By Monica Collins

Dear Dog Lady,

I recently adopted a 10-month-old pit bull puppy and he's a major chewer. He wants our shoes, our feet, my computer chair—anything except his chew toys. I gave him a giant stuffed tiger, which he beat up (amongst other things) and that seemed to calm him for awhile, but I fear that it might feed his aggression in the long run. Was the giant tiger OK to give him or should I nip this chewing/destroying thing in the bud?

Rowena

Dear Rowena,

Nip in the bud. You shouldn't be buying inappropriate things for your puppy to destroy such as giant stuffed animals. You do want to tame this chewing instinct, not stoke it. After all, you have a very powerful dog who is still in the puppy stage and learning right from wrong. You still have a chance to instill in him rules for proper behavior.

Throwing that giant stuffed tiger at your dog was akin to hurling a giant rib roast at him. It's fun for a hot minute and then you begin to see the chaos you caused. No more giant stuffed animals. Make sure you provide him with only safe things to chew—such as bully sticks, Kong toys, or indestructible toys (if any such things exist, ask at your local pet store). Always make sure you supervise him so he is not allowed to "destroy" anything that belongs to you or to him.

Dear Dog Lady,

Our 13-year-old Westie (West Highland white terrier) Desmond has been a wonderful dog and a real pleasure to have around. Watching and wondering about his quirks takes up a large amount of our free time. Lately, he exhibits a strange behavior when his stomach is acting up which we don't understand. He eats from a compartmentalized food and water bowl set into a wrought-iron frame close to the floor. When his stomach is off, he walks over to his bowls with the food and water and refuses to eat anything. But he makes a sweeping motion with his head by moving his head and hitting the outside of the bowl so hard that he spills the water in the adjacent bowl. He will do this continuously until we pick his bowl up out of his reach. Have you seen this performance before or can you suggest a reason for it?

Puzzled

Dear Puzzled,

Maybe he's saying, "Get this stuff away from me." Senior citizen Westies inhabit worlds of their own design. Dog Lady's darling terrier lived long. He was 14 and ½ when his tender tummy acted up and he had odd rituals such as eating grass like a rabid cow and tongue-flinging brown rice all around the perimeter of his feeding area. The procedure you describe must have its roots in some primitive healing ritual — for example, when a dog moves its head back and forth in a sweeping motion, the animal tries to bury something. Desmond could be attempting to wipe out the root cause for his sour stomach.

As long as your dog is not wrecking anything or biting anyone, his behavior is basically benign. The fun part, as you have discovered, comes in trying to decode the performance. How sweet to have these inscrutable comic characters in our midst.

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