Category: Top Dog

Mostly just wanted to write this down somewhere so I can get my thoughts out on a bit of an anonymous forum, but any help / advice would be really appreciated.

My partner and I rescued a 4.5 month old puppy from Cyprus at the weekend and I fell in love at first sight, he's such a sweet boy and very affectionate already. Since then, the reality of owning a pup has hit me hard and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by conflicting advice and the sudden change that's affected everything in my life.

I work from home while my girlfriend is a primary school teacher, so I am doing the majority of care during the day, but I have never owned a dog before, let alone a puppy, while she has a bit more experience with her family owning dogs but hasn't had one of her own.

I realise it was probably naive to think that I would somehow crack it on my first try, but I'm feeling deflated about how things are going. When I am at home, he is completely dependent on me and will follow me everywhere, but then also seems uninterested in play when I try to initiate that. We are using a crate and have managed to get him to use this to sleep in our room overnight, but during the day he will only nap very lightly and only when I am in the same room. If I move even slightly, he will wake up and then cries if I leave the room for more than 5 seconds.

His toilet training started well, and after an accident on the first night which I totally expected, for the first couple of days he was toileting outside consistently. However today, he has only gone inside despite me keeping the same schedule and taking him out multiple times.

It all feels really disheartening and I am blaming myself for not knowing what to do or reacting too emotionally. I find myself going into a spiral and Googling which doesn't help because it feels like I am getting different, conflicting advice from varying sources or even worse, opinions that make me feel like I've done a terrible thing by even taking on a puppy at all.

I know it's still very early days and I am hopeful that it will get better over time, but at the same time I worry that the first couple of weeks of having a puppy are so important to set a routine and good behaviour traits, and I'm scared that I'm completely failing at it.

Would be great to hear from anyone who has been where I am or a similar place. My fiancée is being very understanding and reassuring but I don't think she knows exactly how it feels.

I have had many dogs growing up and I kinda knew that I didn't want to get one because of the responsibility and many other factors. But a year and a half ago, my wife and I got a house and the house felt a little ''empty''. So, we talked about getting one, went to see a few breeders and I finally cracked.

Last summer, we pulled the trigger on a cute little female cockapoo. She's pretty sweet and loves to cuddle… Well, maybe a little too much. I guess one could define my puppy as a ''Velcro dog''. Not only that, but she is very very persistant.

***For the record, we go on walks at least 2 times a day (20-30min), play with her 3-4x for 15-30min. the day***

She never ever was able to spend time in the crate, no matter how much we tried (And lord knows we did) and for a few months, I had to go up north for 2 weeks at a time for work… Well, during that time, she was whining so much during the night to cuddle that my wife cracked and decided to let her sleep in the bed.

The problem with that is that during the night (When I was back home), she would wake up about 3-5 times whenever I would turn around, breath funny or anything really and she would jump on me to try to lick my face. (At this point, she would wake up rarely to go potty outside).

Unnecessary to say, but this was absolutely ruining my life. I had SEVERE mental breakdowns because the lack of sleep was just too much (At this point, probably less than 2hr of sleep a night, for 3-4 months). Plus I had a kind of PTSD where I just wouldnt fall asleep because I knew my puppy would jump on me. And essentially, my breakdowns would wake my wife up and we wouldnt get any sleep.

So, we decided to let her sleep outside the room, with the door closed. It fixed the issue, now I can actually sleep… Kinda. She does sleep on the couch, but whenever someone needs to go out of the room (Going to the bathroom or whatever), she instantly assumes we are up, and from that moment on, will whine, unless my wife (and I tried to do it) goes with her on the couch. And if nobody leaves the room, at 5am she will wake by herself and same results. We have tried to ''let her whine'' until she is bored. But let me tell you, a dog whining for 3 hours straight at 1 a.m a monday morning, it just doesnt work…

Add to that that she barks at EVERYTHING outside (and inside I guess), day or night. The house is litteraly full of dirt because of her and its disgusting. She started destroying things in the house (Like my favorite pair of crocs 2 days ago). My yard and garden are ruined and she started digging giant holes everywhere. I dont have any personal space anymore, I cant work from home without being constantly distracted. Intimacy with my wife has also been taking a huge hit. And lets face it, owning a dog is a money pit.

We are now 8 months in and honestly, I kind of want to rehome her. I feel like since we got her, life has only been miserable, I've never been has much depressed, tired and angry since we got her. Dont get me wrong, things have become better since the start, but I feel like I just cant anymore.

Anyways, thats me venting.

I’m going to bring a pup home soon and am full-time WFH. I’m thinking of having a pen for him in my office space while I’m working so that he’s in my sight, but I’m not sure if there is a downside to this?

We have a 13-week old mongrel – technically a labradoodle, but a mix of two types of labradoodle, so not sure she's fooling anyone.

Anyway, she came with AVA, which she enjoyed, when this ran out quicker than we realised, I grabbed some Lily's Kitchen as it was the best option late night in Sainsbury's.
All our cats have had Hills Science plan and lived long and healthy lives, so when the LK started to run out, got a 14kg bag of Hills puppy instead.

We had noticed the LK lead to much more "pleasant" poops, firmer, less stinky… and the pup LOVED it. She's not remotely fussed about the Hills, not to the extent of starving herself, but definitely not eating as much as she should – where she would wolf down LK for breakfast, she'll leave the Hills down for most of the day.

