r/PetBehavior

and yes you 100% read that correctly, every single time he jumps up on my bed no fail he farts. why is he so gassy?! i feed him normally and don’t really give him human food. but i guess i am guilty of always giving him treats. normally our routine is get a treat once we are done pottying outside or after our play time at the park or our walks, but of course my doggies are too cute to say no to so i always give him extra treats throughout the day. i love him and i find it funny but why is he so gassy?? 😭

There are 2 boys (5 and 10) and a girl (6).

They was separated when she first started bleeding, besides a couple of days the boys have been fine and eating etc.

It has been about 2 and a half weeks, trying to reintroduce them leads to the 5 year old following her and the 10 year old tries to hump her.

Separating them again and the 10 year old is settled but the 5 year old is whining, howling etc. I’ve been told that the 5 year old is missing the girl and that’s why he is acting like this. The 5 year old has growled and snapped at the 10 year old both in the house when they have been reintroduced and on a walk together.

The last season she had lasted about 2 and a half weeks too but they was separated once the girl was encouraging the 10 year old and he started reciprocating (there would be a few days where he wouldn’t react). This time they was separated before this happened.

The last season the oldest wasn’t interested at all and the youngest would stay with her all the time.

Is the 5 year olds behaviour all stemming from missing the girl or is the season playing a part?

Seeking advice on contextual dog car restlessness/anxiety.

Romeo / 2.5 yo / Great Pyrenees-pittie-mutt / 53 lbs. / obedience trained / anxious & reactive

What: Romeo gets severely restless on car rides longer than ~15 minutes. He experiences heavy panting, excessive drooling, restlessness/pacing, full-body trembles, and incontinence (poop only).

Context: Romeo experiences these symptoms on the way TO places, but frequently doesn’t display them on the way FROM places, back home. For example, today I took him to check out a new park-- 35 min car ride; I expected the anxiety but not at the severity it was today. For starters, I had to lift him into the car because he refused to willingly get in (more context on this later), from there, as the drive progressed, his anxiety kept building until he eventually pooped all over the back seat (he did have the opportunity to go potty before the ride). Once at the destination, he pretty easily recovered and was able to enjoy the walk anxiety-free. We walked for about 50 minutes, 2.3 miles. In contrast, on the way home, he was extremely calm. No panting, drooling, or trembling. He calmly stuck his head out the window and even lied down for the majority of the ride, which is a fairly new car behavior for him. While I cannot exactly pinpoint when these behaviors started, I want to say they have been happening for around 1.5 years.

Hypothesis: My current hypothesis is that he may be anticipating that I am going to take him to work with me. My workplace is also Romeo's training facility, where he did a 5-week board and train program (Oct/Nov 2025). About 2 months after the program, he continued to come to work with me once a week for 6 hours while I worked so we could maintain his socialization/reactivity progress. He would go on a “down stay” in the training club. This made him anxious despite the fact that he could see me passing by throughout the day, but he would eventually settle. This continued for around 8 weeks until I had to stop bringing him due to a location change/farther drive. Understand that he is NOT afraid of his trainers or the building; he is anxious by nature and fears being left in unfarmiliar/uncomfortable places without me. One factor throws this current theory off, though: he displayed these behaviors before training, so I don’t believe it is the sole cause. I am unsure what negative association he could have had with long drives prior to training. While anxiety is my initial assumption because of the context dependence/his personality, I am aware motion sickness could be a possibility and plan to discuss it with his vet at the next visit.

Additional details:
- We go on daily walks at a park less than 10 minutes down the road. He does fine on these rides, so he definitely has daily positive associations with the car.
- Sometimes he will refuse to willingly jump into the car. This happens in the mornings, and I suspect it is because he thinks we are going to work. We only recently started morning walks, so before that, his only association with the car early morning was work.
- Romeo is not kenneled in the car and rides in the back seat. I have attempted crate training him separately but he has significant kennel anxiety. I also have a sedan, so not the best car for a kennel setup. I put the windows down for him, and he sticks his head out (we have tried car rides with no windows as well but no improvements)
- Trazodone does eliminate his anxiety; however, it is not my ideal medication. Most of our long car journeys are to get to cool new walking spots, so having him sedated defeats the purpose of even going.
- For some reason, he seems to not be as anxious in my mom’s car; however, he doesn’t go in it often, so this very well may just be coincidence.
- He shows less anxiety when his two doggy siblings come in the car with him and happily jumps into the car with them any time of day.
- Say I were to just hop in the car and sit, he doesn’t get anxious about this. He may get antsy/whine out of boredom but he doesn’t display his anxious tell-tales
- I have not explicitly attempted systematic car desensitization yet, as I am unsure how to go about it given the odd circumstances.
- I think it is also worth noting Romeo is not a super treat / toy / praise motivated dog. When he gets very anxious, he sees little value in anything but his surroundings, including me. He will not take any reinforcement once over the threshold. Engagement is another huge work in progress for us.

Any advice on how to reinforce positive association with car rides is much appreciated! If any additional context/information is needed, I will happily provide it. We keep our long car rides to a minimum but I don’t want his world/experiences to be limited because he cannot handle the car. It breaks my heart seeing him so anxious, and I would love to help him work past this.

hello lovely pet people. i need some advice.... i currently own my condo, but rent a room to my friend. He has an unaltered dog that is about 1.5 years old and he has zero intention of getting him neutered. before you ask, i don't know why he doesn't want to neuter him. i don't get it either. my issue is that my cat is peeing on the door (i'm guessing to mark) and i don't know how to stop him. my only thoughts right now are he gets the dog neutered or he has to move out. please help me see another option. please. i don't want my roommate to move out because we enjoy having each other there. any advice or suggestions are welcome.

