Category: Top Dog

We have an 11yo Airedale, and recently began fostering a small Terrier mix female. It's mostly going well, but the foster dog is showing some aggression towards our Airedale around feeding. Yesterday, after they had both finished eating, the Airedale wanted to sniff/lick the bowl of the foster dog, and she growled and snapped at the Airedale.

This doesn't bother our Airedale, who is very stable and knows how to take care of herself. But we would like to be able to let them eat together without drama. Our Airedale was used to living with a male Airedale, who passed about 6 months ago. They were in the habit of eating together and licking each other's bowls afterwards.

I guess this foster girl had to compete with others for food or something. She was surrendered by a family with four dogs.

Yes, I know the usual advice is to feed them separately, which of course we can do. But if possible we would like to modify her behavior somewhat to make feeding time simpler and maybe make things easier for whoever adopts her.

Other than this, she's very sweet and no problem to be with.

So, any tips on how to help them co-exist better around food?

Kefi loves his harness. Does anyone here skate with their dogs.

My dog is a 2-year-old neutered mini Goldendoodle mix. He’s been fully house-trained since about 6 months old and has never had an accident in the house.

We normally leave him out of the crate for 8+ hours a day and he has never caused problems or had accidents. Today we were gone for about 5 hours and when we came home, he had pooped on the couch. This has never happened before.

Earlier in the day he had diarrhea. Later, the poop on the couch was solid.

Recently his behavior has changed:

• Extreme crate anxiety — nonstop barking and biting at the crate • Increased arousal around other dogs (jumping/mounting) • Very attached to us and sleeps in bed with us at night 

I know a lot of people say it’s bad for dogs to sleep in the bed, but he’s family and this is what we’ve always done. At the same time, the crate clearly causes him intense distress.

I’m unsure what the best next steps are. Should he go back to sleeping in the crate at night and using it during the day, or should we stop using the crate altogether for now? I’m worried that forcing the crate could make things worse or that he might hurt himself when he panics.

This all feels very out of character for him, and I’m trying to understand whether this could be a medical/GI issue, anxiety/separation stress, or something else.

Has anyone dealt with this before or have advice on what steps to take next?

Bit of a weird one here – whenever I walk my dog (a 5 year old mini schnauzer) she poops a lot. The first poop or two are normal, and after that they get smaller and runnier. It almost feels like she's trying to force it? By the end of a 30 minute walk she a has a poopy butt and is still trying to squat and try to force something out.

The vet gave her a clean bill of health and said it's probably "part of her personality."

She's smart and easy to train, but I'm not sure how I would correct this behavior. I definitely want her to continue pooping on walks, but how do I teach her to only poop 1-3 times?

Other relevant details: this is only an issue on walks. When she's in a backyard or on our balcony in the designated potty area, she takes normal poops.

We adopted her about 9 months ago, so I'm not sure what her early life/potty training was like. Her previous owner had passed away, so we weren't able to get many details about what her life was like.

My dog had a bad 1st year alive as a puppy. He had abuse for at least 3 months, then I had to get evidence of the abuse the took a couple more months to get. He has had a hard time playing after that time. After bathroom breaks he gets zoomies, has daily 45 min walks and play time for an hour a day(30mins at a time) with me, then he just lays down and/or follows me around the house. Is he just low energy or high energy with trauma? How do I get him to play by himself? Am I giving him enough to do or is this boredom? I hope I'm reading into it too much but I feel he should play more.

My dog really likes BOCCE'S BAKERYs training treats for our training sessions, but they’re small bags and expensive.

Any similar alternatives that come in a larger/bulk format?

I have a 12 week old Bernadoodle. She's one in a long line of puppies that I have owned/trained over my lifetime. I've tried really hard to keep up with the latest training techniques, and to make sure that whatever I'm doing with the current dog I'm training matches their personality and meets their individual needs. I had a conversation with a professional trainer today that has left me a little perplexed.

I took my puppy to her first puppy socialization/training class today. She ended up being the only dog in the class, so it was a private session with the trainer. During the session, the trainer asked whether there were any specific issues that I wanted to discuss. I mentioned that my husband and I had noticed some resource guarding behavior (growling at us when we were around her food). I explained that I had worked with her a bit as soon as we noticed the behavior, and since then, we had not had any issues. The trainer asked what I had done, and I explained that (as with all my puppies) I work on desensitizing from the get-go. It looks like putting my hands near their food bowl, talking to them while they eat, and sitting close to them. Sometimes I hold the bowl while she eats. Sometimes I pet her or give her a pat on the head. I also occasionally pick the bowl up for a moment, practice a "wait" command, and then place the bowl back down.

