Category: Top Dog

*starting off by saying that I absolutely respect crate training and there are a ton of situations (e.g. aggressive chewers) you absolutely want to crate train. I am not here to discuss the crate In and of itself. I am simply here to give perspective on how you may be able to have a puppy without full-blown crate training.*

Short background: my husband and I always had rescues and I fostered many many dogs over the years as well. I am from Germany and crates are not a thing there. my husband used to live on an acre of land and the dogs could just run free all day. we bought a townhouse with unfenced open space last year and got a rescue pup (at the time 10 weeks) right after Thanksgiving. I luckily work from home most days and the days I had to leave, I could work my schedule around my husband‘s.

I knew we had a little less than two months to get Elsa to be able to stay home alone for a few hours in the morning while I work my second job. So a ton of training went into alone time and redirecting her when she was trying to get into things. we built routines around nap times and enforced those with tether training. after me sleeping downstairs with her for a week and frequently taking her out to potty, We moved upstairs and we have her in a bed right next to my nightstand.

fast forward to 5.5 months and her hitting adolescence: She is doing great but now is just not self-settling! vey very common at that age and I was expecting it. cue bringing back the tether 😅. She usually settles on or close to her mat within 5 minutes. yes, it’s tough, yes, you need to have an eye on your pup a ton. And I am fully aware it is not for everybody! Every dog is different but after seeing so many dogs have trouble adapting to being outside the crate, I knew I needed to continue my tested methods.

stepping off my soapbox!

Everyone knows that recall (come), leave it, and drop it are important, but here are some other commands that are lesser known but I've found really useful!-

1. Stand– This command is useful for your dog to know at the groomers and vet. I also use this command before picking my dog up because he hates me picking him up while he's sitting or laying down.
2. Teaching hand commands and verbal commands separately and together– A lot of people do this naturally but it's important for a couple reasons. Obviously it's useful if your dog ever becomes deaf or blind- then they still know the verbal or hand command. Hand commands are useful in public/quieter places like in elevators. Verbal commands are useful when your dog isn't looking at you/it's dark/etc. I have a verbal and hand command for almost everything (there are some exceptions like "look at me"/focus doesn't have a hand command since he's not looking at me anyway)
3. Switch sides– My dog frequently tangles me up when he's sniffing around on our walks. I have a hands-free leash that's crossbody so I can't easily pass the leash behind my back- I had to spin around to get untangled. Now, my dog knows "switch sides" which is to go behind me to my other side in heel position. This way, he untangles himself. This was shockingly easy to teach. I thought I'd have to teach it in a training session with luring and treats, which I did like once, but he actually just learned it on our walks. If you just say the command before pulling/leading them to your other side with the leash, and then praise/reward them once they're on your other side, they'll catch on quick.
4. Stay/wait (hide and seek)– I think most people know stay is important, but you can also make it sooo much fun to train. Once you get your dog to be able to stay for about half a minute, you can play hide and seek with them. I live in a <1000sq ft apt so there aren't many hiding spots so it's a little easy for him but it's so fun. I take my dog into a certain room or have him go in his crate with the door open, tell him "wait", and then I hide somewhere and say "come find me". I sometimes have a treat with me to give him once he finds me, but it's not necessary cuz he just loves the game itself. I personally use the "wait" command for hide and seek since i'm not going back to the starting point to release him/reward him (that would be "stay" for me).
5. Go get a toy– Sometimes my puppy still tries to play bite me so to get this to stop, I tell him to "go get a toy"/"bring me a toy" and he'll go find one and bring it to me to play with. I didn't do the normal, more tedious retrieve training that involves teaching your dog things like hold it and pick it up. I just captured the natural behavior of my dog going to get a toy and he caught on after a month or 2.
6. Middle/Safety– I call this "Park it" but it's the command you use for your dog to sit between your legs. I use this every day in our apartment's elevator. It's useful when you want your dog out of other people's/dog's way in crowded/narrow places
7. Shake– NOT handshake, but literally shake your whole body like after a bath. Shake is really good for regulation. A lot of dogs naturally "shake it off" after a super stimulating event and it allows them to refocus. I noticed my dog does this after greeting other dogs and people. I'm still trying to capture this command with my dog by saying it when I know he's already going to shake- after I put his harness on and every time he takes a bath or it's raining. The idea is that you can ask your dog to shake when they're over-excited about something and they can more easily re-focus on you
8. Paw– I've seen a lot of "paw" hate recently. Some people don't want to teach their dog "paw" because they don't want their dog to accidentally scratch them, get them muddy, etc. Some people don't want their dog to "paw" them for attention. I actually want this behavior because the default for my dog right now is barking lol. I'd so much rather he come and politely put his paw on me than for him to bark in my ear if he needs something. I also use "paw" when I'm wiping his paws after coming inside after a walk and I used it when teaching him to ring a bell by the door too.
9. Go potty/poop– My dog can pretty much do these things on command (in a way- obviously if he really doesn't have to go, he won't). All you have to do to teach this is capture it when they naturally go. Say "good potty/poopy" when they're going, which most people do during potty training. "Good" sounds a lot like "go" so you can easily turn it into a command over time. Now my dog knows if we go to a patch of grass outside a mall and I say "go potty", he'll go in the grass so I don't need to worry about any potential accidents inside the mall.