My female 11 yr old staffy (had for 6yrs) does this thing that i have no idea why she does. Every night for as long as I’ve had her she sleeps in bed with me. I recently got into a relationship and my partner lives and sleeps with me (for a yr so far). My dog will find any way she can to still sleep with me. I have a queen sized bed so there’s only so much room. I try to get her to sleep on the dog bed directly next to my side of the bed but it’s not good enough for her apparently. When I tell her to get off/down she’ll do as i say but then will basically throw a temper tantrum. She will pace around the house all night and all you hear is the click clack of her nails on the wood flooring. Then at some point she’ll start moaning and groaning. If I still don’t give her my attention she’ll bark till I cave and let her on the bed. As soon as she’s on the bed next to me she’s knocked out happy as can be. I’ve tried crate training her but it doesn’t seem to help. As soon as I put her in her crate and get into my bed I immediately start hearing her whine. She’ll stop once she realizes I’m not coming but then she’ll start barking but it’s not a regular bark it’s more high pitched. So then once again I cave and let her sleep with me literally just to shut her up at that point. Also she has to sleep right next to me as close as she can to me. She won’t sleep next to by partner only me. She’ll sometimes very rarely sleep at my feet or in between my legs. Also rarely will she voluntarily sleep in the living room.

Hi everyone! This is a strange question but does anyone have a dog that meditatea?

My dog has meditated for as long as I have known her. She stares into space for a long time when she meditates. She doesn't really blink.

Right now she likes to meditate in the morning after she has gone to the bathroom. She meditates for around 30 minutes to an hour. She won't even react when I say her name or wave my hand in front of her face.

She goes back to her normal behavior after meditation. Oh, sometimes she also meditates in the afternoon.

So ever since i moved to a new house my dogs randomly stare off into space and start aggressively barking growling and whining like they’re in some type of trance. It happens daily , not at the same time every day but every day for sure . It also only happens in my bedroom , I’m starting to think there’s a spirit around or something. Idk i can’t think of any logical explanations . Anyone else’s dogs do this ?

my male cat is missing now for 7 days, i live in a rural area where car roads are far from my house, i went looking for him in the mountain and open fields but didn't find him yet, it's the breeding season i see other cats that aren't mine chasing my female cats around my house to get them pregnant, however has any of you had a similar situation where your male cat goes missing for a week or 2 then comes back? i really miss him a lot. (knowing he went missing for 2 days a year ago in 2025 then came back)

Did anyone else’s puppy become fearful in their teenage months?

Our girl (chocolate lab) is just shy of 15 months now and although she wasn’t THE most confident puppy (very submissive with other dogs & scared of bin lorries) she was overall quite a consistent and steady pup.

Over the last few weeks she’s developed, seemingly out of nowhere, some really strange fear behaviours.

The most worrying is she’s gone from sleeping happily in my car for hundreds of car journeys, sometimes multiple hours long to physically shaking & panting when we go anywhere, she becomes massively stressed. I’ve gone back to square one and done the same training I did at 8 weeks, treats in the car, short journeys, high value snacks but doesn’t seem to be budging at all. I travel to my family home pretty regularly (90 mins or so drive) so I can’t really get around having to take her in the car, also live in the city so like to take her to the countryside for walks but hate to see her super stressed.

She’s also now decided she’s scared of the sound of frying / cooking, so as soon as I’m making food she’ll run away and lie down panting and looking distressed.

Has any experienced anything similar?? There’s nothing that stands out as bad experiences to have triggered these

My partner and I hired a woman called Ali Amato who runs a business called Animal Heaven and Earth. Her package was 800 dollars for what we believed to be a reading for two cats with energy work follow up work and questions and a wrap up call. She had us fill out an intake form and told us her process was to talk to the animals themselves and serve as a bridge between us and the following calls would be relaying that information. She also in the hr long consult talked about all her success and testimonials about her ability to get cats to stop peeing in appropriate places and said that she’s been able to help when nothing works and convinced us she would take care of the issue. She lied. Our one call consisted of her continuing to tell us about previous clients and how successful she is as well as talking about herself how innocent she is and her dietary needs and a bunch of other bullshit that had nothing to do with our pets (total narcissist) she shared about five minutes worth of information about our pets all the information she basically admitted to researching on the internet and reading off our intake. I have the recording as proof of all of this. It was the most disappointing experience I can’t even tell you how upsetting it was. I tried to be hopeful maybe the behavior would stop with her “energy work” and it only got worse. My cats started fighting and my one cat started to pee right in front of us. When we told her about this she just said to put him on meds. So unhelpful. We were conned by someone who clearly takes advantage of desperate people. We’ve tried everything to get our cat to stop peeing in inappropriate places and she really convinced us this would work. Maybe we are completely idiots for believing her and so with that I hope this serves as a warning to others to never consider her services and waste your hard earned money.

Our 4 legged little scrunch is 6.5 years old, he’s everything we could ask for in a dog / family member. However, at night time, when he jumps into our bed… he licks his paws obsessively. We have brought him to the vet, we have tried to put on socks for him… nothing seems to be working. With a 10mo old child in the mix, our sleep is precious - but our 4 legged friend will not stop grooming his paws. It is driving us insane. Has anyone dealt with this / have a secret remedy!? Please help me out, I feel like a character on the Walking Dead lately.

My fixed Shih Tzu (5yr, male) has recently become snappy/ aggressive with other unknown dogs that are presumably all male. He shows zero aggression with male/female dogs he is familiar with, or with unknown female dogs. I will add that he has always been very attached to me and does get jealous, but the snarling has been a more recent behavior.

Does anyone know what may be causing this behavior and the best way to correct it?