Category: Top Dog

My 2 year old cockapoo barks in the house and garden from morning to night – anytime a car, a person or a dog far away starts to bark my dog goes bonkers.

We’ve tried using the word stop, put her on time out, collars that sound alarms due to barking etc and nothing works. Any help on stopping excessive barking would be greatly appreciated!

We recently just adopted a little guy from a rescue who is heartworm positive. We knew this before adopting him and feel prepared to get him through treatment. Luckily the rescue is paying for treatment, so the financial aspect isn’t a concern. He is overall a pretty chill little guy for being a one year old chihuahua. He gets the occasional zoomies in the morning before we go outside for our walk, and sometimes gets curious and wants to look out the window. All this considered, I am still concerned about how intense the activity rest needs to be once he begins injections next week.

Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

So at my school (I'm in the 10th grade) we have a dog grooming program for the teachers where agriculture students will bathe brush and trim your dog for free, and this one teacher brought in their male black poodle mix (as far as I can tell), he was on the grooming table and his mats are so thick you can barely see his skin, there is matted fur under layers of matted fur, it's especially bad on his chest and he dislikes his paws being touched they gave him a bath and he was incredibly dirty and our instructor told us to de mat him because the teacher that brought him in said she didn't want his hair cut and he was "a little matted" and she planned to cord him sort of like a komondor. But this dog is matted to the skin, all over. What can I do to help him, right now we're just trying to get the mats out with combs and slickers and conditioner and he's been a really good boy and very compliant. I feel really helpless because I know this dog needs to be shaved for his health and comfort and de matting is a really long process

What can I do? My instructor is not receptive to any suggestion of shaving

I have this little dog who's 13. She's a bit of a weirdo, and particular about her footing. Lately she's had trouble jumping on the bed, but I suspect she's going to be dramatic about using a ramp or stairs.

Has anyone had luck with any of these devices with a similar drama queen?

Hi!

I’m adopting a dog and I was curious if methods of bonding for rehomed dogs is the same as the methods suggested when you adopt a dog from a shelter. I am still obviously adopting him, but most websites talk about trauma from being in a shelter.

We ended up getting to adopt a dog from someone who couldn’t take care of their dog anymore, but as far as I can tell from talking to the owner as well as the many many pictures I’ve gotten, he’s been living a pretty happy life. The previous owner did pick him up from a shelter and there was suspected “issues” from the owner before and he’s been an anxious dog since because of it.

Are there any different bonding techniques you’d suggest when we pick him up? Or does Google pretty much have it covered? Thanks!

We recently got a golden retriever puppy and we are having trouble with night times. For context, our house hold is myself, my partner, and our 5yo Golden Retriever. When raising Arlo, based on the info we had available. We made a safe area for him to be in during the day when we weren't home and also slept there at night. We gave him treats and toys in there and tried to make it as fun as possible. This worked really well and he is now confident sleeping wherever, which was our goal. With our new pup we wanted the same thing, we have followed the same process but she cannot stand being in there. We put her in there for naps during the day and she is okay, as soon as she wakes up she whines to come out, we have been waiting for 30sec of quiet before we get her out so we don't accidentally reinforce the behaviour. At night it gets a lot worse, we go to put her to bed and even if she is dead asleep as soon as it we close the gate and turn the light off. Instant whining which turns into panicked vocalisation, this can last for upwards for 30 minutes before she falls asleep. We initially thought it was due to toileting but we have got her a grasspad she uses with no problem during the day and at night. But the problem is exactly the same. We are now at the point we are worried we are creating some form of separation anxiety. So we will most likely have her sleep in our room with our other dog and us to hopefully ease that.

This has come down to my big worry. What do we do when no one's home, I have read through the wiki and from what I can find it essentially comes down to repeated exposure of increasing time by herself in there. But literally as soon as she is put in there she starts whining, so I'm not sure if that is even the right approach?

Any guidance or suggestions on this would be much appreciated

Hi!! I adopted a 1 year old terrier about a month ago. He’s pretty anxious and very attached to us follows us around, sleeps by our heads).

