Category: Top Dog

Hello everyone, I'll try to be brief but I'm no dog expert and English isn't my native language so it might get confusing.

To sum up, my wife and I got a young Dalmatian (born early December) about a month ago. As time goes, he's becoming insufferable and my wife is giving up on him.

We got contradictory advises from the Veterinarian and the person we got the dog from, online research also tends to be contradictory so I hope here the "best" answers will be upvoted to let me know who's in the right.

Despite going out with him a lot (roughly 7 times a day, for between 2 and 3 hours of outside activities) he's constantly overexcited. He seems to consider the walks as a duty, often pulls on the leash to try to get back home, and barely runs unless it's towards home. We also give him regular "mind games" with treats and snacks to keep his head busy, and play throw away the ball in our main hallway, since he doesn't get back when we call him yet and our backyard isn't closed yet.

But despite those efforts, he still gets into "madness" when he literally runs as fast as possible (to the point of slipping and headbutting walls and furnitures) for sometimes half an hour, without a break, and he tries to chew anything in his way.

The way he acts terrorizes our cat, who's usually pretty chill but nowadays hides between the couch most of the time. Our dog learnt to open doors by looking at the cat doing it, so trying to keep him in a room is useless.

Our vet told us it was because of the lack of exercising and not enough food (we followed the instructions on the dog food bag), so we nearly doubled the amount and gave him more treats through games, and we walk him out more. But it seems like it increased the problem.

The original owner told us we stimulate him TOO MUCH and we should let him alone more. It only makes him more in need of attention.

When we look online we find that Dalmatian need mind games to tire them, but instead of trying to learn the little games with treats inside he just throw it away or chew the plastic hard.

For now our only solution is to Keep him locked in a journey cage (big enough for an adult so he is not too tightly squeezed) when we're away, since otherwise he destroys everything and scares the cat, and when we're home we have to stick with him constantly to check his behaviour.

When we try to ground him he takes it as a game, even when we do the thing our vet told.us to (put him on his back, holding him there and scolding him).

He also poops and pees a lot inside, but I read it was normal until at least 4 months. But not everything you read is true, so more opinions are welcome about it.

Tl;dr: our young Dalmatian is too overwhelming for.us to deal with and we're looking for concrete solutions.

As per title really – I have 2 lurchers – 1 large, weighs about 27kg the other medium about 18kg. Being lurchers they're larger than their weight suggests (large chunky of body is chesty/lungs). I've spent time looking for a solution and I can't find anything that I feel comfortable is large enough for them to be comfortable much as they're happy cuddling up!

Anyone got anything to recommend?

у моей девушки есть пес, доберман мальчик, 5 лет. она не может сейчас выгуливать его регулярно из-за новой работы, поэтому это приходится иногда делать мне. прогулки с ним – это пытка. он тянет поводок за кошками и собаками с такой силой, что может уронить и протащить меня 3 метра по земле прежде, чем я встану и оттяну его прочь. недавно я разбила из-за этого оба колена.

на одной из последних прогулок он опять это сделал. потащил меня по грязи увидев собаку вдалеке. он гуляет на строгом ошейнике чтобы хоть как-то это регулировать, но даже это не помогает. в этот раз как только я поднялась, то взяла за ошейник и подняла его гавкающего на задние лапы на этом ошейнике. металлические шипы впились псу в шею, но он продолжал гавкать на собаку через улицу. тогда я встряхнула его, чтобы он наконец заткнулся и потащила волоком домой. все это время шипы врезались ему в шею, но мне было все равно. все мои кости болели, а через штаны проступала кровь. все чего мне хотелось в тот момент, чтобы гребанному псу было так же больно, как и мне.

этот пес катастрофа, каждая прогулка с ним – русская рулетка. наверное, я никогда не смогу его полюбить, как сильно бы не любила свою девушку.

не знаю, как быть. я не хочу больше травм и синяков, но если не я, то он будет гулять от силы раз в день и весь наш дом будет в собачьей моче. как это можно решить?

Hey everyone! I’m a 25yo man living alone in Switzerland. I’ve been considering adopting a dog but I’m a bit of an overthinker… Plus this time it’s legit an important decision.

I’d love to have a dog I can carry on adventures. My favorite vacation is in nature, so I’d love to take my dog for hikes and etc.

Since I’m originally from Spain, I fly to my family ~3 times a year. So the dog has to be 8kg or less.

I’ve lived with dogs my whole life – the fist one was badly trained and I don’t want that to happen again. I’d make a big effort on that side and I’m a very patient person. But I’ve seen that there’s only so much you can do with JRTs. It’s the first dog that would truly be mine

I‘m somewhat active – I do ~8km of trail running every other morning near my house. I also enjoy hiking and would love to take him with me every other weekend (~20km).

I fully work from home, I’m a tech founder and sometimes get too obsessed so I’m hoping the dog forces me to take breaks. But it also means I work more than usual. Maybe I’ll sometimes go to a coworking space where they allow dogs in the future

I even already visited the dog but I’m still thinking about it a lot… The energy levels scare me a bit (it’s not like I run every day, and he’d live indoors). He doesn’t have trauma which is great, but training was lacking (e.g., jumps to cars and bikes). He’s 2.5yo and very typical JRT afaict

Border terrier or mini schnauzer seems like a more sane version but there are none for adoption near me. And it’s a very big commitment.

Any first-hand experiences are appreciated ❤️

Sorry if this is not the right place to post, but I've been on nights for a couple years now and have been really wanting a dog for a while now. However, I don't want it to be lonely during the day or causing havock while I'm sleeping during the day due to bordem. Does anyone know if dogs change their sleeping schedule to their owners? Or is it up during the day no matter what? The last thing I'd want is to get a dog, just for it to be bored out of its mind, or too tired to even spend time with me during the night. I would be able to let it out on my 1 hour lunch break during the night. I also live in an apartment and it allows dogs, so that wouldn't be an issue. I just want to treat a potential dog right, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.