Category: Top Dog

I just adopted a sweet little Cavalier mix. I live in a second floor apartment with a concrete deck. I was thinking about buying a “patio potty,” one of those little fake grass things, to put outside for occasional use, like when it’s pouring rain, or when she wants to go out and I am not quite ready to take her.

Has anyone ever tried these? Can you recommend (for or against) any particular brands?

This is Ginger (message for pictures), she’s super sweet and a little bit older. We need help finding someone to foster or adopt her. My family has been fostering her for a month or so but we are unable to keep taking care of her due to space. She had been returned to the shelter once before by a previous owner that moved away, so we’re worried that she will be euthanized if we bring her back to the shelter. She loves everyone and is totally safe with other dogs. Please message me if you may be able to help in some way.

Does your dog turn his head when he hears an odd noise? Does your dog bury their food with your pants? This is the thread to ask why.

Please keep this thread to non-medical issues only.

Just watched her literally sniff all around the open trash can, which contains egg shells (from her dinner – we crack an egg on it for her) bread crusts, meat trimmings and other table scraps….then leave it all alone and drink from her water bowl instead.

We leave our trash uncovered and out at all times on the floor in easy reach right next to her water bowl. We just don’t think about it. She has gotten into it maybe twice in the 8 years we’ve had her.

We usually use a harness when walking our energetic, pulls-like-a-mofo beagle. The leash attaches to a bracket that's on her back, an inch or two behind her shoulders.

Thing is, the coat we have doesn't fit well. The hole in the back, for the leash, is up close to the front of the coat– maybe an inch or two in front of the bracket on the harness. So when we walk her, the leash pulls the coat backwards, and we can't keep it on her very well. (The coat attaches in front by velcro, but it's old velcro and doesn't hold well.)

So, I'm looking for a nice dog coat that would give us some flexibility in where to run the leash through the back. Any recommendations?

Hi Reddit,

Merry Christmas!

Not the post I thought I’d be writing today but I’m at my wits end and need help. My 5 month old Springer Spaniel is in the middle of teething and I can’t take how much biting she does.

It’s after everything, she’ll only take a distraction for so long before the teeth come out and they always come out on me.

Thankfully my partner, child, and friends don’t get bitten as often as I do so I’m not concerned for the wider group. But with me she’s relentless.

I stand up and she’s biting my ankles and feet, she’ll jump on me to get to my arms. If I’m on the couch and I’m hiding my arms from her she will try for my face but please trust I know this dog and dogs generally well enough to know my face isn’t a point of aggression for her, she wants me arms but if she can’t get she moves on.

I’m confident she’s not aggressive, she never snarls from across the room and goes for me, it feels like it’s play fighting or from a place of frustration but it’s too much.

I think she’s both under and over stimulated, the only solution is food and even then if you move your arms she can get distracted and try for a nibble but will go back to the toy.

The thing is I hate this feeling, I hate feeling like I can’t sit on my couch, I hate feeling like I can’t join my family without finding a safe space to exist, I hate feeling like I can’t enjoy my home and my dog.

I’d really appreciate any advice you can give. She can only have so many treats and licks before it becomes overfeeding and unhealthy. And does that teach her to stop biting or?

Any advice would be appreciated and happy holidays to all who celebrate.

My sister left her female dachshund dog that is around 5 years old at my house as she was travelling for the holidays and needed a place to leave him, didn't want to get her boarded. It was obvious that she had a barking problem because they brought her with this shock collar that shocks when she barks. However me being a kind soul told my mother to keep the collar off her because I felt that wasn't very nice. Since getting here almost a week ago, she has been constantly barking at me and will even run up and almost bite my ankles when I walk past her, making no eye contact or saying anything. I have tried giving her treats, feeding her, putting my closed hand up near her while my mom holds her to have her smell me with no luck. This is also the first time ive met the dog, so was fine with her bringing her over for the holidays because I didn't expect this to happen.