We would love to crate train his so he’s comfortable if he ever needs to stay overnight somewhere plus we want our cat to have freedom at night to cuddle with us and roam the house. They get along okay, but cat is not very fond of dog.

When we first brought our dog home, we focused on bonding with him and therefore let him sleep with us as he pleased. We’ve been feeding him in the crate, and he will sometimes go to sleep in the crate (next to my desk) during the day.

He is very nervous to go I. The crate still, keeps his hind legs out when we throw treats inside and certainly doesn’t feel comfortable when it’s closed.

Is there any hope for crate training him to sleep in during the night or when we’re away from the house?

Advice appreciated!!

Hi all. I have a client with 2 dogs and we’re working on not jumping when someone comes in. The small dog (Dog A) gets excited/jumps, and the big dog (Dog B) starts herding the small guy away. We have eliminated jumping for Dog A, but Dog B still sees him getting excited and herds regardless. I’m kind of stuck on what to do. Any suggestions would be great!

my dog who is 2 is only chewing on my moms shoes. its like he targets her lol, they could be her house slippers or shoes she hasn't worn in months but he'll find them and chew on them, and only hers. he doesn't chew on anything else in the house, besides the shoes. so I'm just wondering if anyone would know why? If she was his person i would maybe understand lol, but they both barely interact with each other so I'm a little confused. he also has chew toys, but still chooses the shoes

Hello trainers/behaviorists… Very long…sorry! We have 5 dogs. 4 girls, 1 boy. All are altered and have never have puppies. They are the following (oldest to youngest):

Tilly – border collie/pit mix – almost 8 years, 56 pounds

Leeloo- Shepard mix -7 years old, 46 pounds

Korben (only boy)- Lab/St Bernard mix – 7 years, 110 pounds

Dru – Doberman – 5.5 years, 68 pounds

June – blue heeler/staffie mix – almost 5, 75 pounds

All were puppies when we got them. The first 4 years of Tilly and Leeloo they were best friends. No issues. In the last 3 years they’ve gotten into approximately 6 fights. After the last fight, we put both of them on fluoxetine. The last 18 months they’ve had zero issues. We do keep them apart if they aren’t actively being watched. We have never found a trigger. Not food. Neither care about toys. Leeloo is a snuggle girl to us while Tilly is the most cat like dog ever. She likes attention when she wants it and then when she’s done she leaves. They all go on about a 3.5 mile walk almost every single day.

Two nights ago we were hanging out watching TV. They’d already had dinner about an hour prior. All of a sudden it looks like Leeloo and June are getting into it, but they are just vocalizing/hitting, no biting. My husband yells and they separate but then Tilly comes flying in and attacks Leeloo. It took several of us to get them apart and my husband had to almost choke out Tilly to get her to let go. I was holding Leeloo’s head, so she didn’t get Tilly, but Tilly got her in her chest. Several staples to close them up. My husband thinks from his vantage point on the couch that Leeloo was setting off/going towards Tilly and that June jumped in to diffuse it. We have seen June do similar when they are playing, if she thinks they are getting too into it she’ll use her body to separate them. However, even then when my husband yelled, June and Leeloo both immediately stopped but then Tilly still went after Leeloo.

Tilly has done this before. The last big fight they had, June and Dru were “fighting” (vocalizing, no biting) over a toy. We yelled, they immediately broke up and then Tilly came in and attacked Leeloo who wasn’t involved at all.

We are currently deciding what to do and in the mean time we are keeping all 3 of them separate from each other and rotating them through the house. My questions are:

1. Is that a thing with dogs, breaking up or getting in between to try to stop something?

2. If it is, how do we know that’s what June was doing? If she was, is it ok for her to be around the other ones? She immediately stopped and left when my husband yelled and I think if Tilly didn’t attack Leeloo, that would’ve been the end of it.

The other thing is, when these happen, once we get them apart, it’s like it’s totally over for them. What I mean by that is that I would literally bet any amount and be really confident that I could put Tilly and Leeloo in a room alone right now and they would be fine. They are all confused as to why they are all apart now.

If there’s any info you want that I didn’t share, just ask! I’m happy to answer all questions.