Category: Top Dog

Hey everyone.

My toy poodle puppy is a great little dog. We’re working on no barking right now. The worst thing is, she resource guards only high value items, like bones. Toys, other treats, not as much, but collagen chews she does. I accidentally gave her a full one and needed to take back the extra so she wouldn’t get sick and she growled and snapped. Not hard enough to break skin. That’s the scary part. I know she has restraint and doesn’t want to hurt me but it’s still scary.

She also growls and snaps lightly if I move her too many times in bed in a short period of time. But it’s also my bed, and I don’t want to get snapped at by an angry dog, even if it is just a very light snap, it’s still scary what it could turn into, and I don’t want to be scared of my dog.

Is this just a weird phase of growing up? Since she’s so sweet otherwise and after she’s done with the bone she comes over for pets and licks and after snapping in bed if I move in front of her she just licks my face and ears, so I know she’s not trying to be violent or aggressive.

What can I do to help it? Will she grow out of it?

Thanks everyone!

We have a small, kind of corridor-y house so anywhere my dog’s (whippet/lab mix, 33lbs) crate is ends up stinking easily. We’ve thought about having her not sleep in a crate at night (she seems to like it though) and we’ve thought about replacing her dog bed with a mat.

I would say we wash her bedding and blanket every 3 weeks, maybe not enough, and our smaller chihuahua also sleeps in her crate during the day.

Anyone have strong recommendations if we keep the crate? How often are yall washing bedding and bathing the dog?

The chihuahua sleeps in our bed, I fear another dog would be too much.

Not as serious as it sounds. My Belgian malinois has ate the same brand food for over a year. Just recently towards evening time he literally winds me with the most diabolical farts. It’s for about 2 hours. Me being newly pregnant, I can’t handle it anymore. I am also concerned about his health, and If this is something I should get checked out.

Can someone give any suggestions with my dog?

My 9 year old German Sheppard/austilian Sheppard went to the vet on the 20rh he tested her with 39.9 fever so they gave her an iv 3shots and 3 bottles of pills to take home. It is now the 22 and she refuses to eat treats,soft canned food and her hard food. As in this state she refuses to drink water and we tried to mix beef broth with it. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to get her to eat and drink?

Our great Pyrenees pup is super picky and very frequently refuses to eat. He seems fine otherwise. We ran tests on him and everything came back normal. He’s been like this ever since month 3. We’ve tried chicken and now lamb sensitive diet from purina pro plan. Any ideas why and how to fix this? He likes a new food to start and then changes his mind and wont eat it the next day or waits until late at night to eat.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I’m sorry, this is going to be super long but I’m a bit desperate.

My dog was essentially a stray before I took her in. She was passed around between multiple homes and everyone got to the point of saying “I’m going to put her down.” Finally, she made her way to me. She developed severe separation anxiety. I’ve been trying to work on this as much as I can but I’m struggling. Unfortunately, I’m not able to stay home all the time. I try to limit how much time I spend away from her but I have to leave the house sometimes, especially since I live alone. I have tried multiple things at this point. She has potty accidents, tears into the trash, etc. when I don’t crate her. With the crate, she tears the blanket off when I cover it with one. She destroys the plastic crate tray or the beds when I put those in there. She ignores her toys when I put those in there in favor of destroying anything else she can get ahold of. I give her calming treats or calming pupsicle but it’s like they don’t take effect until after I come home. She will pass out immediately after I get home and let her out. She’s a hunting breed of some sort, but I haven’t done a DNA test so best guess is a pointer. She has various “thinking toys” and recently got a “thinking” food bowl that she is still learning how to use. She goes on 2 walks a day but we live in a cold state and she is visibly shivering even with a sweater and jacket on. She also has been trained to use the treadmill to exert excess energy so I’ve been using that more lately. It does seem to be worse in the afternoon rather than the morning. For example, if I leave first thing in the morning then she does better than if I leave in the afternoon/evening. Google is saying that’s due to excess energy but I have tried to walk her or play with her right before I leave and I still see the same issues. I also have another dog, but he is fine with being left home alone. I’ve tried crating him, within view or out of view. I’ve left him free to roam, etc. Nothing regarding him seems to have an effect on her behavior.

Does anyone have any suggestions that I could try to help reduce her separation anxiety? I feel guilty going grocery shopping at this point, let alone to work or anything where I can’t bring them with me. I’m genuinely out of ideas and Google isn’t helping much anymore.

Does anyone else’s dog get all excited to see Xmas lights? She is a chihuahua and just can’t get enough of them. She literally strains herself up on the side of the door or that dashboard to see them.

Hello there! Title is pretty self explanatory but maybe I should give some additional context.

I have a 3 year old beagle. She has been with us since she was 8 weeks old. She is my first dog and so we worked with a trainer on the majority of the basics. She is a sweet girl who loves people, children and other dogs. She is reactive and we are still working on this. However, we are fortunate because her reactivity is due to her getting overly excited and wanting to say hi, rather than feeling defensive. (I know this because on walks if the recipient of her barking lets me approach, she chills out and takes the other dogs’ lead and soon as they are together.) This has been the hardest thing to train her on.

Our girl has always been clingy with a bit of separation anxiety, but my husband has always been her person. When we first found out I was pregnant, all the energy she had towards my husband was put towards me. She would not leave my side and has been extremely protective of me. It all felt normal, sweet, and like it was very obvious that she knew something different was happening with me.

Now I am in the third trimester and I’m noticing weird behavior towards my husband. For example, she has always LOVED kisses. When my husband comes to kiss my belly, or even lay near it… she will do whatever she can to get kisses from him, so that he won’t kiss me. In the past, she just waited her turn or laid on her back so I would pet her until we gave HER kisses. Now, she goes as far as even trying to step on my belly to get to him and she throws a pity party when we make her wait.

Also, in general, when my husband isn’t home, she has been paying attention to my commands less and barks at me more. She still is sweet towards me and cuddles, so I wouldn’t say it’s aggression. The best way to describe it is she is exhibiting some naughty puppy behaviors again with me but is also extremely clingy with my husband, in a way she hasn’t been in the past.

I’m not worried yet, but I’m not stupid to the fact that even though she sleeps most of the day, beagles have high prey drives and I have a baby on the way. We started socializing her with baby noises and carrying around a mock child to start getting her used to the idea of a new family member. What else should I be doing, especially when it comes to her overprotective nature towards my husband? At this point, should I be so concerned that I start working with a trainer again?

I don’t think she would ever hurt the kid, but anyone who has ever had a child attacked by their dog thinks that. I just want to make sure I do everything I can to ensure a smooth transition

Thanks you!

Hello all! I have a 1.5 year old male whippet at home who has historically been pretty good about potty training. Within the last 2-3 months though we have had some big setbacks. I’ll wake up to pee somewhere in my apartment (once or twice it has been in the same spot, but not all the time). I let him out right before bed and typically only sleep from 11pm-6am so not crazy long. The issue is, he’s absolutely SILENT. Don’t get me wrong, I love having a pretty quiet dog but this guy doesn’t let out a single sound- just goes and pees. I’ve tried the button that he presses for potty, but he never picked it up. I’ve now ordered bells to go on the door that he can hit for going out. Is there any other advice for what I should be doing? I don’t even hear him doing it in the night and just wake up to it- breaking point was this morning when I stepped in a large pile of it.