The dog musing/vent thread

This guy wound up in my front yard today.

Super cute and super friendly, but unfortunately he is not the neighbor's husky like we were hoping. But he went right up to my mom when she initially went outside to call him over, and then just sat outside our front door when she came back in to grab a leash.
So, off to animal control we went, where hopefully he will be reunited with his owners (posted about him on CL too). Wish I didn't have other animals because I totally wouldn't have minded having him hang out here.

Feeling relieved. Just had the boys outside together NO ISSUES. I just kept recalling them back to me one by one randomly then letting them sniff around like usual. Then we came in together and did group sits/downs with Kimma and both boys and AGAIN no issues. There were lots of treats involved and some LAT, but it makes me feel good to know that they really don't want to actually hurt each other. It's just a lot of Jari being a puppy, and Pen deciding Jari's puppy license is over methinks. Bubbles hasn't been here for a few days now, so I'm sure her scent is pretty well gone. I believe she may have been a trigger, but obviously not the whole issue.

I really appreciate everyone's advice!!!! And keep it coming if you have had a similar experience!

Payton didn't eat his breakfast this morning. I went to the bathroom and he tried to come with me. I sent him back to his breakfast bowl and then went to the bathroom and he showed up, and I'm sure he didn't eat his breakfast because there wasn't enough time. When we got back to the kitchen Auggie was standing by Payton's bowl. And burped an enormous burp. So I'm sure he ate Payton's breakfast.

I gave P a fistful of kibble in his crate (he gets extra to try and keep his weight up) and he didn't eat all of that either. He ate several of them and then left the rest while he sat there looking sad. I threw another fistful in since he didn't get breakfast and he didn't eat ANY of that. Just stared at me.

He had to sleep in his crate because he was a PITA Sunday night, jumping on the bed every hour like MOM MOM I JUST REMEMBERED, I HAVE TO HUMP PEPPER. So last night when he started pacing and whining and I was like NOPE not going this two nights in a row. To the crate with you. He wasn't happy about it at first, but then he curled up with his dinosaurs and actually slept.
This was after he had two herbal calming pills and a Benedryl.

I don't get it. I know people have intact males and females. But I don't hear about the male acting like he's going to DIE. Do they just not talk about it because it's kind of embarrassing that their dog is driving them insane? Or is it just that the sort of people who have these situations have dogs who spend lots of time in their crates anyway, so it's not a problem because the dogs are just in their crates rather than driving them crazy? My mom said maybe it's just because Payton's default mode is obnoxious, this sort of thing makes him more obnoxious than most.

I really more than anything want to spay Pepper... really, really, really. No girl dogs. Ever. again. I almost find myself wishing something would go wrong and give me an excuse to spay her. It's not fun for her, it's not fun for Payton, it's not fun for me. I hate it. She's already five years old and probably never going to be bred anyway so all of this is for absolutely no good reason except making me drink more heavily than I already was.

I think quite a few people have posted that their boys don't eat when girls are in season...

Why can't I have ALL THE DOGS!?

LOL do you really think Payton skipping his breakfast is what I mean when I say he's "driving me insane?"