Dogs pant when they are hot and when they are anxious. If your dog is constantly panting you should make sure that she isn't over heated - if she has a thick coat she may need to see a groomer. Constant panting is not normal and could be indicative of disease or illness - have her examined by your veterinarian.

No explanation necessary. Just state what your bottom line is - $25/night. Say I'm sorry that's the best price I can give you - and that you are giving her a discount that is the lowest you give to anyone. If that's not something that will work for her, then she is welcome to make other arrangements.

I would say that their dog is just not a good fit for the other two you had previously agreed to take care of. And you are concerned about the well being and safety of all the dogs. And for that reason you're going to have to say no. It's to everyone's benefit. If you frame it in the context of what's best for the dogs I've never had anyone argue with me. And you can say, please do keep me in mind for future sits (if indeed that's what you want!)

Regarding dogs that aren't housetrained - don't sit for them again

Before I book a stay, I will ask for drop off and pick up times. If the dog is staying late - like 9pm - on the day of the pickup - then I charge a day care fee for that day, and tell the client that during the meet and greet. I've never had anyone balk at that.

I would make sure you are in compliance with your apartment requirements. While there are times when the asking forgiveness approach makes sense, I don't think this is one of them. You don't want to risk losing your lease

Poor quality food, or food that is high in fiber content is probably the most likely reason.

There can be many medical reasons, including insect bites, and allergies. Your dog needs to be looked at by his regular veterinarian.

Dogs pant not only when they are hot but also when they are anxious. Panting can also be a sign of pain or discomfort. You can usually tell if your dog is anxious by looking at the rest of her body postures and behaviors . Are her ears back? Tail down? Is she 'slinking' around or hiding? All of those behaviors and postures can also be seen when an animal is in pain or having some discomfort. So I would have her checked by your veterinarian. Also think about what she might be afraid of or what is making her anxious.

Flatulence (passing gas) is often the result of lower quality food, or food that doesn't agree with your dog. Consider changing to a better quality food. But do so gradually over a period of a week or so. If your dog is on a prescription diet, talk with your veterinarian first.

Digging is one of those behaviors that has multiple motivations so knowing how best to stop it requires knowing why the dog is digging. Is it because he's hot and wants to get cool? Then address that need in another way. Is he "bored"? Then enrich his environment, bring him inside more often. Our setter Coral loved to dig - part of her motivation was to dig herself a comfortable little pit to lie in. We provided her with multple comfy beds, which she would use some of the time, but other times she just preferred to lay in the dirt. Go figure So - we gave her her own digging area - bounded it with some pavers, and added some sand to make the soil very loose and easy to dig in. That way, she used that area rather than parts of the yard we didn't want her to dig in. So - management, meeting the need for the digging in other ways, and creating her own space to dig that is easy to dig in

I would agree - I would NOT recommend this. If the dog's nails hurt when he digs that means the quick is exposed and that's not a humane way to approach the problem IMO

There is no one answer to this question. And it likely has multiple motivations. Dogs that are raised in restrictive environments, like puppy mills, are sometimes more prone to this. But dogs without that background will do it as well. There is no evidence that the behavior has anything to do with inadequate nutrition and in fact there are plenty of examples of dogs being on high quality diets (ours included) and still engaging in the behavior. Because the motivation is unclear, and there are likely multiple factors contributing to the problem, there is no single solution to it, other than management. Conditioned taste aversion would probably work, but is very difficult to implement, and not really practical for most people.

We recently had a neutered male dog as a guest. HIs owner brought a belly band with him and we used it the first day. We didn't put it on after that and had no problems even when he was left alone. Dogs mark as you've said to deposit their scent. While some trainers believe that one should not allow dogs to mark on walks, there is no evidence that this decreases urine marking in the house. As a certified behaviorist, we take just the opposite approach - allow the dogs to mark as much as they want on walks, they get to deposit their scent all around, with the house sort of in the center of the 'territory' and therefore decreases the motivation to want to mark inside.
We've used a product called Anti Icky Poo for years to remove the odor, find it much superior to Nature's Miracle.
Would not hesitate to use a belly band though as a precaution as well, and test the dog for short periods without it.

Frequent head shaking can be a symptom of an ear infection, wax build up, or even a foreign body in one of your dog's ears. You should definitely take your dog to your veterinarian and have his ears looked at. Chronic ear infections left untreated can actually result in deafness, so you don't want to let this go.