Category: Top Dog

Hello,

I have 6-month-old beagle for 2 months. After the first month, the vaccination period, during which she always did her duty on the same balcony spot, I started to get her out 3 times/day, sometimes only 2 times.

She has her spot on the balcony where she eats and drinks and when I'm out of the house that's where I keep here (inside temperature ok, food and water all in all a 2 by 2m space)

I'm trying to teach her that it's ok to pee in the balcony and she pees there on command immediately after I close the balcony door (like 10 seconds), so she should know that it's ok to pee there.

I scolded her a few times in the balcony when left alone (I have cameras) because she was chewing and destroying the pee mat that she has

She didn't have an incident in a month but I'm worried that holding pee and doing it only 2 times a day might affect her bladder in the future.

Any advice for me to do better and what to do?

hi,my pubby is 11 weeks and i cant really teach her any new tricks other than sit and come not because i havent tried , she doesnt listen doesnt focus at all and biting ,i hope yall give me some tips

So i am having a hard time getting my puppy the play time he needs and craves with other dogs. I dont have any friends with dogs besides my sister, and she lives far away and her dog only sometimes likes to play with my 6 month old. Last time she just didnt care and didnt want anything to do with him and i think that really upset him. He was so ready to play with his friend, but she was just not having it that day.

We take him to puppy play classes, but thats once a week for like 45 min. and its almost $30. and the issue is he is a big dog already. and there are only 6 puppies per class. so even in the "larger" puppy class if there is not a personality match for him, he might not get much play time anyways. And he will often be the biggest puppy in that class by sometimes double the weight if the other 5 puppies are only 20ish pounds. Which i can see is intimidating to other puppies who are also building their confidence and play skills.

The only advice i see is puppy classes, which we do, and play dates with a friends dog, which we try, but only have my sister with a dog. And any of my neighbors have elder dogs who we will sniff and say hi to on our walk, but the moment my puppy tries to play, they dont like the puppy energy he has and get annoyed at him.

He is pretty good with other dogs, he does have some confidence issues but we are working very hard on that every day. And getting his play time with dogs has been one of the biggest helps so far. So we want to give him a better social outlet. He did struggle with communicating to other dogs at first, or really just understanding they want to play and he would get scared, but has been doing so much better and craves play now.

i know the mixed feelings on dog parks. And i have them too. But we do have this AMAZING 40-acre farmland dog park near me that is totally off leash with trails, field, forest, and water front access. its dubbed "doggy Disney land" for a reason.

i have taken my sisters dog there plenty of times before, its truly amazing. and never once have i encountered a bad dog (i know the chance is there). i swear something about just the layout of the park and the massive size really breaks down any territorial or bad feelings.

His recall isnt great as he is just a puppy but he does exist sometimes. we have done walks off leash in safe, secluded areas before and he is never more than 30 feet away from me max if there is a really good smell he wants to check out. and if i turn, he turns, he doesnt like to break line of sight to me. He is a rough collie so very people focused and he has zero prey drive, couldnt care less about a rabbit or squirrel.

Would that big dog park be something to try for him? I was thinking maybe early in the day, maybe not on a super nice day, just so there are less dogs. I know i know nice summer days this park can be very busy, but less of a worry right now.

or does anyone have any ideas on getting a puppy more play time besides just classes? I dont have a yard so i cant host any play dates either.

this is… a little embarrassing to write but figured i’d give it a shot to get some advice! i have a border collie pup who is a little over a year old and advised not to neuter until he’s 1.5 – 2 years old. we also have a kitten who is around six months old. both are male, were introduced properly and have gotten along great for the last while! they play together, groom each other etc. neither have ever hurt one another.

a few days ago, however, my puppy started humping. a lot. like, a LOT. my sheets, bed, his own bed, my leg etc. i’ve been pushing him off, telling him no and redirecting and usually this works.

except in one situation. he is obsessive now about trying to hump the kitten. i reinforce the “no“ and “gentle“ commands (command i taught him not to rough play with the cat), but he just goes right back to it.

any advice? it sucks because they get along great beside this one issue!

My puppy is the most barky and reactive puppy in puppy class. My trainer suggested he is under socialized. I’m heartbroken because I thought I did so much with him and I don’t understand how this happened. In puppy class, he basically barks nonstop the first ~3-5 minutes of class before quieting down for the remainder of the 45 minutes (unless another puppy pulls towards him, or something new like a person comes into the space). He is 18 weeks old now and a shepherd.

