Category: Top Dog

So about 4 years ago I came onto this sub wondering how to manage my 4.5 month old demonic dog I adopted… She was actually quite great at first for the first month or so, and then adolescence kicked in… and she was absolutely insane. Resource guarding, picking up everyting on walks, pulling on lead, lunging, reactivity to dogs and people, terrified of everything under the sun on a rotational basis, scared of walks, scared of being inside, scared of dinner time (spooky smoke alarm went off ONCE, ONCE I TELL YOU), scared of being in her crate, too scared and won't leave her crate, THE BITING, OH MY GOD THE BITING, the demand barking, the stealing everything and ripping it, the eating of everything we knew and loved… I could go on…

I tried everything to manage her behaviours. Everything. We did training classes, level 1 obedience, swear to god we almost got kicked out because of her arousal biting. Being in a room with so many people and dogs was just too much for her, she would freak out and start eating us alive 30 mins in. We would do everything under the sun… I kept having people tell me to walk her more to tire her out and she'll be better, she's biting because she's understimulated… I had so many people saying do this, do that, stop this, stop that. I would go on walks with her and come home crying. I would go to training class and come home crying. I would be inside with her and I would be crying. My life was hell because of this demon that entered my house.

Last week we did a class for handler discrimination (it's a dog sport thing), and she was off leash in a small ring, with 4 people inside, 3 other dogs, 2 of which were off leash, and there was 4 other people in the facility, 2 of which had dogs (puppies) in the ring over (separated by a short fence). She was able to work for me, at a distance, ignoring all distractions, including dogs 1 ft away from her, like an absolute champ.

I left that class feeling so elated, not from what she did/could do sport wise, but just thinking about how far we have come. If you would have told me that I would be able to do all the things I could now with the same demonic dog I got just over 4 years ago, I would have laughed in your face.

This is only a fraction of all the amazing things she does. She's truly the best girl, the best dog I could have ever asked for. If I had the option to go back in time with all the information I have, knowing how hard it was to raise her, I would do it again in a heartbeat. If you're struggling right now, hang in there. That demon puppy will turn into a great dog. You'll get through it, I promise.

Hi,

As the title says I recently adopted my pup from the SPCA so her temperament/lineage and all are unbeknownst to me. They say german shepherd but we see traits of belgian malinois in her. My bf and I got her almost a month ago, she has never shown signs of aggression to either me or my boyfriend and from the get we had our hands near her food or petting her or being around her so she associates us in a positive manner with her food as she is EXTREMELY food motivated.

She got a mandated spay from the SPCA and was on recovery for two weeks so we slacked off with the food often times just holding the bowl or just letting her eat is as is.

Last week however I reached my hand near her bowl as I remembered we should still be reinforcing that people + food is ok. She growled at me. I messed up and took her bowl away. Realizing I shouldn’t have done that I put it back after having her sit and work for it. Then fed her by hand etc, dropping treats in her bowl to reinforce people + food is good and good things happen when humans are around food.

She has been fine since and we have been around her feeding so we were hoping it was just a fluke.

Well today we gave her a pig ear (high value treat i know) and i asked my bf to reach down as he’s been doing majority of her feeding lately to see if she would do anything and she growled and nipped at him.

I then started training her with the ear with dropping other high value treats around her to reinforce the same thing yadda yadda. She never growled or nipped at ME however she was completly stiff the whole time and very uncomfortable. I’m hoping that maybe we caught her off guard with reaching down and since she had never been given one was superrrrr protective over it.

She does have a tendency of walking away from us when medium value treats are given to her but does not growl or show discomfort if we are around her when she is given them.

How do I prevent this from escalating, she is going to be a huge dog and i’ve dealt with aggressive pets however they were all small. I am NOT about to deal with that with a soon to be 90 lb animal.

Please let me know what tricks worked best for you as I fear that I will be scared of a dog I am supposed to love.

Thank you 🙂

We brought home our little guy on Saturday. We were told he was 8 weeks. Like any normal pet owner I took him to the vet and found out he was about 6 weeks…. But otherwise in full health. He’s eating solids and canned foods which has made some of this easier, but I am struggling with the constant crying. All times of the day, with people without people when he’s eating, if he can’t see us… and the kenneling has been awful. I’ve had dogs my entire life, this is the hardest one for me by far. Does anyone have any tips to help ease him? We’ve gotten him a heartbeat pup, he sleeps next to our bed in the kennel but he is literally crying for hours upon hours. I also need tips on potty training him? Is he to young? We’re using potty pads but he uses them as he sees fit. 🤣😭 He has no interest in treats atm either. We love him, I’m willing to do whatever but it’s been a long 6 days and I’m running on very little sleep. Any suggestions?