If anyone has any additions to this list of underrated useful commands, feel free to share them in the comments!

First hit on Google says teething pain so hence the flag…but idk

Anyway, we adopted a pup about a month ago who is around 5 months old now. She's quite nippy and high energy, always wanting to play with the older dogs, so I like to give her some solo time chewing on a bully or long lasting treat (recently i got some softer ones that say they are better for teething)

My concern is- she won't settle down while chewing it. Constantly gets up and relocates. Lays back down, chews for a minute, gets up. I've never had a pup young enough to be teething so I'm not quite sure how to tell. Is it just that she is fidgeting? Its late here so she normally would be settled down for sleep so I dont think its just excess energy…I just want to make sure she isnt uncomfortable or feeling unsafe (she's still fairly skittish)

Maybe this is just totally normal and I'm overtaking lol. The older dogs do constantly steal her chews so maybe she's being protective even though she's in a room without them?

My 7 month old puppy got spayed today and everything is going great. She is a very jumpy, high energy girl so I don’t trust her to behave herself post surgery. It kind of kills me having to basically keep her crated all day except for potty.

I’m preppy enrichment toys but hoping and praying these 10-14 days pass by quick.

I have an Aussie puppy, 14 weeks and she’s honestly doing great. She will go all day without an accident sometimes she alerts at the door or barks at me to go out but mostly just consistency of going out every hour and every time she leaves the crate or gets up and walks around or sniffs … whatever. At night though it’s a different story and especially when she gets like the night zoomies. Like tonight she got the zoomies playing with the cat (and we did stay up a little later than usual) and I swear I was watching her basically the entire time like enjoying myself because it was so cute and funny. I stood up and the light hit that side of the room where she was and there were like 4 pee puddles. And this whole thing was well within one hour of having let her out last.

Is this something anyone else has experienced? Zoomies induced urination? Maybe just her being overtired? Literally I don’t even know when she stopped moving long enough to have even squatted and done even one of the pees let alone all of them. They were long puddles though not like round ones so maybe she really did pee on the move ? And yes I know they weren’t there when I took her out last because one was directly in front of the door and the others were clearly visible on the hard floor from where I was standing at the door (the lighting isn’t as good on that side of the room from where we were sitting on the couch).

Just wondering if there’s any normalcy or explanation to this lol. There she been times she’s stopped mid-zoomies to poop on the floor but that at least made more sense to me, I know what running does to me 😂

Hi folks, I posted here recently about my puppy blues due to illness. The situation has continued and while my illness has regressed significantly after a month, my mental health has emerged in a difficult place. I just want to use this to write out my thoughts, and hopefully hear if others have struggled similarly. Bear with me, this all kind of plays into the struggle.

I have a lot of mental health diagnoses including ADHD, Autism, Chronic Depression and Anxiety. I know immediately that paints a picture, but understand that while I've had a complex life, I am now a 27 year old man and have spent my entire adult life building myself up and finding mental stability that I did not have when I was a child.

