Category: Top Dog

I have a couple questions so I'm going to be making a few posts.

My first question is how can I help him learn to give older dogs space?

I have a 16 week old puppy. I've had him since he was 8 weeks old. After doing a DNA test, I found out he's 3/4 Australian cattle dog and almost 1/4 Aussie.

He is so different from when my German shepherd mix was a puppy four years ago.

With older dogs he's constantly in their space. With my shepherd it's constantly trying to play and wrestle, or to take anything he has or shows interest in. For other dogs he meets it's trying to play and wrestle, licking their face, chewing on their collar, trying to mount them or humping the air next to them, grabbing their ears, etc.

My shepherd likes to wrestle with him, but not 24/7.

The puppy HAS to have whatever the other dogs have. Doesn't matter if the same thing is laying next to him, he needs what the other dog has, whether it's a chew, a treat, a ball, a toy.

The puppy doesn't take any dog corrections.

If he doesn't get what he wants he screams. I'm not sure how else to describe the ear piercing sounds he lets loose.

I try to distract him with anything else. Sometimes he spends time in his exercise pen to calm down a bit and give the shepherd time away from him. I try to praise him for the things he's doing right and guide him away from the things he shouldn't do but nothing helps.

He kind of knows leave it. We're working on it. He'll sometimes listen to it but often just ignores us. Usually if it's something he really wants.

It's gotten to the point where he now swallows any treats he gets in as big of chunks as he can to try to get more from the shepherd. It doesn't matter if they're separated he still just swallows things as big as a milkbone whole.

Hi everyone! I’m trying to decide between a few breeds and would love to hear from people who actually own them.

Right now I’m mainly considering a Havanese, Portuguese Water Dog, or possibly a Toy Poodle.

A bit about my situation:

• I live in an apartment
• I work during the day but the dog would usually be alone around ~5 hours, sometimes less (no more than 5)
• I’m willing to take time off when the puppy first comes home and do proper training
• My partner runs and would love a dog to run with, which is why the PWD is in the mix
• I have mild allergies, so low-shedding breeds are important
• I’m very mindful of separation anxiety and barking, especially since I live in an apartment and don’t want a dog that barks all day when left alone

Personality-wise, I love the idea of a Havanese because they seem like really sweet companion dogs. My only concern is that I’ve read they can be more prone to alert barking and separation anxiety.

The Portuguese Water Dog appeals to me because they seem a bit more independent and less “yappy,” plus the allergy-friendly coat and my partner being able to run with the dog is a bonus. I know they’re higher energy though, and I want to be realistic about whether that’s manageable in an apartment.

I’m also curious about Toy Poodles since they seem very trainable and allergy-friendly, although aesthetically they weren’t initially my top choice.

For context, I grew up with a cockapoo in a household where people worked during the day, so I know many dogs can adapt to that routine. I just want to make sure I’m choosing a breed that will be happy with that lifestyle.

Would love to hear from people who have experience with these breeds, especially regarding:

• barking in apartments
• separation anxiety
• how they handle being alone for part of the workday
• overall energy level and trainability

Thanks in advance!

Hi! My English bulldog is 13 months old. She is spayed. We have had her since she was 10 weeks old. She has suddenly stopped sleeping at night. Like I’m talking as soon as we get ready for bed she goes insane. Destructive mode (chewing anything she can find), chasing the kids, whining, etc.

She gets lots of stimulation during the day, walks, car rides, daycare once a week, playtime with her human siblings, puzzles, etc. and yet she absolutely refuses to sleep at night now!

She was crated at night until about 6m. Then once she was fully potty trained she began to sleep with my son. She slept great until she was about 10months. The last two weeks it’s progressively getting worse. She will not settle until at least midnight. I’m losing my mind.

I work from home and take care of the puppy during the day. The routine goes like this:

– Usually a quick walk or play in the morning after breakfast before work

– By 9 am he will take a nap until about noon

– At noon, a longer walk, play session, or dog park

– He’ll nap again until around 4 when he starts to get restless

– Finish work and feed him around 5 and then play or walk again

– From this point until he’s down for the night (usually around 9) he will do nothing but cycle between misbehaving (counter surfing or chewing on furniture), biting us if we come near him, or barking at us for attention

I’m at a loss for what to do with him at this time of day. It doesn’t seem like any amount of additional exercise after work tires him out until it’s bedtime. It’s the only time of the day we have to get anything done outside or work or just relax and the puppy is a terror the whole time.

Anyone have suggestions on why he is behaving this way? How to get him to calm down? Or even how to handle him on those days where he can’t be our sole focus all evening long? Thanks

Our 5 month staffy boy barks at my 6 year old son, usually when either one of them is on the sofa. Today it changed, we were all standing in another room and he started barking at him like crazy and looked like he was about to start chasing him.

My kid flinches and is scared of the puppy, sadly. The puppy barks in a very loud, demanding way but doesnt show any other signs of aggression body language wise. And he DOESNT do this to my 3 year old daughter! Im so confused. We've had him since he was 8 weeks.

