psychological problems?

Question
my 5 year old toy poodle seems to be having some kind of psychological problem. Every so often, she decides to carry a heavy stuffed animal everywhere she goes in the house, and tries to jump up on the furniture with it. She will whine when she can't get the toy up with her. She just stands there holding the toy in her mouth looking at me (if she is trying to get in the chair or on the bed with me, which is allowed, by the way.)and wagging her tail. She also has "spells" of heavy panting without exertion. Have you ever heard of such a thing. She is the "baby" in our family and is treated well. She likes to go riding in the car with us, and when we don't have to run a lot of errands, we let her. We have our own business and sometimes she even goes to work with me. It is very distressing to see her this way. She has not been spayed. She is also very clingy at these times. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. The symptoms I have described all happen together. Otherwise she is a healthy dog. Before this last episode, she did throw up her dog food and went the day acting like she did not feel good, but is eating again. Oh, she just reminded me, another symptom is excessive digging of a spot that she is fixing to lie down on. All of these behaviors are not her usual actions.

Answer
The only thing I can think of is that she may be in heat.  She also may be signalling to you that she needs a bit of extra attention....maybe she feels insecure for some reason not obvious to you....it could be many things - it could also mean she is pregnant.  Is she exposed to any male dogs that might cause this?  These are the only possibilities I can think of at the moment>  I am sure given time I can think of others.  The only thing I can think of when she is clingy is to cuddle her and love her and assure her she is safe and cared for.  The rest is just supposition....so sorry I can't be more definite, but not seeing it first hand somewhat limits my ability to intuit.

I do wish you luck with her - my e-mail is kathrynks@cox.net should you ever want to contact me (or tell me how she is doing).  

Big hugs to you and her,


Kathryn