I have two problems with my dog, Brownie. First, is that he is always urinating. Even after a walk and even considering the fact that he knows his designated place to urinate (on some newspapers), he still urinates by the sofa and somehow (I don’t have any idea how he does it) urinates just under the sofa. This in itself is not the main problem. The main problem is that the urine is bright yellow and really smells.
The second problem, which actually exists with both my dogs (both male), is that they are always hungry. Even just after a meal they will sit watching me eat a pack of potato chips, drooling all over the floor. This seems abnormal. When its time for dinner, Brownie goes crazy, walks round in circles, falls over in the rush to eat. About 4 weeks ago he ran into a window and broke it. He was lucky not to be hurt.
Does anyone have any advice before I take them to the vet? I thought the urinating was down to the Alpha-Male issue with having 2 male dogs, but I just don’t nkow…
next time the dog pees, try to catch some of it (in a bowl or whatever) and take it to the vet. They can check very quickly if something is wrong…
I have the same eating problem with Sambuka…I once bought those self-feeders, that fill up as the dog eats…and she ate a WHOLE bag of food in 10 minutes ( I just ran to 7-11) And then she was so fat she couldnt walk, so she puked, and wanted to eat that too!
I will give her food when we eat, to make sure shes not jumping into my mouth while I eat…but she gulps it up in 2 seconds, and is waiting by the couch where I eat before I get a chance to eat. ANd then she starts drooling so badly that she also starts gagging from it. I even bought these things at a vet that is supposed to make them feel full, but she doesn’t seem to care at all.
I give her bones too, but they scare me, because its gone before she even starts chewing…
Apparently (or so the vet says), the Alpha male problem is normal when having 2 male dogs of similar age. They are at that age where they try to be dominant, and every time the dogs pee, we clean it up and they just pee again to re-mark their territory. It doesn’t just stop at peeing, though. It even extends to competitiveness for food. Brownie doesnt like chocolate, but he will eat it if he thinks we will give it to Gizmo. When they fight over food its downright scary. Gizmo almost lost an ear last month. There was blood everywhere, and it started because Brownie was sniffing garbage and Gizmo tried to do it, too. Another time Brownie tried to tear out Gizmo’s throat over an apple core. It’s crazy. Does anyone else think its a bad idea to have 2 young male dogs? I am starting to think so.
Reaper Jim, this is off your topic, but chocolate is pretty much poison for dogs. Some can get away with eating a bit, but it is very bad for them and can lead to immediate kydney failure. Some dogs will die within a couple of hours of eating just a bit of the stuff. It would be best to skip that treat even if one of them does seem to like it. It may actually be the chocolate that’s making your dog pee a lot. He may have lost some function for some parts of his plumbing.
We don’t have two males, but we still feed ours seperately to reduce the chances for competition between them. Maybe that might help.
Shit…I think having one male dog is a bad idea. Taiwanese people much prefer male dogs over female…even though they are more problematic and less well behaved than females :loco: . Not to mention disgusting…I love it when I stop to pet a stray male dog and his sticky wet red thing comes out to great me… :help: .
But back on topic. Yeah, chocolate is death to many dogs as stated above. And it seems like you should put their food in seperate rooms and once you put the food in the bowl close the door so the dog can eat undisturbed by the other dog.
[quote=“Dragonbones”]I don’t know what I’m talking about, but might it be diabetes? That would explain both the increased urination and hunger.
Well, I explained the symptoms to the vet (this was over the phonce becuase he wasnt there when the assistant said he would be) and he said there was nothing unusual. He doesnt in fact drink much water at all. He just eats. Seriously, his IQ all but disappears when he catches a glimpse of food. I wonder whether or not the vet could be wrong. I read about submissive urination, which was interesting but cant be the case because the urinating is done when he is alone. I guess it must be a territorial thing.
I actually just came in to mention that, in fact, my Sandman is always urinating and ALWAYS hungry, but, jeez, those sound like a couple of seriously distressed hounds. I kind of always figured that most of the pooches in this town were off their rockers, given the environment.
Honestly, are there any pet psychologist resources around?
I guess I’m talking crazy talk here, given the meagre resources for human psycholological assistance.
But this sounds a lot more emotional/psycho than somatic.
Read a great article on chocolate and dogs, the very fact I read it at all was testament to how good it was cos I don’t particularly like dogs or chocolate.
Sorry, can’t find it, but the upshot was that dogs have difficulty excreting a stimulant in chocolate. In effect it’s akin to a serious caffiene fix but since dogs can’t excrete the stimulant efficiently, it lasts for ages.
My advice is to nut the mutts. In fact my advice is to nut all mutts and neuter all muttettes.
Sometimes dogs are just better off as the only dog in the house or certain dogs just don’t get along. The fact that your dogs are fighting over the scraps of food when they are well fed suggests that they are having dominance issues. I am not encouraging you to get rid of one of them but you could have some seriouse issues if this is all about dominance. I had a female dog that I rescued and she wasn’t too thrilled when I brought home another dog. I fed them in seperate bowls and in different corners of the house. The thing was that the male dog wasn’t very dominate and so there wasn’t too many problems. Short story, when I found a home for the female where she was the only dog (I had doggy visitation rights) she was extremely happy about being the only dog in the house, and her new owners took her places to meet other dogs so she still had her crazy play time.
hmm…aren’t dogs really into food? my dog is ALWAYS up for food, no matter what it is…his food or human food…he’s always after it, but of course we don’t feed up whenever he needs food, otherwise he’d be eating TOO much.
Both my dogs rarely eat. Sometimes a day will go by without one of them eating. I walk them a minimum of 5 times a day…and by walk I mean run. I usually fill their bowls in the morning…and if I’m lucky they’ll have eaten it before the day is done.
:help: .