Category: Top Dog

I read the wiki and it did not have the answer to my specific question. I'm trying to house train my 8 lb, 2 year old Shih Tzu mix. I built a dog door with the eventual goal of letting him have free roam of the house and yard whenever I'm not home. Right now, I have a large 48×30 crate for him butted up against the dog door, so when I'm not home, he has full use of the yard plus a small area inside the house. I also have a smaller crate which is a more appropriate size for crate training. I live alone, so my options are limited. I work nights and sleep during the day. So I have a couple options and am wondering which is the best option:

Option 1 is to crate him in his small crate during the day while I'm sleeping and let him out intermittently so I can monitor his peeing and provide treats when he goes outside.

Option 2 is to let him have the yard and small house area during the day, and just restrict my house training efforts to my days off (I have 3-4 days off a week)

Which would be the best option for my dog's house training? This is just temporary and my hope is that he'll be trustworthy enough to be able to do whatever pretty quickly. ​

Hi all! A while ago I bought a dud of a clay paw print kit and since then I’ve been searching for an actually decent one. I just thought you should know that, if you’re looking for a good clay for a paw imprint, I cannot recommend Sculpey iii enough!

I have a 1 year old yellow Labrador retriever and I am not sure if he has separation anxiety or if he is still just being a puppy.

When we leave the house sometimes we don’t put him in his crate and we will gate him in our kitchen/basement area. However, every time we do this he messes multiple times. He probably makes like 5 different piles of poop. We make sure he goes on a long walk and gets play time in before we leave but he still does it. He never messes when we are at home or when he is in his crate, only when he is outside of it and alone. We always leave his toys out as well so he has stuff to play with. I feel like it doesn’t even matter how long we’re gone, even with a quick run to the store he still does it. I would like to be able to eventually let him free roam, but at this time that is not even close to happening.

Has anyone had experience with this? I was assuming it is due to separation anxiety. Would calming supplements help? Or how can we fix this?

I’m new to dog sitting. I do have experience with dogs, I‘ve owned many myself my entire life. I’ve now got the opportunity to dog sit, their requirements are 2 drop in visits in the morning and night, 2 walks in the morning and evening for 2 small dogs. How much should I charge them per day? They want me to look after them for 5 days while on holiday, I’m from the UK.

Hiii! I have a 1 year old female dog. And since a few weeks she doesn’t wanna go out for a walk in the evening. She sometimes comes out , but mostly stays under my bed , which is one of her main sleeping and privacy spaces.

Should I just go for a walk sooner or can it have any other reason?

my 7yo bichon recently went blind from his diabetes and I’m really worried about his separation anxiety. I’m not employed rn but actively looking and he’s already showing signs by trying to pull me away from anything other than sitting on the couch with him. I know we‘re both still getting used to this but I’m not sure how to try and target this before it becomes a problem. Any suggestions on what I can do would be appreciated

It had tough blue rubber like material on the outside which appeared to be glued to a blue tennis ball on the inside.

It was safe from my dog’s aggressive chewing tendencies for years. We recently lost it at a dog park because of another dog/owner.

It was a gift from someone from my husband’s job, so I’m not sure where to look for it. Partial guilt, partial sentimental attachment- but I’m trying to replace it.

So my dog(harlequin great dain) he is full grown and I've been looking around for dog houses and can't seem to really find one that looks like it will fit him so I'm just wandering if anybody knows of a good dog house that's reasonable in price.

I have 2 dogs, a female Rottweiler Boxer mix and a male German shepherd Rottweiler mix. My female is almost 9 y/o and is a complete angel, my male dog will not stop tearing shit up and I’m sick of it. They are gated in my kitchen so they have free roam for a small area, at first it was cooking spoons so put them out of reach, then random pieces of cardboard or plastic from bulk items so I made sure to throw everything away. They have multiple chewing bones, toys, tires, ropes, squeaky toys, tug toys and they both get exercise everyday multiple times a day so I’m truly lost. Tonight I came home to a bag of dirt torn to pieces and dirt all over the floor, the dirt was for my snake and has sat in the same spot unopened for 2 years so I have no idea why he would grab it tonight. It’s not everyday that it happens but it’s multiple times within the month, all I can do is lock him in his crate for a couple days cause no discipline tactics seem to work. Sometimes he’s so good like my female and then I come home to something torn to pieces, any ideas on what to do?

we adopted a 6 month old puppy two weeks ago. not sure what he is as he is small but basically looks like a mini GSD/malinois but is only 22 lbs so obviously a mutt of some sort (DNA test currently at lab for breed analysis!). anyway he bonded HARD to me right away. super velcro dog but gets really anxious when Im not in the room- he jumps baby gates to get to me, freaks out (though getting a bit better??) when he is crated during the day though sleeps fine in his crate at night And if I’m in the room, he settles and sleeps right away Vet,rescue everyone says it’ll get better but I’m not sure how much to let him decompress vs trying to correct unwanted behavior

I KNOW we are still in 3-3-3 the decompression period and some things are getting better (somewhat) anxiety wise. My issue is this, he won’t walk for my husband, he doesn’t want to leave me if I’m home and just tries to get back in the house refusing to walk and often not doing his business. He is a high energy pup and my husband is home with him so he isn’t getting the exercise he needs since I am busy working or with the two young kids. Don’t get me wrong, the dog was my idea and I love him (still a bit worried about the mild separation anxiety) but I need help giving him what he needs and as I said my husband is home and the one we planned to help largely with it. i also want to add that he often doesn’t takes treats etc on walks with husband which leads me to believe it’s more anxiety related. He seems pretty comfortable with him otherwise just won’t leave my dang side!

we’ve tried my husband giving him constant treats (randomly and on walks), he feeds him all his meals, tries at least initially to take him on his walks and potty breaks and when we are together he holds the leash and the dog walks totally fine as long as I am there. I try to completely ignore him on walks like that and try to tamp down my affection/attention/play more than I’d like for the sake of lessening our bond and making room for my husband

im not sure how much of this is stubbornness (he prefers me to walk him for whatever reason) vs anxiety and how to make it better. We are starting to have behavior issues (he is getting very mouthy and jumpy, with me especially and constantly suddenly chasing our poor cat who does stand up to him at least…)) due to or enhanced by his pent up energy and it would really be great to have some help. my husband doesn’t have a lot of dog experience so not sure if dog senses his hesitation/uncertainty or what. And he isn't the most patient and I worry he isn’t trying as hard as he can to work on it…

pointers welcome!