Category: Top Dog

Hello,

My dog is a 6yo female golden retriever mix and she was given a diagnosis of pyometra on Sunday night, she was spayed Monday morning and she 5 days post op. Shes been urinating throughout the days and has drank some water. Her eating has been on and off ok but she has not pooped. She’s been straining and literally poops hard stool or nothing. I try to talk her out for a small walk but it’s been raining so I can’t really go outside. She ate some pumpkin purée with broth and chicken earlier today. I’m a bit worried because she whimpered 4 times this evening!

She finished the meds and is taking pain medicine which I think is causing her whimpers. Can someone please share stories if they’ve ever dealt with similar issues! Thank you <3

3 year old, spayed female dachshund won't pee unless excited or scared.

We adopted my new puppy from Florida and brought her to New Jersey 12 days ago. Her previous family said she was potty trained, and is used to going outside in their backyard for business. She was a breeder who had 3 litters and lived with other dachshunds. They also let us know that since she was spayed on Oct 28 2025, she has an occasional excited pee tinkle. They said that it is not a problem as long as she doesn't have a full bladder, and if we take her out often this won't be a big problem.

The problem is that she is not voluntarily peeing, inside or outside. She only pees when we excite/scare it out of her, either intentionally or accidentally. We have been purposely exciting it out of her so that she is peeing and emptying her bladder at least 1-2x a day. We have never seen her squat to pee. We can never reinforce or reward her for using the potty correctly because she never does.

We live in an apartment so she has to be leashed outside. We've taken her to an enclosed dog park off leash but still no luck. She doesn't pee on the balcony either, or inside. We've tried pee pads, grass pads, etc.

She has pooped inside once, outside a few times. She even seemed to ask to go out on the balcony for one of the poops. One time we caught her inside and brought her out. But, she does not pee.

When we take her outside to walk, she hates walking. Probably because it's freezing out. We put her in a sweater and jacket but she still shivers. She won't walk UNLESS we carry her far away and she has to walk home. We've also tried to sit outside with her for 10-30 mins at a time (same spot, diff spot, loose leash, no leash) waiting to see if she'll go but she won't. So bringing her to other dog-pee areas and walking her doesn't seem to inspire pee. Again, she also does not pee inside where it's warm either.

Everyone thinks she just needs time to adjust. It's been almost two weeks without a voluntary pee. She was taken to the vet on Dec 21 (the day after she came home) where they diagnosed her with an ear infection, skin infection, hookworm, and giardia. She is being treated for all of the above. Vet is not urgently concerned with the lack of voluntary urination as she's still getting it out through excitement. She thinks as she gets more used to us and once the parasites are treated she might feel more comfortable peeing.

Curious for anyone's thoughts.

Thanks for your time.

Hey guys!

Just got a new german shepherd puppy. I've had a German Shepherd in the past along with huskies, malamutes, a wolf hybrid, and other similar breeds.

I'm taking him out in busier areas (not too busy or overwhelming, ofc just somewhere where we pass people every 20 or 30 feet) for walks as I want to get him around as many people, noises, etc as possible.

While we're walking, he shows very little reaction to any noises, people passing, animals, etc.

I ask as many people as possible to say hi to him, but the issue is that if he's on the ground on his leash, he's very very timid. He doesn't really want them petting him, and he just kinda wants to sniff them.

If I'm holding him, he doesn't mind at all, and if people come to the house, he's totally fine and really wants to say hi/meet them. It's only when we're out in public, and he's on the ground.

Planning to continue to take him on walks in public/busier areas, and will now plan on bringing treats and letting people give him treats when they meet him to form a more positive outlook on meeting strangers in public.

Just wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas or suggestions on this matter.

So far he's turning out to be an incredibly well-behaved dog that's very attentive, but this is the only area I see any potential issues in the future.

Plus, with his breed, I want to make sure he's very sociable and confident.

Any tips or ideas would be very much appreciated!

I am a bit self-conscious about applying as I am not a certified trainer or judge and don't work directly with/through clubs or pet stores. I'd primarily be working with individuals in a remote area (independently or through rescues/breeders), occasionally boarding, training, working kennels.

I have more than the minimum 2 years experience through community spaces (not personal/family), rescues, working kennels, and breeders working with dogs and owners, including with a wide range of breeds/ages/sizes/behaviors/environments. I have safe test dogs of my own and access to others. I will be reaching out to AKC about not currently teaching group classes publicly (pre-approval). I have taken some classes myself and worked under mentors.

I have had multiple dogs go through these tests including my working and service dogs, as well as assisting other dog+owner teams in preparing themselves for the tests. I do have professional competition judging and temperament testing experience with horses. So as far as conducting the tests themselves I feel very comfortable with things like: Rulebook and pattern memorization, multi-tasking, close attention to detail, facilitating tests, objective evaluations, disqualifying participants before or during assessments, cleanly delivering positive vs negative results, offering constructive feedback within regulations, monitoring animal and handler behavior, handling paperwork, scheduling, etc.

I'd like to hear from people with similar pre-application backgrounds if possible. Or if you have a more extensive or traditional/official background, opinions on this type of background for conducting these evaluations.

To be clear: the same dog is doing both the licking and the growling at the same time. I’m posting here because I wasn’t able to gather much from a google search; it kept generating results where one dog was doing the licking and one dog was doing the growling. Both dogs are roughly the same age and both dogs are spayed.

They are both rescues from dog meat farms in Korea. The Jindo doesn’t do this with my three male dogs. Thank you for any insight.

we have a 10 week old puppy who can’t walk outside much yet (a lot of dogs around us + people haven’t cleaned up poop outside so we don’t want her near it yet) so we’re getting artificial grass for her to use on our balcony, will this make the transition to real grass easier than it would if it was a pee pad?

