Category: Top Dog

Has this happened to anyone else? I dropped my dog off at a Dog Boarding/Daycare place while I'm at work, and the lady who runs it claims my dog was barking too much and distracting the other dogs so I had to come pick him up. It seemed very odd to me because I was under the impression barking dogs were common at daycare.

Anyways, I found a new place that has watched him for the past 3 days and they said he's been great and is barely barking. Just wondering if anyone has had this kind of issue before.

I have a 2 year old male rescue. He‘s only been with me a few weeks and over all he’s a good dog, crate trained and housebroken. He’s a mix, best guess is Shepherd/Husky/Hound or something. He is constantly sniffing obsessively outside and literally screams at bunnies and squirrels so I know his prey drive is strong. The thing that’s been most challenging though is his behavior inside when we have certain foods, he literally goes nuts sniffing and jumping uncontrollably. Not with all foods but we had pizza one night and I made sausage another time and it’s like he is in a trance and nothing (I’ve tried all the high value treats) can break him out of it.

I’m really concerned as he’s a jumper and no baby gate can stop him even if I wanted to gate him from the kitchen I can’t. I don’t want to crate him, as he is just starting to go into the crate without any protesting so I don’t want to associate it negatively

Thanks for your advice.

Me and my wife got two lab mix breeds when they were puppies, two girls from the same litter. She had never had dogs before, I had had two small dogs. They are now 11 months old. I’ve crate trained them and potty trained them and they are just the sweetest things. I was able to play and exercise them with walks and outside time and able to afford food. Everything with them was okay apart from an accident here or there and some chewed up things, we’ve deemed to be separation anxiety when I would leave for work. Then me and my wife found out we were having a baby! Throughout pregnancy things got a little worse they would have more accidents and more occasions of chewing things up that they shouldn’t be. My wife started getting really annoyed with them to the point it would stress her out to leave anything unattended downstairs with them. I wasn’t able to walk them as much because I was busy preparing our 2 bedroom condo for our baby. The stress level started to rise. Then our baby came and i was hoping it would get better but it’s gotten a lot worse. The dogs are great with the baby, not aggressive at all or anything it’s not that. They started acting out more, it would be an everyday thing were there was either an accident or something would be destroyed. And my wife’s postpartum aversion towards them has reached a point where everyone in the house is so stressed. I want to make sure my wife and child are comfortable and stress free, bottom line. I love my dogs but I don’t think with this life change that I can give them the attention they need to work out the stress and energy when I am taking care of my family. We’ve tried different things but my wife still doesn’t like them anymore and they still have issues that cause us stress. My attachment to them and their attachment to each other has me really hesitant about re homing them. I don’t want them to be separated and I really don’t want to be separated from them either. But I would do whatever I need to for my wife and child.

(BOOK= Control Unleashed Reactive To Relaxed by McDevitt Leslie)i own a GSD,im planning to buy this book, to give me my dog offleash training, is it a good book? , or does it serve a different purpose?

I have a 5-year old GSD I got earlier this year — all of my dogs have been neutered before, but he’s a rescue so he came intact. He was having some health issues so our vet suggested putting off sedation so we could figure out the problem. He’s done really well with training and his confidence has improved a lot, he’s super eager to learn, but he also has some pretty obsessive behaviors (especially with other dogs) where he’s less focused in training or straight up tries to ignore me

He’s still a sensitive guy and I’ve seen some people say their dog’s anxiety ended up worsening or they seemed depressed.

I will be talking to vets about it, just wondering what people’s experiences are with chemical castration, and thoughts are on neutering at 5 years?

Less so with me and my daughter, but whenever someone is at our house my dog will very clearly ask for pets but then yelp and cry when touched. She is definitely asking for pets – she will paw at people, follow them around and rub up against visitors. Even while it’s happening, she seems to be enjoying it but also scared/timid. She’s ~8 years old (JRT) and has always been jumpy but it’s gotten worse over the past year or so. It doesn’t matter where she’s pet, it happens regardless.

Why is this happening?

Currently looking for plastic drainage grid for artifical pet turf. I have a slab of concrete taken out and am currently using a 3 x 9 ft patch of artificial turf made for pets but the only thing under the turf is currently a couple inches of rocks.

So far it is has been working well however the odor is horrendous! And to make matters worse my dog is continuing to lay on the turf and always smells. I’m working on training her to use other spots to lay but Iv just been made aware that there is general need for plastic drainage grid to help with problem.

