Category: Top Dog

Our 5 year old lab/Golden mix is a very good and obedient girl, but if she's snuggling you and sees something that captures her attention she launches herself toward her desire, and has ripped 8" of my thigh since I was wearing shorts.

She's pretty good about not jumping, but 4 on the floor doesn't really apply here.

Can she tell the difference between hopping off the couch alone vs from a person's lap?

We just adopted a 4 month border collie mix, Roscoe, a couple days ago. He's truly such a sweet boy. Other than trying to get our cats to stop hating us and them being terrified of the new puppy, things are going well.

The biggest issue we're having is crate training. We were told by his foster mom that he was 100% crate trained. He slept in his crate every night and she had him crated between 8-3 when she was working. She said he may whine and be restless at first in a new environment but will settle down quickly. This is not happening. The first night he cried for a half hour after we left the room. My husband thought he just needed to get used to us, so he slept on the couch next to Roscoe. Roscoe calmed down and slept the entire night without issue.

We contacted the foster to see if there's something we could do to help him. She said she never had any issues like this when she had him. She said we needed to ignore him and he'd eventually settle down because this is a routine he's used to. She said not to comfort him because he'll learn that when he cries, we'll come.

So last night we gave him half a Greenies calming chew to help with a little anxiety along with another treat he always gets when he goes in the crate. He cried for an hour before finally calming down and going to sleep.

He's fine in the crate if he can see us. He's great when he's not in the crate. However, we have noticed he still freaks out when we leave the room even when he's not crated. So we're worried about possible separation anxiety starting.

Any tips? He needs to stay crated at night at least until our cats stop being afraid of him and accept him. they were here first, so we're trying to put their needs first by making sure they have rooms that are just theirs where they can relax. We also need to keep him crated when we're not home until we trust he won't destroy anything or accidentally hurt the cats (which isn't a huge fear since he adored the cats at his foster which is a huge reason why we chose him).

Hi all,

I just moved from a house + backyard in OC, California to a 625sq foot apartment in NYC. We brought our blind 15 year old with us and I can’t seem to get her to pee on her fresh patch. She wants absolutely nothing to do with it. We currently have it in our bathroom. I don’t want to be impatient with her but I find myself getting frustrated.

Leaving her behind was not an option. I’m being patient with her but I can’t help but feel defeated. She poops and pees every where but the one spot she’s supposed to. I’m open to any tips!

Hi, I have a two year old gsd, she’s typically very friendly and playful and has always gotten along with other dogs and is especially gentle with puppies and dogs at her daycare. She can be a bit reactive on walks but other than that she’s amazing.

I recently had the opportunity to take in a shihtzu mix puppy when her owners could no longer care for her. And I figured my gsd would love to have a little friend, not to mention I’ve always wanted a lap dog to join the family.

At first their interactions were seemingly good, I would let them sniff each other and hangout with gsd by my legs and my shihtzu on my lap while they were both calm. sometimes my gsd would get too hyper and I’d bring shihtzu to a different room because I was afraid to have them play together until she’s a bit larger

I’d also let them always interact thru a metal baby gate splitting my living room in half, that way they could always safely see each other.

But for some reason after a month all of the sudden my gsd started showing her teeth when she sees the shihtzu and would bark and lunge at her thru the gate

My shihtzu is also starting to mirror my gsd’s behaviour which is really making things worse as they bounce off each other.

It’s gotten to the point where I can’t even walk by the gate with the shihtzu unless my gsd is in her crate. So now I’ve been alternating their crate time, yard time, and house time to avoid the barking and lunging.

Ideally I would like them to get along so I can take both on walks together.

I’m doing as much research as I can and am gonna find a trainer to work with. But I thought I’d ask here in the meanwhile.

Rehoming is 100% not an option. I’m not here to be shamed or dwell on what I should’ve done before. I’m here to do better and figure out what I can do to fix things. I’m not going to give up on either dogs as they are now a part of my family.

Really any help at all is so appreciated.

My family dog Lucky is overweight affecting his health. Im coming to my family home to stay for a couple months and want to improve his weight and train him a bit. (I've figured everything out about his weight and health with the vets). He needs to go on more and longer walks which is difficult with him being reactive. When i was younger i used to take in on walks and where we lived we could walk for 1-2 hours without meeting anyone. Now meeting people is inevitable and i want to train him to not be reactive to get my family to take him out more until i am settled in my own life and can take him with me. Please I've tried everything i could think of from YouTube to google to articles to studies but i cant figure out how to help him. I want to ask on her prior to trying a dog trainer due to personal lack of money at the moment but once i save some up im planning on doing that if Lucky is still reactive. So please any advice and tips would be great. More context below.

Early puppyhood – age of approx 5 . A bit more context. Lucky is 8 years old now (lablador x border collie). He wasnt socialised as a puppy or later on much due to my father (no my situation did not let me prevent much abuse from his side towards the dog but minimized it as much as i could) his way of "teaching" Lucky how to behave was hitting, kicking, screaming, isolation, staying outside. Luckily me and the rest of the family managed to bring this to an end now (as we've grown up) but of course it was horribly wrong.

About Lucky. •He is a smart dog, ive taught him sit, lay down, hop (on a chair stool), paw, stay, search(for objects/people). He taught himself to go between my legs and sit down looking up at me.

•He always likes to follow me around and prefers to lie in tight spots (between 2 armchairs, in the corner, between the couch and table).

•Food or toys dont motivate him when outside at all i tried treats, sprats, tiny cheese pieces. He doesnt even acknowledge food or toys.

•He is chubby and needs to loose weight for health reasons but walks are intimidating with his reactiveness. Once he notices another dog coming closer he'll do one of the following, 1. lie down on the side watching waiting or getting ready to lunge. 2. Start pulling towars them and then once closer barking/growling. 3. Be calm until they reach a certain perimeter around us which set him off to bark/growl. 4. Sometimes hes calm and just walks past with no reaction.

• Off the lead hes alot less reactive (used to not react at all unless the dog came up to him and wouldnt leave after "telling them to leave") we moved recently and he's gotten more reactive off the lead. What he'd do 1. Walk past the dog by my side if hes ignored. 2. Walk by my side and he'd start growling then i grab his harness. 3. (Least likely but still) lunge at the dog barking never touch the dog, come at him stop right before contact run off a bit and then again until i call him loudly or grab him. •He's very protective of my younger siblings (10,14) and me. Hes submissive to men but also highly strung.

Area we can walk. We live in a mostly quiet estate. Theres a walking path (1 hour walk around) area we go mostly. Theres also a dog park which id loop 3-4 times in different ways to get him walking around. The park is usually quieter. The path walk (which i do 80% of the time) i try to walk him at times where theres as little people as possible but its difficult.