I own two cats and have been a cat person most of my life but have had dogs before as well with no problem. Had a Pomeranian named "Bella" who lived 25 years and passed away a little over a year ago, been hard to get another dog since then. She never barked at me and I go jogging at my local park daily and never had any issues with dogs barking at me. Weirdly enough there is this house connected to the park with a fence and two beware of dog signs. Has a big german shepherd and it loves me. I will go up and pet him everytime I go by (its in my warmup area before I start jogging), even met its owner who was surprised because he said he usually barks at everyone and became friends with him too.

While it doesn't seem to be unique to just me, recently had a Christmas get together and she was barking at the other men that came over but not nearly as crazy as she is with me.

Sad thing is that I have epilepsy and this extra anxiety of the dog barking has actually been a trigger for them these last few days. As anxiety/stress are my main triggers for my epilepsy these days.

My mom has had to put her in her room whenever I come down for something and at night when she sleeps. It is even getting her upset at me, at the fact the dog won't stop barking at me and leaves the house nearly all day. Goes to my sisters where her husband is gone working till late in the evening and its only her and her newborn son. Thankfully he isn't going crazy at him. Is there anything I can do? I've tried everything I could think possible but she won't stop barking at me.

hi guys, I have a question. I tried asking google, but nothing what I’m looking for. okay so I have a male cream Shiba Inu who is 2. my brother also has a male Shiba Inu who is 3. we live under the same home and have separated the backyard with a fence so each one has their side with a privacy gate cover because our dogs would be aggressive and reactive towards each other. I also have another male Shiba inu who is 11 months and my males never fiught with each other with the intent to kill or grab each other’s neck. However, my brother‘s dog and mine would actually try to kill each other if we let them on the same side of the fence. it’s a concern, however, since my dog gets triggered by his dog whenever we try to separate them from the fence, my dog has bitten me because he’s in the middle of the zone of being reactive/agression because the other dog triggered him. When he is not triggered by my brother‘s dog, he’s the sweetest baby and is very sweet with his other companions. So my question is, is he really considered aggressive and bad that he’s only bit me when hes in reactive mode because of the other dog? But would never bite me out of nowhere? My brothers dog is aggressive too, but towards all my dogs, is mine just trying to protect his pack since he’s the alpha of his little pack? He has never bit me out of the blue at all

We got our dog in October and she was a perfect angel in the crate for the first two months. She’s about 9mo, and all of a sudden she has started barking in her crate at every noise she hears outside. We live in an apartment building with an outside staircase, and our bedroom is up against that staircase so whenever someone comes home/leaves she hears them and goes nuts.

This didn’t used to be the case at all – she only started doing this maybe a week ago. She starts barking and won’t stop after us telling her “No”, and doesn’t quit until we go physically up to the crate and tell her to stop (which as probably been our first mistake).

We never let her out of the crate for barking, and we have the blinds and curtains drawn, a blanket over her crate, and a fan going at night for white noise. These aren’t even things we did to try to solve the problem, they’re things we’ve always done anyway.

How can I stop this problem without accidentally making it worse?

Hi all, we've had our pup (1F) for about four weeks now. She's incredibly sweet, but also very energetic and very chewy. She gets nippy during playtime too. For the past 3 or 4 days, whenever I walk somewhere in the house, she'll start biting at my pants and thighs, to the point where my legs are covered in bruises. She's wagging her tail and it doesn't seem angry, but when she's doing it she won't be distracted by her toys or even treats. Even a high value treat like people food only distracts her for a second. Our trainer thinks she might have doggie OCD (she'll play and obsess over toys until 11:30pm+, for hours and hours). But is there anything I can do while waiting on a vet appointment to talk about medicine? Standing still doesn't help, walking away makes it worse, trying to manually stop her makes her think I'm playing. I'm writing this from the bathroom right now because it's the only place I can find some calm!