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2-3 yr poodle. begun to carry 1 toy in mouth, keeps with her and whines when she has it
my dogs appetite has really gotten slow. can't find dog food she will eat. boiled hamburger and chicken, she ate it once. she is due to come into heat again soon. she has secluded 1 toy and carries it with her constantly. sometimes tucks it up under her and when she has it in her mouth, whines all the time. she was given to us and we have only had since Christmas. this is the first time doing this and don't know how to help her.
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Answers
She may be experiencing a false pregnancy. (Note: A false pregnancy does not in any way mean that you should breed her. This is brought on by hormones, not emotions. Responsible breeding takes a whole lot of knowledge to do properly as as safely as possible. I can tell you as a breeder-in-training that the knowledge you need to properly breed literally takes years to aquire. And breeding without the necessary knowledge is extremely risky on many accoutns.)
As for dog food, all you need to do is play tough love. Lay the food down for 15 minutes, then put what she doesn't eat up until the next day. Don't feed her *anything* else until her next meal. After a few days at most (if she is healthy), she will eat her food. She won't allow herself to start.
Feeding a homecooked diet is fine, but it is serious business because you need a lot of research to feed a properly balanced diet. Many dog foods (especially brands grocery store brands) are poorly balanced as well, but they are better than a poorly balanced home-prepared diet.
Hello,
I agree with Cookie; it sounds like a false pregnancy. So I have to ask, why hasn't she been spayed yet? There's no need to go through the mess and bother of a heat cycle, and the more she has, the higher the risk she'll develop breast cancer, later.
Here is a link to a website that will give you all the facts about spaying, and all the reasons to take care of it as soon as you can: www.barkrescue.net
The most important reason, I believe, is that a fertile female can create literally hundreds or thousands of offspring. Most of these will end up suffering in a shelter and if not adopted, put down.
Since she's about to go into her next heat, your vet will probably want to wait until it's over before spaying. Make sure she is secure during this time, because any intact males in your neighborhood are going to try to get to her. If she is acccidentally bred, the vet can do a spay/abort.
Exercise and practicing tricks will help her behavior and appetite. GL!
The best thing to do is really to have her spayed. It is not fair to the dog.
It will not go away on it's own.
When they start to ovulate they can have panic attacks, not eat, not drink, hide, and have false pregnancy, not limited to aggression on people and other animals.
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