Category: Top Dog

Hey everyone,

So, I am an evening shift worker (working 4pm-Midnight) and so, I have been having trouble creating a schedule for my 3mo puppy. My older dogs have been on a pretty strict schedule since I got them. They get let out when I get home, get fed their 2nd helping, then they rest/play until I go to bed at 6am which I let them out once more before I go to bed. Then, when I wake up at 2pm, they get fed, get their meds, and they are out by 2:30pm where they stay out for awhile while I get ready for work and they are then crated by 3pm.

But the puppy has different needs and so I have been trying to come up with a sort of schedule. Obviously the puppy gets let out when I get home, they are then fed, let out 30min later to poop, then get let out every 2 hours until I go to bed. I wake up earlier now to feed them at 1pm so I can let them out by 1:30pm and they have time to play and stuff before being crated for the day. I think maybe this schedule is fine and maybe it's weird just because we just started doing it?
(I was off 2 weeks due to surgery).

But, if anyone else works an evening shift or odd hours, your input would be appreciated on what you do for your schedule.

I’ve had my puppy for about 2 days now and I want to be proactive. I adopted him from a shelter and he is 10-11 weeks old (the rescue says he’s a labrador retriever/border collie mix, but I’m going to DNA test to find out more). I’ve been following a wake up-potty-food-play-light training-potty-crate nap routine the last 2 days, and I think it’s been working well and usually has him awake for 60-75 minutes. He also has a fenced in playpen in the living room with a few toys, a soft bed, and his water.

I work from home so I’m trying to develop a routine that works well for both of us. My question is what should I be doing when he’s not in that crate nap routine? For example, when it’s not close to a meal time but he is awake, he’s usually free in his playpen after I play with him/do some light training (5-10ish minutes). Is it okay that he independently play/chew toys in the playpen for a while as I cook dinner or get some work done? I feel like he will play independently for a little, but then starts to cry and jump up on the playpen gate for my attention.

Any advice appreciated!

Hi,

My male puppy is a 6-month-old mutt, mostly lab and American pit bull. we adopted him when he was about 10 weeks old but he had been in a kill shelter and separated from his mom at a very young age.

He is a sweet boy but very spirited, and super hyper. He hasn't met a toy he doesn't like. He's crate trained and we use the crate to enforce naps because ….and here's where I need the advice …. he will NOT settle outside of the crate EVER, even for 10 seconds. I can get him to sit if he thinks he's going to get a treat or something but other than that he's just running around trying to get toys to play within running them back to me.

if I try to ignore him he just continues to run around and find toys and put a big stack next to me and ram his little body into me trying to get me to engage with the toys. occasionally he will give up and just play with the toys for a minute by himself but then run back over to me and try to hit me with his paws so that he has my attention.

he is very cute and sweet and he doesn't mean any harm, but he is just always jumping around and ramming into me wanting me to play as if I am a dog or puppy and we can't get him to settle down and just lie next to us on the couch or cuddle or anything.

Even if we put down his own bed outside of the crate next to it he won't settle in it he just picks it up in his mouth and tries to run around with it like it's a huge toy. he sleeps fine in the crate but we can't get him to lie down or sleep outside of it at all or even just chill. he gets plenty of exercise and play it's just that he doesn't seem to understand how to calm his body unless he's in his crate with all of the curtains fully down and his sound machine on.

if we leave the crate door locked but not covered with a blanket, he will cry and cry and cry. but if we cover the crate, he will go to sleep.

does anyone have tips for how to get him to learn how to chill outside of the crate so that he would want to just cuddle on the couch or is he too young or that's just his disposition? thanks!

I have a now 1.2 year old chihuahua, update, she’s great.

She spent the weekend at my mom and grandmas. She loved it.

I picked her up yesterday, I debated bathing her but decided that since she’s on her cycle and a bit sluggish, it can wait a day or two so she can just chill and deal with her situation in peace and I can bathe and wash all her stuff after. She slept on the bed, I came back from work. We were having a girls night in with a tea and hot water bottle, cuddling. She was basically alternating between rolling up in a ball with her paws under her like a cat and sprawling out to get her belly rubbed and I was doing my god given task of providing comfort.