One of the reasons I focus on this skill first with my dogs is that I have kids, including toddlers, who don't always understand or listen when I say to leave the dogs alone while they're eating. I want to make sure I head off any issues before the dogs become bigger and can potentially cause more damage. I feel like it's an important part of the dog's long-term well-being as well. They could be at risk if they have behaviors like these that aren't taken care of early on.

The trainer did not seem to agree. She stated that the method I use is old school. That I would never take a steak dinner away from someone who was hungry. She said that the reason I'd seen the behavior diminish was because the dog loves me and shut down in order to avoid disappointing me. That she should be allowed to growl to show us that she wanted us to back away from her food. She stated that the dog should always be fed in a kennel and that the children in the household would then not be able to disturb her while she's eating.

I'm not diminishing the trainer in any way. I believe that everybody has their own methods and opinions, and that is totally fine. But I also firmly believe that a dog is a pet, not a person. I will never allow her to go hungry, and she is never denied food. But I'm not willing to allow any animal to live in our home who hasn't learned manners.

Am I completely off base here? Have I missed the mark on this particular training ideology? If so, I'm open to helpful suggestions.

We have three dogs, a 9 year old Australian Cattle Dog (ACD) mix, a ~2 year old ACD mix, and a ~1 year old chihuahua mix. We adopted the chihuahua, Cilantro, less than two months ago. I'm having trouble with Cilantro and the younger ACD, Indy, together.

Indy is very friendly and LIVES to play with other dogs. We usually have a medium to large foster dog in the house, and Indy loves playing with all of them. I'm by no means an expert, but I believe that Indy is trying to be gentle with Cilantro but is still being too rough when she tries to play with him. If we're all on the couch and I separate Cilantro and Indy by putting Cilantro on my lap, he does everything he can to escape and engage with Indy again. Because Cilantro seems to want to play with Indy too, I wasn't too worried about it until I found what looked like bite punctures on one of Cilantro's legs. We don't ever leave Cilantro unsupervised outside, so it couldn't have been another animal.

Right now, Indy leaves Cilantro alone if I have treats and we're actively in a training session, if we're all outside on a walk, or if Indy is working on a collagen chew. Otherwise, we have one of the two crated while the other is free roaming in the house, or my spouse is in the living room with the two ACD's, and I'm in my office with Cilantro.

I would like the five of us to be able to chill together on the couch for longer than it takes Indy to finish a collagen chew. I'm just not sure what exactly I should train. Indy is a very hardworking dog. She's the most obedient dog I've ever had when I'm asking her to do something, but she is stubborn and far less likely to obey when I ask her not to do something.

How can I teach Indy that, in the evening when it's time to watch tv for a little bit, she's free to do everything she usually does when Cilantro is in his crate–look out the bay window, play with her toys, lie down next to me, take a nap on the love seat, etc.–while I have Cilantro on my lap?

There are two things I would like her to never do. I would like her to never play roughly with Cilantro, and I would like her to never bark at him when he's chilling on my lap. I don't know if you've ever heard an ACD's bark, but it is really piercing!

I would like to add that I believe my dogs are getting their exercise and mental stimulation needs met daily.

Any advice on positive reinforcement training ideas for managing these two is greatly appreciated, thanks!

Adopted a rescue pit mix a few days ago. I have been given a ton of handouts and resources about her, as she’s considered a shy dog and dog-intolerant. She seems constantly overwhelmed, to the point that she is over her threshold for commands while inside or outside. High value treat training is not an option, she is uninterested in any food while outside or scared inside.

I have read a lot of posts on here, as well as the FAQs on reactivity and separation anxiety, and even the first steps don’t work for her, as we can’t figure out what positive reinforcement looks like. She’s dog intolerant, so no group training or socialization classes for her either.

She is sweet only toward me. Fearful around the rest of my family. I know about the rule of three, but this is a nightmare and i’m worried she’ll never warm up by 3 weeks. She was not flagged for leash reactivity, barrier reactivity, or separation anxiety in the shelter. This seems like a total behavior meltdown in her new environment. We are trying to establish her routine, but she won’t even settle down to sleep unless i’m in the room with her. I’m at my wits end, and it’s only been a few days. Please help me, i’m seriously so lost. The sudden onset of all of these unknown behavior issues is really really becoming hard to overlook or manage.