Category: Top Dog

I have a 10 month old male bichon that likes to eat random things outside more than he likes his kibble. Things that he really should not eat, like acorns (I'm guessing they smell like squirrel), leaves, ice melt, etc. We have been working on "leave it" and "drop it" but he just gets sneakier about it and it's causing digestive issues. What else can I do? I'd prefer not to use a muzzle, but it's getting to where I might need to until he learns not to eat those things. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I’m a first-time dog owner with an 11-week-old shih tzu puppy. She’s been with me for about a week and a half and is doing really well overall. She's sweet, understands my rhythms, but also a little feisty!

I live in a high-rise condo. Right now, her main zones are:

• a square pen (~70x70cm) in the living room, where she eats, sleeps, and plays
• semi-open wash area where I take her for potty (pee pads)

This setup is working for her. She’s comfortable, and we’ve only had 3–4 accidents total so far. She sleeps through the night except for a midnight potty with some zoomies. I let her explore my bedroom and home office once a day after successful potty trips, but those rooms still overstimulate her and she’s had all her accidents while exploring.

I don’t currently have a crate. I tried introducing her to a travel carrier for nighttime sleeps, but she strongly dislikes being inside it and it’s a slooow work in progress. Because of that, I’ve been sleeping and working in the living room with her, which isn’t sustainable long-term.

Here’s what I’m struggling with:

• Her current pen is too lightweight. She can push it around when she wants attention, which requires my 24/7 supervision.
• I need to return to working in my home office and sleeping in my bedroom

For her first year, I want a setup where she can: play/eat mostly in the living room; be safely contained while I do daily tasks; sleep in my bedroom at night; still use the wash area for potty, then later transition to outdoors when fully vaccinated.

My plan:

• a sturdier same-sized pen in the living room as her main daytime space for eating, playing, and relaxing
• a smaller crate (or pen??) in my bedroom for nighttime sleep and naps
• she can hang out with me in my home office when she's calm, but I want her to also be comfortable staying in her pen or crate without me present

I'm under a tight budget. Before I commit to buying anything else, I’d really appreciate advice on whether this setup makes sense and how to do it right.

My questions:

• How do I transition her to feeling calm and relaxed in my bedroom, especially at night?
• She’s used to sleeping in a spacious pen. Will a smaller crate stress her out? Instead of a crate, can I just do a smaller pen + bed in my bedroom?
• Does this setup sound reasonable for a condo puppy, or am I missing something important?
• If she’s left alone for a couple of hours in the future, should her main living room pen include a potty area?
• Will having multiple zones (living room + bedroom + occasional home office) confuse her, or does consistency matter more than location?

My goal is to keep things simple, consistent, and comfortable for her while also making daily life workable for me. Any advice from apartment/condo puppy owners would be hugely appreciated!!

My dog pulls my underwear or my girlfriends out of the hamper while we’re being intimate and just licks them to the point that they’re soaked but he only does it while we’re being intimate never any other time it’s like as soon as we get to it he goes right for the hamper anyone know why ?

So we’ve got the crate training, potty training, and almost everything else (besides being friendly with other dogs) down pat. Recently she’s been biting wayyy too hard and very often to the point where sometimes it doesn’t seem like she’s trying to play. It usually starts when she gets the zoomies or excited / worked up with something, it can even be me saying her name in a high pitched voice and petting her (calmly). She’ll start to nibble on our legs and then as I go to push her back or create a barrier between us with my hand she chomps down on it.. which causes me to grab her collar to create more distance and control over her and the she starts to growl and then continue to bit and then after a few seconds of me telling her to lay down she snaps out of it. I’m worried for when my family comes to see her next and her doing this to one of them.. we’ve tried the walk away method and go to another room but she literally chases us biting.. she’s recently been a little better the last day or two but I’m not super confident it won’t spring back up at some point. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

My 13 week old Cavoodle has 3 witching moments- as soon as she wakes up, around 4.45-5pm and then 8-8.30pm. Her teeth come out and blood is drawn.

Funnily these are all times I want to relax on the couch and read a book or watch tv.

When she starts I say her name firmly followed by a nice gentle which settles her for 0.05seconds, if it continues I stand up and ignore her and redirect with a toy.

She naps most of the day and she is not crate trained- I have tried and tried but she is in distress with excessive barking, biting and paces so holding off continuing that while I recreate the crate as a safe place.

But how does one stop the biting? I love her to death but the biting is the one thing I cannot handle and it makes me cry and feel overwhelmed. I also give her frozen chews and lick mats.

I recently became a proud owner of a 9 month old Kelpie pup and it's my first time raising a herding breed.

I have a 4 year old labrador in addition to that who I raised from 8 weeks, and had a lot of success managing her energy with crate naps, relaxation protocol and food toys to the extent that I only have to exercise her a moderate amount without her getting destructive. As an adult she sleeps 20 hours a day and is rather easy to take care of for being on the high end of energetic for a lab.

I know the energy needs of herding breeds are far higher than labs, so I was wondering whether this approach would still work and how much exercise I would need to provide her with in addition to that.

Thank you in advance.

I don't know how to fix my dog I bought a few months ago. I bought her may 2025. The previous owner claimed she was 10 months old. I bought her from a guy I thought was sketchy the moment I met him. I was so happy and excited about it because she's a puppy and my very first dog. But now im feeling extreme frustration and not wanting her anymore, I tried for months to try fix her. I knew something was off after a couple weeks. I noticed that she might have some issues maybe trauma? She won't play, she hates people who are not me. She used to bite. She's very scared of everything. She followed me around every inch of the house.. but now she'll ignore me and lay in a dark room unless she hears me doing something. I give her love, attention, fucking praise and treats but it's just not working. I try to teach her how to play, how to respond to play. She hates certain words, she cowers away in fear when I try to teach her to sit or lay down. I try and try and try. I can't even take her to a behaviour therapy because I live in rural Canada that's just not possible for me at the moment. I expected a playful girl, a dog who will love everything and everyone. This is the first time I felt frustrated, I cried and still am. I feel so terrible for being upset at her because i know it's not her fault. I honestly feel like I don't want her anymore and I can't stop crying and feeling bad about it.