Category: Top Dog

We have the sweetest 8 month old puppy who suddenly this winter (we’re in the Northeast) has been refusing to go to the bathroom for extremely long periods of time (to the point that I’m worried he could develop a UTI!). This morning after being in his crate for nearly 10 hours for bedtime, it took 40 minutes of me walking him and then standing in my backyard to get him to pee. He didn’t go #2 until about an hour later (we went inside between). Tonight I was out for another 20 minutes in our backyard, which is his normal spot, then wandering around to his other spots in the neighborhood and he just never went. So now he’s held it since his 5:30 walk and is in bed … I have no idea what to do! We have tried upping the potty treats and doing big celebrations but that doesn’t seem to be enough motivation anymore.

Has anyone else experienced this before? We’ve only had dogs who are raring to go potty the second we get outside, so this is new for us — even in the warm weather he was never an immediate potty boy, but it was definitely not this bad!

Background: We have an infant that we roomshare with so didn’t want to put her crate in our bedroom, which we otherwise would. I brought home an 8 week lab puppy yesterday. We have a gated area in the living room where she can chill unsupervised with a crate towards the back of the area. Right now, she sleeps in the playpen outside of the crate, sort of sandwiched between the gate itself and the side of the crate.

I’d eventually like to transition her to being gated off in another part of the house overnight (or perhaps crated in our bedroom when we move our baby to his own room).

I have a blanket draped over her crate, and a snuggle puppy toy and her small litter-scented blanket inside the crate. I’ve been feeding her meals inside the crate. I’m hesitant to just put her in there manually and close it to have her cry all night especially since I want to be mindful of my infant’s sleep.

Any tips for making this transition?

We are having issues with puppy biting. We have a 6 month old 6 lb Chihuahua/Dachshund/possibly Toy Fox Terrier puppy that we rescued a little over a month ago. She was not a biter when we got her.. But we had lots of issues with my senior Golden Retriever not getting along with her & her deciding she wanted to be aggressive toward my husband. Luckily, those situations have improved a lot.

But during that time she had to spend quite a bit of time in a baby play yard & I think she began to associate hands with going in the pen because that's when the biting started. She was also getting frustrated having to be in there so much even though we took turns locking her & my other dog up. I got a gate attachment for the play yard a few weeks ago so I rarely have to pick her up now unless I am putting her in her crate at night (she won't go in there willingly but does sleep through the night) or going in our van. She will go into her play yard herself with treat incentives. And now that things have improved with my other dog/husband, she gets a ton more free time out of the pen so she is less frustrated.

But she bites and she bites HARD. Today she started biting my finger tips with a lot of pressure & didn't want to let go. I try redirecting to toys or bones (she has a ton of options) but most of the time she'll just move around it & right back to biting me. She doesn't growl while she's doing it so it could just be puppy biting but it seems to be getting worse. She does the same to my husband & kids. It's mostly when we go to pet her (even if she comes & rubs up on us) but sometimes she just comes over to us when we are minding our own business and starts biting… Hands, toes, arms, thighs. When she goes for my wrist I tell my husband shes going for my veins to bleed me out. 🤣 I have tried helping but it gets her excited & she bites more.

She did just lose a tooth the other day. And also we had a trainer come to our home to help with our other issues & I did mention the biting.. She said it was normal. She didn't see the worst of it while she was here. I can't afford anymore private sessions but we are in puppy obedience classes for 4 more weeks with the same trainer that came to our house (puppy doesnt bite me there lol).

I would love any advice anyone has to help decrease the biting!

Hi! I made a post in r/dogadvice but I thought I’d post here too because I’m honestly desperate for help, I hope that’s ok (cross posting across multiple dog help pages bc i really need advice)

My one year old dog has been resource guarding my mom and snapped at me when I hugged her. Ever since then she’s been avoidant of me and barely lets me pet her. We’re getting her training starting this wednesday so I’m not too worried about the guarding and moreso the avoidance.

I don’t know where this is coming from. We’re normally very close and we have a special bond that I thought couldn’t be taken away. When I sat on the same couch as her she got up and left, when I pet her she leaves, she dropped her bone in front of me and just left. Is this her feeling guilty or something else that has to do with the guarding? What can I do to fix it?

Any and all advice is appreciated, I’m honestly feeling desperate at this point and I just want to know I can fix this

We have a 10 week old hound mix. We have her on a pretty decent rotation of crate nap, potty, play, etc. She’s only had two accidents in the house since she’s been home. We’re pretty good at noticing her sniffing around looking for a place to potty, so we just take her outside and she is super receptive to pottying in the yard.

Around when can I start relaxing? I’ve only had 6 month old dogs and up, and they don’t have to pee as often. I’m just worried about setting her up for failure, my other dog was a nightmare when it came to housebreaking, so im trying to do it the “right way”. I know a week is barely anything, especially for a dog so young.

First, let me give some back story.

