… and I tell him he’s right all the time.

Hi all,

I have a male, ~4 (estimate, he's a rescue), who is currently experiencing anxiety after several incidents with the fire alarms.

Our alarms are triggered by power outages, which we had 2 of within 5 days and it takes a few minutes to get them silenced. The first time, we comforted my dog in bed and he was shaking but okay and eventually calmed down and went to sleep. The next morning he was laying under the table briefly but was otherwise fine.

All would've been fine if we did not lose power again yesterday. This seemed to really set my dog off. I took him for a little car ride while my brother disabled the alarms and it helped calm him down from a full fledged panic attack but he still remained anxious. He hid under the table and was shaking periodically throughout the night. After his evening walk he seemed to get out the adrenaline and seemed totally back to normal.

This morning he seemed totally back to normal and we thought it was over with. Until 30 min ago, he got up and went downstairs and started shaking. I do not know if it was the beep from me turning on the washer or because now is the same time the alarms went off yesterday. But I grabbed his leash to walk him and he immediately perked up and stopped shaking. On our walk, of course a truck was backing up and it was beeping which stared him and now he's back under the table.

Both times he was still very interested in food, in fact the anxiety did not stop him from eating dinner and begging for ours. His appetite has not changed at all and his bathroom habits are normal. He's otherwise fine, gets excited for walks and when people come home, plays with his doggy friends on walks. It's obvious he's traumatized from back to back fire alarm events and sounds that normally don't bother him now scare him, I am wondering what I can do to help him recover. He is not a particularly anxious dog so it hurts me to see him like this.

I know it's been only 24 hours since the incident and these things can take some time, but is there anything I can do to help him through this? Thankfully we found the source of the tripping for the alarms so we are now able to prevent it in the future.

Would it be better for his health in the long run, is it actually necessary

Hello! So I just noticed that some of my baby’s teeth are missing. Like 2-3 teeth on the lower front. She’s 5 months old and the vet says its normal (like how children with their milk teeth). I was wondering if there is anything I can do to alleviate their discomfort if there is any? Thank you!

Just as the title says! He was pretty confused by the sudden darkness 😂

Who else waits so patiently for a bedtime treat!! I keep this bag on my night table for him and he waits by it on the bed every night!

I’m not sure if this is a normal behavior at his age? I feel like he’s too young to do that but I am also not sure how to navigate it sometimes other than take him off of the other dog but then he goes back again, and do the same thing no matter how much I take him off. Any advice?

Hello everyone, I currently have my puppy on blue buffalo chicken & oatmeal. I wanted to see if anyone here add any salmon or anything into their baby bowl to make their coat soft. Or if there is any puppy dry food that has salmon in it and is a good brand. Thank you

Too cool for drool

I have tons of questions and I asked my vet but based on what I’ve been reading.. not sure who’s right?

My vet said I should start feeding my food dry food/kibble after he has his full grown teeth (7+ months), I’ve read stories in this sub where at 11 weeks they started feeding dry food. Which is correct: or can you do both?

My pup is 12 weeks and weighs 5.2 pounds, is this too much? I can feel his ribs without much force (which based on google is a good sign) but I can also feel his stomach and it looks like an oval. Anyone have a chart I can compare him to? (with pictures)

Lastly, what’s a schedule that has worked for you guys regarding exercise/ feeding times? Does it have to be every 6 hours for feedings, or could I possible do: 10am breakfast, 5:30pm lunch, 11pm dinner, sleep by 12:30-1:00am.

One more: When can they start eating real food, like rice and chicken (Dried chicken, no salt on rice, I know about oils and the risks like onions etc)

Thank you I know it’s a lot but a lot of this I can’t find online 🥲

I grew up with shih tzus and absolutely love them. When I moved in with my partner we got our own and could not be any more in love. She’s about 1.5 years old. She’s very active and loves going to parks and going on walks (way more active than any of the shih tzus I grew up with). But her favorite activity of all is going to our parents home and seeing their dogs. She loves my moms dogs (two big and two shih tzus). At parks she’s more reserved, not aggressive at all, she just enjoys sniffing and doing her own thing. We’ve noticed more and more that she gets lonely after visiting our family’s dogs and gets more whine-y than usual. She has started whining a lot more when my partner and I are working on our computers and at night. Our breeder had a family fall through, and has an available puppy that just so happens to be the color I love the most (which is just a bonus because she’s a great dog). I’m asking for advice about how to know if my dog is ready for a sibling. Is she at the right age (1.5 years)? And if we decide to adopt, what was it like to introduce your shih tzu to a new puppy? Any negative warning signs? I added ASAP because if we went through the adoption we would be picking her up in 5 days.

My boy Bentley is a senior, he’s 12 and a half years old. He has a mass on the back of his upper back leg (below the bum to the side). It’s never bothered him and has remained the same size over the last 1.5yrs or so. It’s just a hard mass, doesn’t protrude too much and it doesn’t hurt him at all if you touch it.

The vet has constantly said to leave it alone, and just monitor it, and his behaviours. So far in the 1-2 years he’s had it, he has been totally fine. Regular vet check-ups and all is normal. I did get a second opinion from a different vet, they suggested a biopsy but the mass is solid, it doesn’t excrete so the typical stick a needle in it and extract won’t work. It needs to be cut into, which means him going under anaesthetic.

In a turn of events he will have to go under for something else (his teeth - a couple extractions) so we’re going to use the opportunity to cut into the mass and see what it is / take a sample for biopsy. The vet reckons depending on size and what it’s attached to, he’ll try remove it totally.

My question; has anyone experienced something like this? We’re all (vets included) baffled by what it could be. It’s rock hard and apparently connected very deeply, the vet thinks it’s attached to a muscle.

Main concern is the C word. But the vet thinks if nothing has happened in over 1.5yrs it’s either very slow or unlikely as typically C would be aggressive.

Anyway, just looking for some other possibilities I guess, obviously stressed now the vet has put this in my head. His heart ans lungs are fine thank goodness! We’re waiting on bloodwork to confirm he can go under, and it’s likely he’ll go in for it in the next 2 weeks.

The hardest part will be waiting the 2-4 days for the biopsy results after they’ve taken a sample. Not to mention he is closer to 13yrs old and will be having work on his mouth as well and a couple of skin tag removals.