Advice on Pets, Life, Love

By Monica Collins

Dear Dog Lady,

I have an elderly (15-year-old) female cocker-spaniel/Labrador retriever mix named Sheena. She is very frail and very sweet. Our second dog is a young Labrador/chow mix, Buddy. He's aggressive with large dogs and gentle with small dogs.

Buddy will lie down next to Sheena and endlessly lick her head and ears. She does not seem to be bothered by this at all. Why would he do this?

--Marion

Dear Marion,

He's taking care of her. Buddy pays homage to Sheena while he gives her a spa treatment and a salivary dose of holistic healing. With his gentle licking, he tells Sheena that she's top dog and he respects her. When you see Buddy tenderly bathing your elderly dog around the head and ears, you glimpse unique canine loving behavior and communication. Sheena doesn't mind Buddy's attention because these two dogs share something special way beyond human involvement.


Dear Dog Lady,

My neighbor has three dogs. Every day he or a member of his family brings the dogs outside to do the doo deed. They never clean up after the dogs. I calculate that once a day for three dogs, for six months, equals 540 piles of dog doo. This cannot be healthy for the neighborhood.

When I'm eating my grilled burger and sweet corn on my picnic table this summer, I wonder where that fly that just landed on my food has been.

Thanks in advance for any advice you send.

--Bruce

Dear Bruce,

You must do the brave thing and talk to your neighbor about picking up and disposing properly of the waste. Be friendly, light-hearted and neighborly. Hand him some bio-degradable BioBags (available widely on internet shopping sites and dog stores) as a "thank you" gesture. Get your message across. And please accept the apologies of Dog Lady and all responsible dog owners because this kind of problem gives the animals we love a bad name. Dog Lady cringes. You shouldn't have to worry about summer food spoilage every time the neighbor dogs cross your path. Nobody should have to count piles of dog excrement.

If you don't want to talk to your neighbor directly, call your local town or city government. Every municipality has an animal officer whose job is to enforce the laws regarding animals. Ask the dog officer to post signage in your neighborhood reminding residents to pick up after their pets. Neighborhood associations are also valuable enforcers of "pick-up" rules.


Dear Dog Lady,

For the past few months, my eight-year-old Peekapoo (Pekingese/poodle mix) has been behaving badly. He pulls clothes off chairs, chews pens, eyeglasses and CD cases, or dumps the contents of wastebaskets. The latest transgression was chewing my Kindle - metal and all!

When he was a puppy, I crate trained him and he did admirably and but we did not continue the crate long term. He's always been well-behaved in the house. He also adjusted well to the presence of a cat. The cat was euthanized for renal failure three months ago and that is when I noticed this change in his behavior.

I walk him for 45 minutes morning and evening. When I leave him, I give him something to chew on such as a peanut butter-filled marrow bone. I also take him to a doggy play group just for socializing with other dogs, which he loves. His new destructive behavior may stem from missing the cat as a playmate or from boredom. I am not prepared to take on another cat just to stop this behavior.

I now confine him to an area of the house where he can't get into trouble and I remove everything from his reach. But I am confused as to why he is doing this. What can I do to stop it?

--Josie

Dear Josie,

Take him to the veterinarian to rule out any organic cause of his changed behavior. Then, give your dog a hug. He probably misses the cat very much. That critter filled the Peekapoo's time with whatever dogs and cats obsess over together. Indoor life is a lot lonelier since kitty's been gone and old man Kindle must have been a poor substitute for company.

Good for you to take your dog to a doggy play group. Being around members of his own species is probably the best balm for his soul. Understand that as much as your dog loves you, he will always be more fascinated by other four-legged creatures so make sure he gets plenty of social time.

You seem to be doing everything right by keeping him cordoned off and removing all chewing temptations. If you want, you could re-introduce the crate to give him a safe house. OK, so you don't want to get another cat; let time and patience to fill the void.

Monica Collins ("Ask Dog Lady") speaks on March 24 at 6:30 p.m. at the Cambridge Public Library, O'Neill Branch, 70 Rindge Ave., Cambridge, 617-349-4023.