The Pet Mentor

11/18/2025

IS YOUR DOG PUKING IN THE MORNING? (aka BILIOUS VOMITTING)...THIS IS FOR YOU...

Did you know morning pukes is very often the result of LOW stomach acidity, not high?!

You would think it was always an excessive thing, but here's what's often happening:

If a dog has low stomach acid (hypochlorhydria), their food isn’t fully digested after dinner. That's the first problem.

What follows now is that undigested food particles reach the intestines, where they will feed....something. As protein and fat are supposed to be fully digested at that stage for the good guys to eat, we're more talking bad guys here. This can lead to dysbiosis in their gut, which is highly inflammatory. So now you're sort of dealing with two things - low acid and a festering, crappy gut flora. Both often need addressing.

And it doesn't end there for low-acid doggos. As the stomach contents aren’t acidic enough, they don't trigger the pyloric sphincter (the gate valve to the small intestine) to stay closed tightly. It thinks digestion is complete. This means some of the bacterial-rich, acidic digesta from the intestines can sneak back up and into the stomach.

By early morning, that stagnant pool of bile-rich gloop has been sitting in their stomach, irritating the stomach lining. Your dog wakes up nauseous and vomits up the yellow foamy bile on the only bit of carpet you have left downstairs.

Unfortunately, the world believes that all reflux is simply "too much acid", take an antacid or a Rennie.

They will tell you not to use Rennie in dogs but ask them why! The only ingredient I can see in there that I wish wasn't is saccharin sodium, for me and them, but the toxic amounts of that are hundreds of tablets so giving him one or half is not going to harm him in the slightest.

There are lots of other antacids out there and no doubt some somewhere use sweeteners like Xylitol. This your dog cannot have.

Then there is the vet's favourite, Omeprazole.

Termed a proton-pump inhibitor, Omeprazole is a fancier way of doing the exact same thing the other two do for virtually nothing - neutralising excess acid in the gut, only while Rennie simply neutralises existing acid in the stomach (immediately relieving you of the acid burning), Omeprazole actually stops acid production. That means it takes longer to work but its effects last longer (many hours as opposed to 2 with the Rennie).

Herein lies the problem. If Omeprazole is used unwisely in a patient that is struggling to get their acidity up, not down, then the drug is very likely going to make things much worse for the patient over time.

Worse again, you'll see on the back of the packet that the top side effect of Omeprazole is gastrointestinal issues in the patient, such as bloat and gas. Know why? Because, by further lessening the amount of acid in the gut, you further hamper digestion, further fueling that dysbiosis, the top symptoms of which are excess gas from the ramped up bacterial numbers that are pigging out on the new food source (and ever worsening poo scores)

THE SIMPLE CHECK FOR HYPO ACIDITY BILLOUS VOMITTING...
Try adding a dash of Apple Cider Vinegar to your dog's dinner the night before. This will better acidify the stomach contents, triggering a stronger acid-secreting reflex in the gastric mucosa. He will more fully digest his dinner, and that sphincter might get the message, opening and closing properly.

For even better results, give the ACV before a meal. This is trickier but can be done with a small amount of food or a lovely drink of broth. They don't mind it. It's theorised that this "wakes" up the digestive process (The stomach’s acid secretion is tightly controlled by the vagus nerve and gastrin cells in the stomach. Sour or acidic tastes, especially on an empty stomach, trigger these pathways to reflexively secrete HCl and pepsin, ready for the meal).

So easy and well worth a shot. If it doesn't work you can try some of the stuff below.

OTHER SOLUTIONS FOR MORNING PUKERS...
Absolutely, you can and should try shifting the time of his meals around. If that works, great, but you shouldn't have to KEEP doing it, is the thing. Bandages like Rennie and Omeprazole are rarely the solution. They're a sticking plaster. Something is wrong. As ever, you need to find the "why" if you're ever going to recover. The top causes I can see are:

1. DYSBIOSIS
Maybe he doesn't have any low acid or something structurally wrong in there. Maybe he simple has a dysbiosis in the intestinal tract, causing lots of inflammation and its upsetting things. We know this is common enough too as such dogs are often remedied with a change in diet and probiotics. That shifts the biome, the good guys get back on top and presto, the problem resolves. If that doesn't work and you're pretty sure it's a SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth, a blood test will often read low in vitamin B12 as an indicator...), FMT is wonderful too.

