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Hi Bella's mom.  My Gracie (10 months this month on the 16th) is going through a fear stage.  This is the first time I've seen her ever act remotely skitish.  She's suddenly jumping at everything including trash bags on the ground outside as we walk and friendly strangers make her bark and tuck her tail.  It was only about two weeks ago that I had to work with her to not pull the lead towards strangers as she used to love to meet new people.  Cars driving by have started to make her jump and bolt as well which is totally new as she always takes two big walks a day so she's very familiar with cars passing.  This past weekend she started barking almost aggressively at her food bowl and I found that when her nose would bump it and it moved, it flipped her out.  Sometimes it's a little funny because it's so silly but I'm with Stacey and I think it's important not to encourage this behavior and make them face it and deal with it.  I think it will pass for Bella as well.  Though I would let her deal with it on her own time.  Don't force her and make it a negative experience on any level.  Good luck with her. 

Thanks.  When she jumps, I try to just act like I didn't even notice anything.  I try not to acknowledge her like that, so I won't encourage her.  By the way, the bowl thing is hilarious! (Sorry)  Good luck with Gracie's fear stage, also.

I don't know what may be going on with Bella, but she been jumping at every little noise.  I will accidently hit the wall or counter top, and then she starts barking like someone is at the door.  There are certain sounds on TV that she freaks out about also.  Forget about it if a program has a bell sound to it.
I decided that this may be a problem when I just gave her a treat.  I was talking to her as usual before the treat, then I said my usual "Good girl, you're my baby girl" (or something silly like that), and she jumped and barked, looking around the house, like someone else had said it.
What's got her so spooked???

Hi everyone! My husband and I are getting our puppy's ears cropped next month.  I was just wondering what everyone's experiences with ear cropping has been.  What did you do to make puppy feel better and did the ears seem tender or did the puppy seem to be in pain?  Please no debates (I know many people feel strongly against this), I'm just looking for some advice and some first hand experience. Thanks everyone!

Welcome!  I haven't posted for a while, but saw your question and had to add another note.  I'm Tessie, mom to Belladonna (Great Dane).
At first, I was going to crop Bella's ears.  I just thought that was the thing to do.  After some research about how hard it is to tape and keep up with it (not to mention pain), I was hesitant.  When I went to my vet for our first visit (Bella was 8 wks old), he took a long look at her and explained that her ears sat low on her head already.  He said that he could only give me a 50-50 shot of her ears standing even with me returning every week for him to retape properly.  So... I would be out 300+ dollars, Bella would have smaller but limp ears, and I probably would have lost my mind trying to deal with it along with everything else that comes with a new puppy (house training, etc, etc).  I'm glad that I didn't do it, so just make sure that your puppy's ears even appear to be high enough on the head to give it a chance.  Otherwise, you may end up with a dane with ears too small for its head! 

I am happy for both of you!  He's gorgeous!

I had dogs that would do stuff like that when they were mad.  Not pee on their stuff, but on mine.  I would go out of town overnight and it was like they knew when I was coming home because they would have used the bathroom all over the bedroom!  And the person who was letting them out for me would say "nothing was there this morning" and they never did anything like that when I was home!

Cats do that all the time if they're mad!

I've never had a dog blatantly pee on their own dog bed though, I don't get that!!

I also thought that Bella did it because she was mad that I was not paying attention to her.  As a puppy, Bella only pooped in the house once.  She was mad because I had scolded her about something.  She looked right at me and pooped!  I put her outside immediately, and cleaned up the mess.  When she came back in, she proceeded to complete her business.  She had saved poop just to get her point across!

OH NO!!  Yeah it kinda sounds like she's marking or maybe showing dominance?  Is she a dominant dog?  I'm not an expert on behavior, I'm just thinking out loud. lol  You could also check with the vet to rule out a UTI.  Good luck, hopefully it won't happen again.

Yes, she is dominant.  I knew that by the time she was 2 months old!   So, should I go pee on her bed to get her back?  HA!  Just joking!

What is she trying to tell me?   I know that at the time, I was on the computer and she had come in there a couple of times with some toys.  Was she mad because she wanted attention, or something else??

Bella and I had a great time.  I think that our "more local event" will be more successful, but any outing that results in tired pups is a success in my book!