Blog

My husband and I are no strangers to adopting and fostering dogs. I do majority of the training and socializing because I work remotely while my husband is hybrid. But I need some advise for the puppy we are picking up for foster tomorrow. We currently have 2 of our own dogs and our foster just got adopted last week (yay!) but these dogs are obsessed with me. They bond so quickly to me and end up being “my dogs”. My husband really wants this new puppy to be his responsibility and “his dog” meaning it is mainly bonded to him. Does anyone have good advise on how to make sure this little girl bonds more with my husband rather than me this time? He found her and is so excited about this and I want to make sure he gets the love and affection from her that he sees I get from our dogs and our fosters. TIA

I have an 8mo. I grew up with dogs and even worked in rescue/vet med but I just cannot chill about my first dog as an independent adult. Yes I have OCD-but this is the first time I’ve experienced these feelings with any animal I’ve owned, and I’ve raised some delicate flowers.
I think everything small/typical is secretly a big issue that could be life threatening for my pup. He’s a very hardy bigger breed but if he wipes out in the yard and gets up slow I think he herniated a disc.
If he coughs or gags I think he got into something or has something stuck in his throat.
Suspiciously tired after a full day running in the field with me? Must be lethargy from eating a toxic plant or scrap plastic/metal lodged in his gut.
He’s well trained enough he can be loose in the field and house but tends to be somewhat around me most of the time-just not 100%.
I always had herding dogs so they were independent from us 75% of the time but something about having an “inside” dog for the first time in my life makes me so paranoid.
Tonight his ears seemed hot and instead of acknowledging he was sleeping in front of the fire I nearly convinced myself he has some mystery fever/infection.

Part of me can acknowledge there’s this paranoia of not worrying enough or being attentive enough that results in neglect or something fatal and that it’s just an irrational fear of losing something I love so much!

But does this feeling ever go away?? I feel like the parent of a newborn infant. My hope is by the time he’s 12mo I might feel more confident and just think of him as delicate right now. He’s proven himself to be hardy and I try to cool it thinking about how tough the dogs I grew up with were but it doesn’t always help. I am so anxious about messing up with this guy.

At what point are you not terrified of making a mistake and it costing their health? Is this just a me problem?

I have a bernese puppy 14 weeks, we go out everyday and i make sure he sees birds/people/cars etc. We not so often see dogs and he just looks at them and doesn't care at all. Sometimes he reaches for people that walk close but never dogs. He's not playing or interacting with them even if they're in his face😭 I just wanna know if it's because he's young or it's just part of him