I work from 8 to 3 starting next week or the week after we have already started crate training, but slowly, where she’ll be in there for an hour on and off to take naps my mom goes to work at 12 so she’ll only be alone for three hours. I’m gonna be training her for a service dog as i have pots and epilepsy My manager said that I can take her when she’s fully vaccinated and potty trained, which makes sense to me since I already work at a dog place I will be the receptionist so she’ll be beside me pretty much the whole day but is there any tips anyone can offer will she be OK?

My wife and I have a 15 month old bulldog that we have had since she was 10 weeks; her name is Mary. We adopted a German Shepherd mix Husky named Teddy when he was 7 weeks old- the lady that we got him from said he was 8 weeks but he was actually 2 days away from 7 weeks once we calculated his age using his birthday. Mary is trained but we do struggle with small things: sometimes her recall is delayed (we have a fenced in backyard so delayed recall is not dangerous but it is still not ideal; we are working on it), barking when she wants attention, and she still nibbles when she gets too hyper. The thing is that now she is more grown up, she got extremely lonely. She quit playing with her toys alone (only played with us), sometimes she would sit on the couch and whine, and just overall started losing her excitement.

We spent months before we decided to get another dog. We adopted Teddy and he is crazy easy- Mary was a nightmare during the puppy stage but with strict training, she became amazing aside from those little issues that I mentioned before. But Teddy is now 10 weeks and he is potty trained, knows all basic commands, kennel trained, and his recall is fantastic. Mary lost her mind when we brought him home and was so excited but still very gentle with him. She was the happiest that I have ever seen her and still is. You can tell that her life improved by 1000% now that she has a baby brother. We give her extra love though and try to honor the seniority by giving her treats first, spending alone time with her, taking her on doggy dates just us three while my mom babysits Teddy for an hour. The biggest fear that we had was that she would become jealous or feel neglected and good news, it does appear that those feelings have occurred (though I cannot read her mind sadly- wouldn't it be cool if we could?)

Anyway, here's the only problems… they play and play and play. This is not a problem in and of itself but it is to the point where my wife and I try to have a conversation after I get off work and we cannot hear each other. It is constant whining, play growling, them pushing each other off the bed/couch, paws and nails clacking on the floor, etc and it is driving us crazy. Mary still has the issue with barking for attention so she barks at him and now he has started barking back and howling. We do timeouts and scheduled naps for Teddy and it helps but the second that he wakes up or gets let out of timeout, she runs over with her toy to him and "gets him going" as we say. He cannot jump back on the couch/bed either so every time that they get too rowdy and get close to the end of the bed, he usually falls off and we have to pick him back up. If she falls, she can jump back up easily but it is exhausting to have to lean over and get him 50 times a day. If she is in the kennel though or in another room, he just crawls into our arms and cuddles- he is unbelievably clingy and we love it! He is very calm if she is not accessible to him.

We do have a pretty strict routine: Potty one dog at a time, 5 minutes of training with each dog separately, meal time, potty together, playtime, and repeat. During playtime, if they get too hyper and start doing that stuff, we put them each in their separate kennels for a 10-15 minute timeout (we use the kennels as a safe space but never use it for punishments) and then we try playtime again. We thought that maybe they get overstimulated and literally cannot listen when we try to get them to settle down so if it takes about 2 or 3 different times in timeout, we usually put them either in the kennel or on their dog beds for a nap. We take that as a sign that maybe they are just tired and need a break. This does not work. They will take a nap and the second they are awake, it goes again.

Does anyone else have experience with this issue or the other issues that I mentioned? how can we fix this? Is it just an age thing? Is this normal? I know that dogs play but dang lol. Are we correct in thinking that they are overstimulated? I always grew up in a house with either two large dogs or one large and one small dog at a time with similar age differences. They played a lot but nothing like this.

Puppy age: 11 January 2026 German Shepherd Had it 4 days ago

His name is Max, currently I have been trying to set boundaries limit and rule and some basic easy training like marker training only as of today (not working at all eitherhe doesn'tunderstand it or distracted whenever i click he doesn't look at me or react). However he is so distracted would run around a lot go to places I don't want him to go i have tried in an empty room with a leash but he only resist and stay still or bite when I have the leash on so I stop using the leash but he is constantly going away from me roaming around biting me doesn't seem to understand what I am trying to convey been watching tons of YouTube video from kikkopup, Zak, ceaser millan, etc. Nothing seems to work. I can only hold treats to is nose but all it does is makes him excited lunges and at me thou there's are some times where he does automatically sit for awhile I would wait just like 5 sec but he would either lunges or bite my leg cause he thinks is a toy and wherever I move he follows unless distracted by a shoe or item or a certain. I just want some advice on how to calm him down and focus on me and no lunges and understand his marker and training. He is a puppy afterall I get it that he wants to play and all but I am wondering am I doing something wrong or I shouldn't train now should I wait 3 more months or what..need some help please