Category: Top Dog

I have a 15 week old Boykin spaniel. He is a fantastic puppy and so smart! I’m looking for some more enrichment ideas to keep his spaniel brain happy. I’ve done towels tied in a knot with treats, frozen kongs, scatter feeding, puzzles, and obviously lots of training. I just want to have more in my rotation so he isn’t getting bored of them.

I have a bichon puppy he’s 6 months old now. He still will only ever sleep with enforced naps in his crate, no matter how tired he is. Even after long walks or playing outside with another puppy, you can tell he’s tired but he still wanders the house looking for something to get into. He’s never once voluntarily gone into his crate for a nap himself or fell asleep on his own without me putting him in his crate for a nap. I’ve tried to take him to bed with me and he just bites me and attacks me, trying to play. Is this normal at his age? It seems like he’s getting to the age where he should be able to know to sleep when he’s tired. Is there something else I should be doing or will he eventually learn on his own?

how long did it take for your puppy to get used to brushing?

i have a 4mo pom who is in her puppy uglies so i’ve really been trying to get her used to it before her adult fur comes in. doing small brushing sessions, treats during and after, all that good stuff, but she still is Not a huge fan.

it’s like she bounces around to avoid it and kinda acts like we’re playing but i can tell she’s upset about it and i wish she wasn’t !! i know she’s still pretty young so i’m hoping with more time she’ll warm up to it more :’)

More of a vent than anything I guess. I’ve only had my puppy just over a month and he’s 7 months now. I know adolescence is tough, we’ve had good days and bad, but I just can’t understand how people do this over and over again. I’ve always preferred rescuing my pets but the breed I wanted just once is not common enough to be found in any rescue. I wasn’t wanting a puppy but I figured it‘s just once and I don’t have another option. Well, I’m never doing it again after this. It’s a shame because I fell in love with the breed but this is just too much. I’m finding out that dogs aren’t even mostly enjoyable until they’re much older. The bad days with a teenage pup are really bad and I don’t even get a break from him. I keep having to remind myself that adult dogs aren’t like this because it’s making me not even want a dog at all ever again. My senior girl still is and always has been an angel since we adopted her at 6 so the polar opposites is tough too. She lets me brush her teeth, scrape plaque off, clean her ears, examine any part of her, cut/dremel her nails, she’s always been naturally neutral to people/dogs out and about, never pulled on leash, great off-leash, I could call her back mid-chase, never had to worry about how she’d react to children because of how tolerant she is to any kind of touch, she’s so gentle with all animals even my small terrarium critters, she stays close to us in the yard, travelled well, she was a breeze to train (over 50 tricks and some very difficult ones), agility, frisbee, she did it all. Hell, this dog has let me express her anal glands at home! No restraint, no muzzle, no helper, no treats, nothing. Half these things I didn’t even teach her she just was naturally calm and tolerant of them. I’m in tears typing this realizing how blessed I’ve been with her. She didn’t know anything when we adopted her so none of it was previously taught, the people who had her first had her living outside, then she was a stray for over a year before being caught. Anyway, I’m sure she was a menace as a puppy too, but I just can’t even picture my new pup doing any of this at all. I’m afraid every dog I have after her will just be unenjoyable. I don’t expect them to be anywhere near her demeanor, but there are new dog sports I’d like to try and tricks but I just can’t see it happening with another dog, especially this one. I feel like I’m just waiting to get to “the good part” of having a dog, and until then it’s just a daily terror. Like I said, I don’t get how people can deal with that over and over. I see trainers that make it look so easy and try to remind myself I’m watching a 5 minute training video and their pup is probably just as much of a pain outside of that. Since getting my rescue girl, I’ve become very dog savvy, I was always the one to help other people with their dogs and puppies training struggles. But for some reason my own is driving me crazy and I’m the one asking for help. Maybe I’m just weak or not as good with training as I thought, maybe it’s just because I don’t ever get a break from his antics like I did with friends’ dogs. I don’t know, I’m just tired.

Hi all,

I have a 15.5 week old OES, I think I need to start leaving him at home because I don’t want to leave it too late. Plus I think getting myself out for even 10 minutes will help a lot.

Any tips and tricks on leaving him for the first few times? What to do and what not to do?

I work from home so I’m never really out of the house but I don’t want him to be an anxious boy when I do eventually have to go out.

I hear beef cheeks are goated, but considering they average 6$ a piece, spending $180 a month for chews is a lot!

anything more cost effective?

For the first time my puppy growled at me when I came near him while he was eating and he growled, I got shocked and made him look at me while saying "NO" loudly which now when I look back upon was stupid and I feel horrible for doing it. Currently he is shaking while looking at me. How can I fix this so he isn't permanently fearful of me?

Like caption says. Our 11 week old puppy was amazing, no accidents, and now we’re on our third week and he’s had an accident everyday. He even had a poop accident today and hasn’t since the day we got him.

I’m so frustrated I went to cry.

Please tell me it gets better.

We take him out so often. Even more so than we should. We have a bell in the door we ring everytime we take him out but he’s only rung it twice. He peed just now right infront of bell/door.

He doesn’t sleep longer than an hour, we can’t go anywhere, I feel suffocated. I love him but this is so hard.

I have an 11 month old lab, he is currently intact but is getting neutered at the end of this month. We have been doing leash training since he was three months old, he was OK at it as a younger puppy, but never really perfected it. When he was five months old, I had to get ankle surgery and he didn’t go for any substantial walks with me for about two months. We started leash training again as soon as I was able to, but he had become a really, really, really really bad puller by that point. Since then, I have tried quite literally everything to get him to not pull me when he’s walking on the leash, and I am out of ideas.

We’ve tried playing puzzle games, or treat finding exercises before going for a walk, we’ve tried using different collars and harnesses, we’ve tried using a collar, and a harness with a double ended leash, we’ve tried using longer leashes, we’ve tried using shorter leashes, and we’ve tried incorporating just one or two sniff walks every week.

The only time that he doesn’t pull and yank is when he’s on the 20 foot lead when we go on hikes and he’s able to go off and sniff and explore. These are the only walks that are enjoyable for me, even though I have to be extra mindful of grabbing his leash and shortening it when people walk by.

At this point, I’m giving up hope of us ever being able to enjoy walking. All I want is to go on an enjoyable walk with him even if he’s leading the walk and pulling slightly I would be OK with it. I just cannot stand when he yanks me. I feel like at this point we’ve tried everything and I’m completely out of ideas.

Hi there!

Our almost 2 year old Aussie/catahoula mix will not poop in our yard. We have about 8 acres, a lot woods with some trails. He had gotten into a habit of pooping near the weeds on the trails. for some reason he will really only poop next to something, an open yard just doesn’t do it for him. With snow on the ground it was fine, but now with ticks out we are trying our best to avoid weeds as much as possible. It was a battle to get him to poop when we first got him as he was a rescue, in the yard or on a trail. We worked on a lot of praise and redirection. He will go to the bathroom at parks normally with no issue also.

We tried to break this when we first got him and tried to get into the habit of getting him to go in our main yard but he would go almost 2 days not pooping. I feel bad as we had a good thing going for him but we have already found ticks on him.

Just looking for thoughts and suggestions to make this easier for him. We do plan on putting up a fence this year to give him a designated spot now that the weather is getting warmer, but in the meantime we need a temporarily solution.

Thanks!

Edit: it’s totally fine if we have to take him on walks on days we are home, but for convenience in the morning before we both go to work or to keep him on a schedule it is nice that he has a spot at home to poop. We don’t want ticks on us either and he will get them on him, regardless of tick medicine. We love talking him on walks down the road, but he won’t poop there either!