Category: Top Dog

Hi all! I'm planning to have my puppy spayed in the next few months. I'm not certain of his breed as he was a rescue but they think he is a mix of Chihuahua and Maltese at the very least, so he is a small guy. He's currently 5 months old, and is about 6.5 pounds.

I'm wondering how much time I should be planning to take off work (if any at all)? My partner and I share responsibilities in terms of his care so on an average day, he is never alone for more than 3 hours at a time. He's not crated – he has a gated off area where he has his bed, a few toys, a turf patch that he's very good at using when he's alone, and water. He's great at entertaining/playing with himself and does not really have separation anxiety in general. He sleeps throughout the night.

Will he need to be monitored constantly for the first few days? What was your personal experience when your puppy was neutered? Any advice will help, thank you!

Brought our 12 week Weimaraner home 2 weeks ago. She is now almost 14 weeks and we are still struggling with crate and potty training.

She will scream and scream and scream in the crate at night and I’ve had to sleep on the kitchen tiles to get her to sleep in it. We have tried all the normal positive conditioning but she freaks out when we leave the room.

As far as the potty training, she came from the breeder trained to puppy pads. We have never had a dog use puppy pads and always trained “puppy out” out the dog door and they would copy our other dogs. Now we don’t have another dog besides her and she’s not getting it. I’ve been taking her out every 10 minutes and removed the puppy pads and she peed right when came back in.

All help appreciated

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to fly from Germany to the New England area (either New York or Boston) and I’m trying to bring my dog with me in the cabin if possible. I’ve been reading airline rules but I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have actually done this.

My dog is about 52 cm long, around 42 cm high (including his head), and weighs about 8–9 kg. From what I’ve seen, many airlines say the limit is around 8 kg including the carrier, which makes me a bit unsure if it will work.

I have a couple of questions:

First, about the carrier. Is it usually okay if the dog lies down comfortably in the carrier while it’s zipped closed, even if he can’t fully stand up inside it unless the top is open? Or do airlines actually check that the dog can stand up normally while the bag is fully closed?

Second, does anyone have recommendations for a good soft carrier that works for a dog around this size but still fits under the seat?

And finally, which airlines flying from Germany to NYC or Boston tend to be the most realistic about letting dogs in the cabin? I’m especially wondering how strict they are about weight and carrier measurements. For example, do they actually weigh the dog plus the bag at check-in, or is it more about whether the carrier fits under the seat?

If anyone has experience flying transatlantic with a dog around 8–9 kg, I’d love to hear how it went and which airline you used.

Everyone knows to train a recall, its the single most important thing your dog can learn. A lot of people blend a recall, and an emergency recall, but for us, a regular recall is "head back this way", no real urgency to it, just come back closer to me.

Our emergency recall (we use "NOW!"), means "drop everything and get back to me this second". Our dogs regular recall is solid, i dont usually have to worry, but it does take her some time to get back to me.

Today we were in the field, on a long line because its not fenced and I dont trust her to know to stop at the sidewalk yet. I clip her long line to my belt loop, usually she doesnt get far enough away for it to be a problem. Today, she did. She saw something and took off towards it, all 75lbs of German Shepherd speed and stregnth, snapped the leash and broke the belt loop. She was totally detached from me and racing across a field after something.

I used our emergency recall, she stopped on a dime, whipped around and came racing right back (rewarded with so many treats of course). Would her regular recall have worked there? Possibly. I didnt want to rely on her trotting back in her own time when I no longer had control over her or the situation though, and wanted her back in arms leash ASAP.

Ive never been so happy to have a reliable way to get my dog back to me so fast. Train an emergency recall, its worth it.

Hi! My golden pup has been crate trained since we got her and sleeps through the night. Sometimes if she’s anxious or upset though she will chew through her bed and eat the fluff. We’ve went through four beds at this point and I’m wondering if anyone has a recco for a bed that’s more of a pad that doesn’t have fluff, or any advice on what to use in the crate going forward? I feel bad she’s been on the crate plastic for the last few days and want to give her something that’s more comfy. Thank you!

Our pup is about 8.5 months now and is such a buddy. Every day he has a good walk in the morning, hangs out (napping or chewing on bones) while I work at home until about 1pm, when I pop him in the crate for about 3.5 hours (after a potty break) so that I can work at my desk upstairs and get more dedicated work done. He then comes out around 4:30, has another good walk, followed by dinner and hang time until bed around 9:30/10.

The issue: he's such a good boy throughout the day, but 5:30 (post walk/dinner) hits and he becomes an absolute terror. Nibbling at me, humping me, barking at me. He doesn't bite, but he sort of cobs at me non-stop. I've tried ignoring him, being stern with "leave it", sending him to his bed, etc. But this pattern seems to happen both nights at the moment.

Has anyone else experienced this? He's getting neutered in 2 weeks and I'm praying this helps his hormones settle…

I heard Staffies are notoriously clingy and mine just turned 11 weeks. I've had him for about 2-3 weeks and I'm starting to notice he's getting bad separation anxiety/FOMO when I leave the room.

I bought a playpen for the living room and tried to give him treats and let him sleep in it, do enforced napping, lights out, soft music, but no matter what I do he will go berserk and try destroy the pen, pee frequently every where, with very little sleeping happening.

Honestly, the only thing that settles him is him sleeping on my lap or feet, but I can't keep that up personally. I took a couple weeks off work to get him situated but now I have to start my routine again WFH.

if I leave the room while he's in his pen he wails so loudly, and if I stay in the room ignoring him he just whines but he's not really getting much sleep in there. So now he's becoming a terror at night–biting, zoomies, barking, being aggressive. and it's hard to calm him.

I tried bully sticks but that made him so much worse after, and I've tried licking mats which work for like 5 minutes.

Any advice to get a rambunctious staffie to settle in their pen would be great.

We got a new puppy about 3 weeks ago. So he is like 11ish weeks old. If we put him in his cage, he is screaming. If we let him out to the yard, he is screaming. He constantly poops in his cage no matter how often he goes out. We have been doing every 2 hours or less except late at night. Then it’s 3-4 but he doesn’t usually poop in the middle of the night. We will take him potty and he will go and we will bring him in and he will immediately poop and pee on the floor (no matter how long he is outside).

He is our 4th puppy in the last few years and none of them have ever been this bad for even a day. We have 3 kids and he is way worse than having infants. Having him has made me so stressed, anxious, and depressed. Wtf do I do?

I noticed our adolescent pup, a 14-month old Staffy mix, seems to be slowing down a bit. She still has tons of energy and gets super excited about her favorite things, but is becoming more serious and she is taking way more naps than she used to. And she is choosing to go in her crate by herself daily now, even if we don't ask, which is new. (Crate training was an off-and-on struggle of puppyhood.)

Is this just normal puppy-to-dog development? It's so weird to see personality changes. I keep worrying it's health-related but she has a clean bill of health from the vet. I also didn't expect her to start slowing down so soon. I am considering talking to the vet to lower her fluxotine dosage in case it's related, but she's been on it for months now and this change is new, only in the last few weeks.

When did others' pups slow down after adolescence and what did it look like for you?

My 10 year old dog has cataracts, diabetes and is seemingly almost blind. If you’ve experienced this, other than not moving furniture and clearing a path, is there anything else you did that helped your old dog feel more secure?