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Your female dog was in heat about two months ago, and now she's behaving as if she were pregnant. Her breasts are somewhat enlarged and have a thin yellowish fluid or actual milk coming from them. She seems unusually nervous and excitable, can't settle down, and may even try to make a "nest." Finally you notice her carrying a shoe, toy, or other object around with her, much as she would a newborn puppy. But wait a minute! She hasn't been near a male dog - she can't be pregnant! And she isn't. She is going through a false pregnancy.

When your female dog is in heat, a yellow body is formed in the ovary, whether or not conception has taken place. During pregnancy, this remains active and functional, secreting the hormone, progesterone, until whelping time. In the non-pregnant dog, this usually degenerates in about a month. For reasons still not well understood, the corpus deteriorates much slower in some females, and its prolonged presence is believed to trigger the false pregnancy. Symptoms can vary from being hardly noticeable, through all those mentioned in the previous paragraph, to severe painful engorgement of the breasts with milk freely flowing from them.

Pseudocyesis occurs at all ages from the first puppy heat on. It may happen only once and never recur, but in most cases, once started, it tends to recur about two months after each, or most, of the successive heat periods. This can be a special problem in the older dog. The additional stress it produces can result in vomiting, diarrhea, self-nursing, inflammation and infection of one or more breasts, and loss of appetite. Dogs with chronic kidney disease may be stressed enough to precipitate a uremic crisis and renal failure. Dogs with cardiac disease may develop potentially dangerous abnormal heart rhythms.

Mild to moderate cases will run their course in three to eight weeks, depending on how rapidly the corpus luteum degenerates, and require little treatment. The more severe cases will be helped by alternate hot and cold moist compresses on the swollen breasts to relieve the pain. Therapy with estrogens, testosterone, and progesterone injections have all been effective to varying degrees in terminating the false pregnancy. If fever or breast infection is present antibiotics will also be prescribed.

There is no hard evidence to prove it, but many veterinarians in companion animal practice are of the opinion that repeated false pregnancies, especially the severe ones, are likely to predispose your dog to the eventual development of pyometra, a serious and hazardous uterine infection. For that reason, your family veterinarian may recommend an ovariohysterectomy for your dog.

To get your dog training on the right track, go slow with your puppy; allow him his puppy hood without rushing him through his training. Develop his prey instinct instead of repressing it so that you maximize its flexibility. With the flow of drive cooled by the prey instinct, limits that normally make dogs nervous can instead be converted into positive stimuli to work. On the other hand, if the prey instinct is violated, the puppy is filled with dread and a sense of alienation, giving a host of undesirable behaviors in his temperament.

The limit is inside the dog. You just need to let the prey instinct tiptoe up to the danger line, and then get in tune with whatever is in the dog's heart so that you can smoothly redirect his attention your way. It could be something as gentle as a warm touch, or as active as a good game of ball.

You need to let your puppy be a puppy, but that doesn't mean that you are going to let him explore his limits on his own. If you take an overbearing approach to a puppy, you can violate his emotional limits. You have to decisively define the limits according to your standards, or the temperament will assign them according to instinctive standards.

A dog raised in a permissive household feels that danger is everywhere. You must be active in this regard so that learning isn't left to chance. The puppy must be carefully managed or indiscriminate emotional bruising will be the result. By encouraging the prey instinct under controlled circumstances, a limit can be assigned to your liking. Then, once the bounds are carefully secured, the pup is free not only to make prey within them but to be in harmony with his family as well.

The most obvious limitation in puppies is their short attention span. When confronted with resistance, he is unable to blend two different emotional values (strengths of attraction) together to come up with one focused response.

The simple prey instinct follows a simple rhythm in a natural way. Anything that is more complex, which is pretty much all of our training and domestic requirements will cause the dog to divert his attention so that he doesn't have a negative experience. Not until he sexually matures and can process stress into social behaviors will he be able to handle such a complex undertaking.

Therefore, it is important to recognize this limitation and not become upset with a puppy if he gives out when faced with a simple objective. The next time, make the problem easier. Problems in this regard reflect errors by the trainer, not learning deficiencies in the puppy.

Attention spans lengthen as instincts are strengthened through the flow of drive. Getting a puppy to perform a task is not as important as "hardening" his focus on a positive stimulation so that he learns to persevere. Success for the dog must be focused on gaining instinctive gratification rather than on avoiding a correction.

An alternative means of discipline for your dog is known as the �shakedown.� This method is suggested for shy dogs and for dogs who have large jowls (St. Bernards, Newfoundlands, some boxers), for whom chin discipline would not be as effective. This is also suggested as an alternative method for puppies, until they are at least six months old.

Note: Physical discipline should be reserved for serious dog crimes only, and not to be used for every episode of bad behavior. Verbal correction might suffice for many dogs, but you should know more than one method of discipline before the unfortunate necessity of using one arises.

In the shakedown the dog is sitting, anchored in place with tension on the training collar. When you have seated the dog, and are sure it will not move, wheel around in front of it and kneel down. Grasp the scruff of the dog's neck with both hands and lift it right off its front feet into the air. Look directly into the dog's face, and shake the dog back and forth in quick, firm motions, gradually lowering the dog. Scold the dog while you look at it, and keep it elevated a good thirty seconds. It may be difficult to raise some larger breeds, in which case you will have to sacrifice this part of the procedure. Most dogs, however, can be lifted up off their front feet with a little effort.

After discipline in this fashion, the dog will be shaken up mentally and physically. Eye contact is essential. When you grasp the dog under its chin, make sure that you have one or both thumbs looped under the training collar, to stop the dog from breaking away. With your fingers, grab hold of quite a bit of neck scruff, and hold it firmly.

For young puppies amend this method somewhat. First, cut down on the intensity and duration of your correction. A young pup should be disciplined by simply grabbing with one hand the scruff of the neck and giving it a good shake. This method approximates the technique a mother of a litter uses to keep order in the litter, to stop fighting between litter members, or to help wean her pups away from her to solid food. Discipline methods that reflect instinctual canine behavior will communicate displeasure in ways a dog can understand. Other corrections like throwing or hitting the dog with objects, spanking with newspapers, or simple pleading only serve human, not canine, ends, and do not communicate displeasure clearly to the dog.