At the dogpark yesterday, we met a 16 week old English Mastiff puppy.
Cutest (not so) little thing, but she should've been named Hoover
instead of Harley. All she wanted to do was eat stuff off the ground -
dirt, rocks, sticks and grass. Every once in a while, she would get
distracted enough to run around and play with the other dogs, but that
would last all of a minute, and she's back to scrounging. Her owner
said that he's having a hard time taking her out for walks, because she
basically walks around with her mouth practically attached to the floor,
attempting to ingest everything in her path. This level of fixation
didn't seem like normal puppy behavior to me, but then again, I don't
have a whole lot of experience with them. Any advice on how to cure her
of that? While we were there, every time she showed interest in
something inappropriate, I interrupted her with an 'Eh-eh', and as long
as I offered her my water bottle to suck on, she would leave her object
of interest for a minute. But, having a water bottle permanently
attached to her mouth doesn't sound like a good solution either :-)

Now, to the other question. My friend who fosters for the rescue just
got a new foster, a sweet GSD girl, about a year old. Somewhere in a
conversation, the term 'dog aggressive' came up, in reference to her.
She is currently living with 3 GSDs, 2 males and one female, and did
fine with both Khan and Pan when we visited. While she is absolutely
not dog aggressive, I did find that she used her teeth inappropriately
with other dogs. For example, one of the males is a total ball nut, and
if she saw one of us pick up something to throw, she would line up right
next to him, and mouth him (on his neck if she can get it, back or hips
otherwise). This dog is extremely tolerant of this sort of behavior,
because he has a smooth Fox Terrier buddy who does something similar,
running after him and nipping him on his butt. However, this behavior
is starting to annoy him, and he has started to tell her off. She backs
off for the moment, but repeats it when he gets fixated on the ball
again. I can see how her behavior would annoy another dog enough that
it could create a skirmish. This doesn't sound entirely unusual for a
GSD, but how does one go about fixing it? She has been inappropriately
corrected in the past, and tends to shut down very quickly.

Is it possible for a spayed female to look like she's in heat? This guy
brought in a Pit/Dalmatian mix, about a year old and supposedly spayed.
Her vulva was pretty enlarged, and the nipples looked really prominent
as well. She generated a hell of a lot of interest from the other dogs,
both male and female. There was virtually a parade of dogs, all walking
around with their nose stuck up her behind. A couple of the males had
to be kept separated from each other (regular visitors who haven't had
any problems) because they were both overly interested in her, and
showing signs that they wanted exclusive rights to her. She didn't act
like anything other than your fairly typical one year old puppy.

On an unrelated note, a couple who decided to bring their 8 week old
Boxer puppy to the dog park and let her run around on the ground.
Thankfully, they were willing to listen, and the puppy interacted with
the other dogs from people's laps. She was so adorable, all sqooshy
with lots of extra skin, and got lots of people time. Also met a
newcomer, an 18 week old GSD puppy - with a Grade 4 heart murmur.
Supposedly from a reputable breeder, with all Sch lines behind him.
Didn't seem like a working line dog to me, and that gait really made me
wonder.

Suja