SuzanneMcEwen

Hi, I have a 5 mth old Miniature Poodle whom I've had since 3 mths with no fears or problems. He recently developed a skin irritation due to what neither the vet nor I can work out. He was biting & chewing himself around his private parts & stomach to the point of becoming infected. The Vet put him on a course of antibiotics & cortisone cream. This eased the situation but didn't stop the biting & chewing. The vet subsequently decided a short lasting cortisone injection might help. Apparently the cortisone depresses the dog & they forget what they were biting. Unfortunately this hasn't worked & not only do I have a dog still biting himself, albeit only in the evening when I cannot distract him 100% of the time but he is now scared to walk on the tiled floor in certain areas. I am trying very hard to distract him & not making a fuss about not walking in certain areas of the house, with no result. The only thing we can think of is that in the areas he won't go the tile are a little loose & make a noise when you walk on them. He also will not drink out of his usual water bowl, a dark blue inside ceramic dish, but will drink out of either of two stainless steele dishes outside. I have since put a stainless steel dish inside & he has drunken out of that which is good for the times I have to leave him alone. Do you have any ideas or suggestions, one for distracting him from hurting himself & two for getting him to roam the house as he had done from day one. I have a Kong, a dental chew toy & a treat ball all of which distract him for 5-10 mins. As for going into areas he resists, I still put his food down but further into the kitchen & put a little a short distance away from the dish to entice him to go to the bowl. One further thing he does not have as much interest in his toys as he first did. I have remove a couple & introduced new ones to give variety but I'm not sure if anything I am doing is correct or exacerbating the problems. As a matter of interest I was warned by a couple of people that re;brown poodles can have behavioural problems I didn't believe them & I'm still not convinced this is the reason for my current problems. My vet also tells me he is very large for his age & breed 10.2 kg & between 14 & 15 inches at the shoulder. I apologise for the long winded explanation but figured the more you new the better it would be to help me & my beautiful Tanner. He is 4 mths in the picture