Category: Top Dog

So, bottom line, I'm watching over my friend's two puppies for a month while he's on a field exercise. His two pups, Honey and Midnight (pit-lab mixes, roughly 6 months old), belong to the same litter as my pup Bandit (also around 6 months, pit-lab). Bandit is fully potty trained and has been since December of last year. Honey and Midnight are not. Won't go into a ton of details but their owner has not been having much luck potty training them, as he lives in an apartment with no yard and they are not fully vaccinated.

I'm looking for genuine advice, I'm overwhelmed with them and they have already created several huge messes in my house. Can't just give them back to my friend as I stated, he's gone for a month. Need any and all advice on basically potty training 6 month old dogs that are not mine. Any advice will help. I appreciate it in advance.

Hi all!

Looking for some advice on how to get ahead of this. We have a 5 month old Irish setter puppy that has so far shown very few signs of aggression – I’d honestly say this was the only one. She is very talkative (supposedly it’s a breed thing) to begin with but is very bonded with my husband and I.

From previous dogs I have had we do not let her sleep on the bed with us as we know it can lead to behavioural issues. We do let her on the couch with us but will stop if recommended.

Essentially what has been happening is that every night at bedtime she will go out for a pee, then go to the spare room where her kennel is. She always jumps on the bed and my husband says ‘time for bed’. At that time she always rolls over and shows us her belly. However, once we try to pick her up – she will make like a moaning sound that’s not quite a growl. She doesn’t try to bite us but she will throw her head around a bit. After like a minute or so, she always goes to her kennel and right to sleep.

I just don’t know if she’s protesting sleeping in her kennel or if this is a behaviour I need to correct. Either way, advice on how to proceed is welcome and appreciated.

FYI:

She naps in her kennel and sleeps in her kennel throughout the day. My only other concern is that she may be getting too big for her kennel now and maybe that’s why this behaviour started because she has not always done this.

We are also not worried about her being injured as we can pick her up at any other point in the day and she will not react like this. It is only at bedtime!

Hello, my puppy is 6 months old and I think all of his baby teeth have fallen out but his 2 top canines have been stubborn. His adult canines have already grown in but his puppy ones are still intact and are not wiggly at all.

I'm planning on having him neutered in the next couple weeks and I've heard some people say to pull the teeth out with the neutering surgery (assuming so he only has to go under once??).

Should I go ahead with the neuter but wait longer for his teeth to fall out? Do I opt to pull his teeth with the neutering (if even an option)? Or should I delay his neutering to align with the maximum age that all his puppy teeth should've fallen out, to see if they'll eventually fall out naturally? I'm also not familiar with the price of pulling the baby teeth.

I wanted to neuter him now (vet said it's safe) to get it over with while he's young and so that he doesn't pick up any unnecessary adolescent behaviors, IF avoidable. But willing to wait if it's a better option in regards to the baby teeth.

Hey yall. I got a Malinois puppy 3 weeks ago… and am seriously struggling with potty training. She's currently 11 weeks old and doesn't have much control of her bladder.

My situation has been less than ideal.. I lived on the 24th floor of my apartment building and the elevators have been broken the last 3 weeks. Only 1 of the 3 has been functioning and it's been VERY HARD to get her out in time basically being trapped.

I just moved into a new apartment today – ground floor, outside in less than 30 seconds now. So much better situation.

But habits have been formed and I'm really struggling with her. We had 3 accidents today alone. It's been a very frustrating couple of weeks and I understand it's not her fault or mine…

But now since I have ideal settings – can anyone recommend how I should start training her

As the totals suggest I am down bad!

We brought home a 12 week old puppy 2 weeks ago, we have all these plans for him, he is supposed to start his puppy training tomorrow! (Local to us and we put or older dog through and it was amazing they work on obedience socialization and exposure to many things!) he has been great the first few days were ROUGH, but that's to be expected with a new puppy.