I have a four year old toy poodle. He is mg absolute WORLD. He’s my SOUL DOG. My husband and I are those people who call him our son, he goes everywhere with us when he can, and we absolutely love him. He follows me everywhere and we’re both very attached to each other. I can travel without him, but I get sad on trips we do that he can’t go with us. He also has AAI (Atlanto axial instability) and wears a neck brace. At 10 months old is when we found out about the AAI because he fell over while playing and stopped breathing. He lost his ability to walk or stand on his own. I worked from home and did physical therapy with him and gave him 24 hour care as he had to learn to walk and potty outside by himself all over again. Once I started working in office again, he started suffering from isolation distress. When he gets stressed, he struggles to control his bowel movements. When he’d go in his kennel, he’d poop and smash into it and we’d come home to him COVERED. At the time we lived next door to my in laws, so my MIL would watch him for us. If we all leave the house, he does fine home alone with their two dogs.

Within the past year, we’ve moved but are still relatively close. I really don’t love having to drop off our poodle every time I leave the house or having my MIL pick him up at some point during the day. I’d love for him to just be home and be okay. We’ve tried leaving him home free roaming, sectioning off part of the house for him but he’s destroyed the garage door frame just from scratching at it (not biting or chewing anything). Lately he’s been back in the kennel and not pooping in there but is anxious the entire time. Recently, we caught him sticking his head through the openings at the top of his crate as we were leaving the house which is incredibly dangerous regardless of his AAI but with that it’s an absolute NO. As soon as we saw that I said “that’s it, we’re getting another dog”. I’ve been talking about getting a second dog for a while because the poodle does great when left home and free roaming with my in laws dogs or even my parents dogs if we’re there. It has been a casual conversation between my husband and I, but we haven’t seriously sat down and talked about it.

Now, here’s where I’m feeling conflicted. Christmas morning I opened a box with an 11 week old puppy inside. He had been staying at my in laws house until Christmas, so my poodle was already familiar with him. Of course I was instantly happy and he’s SO CUTE, but as the day went on I felt more and more uneasy about it. How will my poodle feel? How can I give both of them enough love and attention? Is this really the right move for our family? What risk does this pose to my poodles AAI? Will this really help the isolation distress? It’s been a week now obviously, and I am growing to love the little guy more, but these questions are still weighing heavy on me and I am starting to unintentionally make my husband feel bad about his decision. I know his intentions were good, and I know this wasn’t the best thing he could have done so I don’t want any opinions giving on his decision making. I know this was an act of love and him making a decision on what he felt was a good idea for our family. Whenever my poodle growls at him for trying to play or stealing his toys, I just feel defensive for him and then instantly feel guilty feeling that way towards the puppy. I am slowly growing attached, but I’m also not sure if he is attaching to me or my husband. I know this was my idea and something I wanted and recently said was going to happen. I’m just questioning my decision and also grieving us being a family of three. I never thought I’d struggle with having room in my heart for more dogs as I am very much a dog person and grew up in a multi dog home.

I know it’s been a week and he’s bounced around a bit, but I just have all these questions and uneasiness. Does anyone else have a similar experience? Or any advice or comforting words? Thanks in advance!

Also wanted to add, my MIL loves him and has said if for some reason it doesn’t work out, she’s happy to keep him, but even that makes me feel horribly guilty. As much as I grieve our family of three, it hurts thinking of him not working out.

My 9 week old golden retriever puppy is struggling to settle when resting. After potty/play/training we start a wind down process with calm music and sitting on the couch. I can tell she’s tired because of the yawns. She’ll rest her head on my lap initially and lay down for a few seconds before moving somewhere else on the couch. She gets up and moves around before settling into a new position about every 30 seconds and just seems so restless. Is this normal?

Hello!! I’ve just adopted a 6 week old puppy (he’s already got his two vaccines!), he’s a jack russell and his mom stopped breastfeeding. We are gonna be feeding him Royal Canin X-Small Puppy food (which is what his whole family has been feed)

The owners told us to soak the kibble in the Royal Canin Baby Dog Milk but I want to get more exact measurements and I was hoping someone here could help since the instructions for the milk only give measurements for up to 4 weeks. The Kibble we’re going be giving is for three times a day (17g each portion) as he’s 2.5kg

More info: this is the second time the mom has giving birth, in the owners house there’s the mom, the dad and the daughter from the first time she gave birth (they’re all Jack Russells but I’m unsure of their ages). We were supposed to take the puppy after two months but the dad bit one of the puppies last week and today he bit another one so the owners asked us to take him now as they were scared he would get bitten too. Also the mom would only breastfeed occasionally (which is why they got the puppy milk) as the puppies have teeth and it hurts her.

So first, I won't be getting said puppy for quite a while, but when I do, I want to be as prepared as possible. I'm currently setting up basically a training planner just for personal use when I finally do get the puppy because I don't want to forget anything or get ahead of myself and go too fast.

I will be raising the puppy as a successor prospect to my current service dog, so know I'll be starting with an ethically bred standard poodle pup at 8-10 weeks old. I missed out on all the early puppy stages with my current pup, something I regret, as there are some things that are much easier to teach when a puppy is little.

Anyway, right now I'm just brainstorming all the things to try and remember in the first 3-4 weeks of having the puppy. I want to spend that time just making sure the dog is well adjusted, creating positive associations with things and shaping basic behaviors (like paws on the floor gets attention, jumping does not) so please chime in with any advice and all advice. Things you did (or wish you did), mistakes to avoid, etc.