So considered going back to LK, but the general view is it's not that good for them, or at best, the science is lacking.

It's also mentally expensive? The biggest bag is 7kg, and £48 is the cheapest I can find it.
Hills – which is considered pricey by some – is £52 for 14kg – so half the price pound-for-pound of LK.
BUT according to the details on LK's website and the back of the Hills bag, a 7kg bag will last 4 DAYS, vs 63 days for Hills?!

We love our puppy, but that's financially mad.

Am I missing something, or is LK insanely expensive? Is this why the pup loves it?

My pup had her first vet appt with me yesterday (almost 10weeks) the office was aware it was my first visit with her and she needed her next vaccines but they literally took her weight, listened to her heart, gave her a shot and said “ok you’re all set” didn’t even ask if I have any questions, didn’t ask me any questions like how much I’m feeding her or what I’m feeding her or anything, they didn’t even tell me if her weight is good at this age. Is this normal? I don’t even think it was the vet I think it was vet techs but I felt so dismissed and like I wasn’t even allowed to ask questions because as soon as they were done they went to the computers to put in her info I guess.

I’m thinking of going to a different vet because of it, it just felt way too dismissive and I had questions to ask but I have some anxiety and speaking up when I feel like I’m not wanted there is so hard for me 😅

We adopted a 4 year old border collie and she came to us on Saturday. So far she seems like a really sweet girl, non reactive with our cats (truly doesn’t care about them at all!) and sweet with our kids. Shes been great in walks and we are starting to see her personality emerge. She seems to haw a bit of separation anxiety, following me wherever I went, crying outside doors she’s not allowed in, but that was even getting better. She’s starting to eat more and during the day is doing great. But nighttime is a different story.

She came crate trained, I don’t know the whole story, but I’m pretty sure she was rehomed. She went to the house of a volunteer with the rescue for a few days before coming here and did well there, went in her crate no problem. We are putting her in our downstairs guest room, in a crate. The first night she started barking right away, and my daughter ended up sleeping there on the pull out couch. Next night same thing and I slept there. 3rd night we tried a smaller crate in my daughter’s room, but she whined and kept her up and eventually I caved and put her in my room in the crate and she continued whining on and off all night. She didn’t need to go potty, she had already been out before bed and got through the night without accidents.

Last night was really rough. We tried a bit more time

In the crate during the day as I had to be out a bit and she did fine. I put her in downstairs and she went in no problem and proceeded to bark non stop for an hour. I thought she would eventually tire herself out, but nope. I went down to check on her and she was panting pretty hard so I let her out and calmed her down and then had her go back in with the door open but shut in the room. She barked for the next 3 hours. I continued to go in to quiet her and she would stop and then keep going. Finally at 2 in the morning I couldn’t take it and let her out upstairs and went to bed. She would whine on and off in the hall and that was our night. I really don’t know what to do! My room is not an option as we want my husband was not too keen on getting the dog and I want to honor that boundary for him. I didn’t want her roaming upstairs because I wanted to give our cats some space without her at night.

I’m at a loss and wondering why I should do tonight! I’m worried that I messed up and caused her anxiety and now she won’t in the crate and will have even more trouble tonight. Help, we need sleep!!

Back in December, I rescued a 6yo dog from a shelter. Took a bit to get comfy, but what I noticed, is that Shaw (dog) started to get attached to my 14yo daughter.

It's got to the point (still is) where every time I would go downstairs (or now, even move slightly), Shaw would start barking and growling at me. I would gently affirm him 'No' and put my hand out and he would calm down.

Today, he did his protector thing and as I went to reach my hand out, he snarled, bared his teeth and hid under the bed.

I have my daughter every other week, and the weeks I don't have her, he's by my side and in good spirits.

Any questions or advice on this would be greatly appreciated!

Hoping someone has some advice – my dog (17 month old male cockerpoo) has developed a concerning new behaviour last night, which has continued today. After his walk last night (which was entirely standard – a common route, a common length, no unusual encounters), upon returning indoors my dog was extremely anxious and desperate to get back outside the front door. Not interested in the back garden, specifically back out the front. He’s whining, barking and pacing. We went back outside several times with him to check and he was fine outside. Nothing unusual. But the same would happen when we returned home. He was like that all evening for around 4-5 hours!

He slept fine, but wanted to go out earlier than usual this morning so I just took him for a walk and the same is happening now we’re back. He seems so worried about something, I just wish I could understand what he’s trying to tell me!

TLDR: dog suddenly anxious after a walk and desperate to go back outside. Help!

As the title says. My family is a purely English family and we've had this dog since she was 4 weeks old. She's nearly 2 now. I started giving Russian to her for fun a couple of days ago (I barely know any Russian) and she responds so much better to "оставаться" than to "Stay"

My 10 month old rescue is not a self settler so I’m looking into crating her when I’m driving with her in the car. I’ve never done this before.

Is your car crate the same size as your home crate? Smaller? Do you have a crash tested crate or a regular crate? (I’m thinking I’d start with regular and upgrade to crash tested if crating in the car is the way to go)

Is your dog able to see you from the crate or do you have them in the back?

Do you treat it the same as a home crate? (Bed and soothing kong/frozen treat)

Do you have it tied down? My pup is a chewer so I’d need to figure out how to tie it down without her getting to the cord/rope.