Category: Top Dog

Post:

We just picked up a terrier puppy from a breeder who told us he was almost 2 months old and that it was okay to take him home. Everything seemed fine at pickup — they gave us pedigree puppy mash, paperwork, etc.

One thing that struck me as odd was their feeding advice. They told us to keep the puppy food wet and give him regular milk. From past experience with young puppies, I thought milk replacer is usually recommended, but I didn’t want to change his diet abruptly and risk stomach upset, so we followed their instructions at first.

Yesterday afternoon, we noticed he was having a hard time pooping, and I had to assist him. The stool was very hard and contained a chunk of the Pedigree mash we gave him the day before. Although that is the only time we had that issue otherwise he's pooping per usual.

This morning, the breeder called to ask how he was doing and told us that his sister became sick and later died, which they believe was due to dehydration. That obviously raised a lot of concern for us.

As for our puppy now: • He is eating • He is playful and alert • He urinates frequently • He is pooping, though the constipation concerned us that one time

The only things that seem odd: • He shakes/trembles from time to time (we assumed cold or scared because eventually he stops) • He sometimes has his tongue out even sleeping but then puts it back in.

as a sidenote, we've been feeding him with a syringe and a little bit of the Caesar mush and mixing them both in and syringe feeding him sometimes he takes it sometimes we give the bottle it just depends on him. Sometimes he likes it in the bowel. We also been feeding him 3 to 4 times a day.

Otherwise, he seems fairly normal, but given the littermate’s death and the feeding advice, we’re worried we may have been given incorrect information or that he might be younger than stated.

Has anyone experienced something similar or have insight into whether these signs could point to dehydration, low blood sugar, or being weaned too early? We’re planning to contact a vet, but I’d appreciate any advice or reassurance from people with experience

hi! i got a pom puppy around 7 hours ago. she pooped (on my pillow case, LMAO) but hasn’t eaten or peed yet.

she still is very interested in food (specifically our food) and she’s playing around a LOT, so does she maybe just need to settle in more before she’ll eat?

Won't be getting my pup until later this month, but I want to be ready. Can/should i sign up for their health insurance now?

Hi everyone, I have an 11 week old Golden that I've had since 8 weeks, and for a while now, she's taught herself to bark when she needs to potty. For the first couple weeks, it was pretty accurate. Every time she barks, I take her out on the balcony grass patch, and she potties. The problem is, she started using it for attention as of week 10 or so. She's still about 90% accurate with the potty cue, but there's that 10% now that she's just barking to be let out of her pen.

I'm caught between accidentally enabling the barks, which I'm fairly certain I'm doing—and prioritizing having no accidents so that she can be house trained. She still has quite a bit of accidents, since she will sometimes just go potty indoors without any barking, and/or bark after she's already peed in her pen, but for the most part, she will potty when taken outside because of the rewards. There have been times where I ignored her barking, only to find that she'd peed or pooped inside her pen as a result.

For more context, she only barks for potty when she's inside her pen. If she's outside of it, roaming the house, she will pee indoors 80% of the time without barking, and the remaining 20% of the time, she'll run to the balcony door.

She also seems to potty every 20-30 minutes when she's awake (she holds it well throughout the night, sometimes 7 hours even). She's never had an accident inside her crate, only in the playpen and when free roaming.

What should I do? Always ignore the barking so she doesn't learn to bark for attention, or focus on making sure she's always let out to potty so she can be housebroken properly? What if she's just forcing herself to potty after barking because she knows that's what she has to do to be let out?

We have: small poodle mix dog, spayed at 6 months old. She is currently 7 months old.

The first 2 weeks post-op had a lot of recovery and normal potty schedule, but as she started healing, she had more accidents (poo and pee) indoors. She was fully potty trained before this, but now doesn’t signal when she is going. She just goes to another room where it’s private and does her business.

My question: is this normal for puppies after a spay? And any ideas how to help with this?

Our current plan to deal with the accidents is to take her out every 3 hours/more frequently as her schedule seems to have changed.

I forgot to book a puppy school for our 11 week old puppy. What can I do to help socialise him with other puppies??

We’ve had a few parties in the last week, so he’s been having some good interaction with people.

We also have a friend’s dog who he’s been interacting with as well. Things seem to be going good with her as she puts him in his place when he gets too over excited.

I do not want him to go out yet as he just had his 2nd vaccine two days ago and will be requiring a 3rd one as well.

Title says it all. We’ve had our lab mix for about 3 weeks now – she is almost 12 weeks. We are having a hard time with crate training. The good news is she’s gotten much better at night and usually sleeps from about 1030 to 5 or so straight. Sometimes she wakes at 4 but most nights it’s to 5 or 5:30. What we’re having difficulty with is naps during the day. I feel like we messed up letting her sleep on the couch and on our laps the first week or so and she’s now super attached to us. We’ve been playing crate games and using high value treats in the crate and also have it covered and have a white noise machine and it’s in our bedroom. Sometimes she’ll let us put her in there and she’ll fall asleep right away and sometimes she’ll frantically bark and chew at the crate even if she was super tired right before we put her in there. The thing is she’s only getting at max 45 minutes of sleep either way before she wakes up again and is frantic. We’ve tried shushing her calmly through our camera and that instantly puts her back to sleep but I feel like I’m making a mistake doing that because then it’s as if we’re giving in to the crying. Any help would be great! Do we just let her cry it out?

Hello! I’m waiting for my puppy to be fully grown before getting her a car harness (as they’re very expensive), but I’m wondering what others did prior to that? I don’t have my own car so it needs to be something i can move from car to car easily (like if catching an uber) so a crate or back seat cover won’t really work. So far I’ve just been carrying her but I keep wondering if that’s dangerous. Some people i know just clip their dogs’ regular harness into the seatbelt but similarly not sure if that’s riskier than carrying her?

So I’m 14 years old and homeschooled I asked for a puppy for about a month. We got a rescue two days ago, a three legged puppy. I named her Sesame and we have another dog (chihuahua mix) named Coco. They don’t have many issues, and are getting along somewhat well, but are still getting used to one another. I’m questioning my decision. She’s such a nice puppy, and my parents love her as well, but I don’t know how much free time I’ll have. Im unsure about my future… I’m moving out when I’m older and I knew I would take whatever dog I got with me. We’ve spent money on supplies (bigger crate than what Coco has, toys, and food) and I feel really bad about that. I feel guilty about questioning my decision because I was persistent in asking, and most of all I feel guilty that I feel this way about the puppy. It’s not the puppies fault, and if I return it I would also be guilty. My only other idea is giving her away to someone. Am I overthinking all of this?

okay so hes been doing pretty well, so he came yesterday at 5pm so far i think he's super comfy in his crate he always sleeps in it he obviously hasnt been great at peeing on pee pads but he has pooped 4/5 time on the pad and one time peed on the pad. at first he would cry whenever i left him alone but rn i went to shower and he didnt cry,, he hasnt peed on anyone and hes super playful but slightly lethargic in the morning. he slept from 10am to 2am then cried a lot at 2 i pet him once and then tried to ignore and then he went in his crate and slept again

how do i get him to stop peeing everywhere!!! i have a pen set up with a pee pad and pees everywhere except on the pee pad. since hes not fully vaccinated i cant even take him downstairs, when will i be able to get to the point of going back to work and letting him be in his pen? i have someone at home all the time so being fed and cleaned is not an issue but that person wont be able to train him to pee in a spot. do you think i should set up like a litter style situation for him to pee that is more distinct bec i dont think he sees the texture difference that much