I am wonder if anyone has any recommendations. Please provide links if needed because I’m hearing about Air Drain and Drain Core but don’t exactly understand if these are specific products or just design concepts.

Right now my plan is to get these but please let me know if this will not work well:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/VEVOR-Interlocking-Drainage-Mat-Floor-Tiles-PVC-Interlocking-Gym-Flooring-Tiles-12-x-12-x-0-6-in-Black-50-Pieces-50-sq-ft-DJHZX50PBK0000001V0/323585969

There seems to be VERY limited products that’s are specifically designed for using under turf and they are on obscure website but if anyone has any experiences with something like this then please let me know:

https://www.manasesturf.com/products/airdrain-geocell-grid

I have recently started seeing someone new after many years. Due to this, there are some nights that I come home late or early the next morning. I live with family, so there is always someone at home with the dogs.

That being said, I would like to start training them to sleep in their crates while I’m away. I’m just not sure how to go about it. Currently, they sleep in dog beds in my room with me at night. When I’m away at night, my mom will hang out with them in the living room until I get home. I feel bad about this because she should be able to get proper sleep even if I’m not home.

One of my dogs (10 lbs), would likely be okay because she sleeps in her crates when I am out of town and there are usually no issues. My other dog is much bigger (120 lbs) and usually goes to a boarding facility when I am away, so he’s not used to sleeping in his crate at night while at home.

I know that if I were to try and crate them before I leave or if someone else crated them when they were going to bed, at least the larger dog would whine/bark, keeping everyone awake.

They are crated during the day when no one is home or if they cannot be properly supervised with not much issue, but the larger dog has not been crated at night since he was 5 or 6 months old.

What would be the best way to navigate training for the nights I’m not home? Should I get my mom to crate them when I’m gone and hang out in the living room until they get used to it? The crates are in the kitchen/living room area. Should I start sleeping in the living room every once in a while with them in their crates?

(Trigger warning, sexual content)

We have had our 3yo berniedoodle for about 7 months. He is not neutered. He sleeps in my 10yo son’s bed. Recently he has been mounting my son incessantly, especially in the evening and at night. He often gets an erection while doing this. It is very difficult to redirect him. He also obsessively sniffs my son’s crotch during this behavior.

Twice, I am mortified to say that he has actually ejaculated near my son (once in my son’s bed, the other time on the sofa). Both times it was because my son was very focused on a book or video game and doesn’t really notice the mounting, and then before he realized it, something was wet and he said the dog “kinda peed but it isn’t pee” (because he doesn’t know any better). We have tried tiring the dog out with long walks and outdoor play, but nothing is helping.

We are at our wit’s end, please help!

Over the summer, My mom decided to get a puppy as a gift to dad after our old boy passed away. At first it was okay, we figured he was just a puppy, and it will be easy enough to train it out of him. Right???

Not at all.

I'm not being dramatic when I say this dog is TERRIBLE. I know he's just a dog, that he doesn't mean to hurt me, but man are we all losing our patience. For reference, he is a Coon hound, I'd say maybe about 50 pounds. We have a big yard for him to run in, but the issue with that is 1) I dont want him to kill our chickens, and 2) if he starts running, he's probably going to never come back.

This dog will absolutely MAUL me, and I don't really know why me and not the other humans in the house. I never hurt him, and im scared to really yell at him or have him get scared of me. I've bled from scratches and bites from him, and he has attacked other people in our home that come to visit. He does really well in public though, for some reason.

We have this older dog that is deaf and almost blind, he's also really submissive and refuses to fight back. Our hound will jump onto him from the back and start biting and attacking aggressively when the poor thing has done nothing wrong. Our cats' behavior has also dramatically changed since he came around. It's the older dog I'm really worried about- he's already been hurt by him, and its nearly impossible to avoid conflict.

I think my dad is just about ready to get rid of him for everyone's safety. I mean this dog has knocked over my almost 80 year old grandma, for fucks sake! I've talked to my parents about getting a dog trainer, but we're broke enough as it is, and they seem to think my mom being an ex vet assistant is training enough. Is the only option to take him to a shelter? My only thing is that I would feel horrible, especially if he ends up getting put down for aggression. I don't know, please help. I'm pretty desperate for this to end.