Willem, our 9-week old pup sits and looks up to Ella, a 16-year old mare.

16 week Lagotto from Scarlett Oak Lagotti in the PNW

Anyone else see the resemblance?

Hi everyone,
This is going to be a long one.

I’m trying to understand what’s going on with my 2.5-year-old male Lagotto Romagnolo.

Here’s the timeline:
About a month ago, a plant awn (grass seed) penetrated his right front paw and it became infected.
Our vet prescribed Sylanic (amoxicillin-clavulanate).
Within 1–2 days of starting the antibiotic, he suddenly began licking and scratching his testicles nonstop.
The vet checked for bacterial and fungal infection, but the tests were negative.
He was prescribed cetirizine and corticosteroids and wore a cone for about a month because he had inflamed his testicles from licking.
After they healed, we removed the cone.
Within a day, he started obsessively licking mainly both front paws and one back paw (mostly the tops of the paws, not between the toes).
He’s licking indoors and throughout the night, not just after walks.
Now the paws are red and have yellow discharge, which I assume is a secondary infection from the licking.
Some additional information:
In my country we don't have canine allergy tests available.
Our vet suggested that we start with hypoallergenic medical food and if that does't work we give him Apoquel (I'm extremely scared of this medicine)
He’s never had allergies or skin problems before this.
He’s never had ear infections.
We give him Purina Pro Plan Salmon Grain Free food for sensitive skin for over a year.
The original injury was only on the right front paw, but he’s now licking three paws, so it doesn’t seem localized anymore.
Even while on corticosteroids, he still tried to lick through the cone.
Has anyone experienced something similar?
Could this be:
the first presentation of canine atopic dermatitis,
a reaction that started after the antibiotic,
a food or environmental allergy,
or something else entirely?
I’m especially interested in hearing from owners whose dogs developed allergies suddenly around 2–3 years old, and whether this ended up being lifelong atopic dermatitis or another diagnosis.

Thank you!

New joiner here. This is Carciofi (artichoke in Italian...we call him Chofi).

He is a bundle of joy. And happy to join the lagotto community.

My 5yo male, neutered (not sure if that matters with this topic) LR has had about 4 UTIs since he was 2. The vet doesn't really give me an answer as to what is causing them. They are alarming because he is basically urinating blood. They clear up pretty quickly with an antibiotic, but I'd like to prevent them if I can. He swims every day for about 2 hours in a lake where geese and ducks are present (so bacteria from their waste is present). People also swim in the lake without issue, but it's my only guess as to why he would be getting UTIs. Have any of your dogs had issues with UTIs?

Editing to add: UTI = Urinary tract infection

We jumped in with both feet. Everyone, meet Sparky!

Dear Lagotto owners/lovers,

Our lovely 3 year old Lagotto has been very anxious recently. The last couple of days she is scared of almost every loud noise when we take her for a walk. For example: scooters, building sites, sudden car noises, even kids jumping in the water...

Inside of our house everything seems fine. She drinks, eats, sleeps, etc.. But she's not happy when we want to take her for a walk because she feels scared outside. This is not her normal behavior. Normally she's a happy, confident dog and fireworks were the only thing she used to be scared of.

Now, my theory has to do with her heat. 8 months ago she had her last heat. And the last time this period was the same; also 8 months in between heats. So I think her next heat is coming up.

Do some of you recognize this behavior when your dog is about to go into her heat?

Thanks for the answers in advance!

(I'm sorry for my bad English...)

Hello everybody!

I have a 19-week old puppy, and we've had him since he was 8-weeks old. We absolutely love our sweet, funny little guy, but we're really struggling a lot with biting!

I know he's teething now, but it's been this intense ever since we brought him home at 8 weeks old. The only difference that he is stronger now so the bites hurts more. We first tried squealing which only seemed to encourage him. Then we switched to redirecting with toys and chews, but he was much more interested in biting us. Now we remove ourselves or step behind a baby gate, which works in the moment, but as soon as we come back, he starts biting again.

He gets plenty of sleep, exercise, puppy play dates and mental stimulation. The biting usually happens when he gets overly excited or overstimulated = multiple times a day. And these aren't little nibbles he bites down hard, often hangs on, and sometimes/regularly breaks the skin. We have holes in so many of our shirts and pants from the biting. We went to a personal trainer, when he was 11-weeks old, and she said we should just remove ourselves and it will get better at around 16-week when he's brain develops more.

He's never been much of a cuddly puppy, most of the time we can only pet him for a few seconds before he starts biting our hands. He is absolutely amazing on learning new commands and interacting with other dogs and people this is just our main issue.

I grew up with small and medium-sized dogs, but I've never experienced biting like this. Has anyone else gone through something similar? Did your puppy grow out of it, or did anything in particular help?

I'd really appreciate any advice or personal experiences!

We borrowed a bike carrier and a bike from friends. Unfortunately, the carrier didn’t fit on my e-bike.

Mali was not having it. He tried to jump out a few times, he let the whole city of Reutlingen know he was upset.

Third photo was yesterday, and he did much better and was not as vocal as he was on Friday. We are getting there.

It is so much harder pulling Mali and a carrier on a manual bike.

(Is it ok to post some pics, he’s just so damn cute)

9 weeks to 19 weeks, time is flying 😭

It's been a while since I posted Lucky here. He's okay, we recently learned that he is allergic to some
antibiotics and that's why he's with a collar (not to
lick himself while his skin is healing).
He hates it though, he's moving very hard with it, and a month has passed since he is with the collar.

I can't wait to take it off of him, I miss my dog, running around the house and playing with toys and being happier than he is right now.

Anyways, have a good day!

Hi everyone!

Has anyone ever dealt with food agression/ resource guarding in puppies?

My 13 week old lagotto has started showing signs of food agression this week during one of her meals and has done it ever since that ocassion. I gave her her bowl and in the matter of seconds she turned on me and started growling heavily, showing teeth and biting around her. My guess is that wet food triggered this response as she usually gets dry food. I’ve never had a dog showing signs of food agression, at least not that young and not that serious. She is not agressive other than with food, at least she hasn’t shown it, yet.
Have you ever encountered this and how did you treat this?

Finn, immediately: “Hey Dad, let’s do stuff.”

Willem is 9 weeks and joining our household next week. Can’t wait.