Category: Top Dog

My 13 week golden retriever has quickly connected the dots that "If I do this behavior, human tells me to stop, if I stop, I get a treat."

One example is jumping up and putting his paws on the table earns an "off" command and if he follows the command he earns a treat. But now he is jumping up constantly, so I tried rewarding "off" randomly, but he gets frustrated and keeps jumping because he wants to treat for following the "off" command.

How can I prevent this? Stop rewarding "off" and other stop/drop it commands?

So I think I’ve identified that I focus too much on my what my puppy can’t/isn’t doing and when I think about it I get stressed out and overwhelmed but I’m realizing there’s so many things she’s done that are positive and already in just a month since bringing her home, some of the things I daydreamed about her doing/not doing (paw, name recall, sitting by the door to go outside for pee/poop, no longer freaking out as much as she did at first when trying to put on collar, harness or clothing)

Any tips for how I can switch my mindset? I think I’m focusing on the wrong things which is making me feel this stress/anxiety.

I also think I may have been letting her be the boss and that’s why I’m seeing a lot of biting/chewing and barking behaviour. I was only putting her down for naps 2 maybe 3 times a day (she is 14 weeks old) and from 5:30-10:30 I would try to “beat her out” so I would get a full night’s sleep for work. But I’m realizing I need to enforce more naps and have her in her crate more maybe?

If you want a small, low-shedding dog like a cockapoo or maltipoo, the breeds listed below often have similar coats and temperaments but can be easier to find through ethical breeders. Because they’re established purebreds with clear health testing standards, puppy due diligence (i.e., verifying breeder claims and health testing) is often easier to navigate and confirm.

I've listed them in roughly ascending weight order:

• Bolognese
• Bolonka Zwetna
• Chinese Crested (Powder Puff coat type)
• Havanese
• Coton de Tulear
• Miniature Poodle (some have coats with less tight curls)
• Lowchen
• Lhasa Apso
• Miniature Schnauzer
• Bedlington Terrier
• Tibetan Terrier

I left off yorkies, shih tzus, and bichon frise because I felt like they arguably missed the vibe, and you've probably already heard of them. And I left off Lagotto Romagnolo because it's edging into medium-sized territory, but they are beauuuutiful dogs.

Would love to hear from folks with experience with these breeds 🙂

Title says it all. Some background, my wife and I adopted a terrier mix back in July. We were told she was likely border/Irish terrier mix. For the most part, she’s a fantastic dog and your quintessential terrier – energetic, mischievous, playful, smart, etc. However, my wife’s job is 100% remote, so she’s home with her all day. Lately it has become extremely difficult for her to get any work done. Our dog is 10 months old and in full teenager mode. We are hoping it will get better as she matures, but I was wondering if any other terrier parents out there have any good tips or advice. Specifically, did you have any success with teaching your dog how to settle? or did they just eventually grow out of it?

For reference, we are currently doing forced naps, a walk in the morning and afternoon, then the occasional kong or lick mat. Some days it’s enough, but most days she requires constant supervision.

So we have a 3 Month old cockerpoo who's great but he clings to us constantly and it's annoying when we just want to get some housework done. He isn't capable yet of entertaining himself with the toys he has. Are there any tips for more challenging puzzle type toys???

Recently I have adopted a 7week old puppy. She is a shihtzu mix and is a little monster when overtired. I try not to let her overtired but sometimes it just happens.

During one of her episodes, after trying everything I was exhausted and picked her up, went to the balcony and sat there for 2 mins for fresh air. It was little bit cold. I observed that all of a sudden she became calm and was relaxing on my lap. I brought her indoors and put her in a crate and she went to sleep. I asked chatgpt and it said that her nervous system was reset and she felt calm.

Now once in a while when I try everything and nothing works i take her to the balcony for a minute. These days she turns her head away while going into the balcony and clings on to me.

Does it mean she is scared to go to the balcony or scared of cold? Is it still okay to take her for a minute for her to calm down or should I stop doing that?

I stopped taking her because I was confused and now she is back to being a monster.

Please help!

