10,460 answers about dogs
From a puppy’s first feeding schedule to a senior dog’s comfort care, dog owners ask it all — this page gathers the dog library of KinsLe Answers in one place. Browse by topic below, from feeding and training to health, grooming, safety and travel. Every answer is original, written by KinsLe, and tied to a real KinsLe feature.
885 answers in Behavior & Training — page 25 of 37
Mounting at the park is usually arousal and social over-excitement, not dominance or sex — neutering settles the hormonal contribution, but the behaviour is a classic overflow valve for a dog whose excitement has nowhere else to go, arriving in the first minutes when arousal peaks. Share the calmer park-entry routine…
By the time you see an empty floor, your dog's nose is still reading a full menu. Cooking fat, meat juices and microscopic crumbs settle into grout lines and the strip under the cupboards where food is prepared, and those traces persist after sweeping. Licking is how she samples them, and for many dogs a few post-meal…
Ear licking starts as social grooming. Dogs groom ears as appeasement and bonding, ears carry scent that interests other dogs, and some dogs simply find the taste and texture compelling, especially if the other dog's ears are sore or dirty. The problem is duration: your dog keeps going past the point where the other…
Howling and doorbell barking are answers to two different kinds of sound. A siren, a piano note and another dog's howl are pitched tones, and tones like those tap a social reflex: join in, answer back, stay in contact with the group. A dog who howls with a loose body and stops when the sound stops is joining in, not…
Growling over the sofa is resource guarding aimed at a resting place your dog values highly, and it should be taken seriously rather than handled as disobedience. The growl is a warning, and warnings protect people: never push her off, reach over her, drag her by the collar or punish the growl, because a dog who stops…
Your dog has not chosen a favourite person; she has learned one person's version of each cue. To a dog, a command is a package of voice pitch, word, hand signal, body position and the speed of the reward. Change any part of that package and the cue can look unfamiliar, so she responds to the person who trained her and…
Your dog is running social surveillance, not being rude. Guests are novel, interesting, and not yet predictable, so a polite dog escorts the unfamiliar person to see where they go and waits to confirm what happens next; family members are fully mapped — their routes, sounds, and returns are known to the minute — so…
Tissues are close to a perfect dog snack on paper's terms: soft, faintly scented with the household's smells, easy to tear, light to carry off, and — to many dogs — oddly pleasant to chew and swallow. The bathroom helps her: it is usually unsupervised, the door is often ajar, and the prize sits at nose height on a…
Training alone rarely fixes this — and the reason is built into the behaviour. Eating faeces is routine scavenging for a dog, and cat faeces are especially rewarding because cat food is rich and only partly digested, so the tray smells like a second serving. Worse, the reward is instant and self-delivered: no human…
Snow is novel, cold, crunchy, and everywhere, and some dogs simply love eating it the way others love grass. He makes himself sick mainly through volume and temperature: a stomach filled with icy water commonly comes back up, and can loosen the bowels too. Manage it like scavenging — keep a steady pace past deep…
The same spots keep paying. A place your dog has dug before smells of earlier finds and turned earth, sits over an animal run or a cool damp layer, or once produced something wonderful — a buried toy, a root, a mouse's old tunnel — and dogs return to productive ground the way anglers return to a good swim. Redirect…
Timing plus location make this an escape with a destination, not random digging. Within an hour of your departure, at the same corner, every week, your dog is heading somewhere: a neighbour's dog, a walking route that passes that corner, wildlife on a schedule, or the route you take when you leave. Secure the corner…
Your dog is trying to reach the visitors. Digging at the bottom edge of a closed door is escape-and-access behaviour: the scents, voices, and laughter are all leaking under the door, and digging is how a dog works at a barrier. The driver is usually social frustration at being shut away from the household action,…
Because the door frame is the exit. Destruction aimed at the way out, and only ever when your dog is alone, is a separation-related pattern — quite different from a teething puppy mouthing everything, or a bored dog chewing whatever is nearest in company too. Confirm it with a camera: distress usually starts within…
The location is the clue that matters. Chewing concentrated at the exit points of the one room where she is left — the door frame's corners, the skirting beside the door — is a separation-related pattern rather than ordinary chewing, because she is working at the barrier between her and you. Film her when you leave:…
Separate the two by pattern and evidence. Boredom or habit chewing looks relaxed: she settles at rest time, mouths her feet gently, leaves the skin looking normal, and stops happily when you offer a toy or a fuss. An itch that needs the vet shows in the feet — redness, pink-brown staining on pale fur, hair loss, a…
Light and shadow chasing starts as predatory play: movement triggers the chase sequence, and a reflection is a target that never gets caught, so the sequence never completes and never switches off. In some dogs — herding breeds among them — that loop hardens into a compulsive habit that crowds out normal play, which…
This is caching, an old and sensible instinct: a dog with more valuable food than it can eat now buries the surplus somewhere safe for later, and sofa cushions are the indoor version of soft earth, right down to the nose-push burying mime against the fabric. Guarding the spot from the cat is the same instinct's second…
Your dog is not failing at fetch; your dog is succeeding at a different game. Bringing the toy close starts the interaction, your reach is the starting signal, and the dodge turns the whole thing into keep-away and chase, which many dogs find far more rewarding than handing the toy over. Stop reaching and lunging,…
Your dog has learned the whole pre-walk chain and is running it early. Dogs track routine through changing light, household sounds, and their own body clocks, so an hour before a regular walk your dog already knows what comes next, and carrying the lead, your shoes, or a bag to the door is anticipation plus a learned…
That single sharp bark followed by a look back at you is alert barking working exactly as it should: your dog has spotted a change — a delivery at the gate, a noise overhead, a cat crossing the garden — and is handing the decision to you. Acknowledge the report calmly, glance toward the trigger, and praise the quiet…
Skateboards and scooters combine everything a dog finds hard: fast, low movement that darts about, a rattling roll over pavement joints, and close passes on your own sidewalk. That package triggers chase, herding, and noise sensitivity at once, hence the higher, frantic barking. Bicycles are usually smoother, quieter,…
At the fence your dog can see, hear, and smell the neighbor's dog but can never finish the interaction: that blocked urge, rehearsed at a territory boundary, is barrier frustration. Both dogs feed each other's arousal, and neither can use the calming signals a loose meeting allows. At the park there is no barrier and…
Cartoons keep what your dog's eyes are built to catch: animal movement. Legs in a walking rhythm, bodies that change direction, and shapes that chase or flee read as 'animal moving' even in drawn colors and outlines, and the soundtrack adds barks that complete the picture. A dog who lunges is rehearsing a charge it…
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