I put on my glasses and two bigass bugs skidaddled from her bald belly into the thick weeds of long hair chihuahua mane. If she wasn’t toasted ginger colour and bald I would have never seen them. I freaked out, threw her in the tub, ordered flea stuff on a food delivery app, bathed and combed her a billion times, gutted my apartment and started boiling all the linens. I’m probably going to sleep on the couch. Might move, actually.

My first thought was wtf. My second was why, which obviously, they have a yard. My third was HOW. I treated her not that long ago, it’s February, it’s the dead of winter, it’s minus a billion degrees outside with the occasional 13°C. This stuff was supposed to last 7 months.

Well, apparently, the liquids last a month, the collars and slow release things say 7 months but you’re expected to remove the collar while bathing because it washes away the active ingredients and makes it less effective. These collars are zipties essentially so I don’t understand how you’re supposed to remove them and put them back after you cut off the tail if they don’t actually add a buckle. Whatever metric of month to bathing the effectiveness on the label is based on, if you have an indoor dog you bathe regularly, it doesn’t actually last that long.

So yeah.

13° is enough to get bugs in the grass.

It’s not actually 7 months effective.

Don’t recommend petting fleas. 😭 Check your dogs parasite protection.

My big boi 1-year-old Golden Retriever ‘Jack’ tends to roll on poop, like literally every.single.time he sees poop on grass or on the sidewalk. Really weird and it’s getting too much since i have to wash him once every 1-2 weeks.

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.

My 4 year-old French Bulldog spends a lot of time alone while I’m at work, so my aunt and I, she has a 4 year-old German Shepherd, thought it would be a good idea to have them spend the day together so they can play. Both dogs are male and neutered.

My Frenchie tends to growl and bark at most dogs in general, although he’s very affectionate with humans. During their interactions so far, he hasn’t tried to bite, but he does get very excited, he tries to sniff the Shepherd and jump on him repeatedly. He’s extremely high-energy, so I’ve been trying to tire him out with longer walks before they see each other, hoping he won’t overwhelm the other dog as much.

We’ve been doing the introductions at my aunt’s house (the German Shepherd’s home), since that’s where they would eventually spend time together during the day. We haven’t tried introducing them in neutral territory yet, and their interactions have been short, always supervised, and I keep my Frenchie on a leash while respecting their pace.

The issue is that my Frenchie seems to intimidate the German Shepherd (which is almost funny, since he’s three times his size). The Shepherd keeps his distance, avoids eye contact, and will even leave the room. I’m not sure if he’s actually scared or just trying to avoid conflict.

Has anyone successfully socialized these two breeds, especially with this kind of personality mismatch? Is this realistically workable, or are we forcing something that may not be a good fit?

I am still learning about my dog that I adopted from my local SPCA on 12/31. He is 4 years old and we suspect he is at least half beagle. I have 0 history from before we got him aside from he was transferred from a different SPCA about a month prior to us adopting him. Our vet says he is in great health and aside from sensitive skin (which we are managing with diet and medication) she has no concerns about him.

I can’t tell if he likes being petted or getting scritches. When I am doing it, he doesn’t pull away and will usually close his eyes and occasionally lean in, but he als sometimes pushes my hand away with his paw/arm and will sometimes switch between eyes closed and what looks kind of like whale eye. When he pushes away I will stop and look at him to see that’s what he wants and sometimes he will lean his head in and nudge me so I start again. I’m co fused about the mixed signals. Or am I reading it wrong?

I have a English mastiff/ dogo argentina mix and she's the sweetest dog ever but I have the hardest time keeping her entertained and happy. She doesnt play with toys, no tug of war or chasing sticks, the only toys she seems to like are chew toys which are very expensive and last very little time with her giant mouth lmao, and puzzles, but once she's solved them its not as entertaining. Her other favorite thing to do is run but its extremely cold where I live so its not always viable to take her for runs Any enrichment ideas with searching, sniffing, puzzles, or chews that last and would be big enough for her?

Does anyone have a coupon code for Sassy Woof. I would love to purchase a bundle set but my spin only got me 5% off 🙄