I can’t tell if my 3 month old border collie is having too much action during the day or too little. He’s pretty well behaved during the day, out for about 1-1.5 hours and then in crate for 2-3. I’m trying to balance activity and mental activity with naps. However, his behavior is still bad around 7:30 at night. I’m struggling to know if he’s overstimulated and tired and that’s why, or if he hasn’t done enough during the day. Any suggestions for nighttime routine?

My soul dog passed away almost 2 months ago. He was a senior puppy (13) that I had for almost 12 years. Admittedly, I worked on training him, but was not very consistent and because of a few issues, he was mostly contained to being indoors or our yard. He was ….easy? Fast forward to today

11 month old APBT/American Bulldog, adopted a month and a half ago.

We wake up and immediately start training (proper walk training , teach her commands, tricks, we play fetch which also involves commands) I go to work for 4 hours and come home for lunch and train (same as above) …I go back to work and come back 5 hours later and she goes outside to the yard with me while I workout and once I’m done, off to the park, so she can run around (also structured, we work on recall, proper walking, commands) I allow her spurts of running around but always under control. We get home, I make dinner, eat and then it’s her turn……I switched to hand feeding, so again, tricks, commands…blah blah blah….working for her food. When she’s not doing these things I have her working on a Kong or hiding treats and then before I know it…,it’s bedtime and I feel like the entire day with her has been spent working. I want laziness. I want couch potato, I want snuggles for more than 5 minutes, I want……dog? Am I doing too much? Or something wrong?

I just bought a doughnut collar for my maltipoo, whos ten and a half months old. He just got neutered and we had a onesie for him, but it backfired when he managed to still get to his incision even thought it was tightly on him, and pee on the onesie one too many times. We are on day 4 now, and we realized that the cone that he is wearing is WAY too short. We bought many different cones for him but they were either too short, or too long and heavy. So we bought him a “doughnut” collar for him. I want opinions on if it will work or not on keeping him from licking hid incision, your opinion if you ever had a doughnut collar, and if its safer to return the doughnut when it comes and buy a cone instead. The cones however will take a long time to come for some reason, and the petsmart ones are too small. The doughnut was the only thing that was overnight.

I am an experienced puppy foster – I have had over 20 foster pups in the past few years. I always crate train the puppies and have had great success with that. Of course, there is some whining and general disdain in the beginning but all of my pups have gotten used to the crate very quickly and eventually love their crate.

My current foster is almost 5 months old and the sweetest, most chill puppy I have had. I’ve had him since he was 6 weeks. I had him and his sister for about 2 months, but it was time to separate them. He’s nearly perfect and I adore him.

His one flaw is he wakes up so early. We are talking 4-5:30 am. I am a night owl and usually put him to bed around 11 or 11:30. I haven’t had more than 5-6 hours of sleep in about 6 weeks.

I have tried a noise machine, crate cover, lots of playtime before bed, a trazadone a time or two out of desperation, etc. I think most of it stems from separation anxiety. He loves to cuddle and be close, but my elderly dog sleeps with me and I can’t add puppy chaos to that.

Any other suggestions? I can’t keep this up much longer.

Our 15-week old Golden Retriever puppy frequently nips and latches onto my pant legs and cuffs with her teeth. She does not nip at my husband’s pant legs at all. When she does it I calmly but firmly tell her “No Biting” and walk out of the room, but weeks of doing this have had no effect. I have also tried redirecting her to a variety of chew toys, of which she has plenty of kinds, but she ignores them and comes for me again. I’m hoping she will outgrow this behavior when teething ends but, meanwhile, any helpful suggestions?

Hey everyone, quick question about probiotics for dogs.

I was at the pet store recently and the guy there asked if I was giving my dog probiotics like it was a must-have. Got me wondering if I’m missing something.

My dog sometimes licks his paws, scratches a bit, and eats grass occasionally. Nothing extreme, but enough to notice.

Has anyone here actually seen a real difference after adding probiotics? Did it help with skin issues or digestion? Or is it more of a “nice to have” than necessary?

Would love to hear your experiences!