Frodo

It sounds as though she's building up to her first season; inappropriate weeing has often been noticed at this time. But it's worth getting a sample of her urine tested to make sure she doesn't have an infection.

Are you feeding wet (fresh or tinned, or soaked complete) or dry food? If you're giving her dry food then she'll need to drink a lot more than if her food was wet. Have you measured how much she's drinking? Under normal conditions an adult dog needs about 60ml of liquid for every kilo bodyweight. She's only a baby with a lot of growing to do, so her metabolism will be working faster. A puppy needs to be taken out to pee at least once every hour throughout the day.

I never go down to just one meal a day - I always feed mine twice a day, from when they're 6 months old till the end of their lives.

Yes it's very different, because with a c-section you're only removing puppies, not removing the source of any hormones.

If you can, leave it for three months after she's come out of season. The surgery is then both easier for the vet and safer for the bitch, and there's a lot less chance of her developing post-op problems.

It looks very like what's known in the UK as 'Dally Rash'. Owners have tried all sorts of treatments and in the end the best treatment for it has been found to be .... nothing! Leave it well alone and it goes away by itself in a few weeks.

That's good, isn't it? An animal with low libido is very bad for a breed's future. Bitches in season shouldn't be allowed to compete in any activity. It's risky to their health, they're probably feeling off-color and not do themselves justice and it's offputting to other dogs, so it's very unsporting. Bitches in season should stay at home. No competition is that important!

The best advice about puppy nipping is in The Bite Stops Here. If the whole family follows the rules it really works!

I think it's easier to train the owners of in-season bitches to keep them safely indoors!

I think it's best to start teaching off-leash behavior on the very first walk outside after the baby shots. When a pup's little he naturally wants to stay close to his owner who's the only safe thing in a big scary world. When he's older and bolder he's more likely to want to run off when he's let off the leash because he's bored having to go so slow with his owner. Bigger dogs are less likely to beat up a baby puppy han a bigger one so he won't have so many bad experiences. Dogs are far better than people at teaching doggy etiquette, and the more dogs a puppy meets the less interesting they become. It's the dog who's kept isolated from others of his species that gets fixated on them because of their novelty value.

Hi! New here, but it looks like a good place to ask serious questions. My friend is vegan and wants to feed her Shitzu the same way. I told her that's wrong and she'll make the dog ill. There's no way she'll have anything containing meat of any form in her home so can someone recommend a vegetarian dog food that she could feed her little dog?

What else should chooks eat? But whatever they're fed, their meat is made of meat, not grain, the same way that meat from a cow is made of meat, not grass!