things is when your dog tries to pull away, like reflexively, a lot of dogs will just try to pull that paw away. You cannot let them do that. If they succeed at doing that, they're gonna do it more and more and more.

So you really wanna have a nice firm grip on your dog's paw and you really wanna tighten it up. When they try to pull away, do not let them pull that paw away, guys. It's so important. Do not let them pull that paw away. And then as soon as you get stillness again, you go in for the trim, right? You clip one nail and then give a very neutral good move on to the next one and the next one, right? But really with nail trimming with dogs that are super, super difficult, what we want is we wanna be as quiet as possible and as neutral as possible.

Even if it means we're like on the floor full body strength, trying to wrestle with the dog to get them to stay still. So we can clip the nails. We're gonna be quiet most of that time.

We're gonna be quiet. We're not gonna let them pull their paw away. We're gonna be silent, we're gonna restrain them, we're gonna get it done, and then we're gonna come back to it. We're gonna come back to it real soon and we're gonna do it again. Because with that frequency, their intensity is gonna fade fast. And it's gonna start to just become, well, I guess this is just a thing that we do and I just have to tolerate it and it will come and it will go and it's just part of life. And then you can start to stretch out the time in between.

And before you know it, your dog just lets you do it. So that's what happens most of the time, right? And if I do have a dog that's really nippy, um, mouthy when it comes to nail clipping, I will do a correction if they try to bite me, usually with a bonker, um, or something like that. But just for the dog trying to get away, you know, or trying to pull their paw away, I don't usually do it for that. The bonker is fine when it comes to nail trimming, but I wanna reserve it for like really important meaningful moments, right?

I don't wanna be sitting there bonking the dog the whole time. We're trying to trim his nails. That's stupid. It's meaningless. It doesn't teach him anything. It makes the whole experience worse. But I will absolutely extract certain moments during the exercise where if the dog is just being an absolute shithead, right? Trying to bite me or just totally flipping out, like way over aroused and panicked. Yes, that's right. I said I might bonk a dog for being super panicked, right? I will try a bonk and I'll just see what happens, right? Because most of the time what happens is the arousal comes down, right?

30:00 — A firm rolled-towel correction may lower severe arousal or biting attempts during nail handling.

And so we'll bon 'em, we'll give them a second to breathe, let the arousal come down. And then again, being very quiet and very neutral, we will get back into it and keep it going. Nothing wrong with that,

Right? So incorporate all of your resources. Try some different things. A bonker by the way, if you don't know, you should know if you're listening to me <laugh>. But if you don't know, it's a rolled up cotton towel with a rubber band on each end to keep it from unrolling. And when you use that, you always say no first, and then you pop the dog right on top of the melon with it right on top of the head, firmly, very firmly. Okay? So it's a cotton towel, it's not gonna hurt them. But if you're not firm, then what happens is you just desensitize the dog to it and it's no longer a tool that does anything.

And the magic of the bonker is that it's fantastic for bringing down arousal. And guess what? If you have a dog that's super nervy, when it comes time to nail trim, arousal is your problem. So that turns out to be a great tool for some folks. Not everybody. It depends on the dog, it depends on the situation, it depends on what's happening. But you could try some stuff, okay? Try some things. But if I have a dog that's trying to bite me, I would prefer

To have a conversation about that. Um, but you know, some dogs too, it's like the moment they know like it's just not gonna work, they stop doing it. And that might be the route to take, right? If you have a dog, they're muzzled up, you're not afraid of them, um, you're not letting them go, you're not giving up. Then a lot of dogs are only gonna try that once and they're gonna stop. 'cause it's just not, it doesn't work,

Right? But again, if you have one takeaway from this guys, it's frequency, okay? You're never gonna get your dog used to it if you're only doing it every month or two. So come back to it later that day. Come back to it tomorrow, the next day. A few times in a day is great if you can actually do that. Um, but frequency, frequency, frequency, that really is the key. And most dogs, like I said, after a few times, they're gonna give it up and it's just gonna be whatever, right? And they might not love it, they might never love it, but if they can tolerate it, now you're in good shape.

That's it on our list from our internet inquiries. So that's it for today, guys. Thanks so much for joining me. Please do submit your suggestions, uh, questions or, or any comments. Um, love, love, love hearing from you, always looking for things to discuss and talk about and ponder. And you can send those to me at Kati, Kati at Diamond Canine, C-A-N-I-N e.com. Would love to hear from you again. Thanks for joining us. See you next time.