Category: Top Dog

my dog’s anxiety is starting to run our schedule, barking at sounds, pacing, clinging, the whole thing. i’ve tried the basic stuff (more exercise, routines, enrichment) and it helps a little, but not enough. what treatment options worked for you?

firstly, i didn't know where to go, sorry if this the wrong place.

I am not a dog owner, but i do need help of a soul who know about dogs.

First off all i am writing a fatasy work and i am creating my creature, but i have a creatured thats a mix of Samoyed/English Mastiff/Azawakh.

The animal is called a lunathor, it has the long skinny legs of a Azawakh.

but the body of the mastiff. and the tail of the Samoyed

What i need to know is; is there a specific body length (without the length of the legs counting). if their are no specific lengt, Perhaps a esteamtion.

Hi all,

My dog is getting older and I'm wondering if there's any products you bought for older dogs that absolutely helped your dog or you feel like their quality of life improved?

From dog beds to different chews or whatever comes to mind.

I have an almost 4 yr old mutt (Staffordshire bull terrier 65%, Australian Shepherd 20%, white Swiss Shepherd 9%, australian cattle dog 6% mix) who’s always been cautious of strangers and other dogs, but last year he went through a trauma with me (my ex attacked me with him present, he has been more aggressive since then). we’ve been in a stable place where he has his own space for about a month now and he was doing better but our neighbors are outside often and leave their dog tied up outside (he can see him through the window) and he has been getting food aggression with our other dog (18 yr old chihuahua who he normally LOVES and has had no problem sharing with in the past) and he has just recently snapped at my roommate. i’m at a loss of what to do. i play with him when we go outside and i play with him inside often so he gets plenty of stimulation (he also has an arsenal of toys). He’s a very skittish dog and i’m not sure if that’s contributing to the aggression or not. i have also been working on getting him muzzle trained (it takes time, especially since he’s so skittish and cautious of the unknown). Any advice would help, i’m at a loss and im afraid he might snap and hurt the older dog or my roommate.

I have a 17 year old treeing feist mix female. There are no other animals in the home (other dog died just over a year ago). She was spayed at 6 months old. She frequently urinates in front of her food bowl.

It FEELS like she does it when she doesn’t like the food she is given or something. But I really have no idea. How can I stop her from doing this? She never used to do this, but now it’s ALL THE TIME. Basically since our other dog (younger boy) died it seems like! And yes we take her out before eating etc but she will still do it anyway.

For context, my mom adopted a Great Pyrenees mix about a year and a half ago. They think he is around 6, and clearly didn't come from a very happy background. When they got him, he was terrified of people, wouldn't let you approach him unless you very slowly backed up to him with your hand facing out, and would run away if you made eye contact. Luckily, he has been doing much better, is much more confident and now forces you to pet him (he will slap you or force his head under your hand).

Over the last couple of months, he has started some pretty destructive behavior, but only does it when he thinks nobody is home. He has been peeing in the same few spots in the house, despite being let out right before they leave and only being gone an hour or two, getting into and ripping apart all the contents of the trash, opening cabinets (that were zip tied shut to keep him out) and stealing everything in them (for some reason he keeps stealing the same two two refill bottles of hand soap and hiding them in his little hoarde?). He has also gotten onto the kitchen countertops and has stolen loaves of bread, butterknives, and other random things. They have done all they can think of to prevent him from stealing when they are gone (giving him toys/bones to keep him occupied, keeping him in one room, etc.) other than crating him because any time they have tried, he gets really scared and runs away or shakes and gets really anxious if they make him go into the crate.

They are working on building a larger kennel in their garage so it's more like a room than a kennel in hopes he will be less fearful of it, but until then, don't know what to do. The behavior is slowly getting worse and more frequent and it is clear that he knows he isn't supposed to do it and snitches on himself before they even see anything he did just by acting guilty. They are working on getting a camera set up so they can monitor him, but has anyone else dealt with this issue and was there anything that you did that worked? He is otherwise, a very sweet, normal dog who just seems to have had a tough life before adoption.

Hello, please be gentle with me.

My girl, 3 year old mini aussie, has a sonic boom of a bark. I’m not kidding, I’ve had a lot of dogs throughout the course of my life and she has the loudest bark I’ve ever heard. She trumps the Great Danes I’ve owned.

To the point – she goes insane when my partner and I come home from work, or when anyone comes over. Rapid fire barking, nose to the door. She does not stop until she goes outside.

There’s clearly things I’m missing, which is why I’m here.

I tried working on a “place” command with her for around a year, and she would follow it EXCEPT for this situation. It’s like her brain shuts off and instinct takes over.

We ignore her when we come in, no eye contact or petting or noise until she stops barking. Does not affect anything. She loves to bark as loud as she can.

I’m sure I’m missing details in this post, so sorry in advance. My brain is frazzled.

Any advice is welcome, please be nice to me. I am doing my best.

My older dog is ~70 lbs and is generally low energy, but is prone to zoomies.

Our younger dog is ~15 lbs and still growing.

We’ve been noticing that whenever both dogs are able to play off leash, the older dog gets so excited then starts zooming, and runs over the younger dog. If she escalates in excitement she’ll start mouthing too and I have to step in and stop the play. The pup seems to love it but it doesn’t seem safe at all.

Same deal if they’re on leash and I take them for a run, the older girl gets overexcited and tries to play excessively rough wit the pup.

My concern is that this happens frequently, and doesn’t seem to be decreasing in frequency at all despite play always ending whenever she gets the zoomies. I’d like them both to be able to play off leash, but I’m struggling to come up with a game plan for teaching her to not bully her little brother. It’s been 8 months now with her being put on leash and play ending whenever she bulldozes her little brother and it doesn’t seem to be affecting her behavior at all.

Both of them play well with other dogs and are receptive to corrections from other dogs, but they don’t ever correct each other so they are absolutely insane when playing together.

We have a one year old border collie and I've recently noticed inappropriate behavior toward my seven year old male mix breed. The border collie will growl or snap at my older boy if he approaches me or if I'm giving him attention. If I call my older boy, he gives him a kind of hard stare so my older boy won't approach me and will turn around and go the other way. They used to be just fine with being in the same space as me and even used to lay together on the couch sometimes. The BC would lay in my older dogs crate with him and sleep/play with toys together. They literally slept next to each other on the bed with us and our BC was laying with his head on our older dog. With this recent behavior our older dog is mostly isolating in his crate (he's older and likes to sleep in there most of the time anyway, but he's staying in there now during times when he'd usually come hang out with us, like after dinner). He will come out and hang out with us if the BC is crated, and last night he laid next to the couch we were on while the BC and beagle were in the couch.

This behavior does not apply to my five year old beagle, I can pet both of them at the same time and interact with her as normal with no interference. He still cuddles with her and plays with her as normal. He does sometimes get jealous when my husband is petting her but not as severe as what we are seeing with our other male dog.

Is this gender related? Is it something to do with dominance? Our BC just turned a year but both he and our older dog are neutered. Our older dog does not engage in any aggression with our BC even though he is bigger and could objectively put the younger boy in his place if he wanted to.

From what I've read online, I understand that it's bad to either try to reassure my BC (as this could reinforce the guarding behavior) or to punish him for it. I am having a hard time finding anything on this specific type of situation since it seems to be primarily directed at my older dog, not all dogs at large. To be clear, I do intend to consult on this with a coworker who is a certified dog trainer, but I won't be able to for a few days and I am hoping to gather more information in the immediate to make sure I am handling this situation thoughtfully and appropriately. I really appreciate any constructive thoughts or information anyone is able to share with me.