I have done all that I could find to help my dog, a 2yo pitbull boxer mix, but I am not seeing any progress.

He that has a crate he stays in sometimes (at night/when I cant watch him/when little dog is out but i'll get to that later).

I do feed him in the crate (to reinforce that the crate isn't a punishment because he used to hate the crate,, he likes it now.. also, he's food aggressive), but even when he doesn't have food in there he still barks, growls, and lunges at our other dogs and even our cat if they get too close. This is only when he's locked in the crate.

Out of the crate (food aside,) he does just fine with the other animals (another big dog and a cat) except for a small dog, but that's irrelevant at the moment. He's not aggressive with people.

I've tried positive reinforcement with both affection and food when he does good with other animals near the crate [when he's locked in], but it all ends up with him getting upset and trying to lunge at the other animals.

It seems that no matter the food or how I praise him, he doesn't care when it comes to getting other animals away from him when in the crate. I'm really at a loss for what to do.

As for him and the little dog, I have just been keeping them seperated.

The little dog is my older sisters dog (a very yappy and annoying dog that likes to annoy other animals and act like hes boss,) but she lives on a seperate floor from us so they dont cross paths save for when little dog has to go outside or when theyre on the same floor as us watching tv or something.

My dog has a high chase and prey drive. The little dog is small and immediately runs from him, trying to play. See where things don't work?

Theres been a couple instances where they have had run ins (not anyones fault, just accidents or his drive takes control of him) where my dog has chased the little dog. We don't know if he's chasing to play, or chasing to kill. (he has killed rats and birds, so we know he's more than capable of killing). My family truly thinks he's trying to kill the small dog, and even though I think so too, theres a small part in me that thinks hes trying to play (he really doesnt know his size… and he sometimes chases the cat like that and I really really do think he wouldn't hurt her on purpose, i've never let it go on long enough to find out).

Every one of those times, we have tried to get him to stop by calling him, shaking treats, and my family has even protected the little dog with their bodies. Each time, it's like he loses control and can't even stop himself. Many of those times, i've had to jump and lay on him to give my family a chance to get the little dog to safety. I am a 5' girl, and he is nearly as big as me. Even though I am strong for my size, it's a struggle for me to have to fight him like that, and some times he's even left me with bruises. I know he would never hurt me on purpose. My heart breaks a little more each time.

This is my best friend, but my family wants to get rid of him. These things aren't the only things he struggles with, just the main ones. I love him, but he needs help that I haven't been able to give him. I really don't know what to do anymore. Affection doesn't work, treats don't work,, not even high quality ones or even human food.

Please help me help him.

My dog Bones is about 5/6 he’s a really sweet boy! My bed is big and even if he’s on one side and I’m not the other he will grumble and growl when I move – I’m not sure if maybe he’s resource guarding the bed. He’s down this behavior basically his whole life and I don’t feel like it’s escalated but since he’s getting older I’m wondering if I should try having him sleep on his own bed or if anyone has experience with this behavior anything would help!

We had our baby in April. She came home in May after NICU stay. We have a 8 y old golden retriever, trained, generally well behaved. He has some anxiety but he never caused us major issues and we never overthought it as we didn’t have any children.

After baby was home our golden had major issues about anxiety, to the point I had to live in the bedroom with closed door for a few days until anxiety meds kicked in. We didn’t expect that at all. With time he got used to the baby, and after one month we gradually lowered the meds. He even got used well to baby attempting to crawl on the floor. Luckily our golden is easily food motivated and he would do anything for food.

Baby is now 8 months old, and we notice some new anxiety coming. I am no expert (we have the number of a behaviourist vet and we will contact her again after the holidays) but looks like he is resource guarding the sofa. If me and husband sit on the sofa it’s ok, if baby is near or on the sofa awake in our arms, the dog doesn’t like it. It’s not really a growl but more a grumble, he may even bark 2-3 times at her. Of course baby can’t walk yet and doesn’t even properly craw so she is always in our arms and we immediately remove her. I attempted that twice just to verify my theory.

He accepts if baby is on the ground crawling, he hates if we hold her while she stands and she walks around. He intervenes immediately and grumbles or barks at her face. He then licks her. Again, we immediately remove her. I am doing now once or twice with treats to see if he gets used to it. He is able to sit if I ask. He is able to go to his place (sofa) with a treat when we walk around with baby (for a few seconds only mind you) but I can see he keeps an eye on us.

Noticed also he may be (again I am no expert) obsessed by food when baby has it. I mean he has always been obsessed with food. I can see the baby walking later in a few months and the dog trying to steal food from her if we don’t keep an eye, or baby isn’t always out of range.

The apartment isn’t that big, we dog proofed the house with baby gates in the two bedrooms and a baby fence in the living room to create safe spaces. The dog is always walked two times per day, almost always we walk together with the baby and he is fine with it. When we leave with baby and we come home he greets her too, yesterday he even offered her his toy and he tried to play with a toy she had in her hands. It was a cute moment.

If he finds some food on the street and has it in its mouth he would never drop it, not sure if call it resource guarding as he leaves the food on the ground if we ask for it (we have to put a foot on the food he wants outside, inside he just leaves it if we say “leave it”.)

I thank you for any advice.

Not sure what to do about resource guarding the sofa. I understand the apartment isn’t big and he has restricted places now (he was allowed in the bedroom before, not on the bed, not now). He is in the living room which is big, and he can go upstairs on the mezzanine where my hubby has his office. We also have a back garden but he has never been that interested to be there alone of course. He’s a golden and he wants to be with us.

I told our vet what’s happening and asked if could be helpful to give again some low dose anxiety meds, waiting for the vet behaviourist to answer.