2. LOW PROTEIN FOODS
Gastric acid secretion is strongly stimulated by protein and mineral salts in food, especially animal protein and bone. Go figure! Ultra-processed or carbohydrate-heavy diets produce little stimulation, leading to chronic underuse of parietal cells. Over time, this reduces both acid output and pepsin activation. If you're still feeding high carb dry food, do your dog and cat a favour, read my book Feeding Dogs and jump over to real, biologically appropriate (lots of meat) diets for your meat eaters. Now's the time.

3. STRESS
Chronic stress (be it emotional or physical, thinking agility dogs) shifts the autonomic nervous system toward sympathetic dominance (“fight or flight”). This inhibits vagal (parasympathetic) signalling to the stomach — the main driver of acid secretion. Chronically anxious, kenneled, or pain-suffering dogs may therefore produce much less acid. What stressors is your dog under?

4. INFECTION
Helicobacter heilmannii among others, can get out of hand, usually after a dose of antibiotics, and begin to run rampant in the gastric mucosa, causing inflammation and loss of acid-secreting cells. Instead of focusing on how to kill Heliobacter (which you need in small numbers...) ask yourself WHY your dog got an infection there? What happened beforehand? Take a probiotic approach to fixing the infection before going for the na**lm.

5. OMEPRAZOLE
Chronic suppression of the acid-pumping parietal cell’s with Omeprazole leads to glandular atrophy and gastrin overproduction. This further dysregulates acid secretion, even when the drug is stopped. In fact, even short courses of Omeprazole can cause weeks of rebound hypochlorhydria (didn't they tell you?!).

6. HYPOTHYROIDISM
Thyroid hormone supports parietal cell function and gastric motility. Hypothyroidism reduces basal metabolism and acid output, contributing to chronic bloating, constipation, and poor protein digestion. A blood panel is needed to investigate this.

7. DAMAGE TO VAGUS NERVE
The vagus nerve emerges out from the thoracic spinal cord around T5–T9. If these vertebrae or surrounding structures are affected (chiropractors say particularly T6-T8), this can disrupt autonomic balance, reducing vagal stimulation and increasing “sympathetic tone”, which tends to suppress gastric acid secretion. If you think your dog might be a case, you need a chiropractor to check them over. Those, and acupuncturuists, are unbelievable at righting wrongs neither you nor your vet would ever know were there.

8. OVER-FEEDING
You've all heard about fasting by now. If not, read up. We're using our guts too much. They're active too much. And that's us omnivores, perpetual grazers. Dogs and cats eat sporadically. Perhaps its not MORE meals this animal needs but less. Check out the comments below - lots of folk jumped to one meaty meal a day and presto, problems evaporate.

9. AGE
In some studies, aged dogs have up to 50% lower basal gastric acid output compared to young adults. However, I assume this is simply the chronic effects of many of the above taking a toll over time *EDIT: folk are saying its a real thing below!). Not sure what you can do about the age thing. If you find something, let me know!!!

***
If you're looking for something to help soothe his guts while you work on the cause, I recommend BioFunction8. It contains chamomile which is an anti-inflammatory of that area and marshmallow which adds some mucous to soothe things. Check out our Black November deals over on dogsfirst. ie/shop where you will find the majority of our supplements, including BioFunction8, all marked down by 33% for the month of November. While stocks last.

07/05/2025

Licking and chewing is probably the most misunderstood and ambiguous behavior in horses, being very often mistaken for the moment when horses relax or focus on what is being done, as if it was something good to aim at.
In reality, licking and chewing is a sort of involuntary reaction being activated by the attenuation of a stressful situation.
This process is well explained by Dr. Sue McDonnell, animal behaviorist and founder of the Equine Behavior Program at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, who clarifies that the action of licking and chewing simply reflects the transition from a sympathetic nervous system response to a parasympathetic nervous system one.
In fact when horses are relaxed and engaged in normal activities such as eating or resting, their parasympathetic nervous system is the one being in control, with it being the part of the nervous system that is responsible for each activity occurring when the body is at rest, like sexual arousal, salivation, tear production, urination, digestion, defecation and so on.
But when instead horses feel threatened or severely stressed by something, then their nervous system switches to an alert or fight-or-flight mode with the sympathetic nervous system, that is the system being in charge of regulating and activating any reflexes and reactions about pain, fear or confusion.
So, when the stimuli that had activated the sympathetic system is finally resolved because the stressful moment is over, then the parasympathetic system comes back in control again and the relaxation returns.
Well, horses show some observable behavioral signs of this shift just by licking and chewing, sometimes swallowing too: this happens precisely when the shift from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic system occurs, because when the sympathetic system is activated salivation stops and consequently the mouth and lips dry quickly, while when the unpleasant moment subsides and calm returns, then salivation comes back too.
Consequently licking and chewing is precisely that simple involuntary response to deal with the resumption of salivation after a period of dryness of the mouth and lips.
So whenever we see horses doing it we should ask ourselves why they are doing this, being aware of the fact that they have just been put in a difficult concerning situation, as their licking and chewing is just the sign of them going from a high level of stress to a slightly lower one, as a sort of relief: not something to aim at, but just something to possibly avoid by trying as much as possible not to make them experience any highly stressful situation.

