Category: Top Dog

So i got my pup (7 month old shih tzu) back in August and it’s been a rough few months but i feel like we finally got into the groove of things. potty training’s going great and she seems like the happiest pup ever🥹i love coming home to her.

our only problem has been brushing. she HATES the brush. i’ve been trying to use treats with it and it’s kinda growing on her, but it felt like it was too late with the mats in her hair. she’s been groomed at the vet before but it’s been a month or so.

i took her to get groomed tonight, and they said they would have to SHAVE her. with the 10 inch blade😭. i was already nervous about her hair getting too short after a haircut with it being so cold outside, but now im really scared. she has a couple coats for she can wear already so that should help, but i feel like a bad puppy mom for not taking her sooner. it’s a lesson for next time, but it’s hard not to get in the dumps about it🥺

Hi everyone. Last night I got a 4 month old German Shepherd/Malinois mix. She slept in bed with us all night long but she should shift and move a lot which kept me up almost the entire night. All day today I have felt like total crap, even throwing up a few times from the lack of sleep and stress (I have a severe anxiety disorder)

It’s obvious that she wasn’t socialized by her owner for the past 2 months they had her. She won’t leave the cat alone. She won’t leave the other dog alone. She chews on my shoes and clothes and paces around all day long, when I try to give her a toy, a puzzle toy or play fetch, she won’t put her attention on it and instead just paces around the house jumping on and off the couch. Although one positive is she is almost fully potty trained already from her previous owner and hasn’t had an accident.

She was doing pretty well with going in the kennel when I lure her in with treats and feed her in it, but I tried to put her in a kennel for 10 minutes with a blanket over it just so I could have a few minutes to relax and she whined incredibly loudly and wouldn’t stop. When she’s on the bed she settles down and sleeps but that’s not going to work with it being a queen sized bed with 2 adult humans in it and a 30 pound puppy.

I want to rehome her already but I feel awful for thinking that way.

Hello all .. in need of some advice regarding our 14 week old Australian Labradoodle puppy.

For context, we got her at 8 weeks old, so she’s been with us for 6 weeks now.

When we initially got her, we began crate training her at night time, she has a correctly sized crate with a bed and blanket inside, along with a heartbeat crate toy. Initially, with a pen around the outside of the crate she would settle and we would lift her in shut the door and off to sleep she went (a few breaks in the night for potty!) one of us would sleep nearby (room next door) but it was a fairly easy routine.

This continued for 2 or 3 weeks and we then moved upstairs leaving pup in her crate downstairs as she would now sleep the night (11-6) without needing a potty – FAB right?

Fast forward to last week, where she now refused to go in her crate, she would need us to settle her in her pen then lift her in and shut the door to which an almighty protest will take place, longest one being nearly 3 hours before she settled.

This went on for a few nights until we gave in and moved the crate up into our bedroom next to our bed. The issue now is we cannot get her to go in there without a fuss. So we have some calm time before, pop her in and shut the door. Again, protest breaks loose – even though we are less then 2 feet away and visible to her, she will still paw at the crate and bark the walls down.

Eventually she will settle, (we shut her in, sit beside her and soothe through the crate door) and sleep the whole night through but getting to that point feels like a constant up hill battle and massive backward step from where she was last week.

This obviously isn’t the behaviour or association we want to create with the crate. The crate itself I don’t believe is the issue, she goes in there during the day willingly for random naps, eats in there, takes toys in there for a chew and chill.. it’s simply when needing to go to bed at night it becomes problematic. It’s driving me nuts as I dont knows suddenly stopped in order for the previous routine to have gone out the window.

Long term we dont intend to force the crate, we’d be happy for her to sleep in a bed on the landing or hall way, but whilst she’s a pup we’d like her contained at night for her safety and our peace of mind.

Can someone offer advice, is this regressing type behaviour normal? Are we going wrong somewhere? We want nothing but the best for our pup and up until now she was absolutely fantastic, but this night time problem is starting to wear thin. My better half is a frontline medical worker and has to be up at early hours each morning, so we need to get a consistent and timely routine in place for both her and the pup.

Any advice and input is greatly appreciated.

Cheers and Happy New Year to all.

My puppy is 6 months old and he’ll demand bark at me along with biting me (not hard enough to bleed but it still leaves marks). The only time he does this is when I sit on the couch and it’s driving me crazy. He gets plenty of play, training, walks, puzzles/snuffle mat. I’ve tried just ignoring but it’s hard to do since he’s large (50 lb) and the biting hurts! I’ve also tried leaving the room when he does this but when I come back it’s the same thing. Does it get better or is there something else I can try? I’m wondering if I should give him another nap, he usually only gets 1 long nap in the day, about 2.5 hours.

A couple of hours ago I decided to take my 12 weeks old pomerainian outside on a night walk because I know he loves those. However by accident as I tried opening the door (it was the building door so it’s heavier than a regular wooden door) my puppy came out of nowhere and hurt himself as I tried opening the door. It’s hard to explain but his side was pushed roughly because of the door? I’m confused on what exactly happened because I panicked as he screamed really loud. He quickly started whining for like a minute straight and when I tried to pick him up he would scream. Eventually my brother picked him up after he calmed down and we went back to our apartment. There he started limping where he would keep lifting his feet up. I took him the vet er and they said he was not showing signs of anything serious as he his reflexes were normal. The only reaction was from one toe on the feet that he could not walk on. So the vet gave him pain killers and she gave us meds to give him at home. He’s obviously still limping now but I feel really guilty. I can’t stop thinking about how he’s in pain and I’m scared that it gets serious. Any advice on how to take care of him as he recovers?