Before he was 16 weeks old, we did: – 3-4 park visits, either being carried while walking around or one time sitting on a blanket. He saw lots of people, ducks, kids on the playground, kids on bikes, dogs playing or walking by, etc. – Home depot in the cart once – Sat outside the grocery store once – Vet 3 times – Carried him around my neighborhood twice, put him on leash on the ground in my neighborhood once – Sat in our building lobby once – Took him on the local train once – Puppy class every Saturday; not playing with other puppies but training on leash around them & around some adult dogs all on leash – Carried him around the mall (very busy with people) twice, put him on leash on the ground once – Has friends over 3 times – Went to the local sports fields and watched soccer games and people walking around twice – Sat outside the dog park in our trunk watching dogs twice; he started barking a lot though when dogs got too close to the car so we didn’t do this one again. – 3 different puppy play dates with older dogs – Carried him around a local farm/petting zoo type situation – Sat in the mall parking garage and observed once or twice

There might be some other things I’m forgetting. But basically since we brought him home at 9 weeks, he was out and observing the world 2-5 times per week until 16 weeks and above is all the things we did that I can think of off the top of my head. From 13-16 weeks it was a little less frequent as he was getting too big to carry.

Around 12 weeks he started barking a lot at things and hasn’t really stopped, even things he saw before. Today a bike came past us and despite seeing bikes before when he was 10-11 weeks old, he flipped out. His biggest triggers are dogs that are larger than him, he barks like CRAZY, and hearing other dogs barking also sets him off. Sometimes it will be random, like one day no issue with people walking around and the next he is losing it at every person (barking at them). When I take him on walks he definitely seems like he’s in “defensive mode” because he’s sniffing and scanning and his hackles are sometimes up if it’s a brand new area.

What more could I have done? I’ve read posts on here where people take their puppy out every single day multiple times a day and that’s how they make them bombproof. But I work 40 hours a week and wasn’t able to. I don’t know if I should’ve taken a few weeks off and taken him out more than I did. I really thought I did enough.

Hey everyone!

Happy New Year. My husband and I got a little Mini Aussie. She is 8 weeks old and we’ve had her for about 2 days. All together she is doing great so far. No potty accidents inside. Playful. Eating/ drinking. Enjoys chewing on her treats/ toys. The only concern I currently have is crate training. I am a work from home employee and I really want this to go as smoothly and quickly as possible. The first night she did…. pretty good. Whined for like 10- 15 minutes but went to sleep. Woke up a few hours later for potty and then slept for another couple hours. She took 2 successful naps during the day yesterday. A little whining but 1-2 hours of sleep both time. Last night was a different story. YEESH! We did our new little nighttime routine. Ate/ played/ relaxed/ played more/ relaxed/ potty. Put her in her crate for the night. Blanket over top/ white noise machine. Soft goodnights with one final treat when we put her in. Lights off. As expected she started to whine but it did not stop this time. She was distressed!? I believe she may have fallen asleep momentarily but was awaken by a sound and it was on from there. We tried reassurance/ an extra potty break/ but she was not giving in. About 130 this morning I gave in (I knowwwwww 😭) and put her in bed with us. Good as gold. Potty at 5a back to sleep until 8. Anyways sorry for the long drawn out story.

Quick version: I need all the advice on how to keep this from being routine. I NEEEEEED her to be okay with being in a crate when I’m working and at night when it’s time to sleep.

Side note: She is currently in her crate with a frozen Kong treat for a nap. She whined and then was quiet for about 5 minutes. She is whining now as I type this message. Help a girl out. (Trainer is coming later this week) but I go to back to work on Wednesday so I’m hoping to start “fixing” the issue now.

Thank you in advance 🩷

I have a 9 month old mini poodle. We have both a puppy pen and a crate. We originally started with her sleeping in the crate at night with no issues. We also ended up purchasing a donut bed and she now prefers the donut bed over the bed in her crate. The donut bed will not fit in the crate due to its shape so now she sleeps in the puppy pen on her donut bed. If I put her in the crate at night, she wakes me up and walks over to her puppy pen and starts pawing at it to sleep on the donut bed. She normally sleeps throughout the whole night and hasn’t had any accidents in a while so I’m considering getting rid of the pen. I’m just not sure if this will make her think she’s “free” and lose the idea of boundaries/ rules. I’m honestly so over the pen bc it takes up so much room lol

I’m teaching my puppy to ring bells at the door to go potty outside. He’s only 2.5lbs so I wouldn’t hear his little paws on the door. We ring the bell, get a treat, pee outside, and get another treat. I do this hourly when I’m home, he’s litter trained otherwise. He’s now just ringing the bells whenever. We JUST got in so I know he doesn’t have to pee, and he’s ringing away. How can I help him associate only ringing when he has to pee? TIA!

I currently have a 9 week old Mini Dachshund that I got last week. I would love your help building out a suggested sleep schedule based on an ideal schedule I'd like to work towards.

Before getting the dog, I would wake up around 6am M-F and go to the gym from 6:30 – 8am, back home around 8:15am. I'm obviously taking some time off from the gym to take car of the puppy, but would appreciate your help with when you think I should put him to bed and wake him up each day.

I was thinking of putting him to bed around 9:30/10pm and taking him out to potty at 6am, back in the crate until 8:15am when I'm back. He usually is up around 7:30am right now and feeding him breakfast around 8:30am.