06/26/2024

We need to be way more appreciative of horses being willing to get into trailers for us.

Have you been in the back of a trailer while it’s moving?

It’s loud.

It’s rattly.

Cars come flying by.

It’s warm in the summer, even with windows open, plus the open windows make everything louder.

You constantly have to balance.

Even as a human with the context of why trailers are used, an understanding of their purpose and the capacity to realize we aren’t being trapped with the intent to cause harm, it is unpleasant.

Trailering is one of those regular skills that many humans just expect of horses.

It’s all too common to “teach” horses to load through really coercive and harsh methods instead of a rewards based mindset.

Horses who don’t want to load in a trailer possess an intelligent level of self preservation because it is that unpleasant, scary and dangerous feeling.

Going into a small, dark, hot, rattly box that teleports them to somewhere new and scary isn’t something any flight animal should want to willingly do.

Their choice to fight going into it and attempt to advocate for themselves is a normal one that should be expected from a flight animal.

So, us humans need to be gentler.

More appreciative.

More understanding of the absolute trust and sacrifice the horse is offering us by getting into that trailer.

Just because we view it as a necessary skill doesn’t mean that the horse understands it.

Nor does it justify anger, frustration or roughness in the event the horse doesn’t want to load.

So be patient.

Be more rewarding.

We are asking them of something that goes against ever fibre of their being and deliberately asks them to do something that makes them feel unsafe.

We need to be more grateful of what horses are willing to do for us and more understanding of why they say no when they do.

09/07/2023

10/25/2022

Great photo comparison. Important to understand and just one of many consent issues.
Also thanks for the share from Safe Dogs By The River!

THE BELLY RUB! This is probably one of the most misinterpreted signals in all of canine body language! The two dogs pictured below are saying completely different things with a fairly similar posture. Getting to know body language and understanding what your dog is saying to you is the most vital piece of advice I can give to anyone whose life involves dogs in anyway. What do you think of the difference in the 2 postures?

09/29/2022

Great idea, even in less serious weather challenges!

06/04/2022

Also thanks to Safe Dogs By The River

05/07/2022

07/07/2021

YES PLEASE! I do not ever like house guests, so I don't expect my pets to like them either. I also don't like being touched by strangers, and not even by most friends or family. Only a few trusted individuals won't give me the heebie jeebies. Why would an animal feel any different? Be it in someone's house or the park or the pet store, no one has a right to force themselves on your pet. And if your pet does anything from quietly beg them away with their body language and facial expression, to walking away, all the way to biting someone, it is not their fault. Give them space, give them respect, and if it is an animal that WANTS to interact, they will.

TIP TUESDAY
Brought to you by Bravo Dog Training & Behaviour Consulting with the original caption below:

"We often miss the subtle body language cues dogs are giving us that they don’t want to be touched. We force interactions, we tell children to go see every dog they come across creating a perception that animals are there for touching purposes. This completely sets dogs and children up to fail resulting in dog bites that could have been prevented. So much pressure is put on dogs to interact with people they don’t know, and ones they do, but it’s really an unfair dynamic and one that the dog often loses and is blamed for. Let’s start changing perceptions about dogs labelled “bad” for simply expressing how they feel and us ignoring them. If they are considered our “best friends” it’s the least we can do."
I have met with so many folks lately, who are worried their dog doesn't like people or who have already seen cocerning behaviors between their dog and guests - when, in reality, their dog just doesn't love everyone all the time. We don't either, so why should we expect that of our SideKicks? Your guests, the people visiting your yard, or the people you see on the street may be "dog people" and they may LOVE dogs, but that doesn't mean they need to touch your dog or force them to interact!