My puppy isn't even a puppy anymore, she is a 1 year old spaniel now and I have completely failed her and my own expectations and I am so pissed at my self and stressed and tired of everything being destroyed or peed on or her whining for attention. She can't come to my bed because she'll pee on it if she hasn't gone out. My sofa is torn to shreds. I cannot have any carpets. I have to guard anything that is smaller than my head otherwise she'll try to choke in it by eating it whole. She'll bite everything, she'll guard anything she knows she isn't allowed to take, she'll claw her paws at me if I don't look at her.. And outside she'll pull like a mad horse, no matter for how long we go out for she'll try to rattle me along. I cannot leave her alone at all, she'll just lose her marbles and kongs can only distract her for so long. And I gave my neighbor my number to be nice and now I get messages after an hour of her being alone that I am abusing my animal when I've told them I am trying to extend her separation tolerance since nothing else seems to work just have to take it day by day-, so now I just don't reply to them and sit with the anxiety of what a shitty person I am. 🫠

This little girl has all the toys, the sniffing carpets, kongs, the little ball to roll around and eat treats from. She can bring any toy to be whenever she wants and I'll throw it for her, but if I don't leave my chair to do so during work it's not good enough then she won't fetch anything she'll just come sleep on my feet. I am with her, always when I work even. She goes out multiple times a day, runs around the park with other dogs and rolls around in crap and ruins her coat, pays zero rent and just smells the flowers..

I was dumb and got her a celebratory nice pretty dog bed that cost a decent amount of money, I let her sniff it and get all familiar with it, what does she do? Release the biggest golden shower while looking at me straight to my eyeballs with zero clue of being inside the fricking house. And I lost it in disbelief, she'd literally do it 5 min after we come outside of the park where she had pissed already..

She is a sweet cuddly angle with beautiful golden locks, but my god she is trying to make me end my entire existence sometimes. I'm sick and tired guys, of always being sick and tired 😭

Thank you for coming to my rant

Hello everyone!

I'm wondering if folks could help me with mental and physical stimulation for my boston terrier puppy. My predicament is that these past couple months up here in the north, we have had too much snow for him to enjoy himself outside for very long, even with his coat and boots on. So, he's too small for us to be outside, but his breed is also an active one, so I'm noticing he's getting quite restless inside.

We play fetch inside but the house layout isn't optimal for this, I've bought puzzles that he enjoys but has since figured out and is bored with, we do training inside, he has chews that he demolishes quickly but enjoys, and I try to take him for inside walks at our local pet store since he's allowed inside the store. He's in his adolescent stage and has started developing leash frustration when he sees other dogs (demand barking, pulling, etc), and the store isn't the biggest, so it's harder for me to redirect and create distance vs. in an outside environment.

Am I doing enough/doing this right? When we got him in the summer it was so much easier to get all his energy out, but it's been a struggle since we've had so much snow and cold weather. Any help or feedback is appreciated! Sometimes I feel like I'm still not doing enough and I feel bad for him. He's been getting into things in the house/trying to destroy things, demand barking inside, hes seemed to completely forget his 'settle' cue, etc.,….I'm not sure if this is a phase or if I'm not doing enough to keep him stimulated while we wait for spring.

My 16 week moyen poodle puppy loves his crate for sleeping. He’s only ever had 2/3 naps outside of it in the 8 weeks we’ve had him and sleeps in it every night. He now goes in without complaint or force. On occasion we have to place him inside and he’ll turn around and look at you like “pardon me?” but mostly he does fine.

What I’m struggling with is, once he wakes up the crying and the barking starts. I realize he wants to get out, and we’re partially to blame as generally we’ve let him out after he lets us know he’s awake. Never while* *he’s barking or crying but once be wakes up and alerts us after a minute or two we let him out and take him outside, eat, play, train etc for 45-60m and then the cycle starts again.

He’s getting older now, can hold his bladder longer for sure and I think we need to work in more quiet peaceful time in the crate not sleeping.

He’s not horribly food motivated so a kong or a toppl didn’t always hold his attention and it’s still something to “do”.

Is he too young to learn to be bored and contained? Did we totally miss the boat?

His crate is in our bedroom, covered on three sides and we have white noise in there. We don’t stay in the room with him in there unless it’s overnight sleep.

We found this brand a couple years ago that our fur baby goes BONKERS for. We got a bunch of them and she's now destroyed them all and we can't remember the brand. Does anybody recognize this toy (click on the words "this toy" to be taken to an image of a destroyed toy) and remember who sells it? This is a photo of the owl but there are lots of other animals, including a unicorn.