I'm hitting a wall at this point because he has been having very loose stool for the last day or so, eating and acting normal otherwise aside from maybe being little more inactive but not by much. Anyways, he has a fecal test done a week ago (a requirement for the trading) it came back cost! I have been SO EXCITED for this because it went so well with our 4 year old dog. Well now I am having a little bit of a break down because of this loose stool. And I may be pre panicking for no reason we haven't gone to the vet yet just because it the weekend and I wouldn't classify his symptoms as an emergency at this moment because he's acting totally normal, but I am terrified that he is going to end up with Giardia (I know it's common and I'm not so worried about his health) but if it turns out to be that he will not be able to do the trading. Puppies can't be for than 14 weeks old when they start. I have no idea what I'm going to do if that's the case. (I know there are other avenues but in this moment it feel like everything in trying to do is falling apart). I know how important socialization is for puppies so I have taken him out to low traffic areas with little to no dogs, but he is a large breed dog and too heavy to carry. I did purchase a wagon for him and we worked on it for days to get him comfortable but he will not stay in it so I am lost as to how to socialize when I can tcarry him and he won't stay in the wagon but can't be on the ground in high traffic areas (that's the whole point is high traffic's to observe). Ultimately I am overthinking everything that's just how I am but I like to think I've been doing all the things just like I did before but worried that if it doesn't work out that he's going to suffer because of it. Not actually, but suffer in the sense he won't bet all the experiences I want him to have. I know nothing is perfect but I'm just feeling frustrated.

I know there really wasn't a point to this post aside from maybe some kind words I'm just feeling helpless in this moment EVEN though we don't even know what it is yet, could be his food but he's been eating it for over a week and has been fine or just being a puppy and eating something in the yard. Anyways if you read this thankyou and if you have any tips let me know they are welcomed!

I'm curious as to how life is like for people here who have eight or more dogs.

My husband and I recently (yesterday) adopted a 3 yr old doggo. We have a 13 year old lab dalmatian mix as well, Maddi. The new pup, Max, is a lab/poodle mix (or so the humane society says). He looks to be more of a lab/Irish wolfhound. Our senior dog is very well behaved. She is still as hyper as a puppy and listens well to commands. We are hoping he learns from her. Max (new pup) is very large (65 lbs) but underweight by about 15 lbs. He is very nervous. He has hookworms which we are treating and heartworms which we are treating as well. The vet told us we can not allow his heart rate to elevate much for about 6 months which is easy enough while he is inside. We let him out back and monitor while he is back there (we use a shovel to dispose of his feces as to not transfer his hookworms to our senior dog). After a decent amount of outside time Max refuses to come inside. He sits and puts all his weight down and will not budge. We try high reward treats, praise and leash. The only way to get him inside is to pick him up and carry him, which I can not do myself. I need advice as to how to start training for him to come inside on command, or at least on a leash. We were told he came from an animal cruelty case – but no specific details. He was previously adopted out from the same humane society but brought back after a few days because he would not come inside or play with toys. He is scared of both of us but is starting to come around and let us pet/love on him. We believe he was previously an outside dog. He gets very nervous when we are working to get him inside. Which is elevating his heart rate. Any advice is appreciated. I'm not a professional….but, I have had dogs my entire life and they all have been very well trained though I have gotten all as a puppy. Just to add, we are trying the in and out method with a high reward treats in the inside and he still won't come in through the threshold. TIA!.

I, 21F, (I am not a new dog owner) am adopting a decently sized Boston Terrier 1 year old male, named Otis! I’ve been told he has been suffering from PTSD, I wish to be a good dog owner and I am asking for any advice on how to properly support my new pup. We will be living in an apartment, he will have space and there is a park down the road. I want to ensure he feels safe in my apartment and with me. I also would like to know if a behavioral vet specialist is necessary? Thank you so much for anything you can tell me!

Lab, female, not a puppy. With some medical problems that would cause my dog to pee at random points, or gets extremely excited. As solution, I got pee pads, hoping to fix the problem.

It solved some part of the problem.

But here is the new problem, recently, my dog very often, would pee onto the floor about like a foot away from the pee pad, and my dog knows that it could not pee there.

I think many of the time, it's not my dog didn't make it to the pad, but my dog just decided to pee there as I can see my dog staring at something on the counter, then sits and pee. Is there anything specific reasons that this would happen? I leave no food on the counter as my dog would steal it.

My dog knows that it shouldn't pee there as if my dog pees on the pee pads, I would give treats, and my dog would have another set of behavior for food.

Thank you.

hi! so, i have a 4 month old pomeranian (female, not spayed but will be spaying ofc). she generally gets along with the cats extremely well, but can sometimes “snap” at them, like how an adult dog does to correct a puppy, if that makes sense?

she started doing it after she got her final vaccines a few weeks ago, which i thought was normal since she was super tired and feeling bad. but now she does it when they come in her vicinity when she’s tired/sleeping.

i just want to make sure this is just a normal thing and she’s trying to tell them to not get in her business when she’s tired and trying to rest but idk!! is it aggressive behavior at all?