Category: Top Dog

Hi everyone,

Had a bad day and have puppy blues. We found out we might have been overfeeding our puppy a bit so brought his intake gradually down. However, he has been the absolute nightmare today on the "recommended amount". There are so many conflicting amounts and calorie intake recommendations, none of them seem to line up at all. Like converting the recommended grams to a 9kg golden doesnt equal the recommended calorie intake on nearly every pet food I've looked up.

I'm tempted to up his food again because he has not been happy and actually a bit aggressive around is food.

Worried that he will get fat though… Any thoughts?

Does your dog turn his head when he hears an odd noise? Does your dog bury their food with your pants? This is the thread to ask why.

Please keep this thread to non-medical issues only.

We have a 4.5 month miniature dachshund, and he’s such a sweetheart. We love him dearly! I just think we have made some mistakes with his early development and I feel so guilty about setting him up for failure when it comes to separation, especially since he’s a breed that can be prone to separation anxiety it seems.

My husband and I work from home (but I’m very recently unemployed so I have even more time at home than I used to). We’ve been crate training him and he almost always sleeps throughout the night with no fuss, but it’s obvious that his crate isn’t his favourite place (which would be on our laps at all times or melded into our skin). For the first month and a half to two months with us, he was peeing every half an hour which was difficult to manage. For a bit he’d even pee in his crate if he woke up and we didn’t get him right away, so we got into the habit of listening for his whine and then taking him out of his crate so he wouldn’t pee… there are obvious issues with this, as now he expects to be taken out of the crate, even though he can now hold his pee for longer.

His naps in the crate are usually only 45 minutes to an hour, and sometimes an hour and a half. This obviously isn’t enough time for us as a couple to leave the house together for any length of time, and we feel that we’ve messed up by not giving him more enforced alone time. This is also noticeable when he’s out of the crate (whether in his play pen or wandering on our upper floor with supervision), and if we leave his sight, he usually cries if he can’t see us. I’ve been trying to leave the room or through the front door for 30 seconds or a minute then coming back to slowly start training that alone time, but since it’s not very good yet and he can’t be trusted around the house with his biting and chewing everything, we were hoping we could start waving him in the crate for slightly longer periods of time.

Since we’ve messed up by taking him out when he whines for fear that he’d have an accident in the crate, what’s the best way to start training him to stay in there even after he wakes up? I know he can hold it for a bit longer, but he also has a tiny bladder and still has accidents if he’s awake and he wait too long, like an hour and a half or so. Potty training has been tough because he doesn’t care about treats. He also gets lonely and bored and just cries if we don’t come and get him from the crate. I assume we should just ignore him in there until a set time, but maybe it would be better to slowly work up to that? Leave him after he wakes up for 5 minutes, then get him, and slowly start increasing the time? I’m honestly not sure.

Sorry for the ramble, I’m sure there’s a few things in here that we may be doing wrong, but I adore this little guy so much and want him to start feeling more confident being alone. It’s hard when we’re both at home all the time, and he’s also so damn cute and cuddly that I just want to spend all of my time around him. If you have some advice please let me know, and please no judgement… this is the first puppy I’ve raised and I really want to do right by him.

Thank you!

I recently caved and got my pup a Pupsicle (I thought they were too pricey for a dog toy, but it’s been worth the price!).

I am planning on making my own refills but also use some of their mixes. I see there is a “Calming” mix with theanine, tryptophan and chamomile. Are these safe? Any experiences?

Okay so I’ve had an 8 month old puppy for a little less than a month that was adopted from our local humane society. She was brought in as a stray and prior to the shelter she basically just lived on the streets and had no prior training. She’s getting her basics down pretty well with her potty training (besides few accidents in the house) and listens remotely well. The only huge issue I’m having is that we have a 2 year old female cat and our husky doesn’t understand that she doesn’t want to play around. She bites, chases, and paws at her indicating she wants to play but her biting is definitely way too hard and the cat is not having it at all. My cat also has a very clingy and hates leaving my side which also leads to her sleeping in bed with me at night. I’ve had to put my dog in her kennel the past two nights because she keeps attacking the cat. I’m basically here to ask what I can do to help her understand what she’s doing isn’t playful to the cat and is hurting her. She doesn’t listen at all when she’s in that situation with the cat, being told “no” or “naughty” isn’t bothering her and she isn’t listening in this case at all. I’m sorry if this was a lot and messy writing just very frustrated and emotional over this!!!

Hey everyone,
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I’m trying to find a safe and comfortable way for my friend’s small dog to travel in the car，his name is potato loll，very cute and naughty. I’ve checked out a bunch of products — seat belts, harnesses, bags, and crates — but none of them feel quite right.

The harness type doesn’t seem ideal because the dog is tiny, and for short city trips it feels a bit unnecessary. But at the same time, just putting the dog in an open-topped bag or box on the back seat feels unsafe too.

So I wanted to ask — what do you all think about travel safety for small dogs?
Do you actually use any kind of restraint or seat setup? Have you noticed any safety risks or behavior issues when the dog is unrestrained? And if she drives alone，she will worry about her Potato，i mean，there should consider maybe material or color of product？

I’m a product design student, so I’m also curious from a design perspective — what kind of product would actually make sense for small dogs in urban settings? If anyone has thoughts, experiences, or suggestions for improvement, I’d really love to hear them.

Thanks in advance!

Our beloved golden retriever was denied boarding twice and his arrival in Canada was delayed by more than 24 hours. When we submitted a complaint to the pet transporter, they put all blame on the internal procedures within the airline and airport handling teams. Does anyone work for a pet transporter and can shed some on light on whether this is normal, please?

First time he was denied boarding as that airport said he needed DEFRA (and I was told that isn't the case at another airport and they weren't aware it was required here) and the 2nd time was because the paperwork wasn't signed (and pet transporter company told me that it doesn't usually need to be signed).

Someone hit my car, so it’s at the collision center getting fixed, and I got a rental. The rental company says they’ll charge $250 for pet hair 😩 My Golden Retriever rides with me every day to pick up and drop off my kids, and he’s so sad when I leave him behind literally crying at the door.

Does anyone know how to take your dog in the car without getting fur everywhere? Would a dog pajama or onesie help? Any tips appreciated!