I now work part time as a support worker, helping teens and young adults in their own mental health journey. I rent a pretty nice suite from my parents because where I live is stupid expensive and they are very lovely and supportive people.

When I was about 12 years old my mental health was extremely poor. Around that time my family adopted a king charles/basenji cross puppy who through my teen years I became very attached to and was very important to me up until we lost him suddenly at the end of 2020.

In the past few years I have become independently financially stable, and my mental health has been in a truly great place. I have talked for years with family, friends, coworkers, everyone really about how much I love dogs and would like one of my own. I did extensive research, saved, and prepared to adopt a puppy of my own.

At the end of January I adopted a now 5 month old Mini Daschund, and immediately became debilitatingly sick with a sinus infection (see my last post), and was unable to work and struggled through taking care of my new puppy.

Those are the circumstances, I have now a month later mostly recovered from my sickness, but my mental health has collapsed. It came to the point I recently went to a hospital to see a psychiatrist because of the concerning level of intrusive thoughts and depression I have been experiencing.

I think between the caretaker bandwidth of my job and my dog I have felt like I am drowning, forced to constantly pick them each over my own recovery from the mental pit I have fallen into and without recovery it is only growing deeper.

I love my dog, he loves me very much, and having him means so much to me. On top of that everyone I know, knows about him and how much I wanted this adding even more pressure for me to hold it together. I have friends and family supporting me in taking care of him at times but the guilt over how incapable I feel is causing me to resent myself and when I think of rehoming, something which makes a lot of sense in my current situation, I loathe myself even more.

I feel so trapped, disappointed, and afraid right now. I feel like everyone around me is so in love with my puppy too. I don't know what to do.

Hi everyone! I have a dachshund mix and she is almost 2 years old. We need help finding alternatives for when my partner and I are away from home. We originally crated her, but discovered that she needs to "use the restroom" every 2-3 hours, resulting in messy accidents in the crate. We do take her out to potty before we leave, but she still goes. She does not have any bladder or potty health issues, she just likes to go so often.

We created a cute dog patio for her and she loves to go, but as soon as we leave the house, she gets crazy anxiety and poops in the house and pees on the carpet. So, we can't give her free range.

We put up a doggy gate (4 panel foldable kind) that is closed off only a portion of the home, but has access to the doggy door to go potty in the patio, but she ends up pulling the gate open from one side (despite putting adhesive bolts that prevent it from swaying.

She keeps peeing on our carpet and pooping in the corner of our home. We dont know what to do to keep her enclosed/away from the carpet, without making her an outdoor dog (we do not want to lock her out of a warm home.)

Any ideas?? Thank you so much!!!! <3

Like the title says, my husband and I are currently in a situation where we can choose to inherit a senior dog from people we're buying a house from.

The situation is as follows – they're moving to an apartment where dogs aren't allowed, and also they say that this dog isn't used to being inside. They claim that she doesn't even want to enter their garage, let alone a house. It's possible of course that they didn't allow her inside her whole life so she doesn't have the need to go there or isn't used to having that as an option.

Anyway, we are big dog people and couldn't wait to finally be able to have one, and we would feel horrible to remove this sweet 15 YO dog from her lifelong home. It doesn't seem she's particularly attached to her previous owners because she spent most of the time in her caged area (they say they let her run around the backyard for as long as she wanted but she always returns there).

Now, we would like to spoil her if she lets us. I never had a dog that old that wasn't with me from when it was a puppy, so I don't know what to expect. I fear she might become confused or senile and I don't want to risk being bitten especially now that I'm pregnant, if that makes sense.

How to approach this the best way possible? We would like to give her more freedom to roam the backyard as much as she wants and make her a cosy spot in the garage if she wouldn't like to go inside (I'm not sure if it's even possible to teach such an old dog certain indoor behaviors). We'd love to give her a bath also, should we wait some time to let her get familiar with us? I have so much undefined questions and worries in my mind, so I guess what I want from this post is to hear your suggestions or similar stories.

both our rescue dogs recently had to take done since then I've noticed an increase in the amount of sniffing that they do compared to previously has anyone else noticed that?

My dog ​​gets very anxious when I leave, and I end up avoiding going out because I feel bad for him. I wonder if other dog owners experience the same thing…