Category: Top Dog

I’ve gotten a message from them via Instagram for my dog. However, when I looked them up online, I hadn’t found anything of value except for a website.

We have a new one year old shepherd mix who seemed relatively house broken when we got him, or at least no accidents for the first 3 or 4 days. But now he's had two accidents for some reason. The last one was especially weird because we had just come in from a walk and he must have peed at least twenty times or more, but it's always only just a tiny drizzle. He was getting a little wound up playing with tennis balls in the house with us when he suddenly stopped mid play and just peed a much larger amount, no leg lift like usual. Not sure if he got over excited or what. Is there any way we can encourage him to actually empty his bladder outside rather than just marking everything? I've been rewarding the outside peeing but he's obviously not actually emptying his bladder. But he's had no trouble going through the night like 9 hours without peeing and he does the same thing when I take him out in the morning, just tiny amounts of pee a million times. So I have no idea when to take him back inside.

My 18 m/o female lab is, of course, a Very Good Girl. On leash – short, long, retractable – she comes whenever I say 'come.' We have trained a lot that way. When she knows it's a training session and that I have treats and she's off leash, she always comes when I say 'come', even though she knows she won't get a treat every time. We have trained a lot that way, too.

BUT when she's not on the leash and it's not a training session, she has more selective hearing. In the woods, a yummy smell might make her less interested in me. First time on a walk that she does that the leash goes back on and she's fine with that. In the house, even, when it's time for her last walk of the night – she knows the routine and it's the same time every night – sometimes she just looks at me when I call her. As soon as my hand is on her collar when she doesn't come she gets up and happily follows along.

Do I need to start over with a new word, since she has figured out that when she ignores me there's no terrible consequences? Or is there something else I could be doing to get her to be more responsive to 'come'?

If it matters, she is a poster child for responding to other commands, like sit and down.

My girlfriend has had her dog since he was a pup and never got him trained too well. He’s been a crate dog, and since living with me i’ve paid for dog training sessions weekly over the last few months. He’s typically a very hyper but submissive dog, but never aggressive. He never barks or growls at people. The training has helped us learn how to teach him commands, and get him to listen to commands better, but for some reason he is becoming more aggressive when seeing people or animals on walks (he used to ignore them), the more we train him. It’s like the submissive side of him is going away and becoming more aggressive in turn. Our trainer says we need to do more with him, but we are doing more than he’s ever done before and it’s only making it worse. I’ve read the wiki, i’ve spoken with the trainer, and i’ve looked up other answers as well, but nothing seems to fix or explain why his behavior is becoming worse when his living arrangements are becoming better. He’s less fearful than ever, which makes us think him being afraid kept the aggressiveness in check but that is NOT what we want or ever went to go back too.

Backstory: I have a Aussie puppy (8months) who is quite the jumper and escape artist. I currently have a not so great fenced yard it is too short even with some makeshift improvements to make it taller. Due to this fence being in the front yard it is harder to replace the fence and make it higher due to bylaws. Originally I was going to make gates on either side on my house so she could use the backyard but unfortunately she has found yet another flaw with my back gate where she can squeeze her little body underneath it. (Gate will eventually be fixed cause it’s already broken from a windstorm.) Also before any questions about her being in the front yard the front yard has the majority of the grass and the backyard is mostly cement and rocks. Working on a fix but I’ve only lived in this place for a year and she was an unexpected surprise

Question: Anyways I’m looking at way she could still be outside but without risk of jumping the fence. And please don’t say train because I am. I am outside with her monitoring and even have her in training class but I do live on a busy road with lots of people and dogs that walk by. I do also have two other dogs so I don’t want to be tangling them if I had to leash her.