Hi all,

My husband and I recently got a 7month old pup – the breeder stays on a farm and he seemed to be really attached to him. It’s day 2 of having him home. He’s quite sweet. On the way home, he just napped and then wouldn’t get out of the car. Finally he did. He was nervous, understandably. Eventually he cuddled on the couch with us that night. We kept his dog bed in our bedroom for the first couple of nights. First night, I took him out at 3am and he finally peed. He slept through the night, no whining and no accidents. Very sweet boy.

Next morning, we took him out for a first walk, he couldn’t do a block as he was afraid of all cars and all people. But he ate and drank water after we moved his dishes to the living room where he likes to be. He napped on the couch all day. In the evening my, I took him out and he went farther and was more confident. He ate dinner and I brushed him, he went to the door to let us know he wanted to go out and he peed and went. The night was smooth. All this while, any time we took him out in the backyard, we had to use the front door and lead him on his leash.

Today, morning was great. We took him out in our backyard and he peed/pooped and played with us. We have these stairs to the backdoor to backyard. We used the backdoor, I had to lift him out. So far, he’s extremely afraid to go downstairs (only 2 steps really to the landing). Coming back, he climbed the stairs up. In the evening, we took him for a walk and he walked much farther than we’ve seen so far. But he freezes and shakes as soon as he sees other dogs or people. But when we took him to the backyard after the walk, he played well and pooped.

I went down to my basement in an attempt to get him curious and to follow. Husband had gone out. He whined and howled at the top of the stairs. These are the same stairs for the basement as well. I came back up after 20 mins, and he seemed anxious and nervous. Had nervous energy and clawed at the couch seat once back up.

We’ve had this week off and have been working on getting him comfortable for the first 3 days. We go back to work on Monday next week and I am extremely nervous about separation anxiety. He’s not been alone so far, and I am not sure if he’s been alone at the farm.

I haven’t slept well or taken care of myself because of anxiety and prioritizing him.

How do we go about this? We’re first time dog owners.

Hey there! I adopted a 4 month old mutt from a shelter 4 weeks ago. I told the shelter I needed a small to medium dog as I live in an apartment and I wanted a dog that was cool with occasionally being left alone, as I work in office 2 and a half days out of the week. They paired me up with my gorgeous girl. She was extremely underweight as she was found on the streets, so I now realize the shelter didn't quite have a good grasp of her actual temperament because she was extremely lethargic due to malnourishment. With the help of a vet we got her on a weight gain diet and the right kind of supplements and it's like I fed this puppy crack cocaine. She's constantly getting the zoomies, and I mean absolutely constantly. We walk an hour daily around 5K, and I'm training her as best I can with the Woofs app. She's very clever and already knows a couple of tricks. I'm especially focusing on the ones that involve self restraint like "stay" or "leave it" and I would say she's starting to get the hang of those. My problem is she literally never lays down to rest, except when I lock her in her crate for a couple of minutes so I can take my eyes off her for a little while, but as soon as the crate is open she's back to running arroumd the house like a maniac. She even ran so fast, intensely and carelessly that she ran straight into a cabinet so hard I actually took her to a vet to check she was ok. I spoke to said vet about her high energy and they where like "she's a 4 month old, she'll settle down". I have tried giving her puzzles and mental stimulation games to keep her from getting bored, and we go on walks daily absolutely religiously because I do notice that if I so much as walk less than normal she will become truly unruly. I have tried to reward the rare times she seems to settle down but she does it so rarely it's genuinely hard and if I get up to get treats she will get up and run around again. Petting or praising is not really an option for reinforcement, she doesn't like to be touched much, I'm assuming she might have suffered some trauma out in the streets. Is it normal for 4 month old dogs to be this hyperactive? Am I doing something wrong? Is she just not the right dog for me?

Hello friends, we have a seven month old pup, he is doing great. Toilet trained, haven't had accidents for months. Trained to wait, doesn't bite, doesn't demolish the house etc etc.

One thing we have done an awful job of is getting him used to being in his crate when we are not home.

We were forced to leave him for the first time ever a couple weeks ago but the cries did not stop for over an hour so had to send my parents round to collect him.

I know I've done a terrible job here so really looking for some real world advice as it starting to impact our freedom.

What steps do we take?

How did you get yours to be ok at home alone in a crate for a couple hours?

Have I missed the boat now he is 7 months?

Any advice will be greatfully received!

We have a 5 month old german shepherd husky mix who is a chewer. He has eaten parts of blankets and beds we have tried in his crate and it is at the point we feel it just isn't safe for him to have anything in there. The issue is he sleeps so much better with a bed in there. The only time he chews blankets and fabrics and beds is in the crate, specifically during his second crate nap in the morning and second afternoon nap. He has chew toys in there with him… but I guess the soft stuff entices him more.

Any suggestions? I've read the Kong indestructible beds aren't actually great and I dont see any on Amazon. I'm in Ontario Canada, but willing to order from basically anywhere if its tried and true to be indestructible lol. TIA!

I’m curious what issues are typical with dogs who were dumped as puppies. I have an 18-week rescue puppy who came to me as a 6lb, 8 week old foster. All six were emaciated and full of roundworms and giardia. What I notice in my now physically healthy puppy is hyper vigilance, fear, and in trying to work through handling found he startles even with a hand placed for a second on his rear. (Very cuddly tho, interestingly). His brother who I also had in foster for three weeks was reactive and a major chomper at 8 weeks. Are there common outcomes? No training advice needed, just looking for profiles.