Category: Top Dog

My wife and I adopted a 5 month old golden retriever / red setter cross who is a parvo survivor, so she has sensitive tummy. She also really enjoys pulling out dead plants, eating plant stalks/stems, etc from anywhere she can find them – which make her tummy upset.

Unfortunately we don't have access to an enclosed run, so for now we are forced to keep her on leash and monitor her pretty closely around any gardens that we know she is attracted to.

Curious if anyone has any tips? We're practicing "leave it" , but we are still in the early stages of practicing in home with few distractions. We'd like to give her more opportunities to run off leash, but we don't want to risk her gut health either.

Thanks!

I’ve called my stepsister (who is hosting our Christmas get together) and already discussed with her the fact that Nova (born Aug 7, 2025) is not yet housetrained. I’m doing all the appropriate training at home, I just don’t expect her to be perfect or even close to perfect in 11 days. My stepsister is okay with her not being trained and has commented that we can clean up any messes that happen. I’d like there to be no messes to begin with! But I also don’t want to be chasing her around all afternoon and evening. I’d like to be able to spend some time socializing. I’m not saying I want to pawn her off completely, but I want to pawn her off a little bit? There will be about 20 people around and several other dogs

What I’m thinking of doing is to collect all my nieces and nephews (7-20) and tell them that anyone who gets a picture of her peeing or pooping outside gets $5 per event. Is this a fair ask?

I absolutely love my furball whippet of 12 weeks called Leia but sometimes she can be so much.

Most days I rarely get more than a couple hours to eat, hygiene and "relax".

I'll be honest I've had moments in which I'm worried this is how she'll be forever eating everything from wires, clothes, shoes the whole lot!! And feel like rehoming her.

Luckily I do at the same time know this is the sleep deprivation and stress talking than me, in the end of the day I love her and she has improved a lot of my life in many ways.

I hope one day when she's more calm and relaxed I'll look back with a smile and laugh.

so we’re still working on potty training our 5 month mini dachshund. She’s a little menace, but very sweet and all other training is going really well. Sit, responding to her name, leave it, she has a great response to and has a solid food drive for it, which has been helpful.

The problem is that only once has she given us a very obvious que that she needs to go outside. If we take her out 8/10 she’ll pee (still refuses to poop outside but doing our best considering it’s winter). The one time she gave an obvious one she sat on her puppy bad a sniffed herself, and stared and lightly whined which was great. We marked, rewarded and immediately took her out and she went.

She hasn’t done it since, and she’s a very interested puppy. As in she will be contained to one small spot in the yard for 20 minutes and still being sniffing like it’s all brand new. That’s the same with her in the house, and I’ve tried watching her very closely to see the difference between intrigue and searching for a place to go and I can’t see any difference. What do we do?

Should we start bell/button training her with potty time? (as in ringing a bell or pressing a button when we bring her out to potty so she learns to interact with those when she needs to go)

My dad is getting a new silver lab girl tomorrow and basically what the title says I just need advice, such as what I need to buy and just about anything really. Thanks in advance!

Sorry if this is too long, I just needed to get all the details down! I (33 F) have a 10 month old male Wirehaired Vizsla and I love him to bits. He started humping as soon as he got home at 9 weeks, and eventually the behaviour reduced with redirection or nap time in his crate. However, he began to get noticeably stressed/anxious if he felt confined (barking nonstop, drooling excessively, refusing to settle) as time went on and eventually I gave up using his crate as a “chill zone” as he became more anxious in it than out of it. I know I should start to retrain crate training but he freaks out at any form of confinement, be it in his crate, or in my bedroom (although he is fine in my living room and car boots etc).

Now that he’s in adolescence, the humping behaviour has returned and it’s driving me insane. I’m disabled (I am a wheelchair user mainly- I can walk but am a high fall risk- but I also have a bike attachment to take him further out than I’d manage otherwise), and now winter is here my dad takes him out most days for 1-3 hours for an off leash walk in a forested area. I will also take him out to the park for some off leash time, fetch and leashed walks if my dad isn’t available. He is an assistance dog prospect and he’s picking up training incredibly (I had to pause for a bit but we’re back to training again now).

But – the humping!!! His humping behaviour always gets worse when I’m on my period (now) and the week before. It only happens at home and only first thing in the morning or in the evenings/before bed. Because he freaks tf out if I crate him, my current “solution” is to leave the room and wait for him to calm down. That’s difficult though because of my mobility. I’ve tried ignoring the behaviour, or using the command “down” (which he definitely knows!) but he just gets more frustrated and starts nipping and biting. I’ve tried redirecting to a toy, a puzzle or a kong, or doing some training and waiting until he’s calm and praising him but as soon as my guard is down he’ll start again. I’ve been training “settle” and “calm” for when he gets overstimulated (and also as an assistance dog command), but they don’t seem to work when he’s in that mood! I’m all out of ideas.

It’s got to the point where I can predict my period cycle based on his behaviour. I don’t want to neuter him until he’s at least 18 months as although he’s not a “large” breed, compared to his sire he’s still got a lot of growing to do!

If anyone has any advice it’s more than welcome! Please no comments about my disability/ his breed requirements, I’m fully aware that they are very active dogs that need a lot of mental and physical stimulation. I bought him from my aunt who is a very well known professional breeder who vets people extensively before allowing them to get a pup from her (she is very invested in her pups). I used to be an outdoor instructor in mountaineering, climbing and paddlesports and am still an active person, but obviously having a disability has changed the ways I’m active and having my dog has brought more joy to my life than I thought possible after everything, especially with him doing so well with assistance tasks. I make sure to give him mental stimulation/training and plenty of naps during the day, me or my dad take him out every day for physical activity. He has adequate rest every night and is fully house trained. I just can’t deal with the humping!

Looking for a brand that has similar designs like Zeedog but based in the UK?

I also like Zeedog leashes the type my clip they use!

Guys what do you do when your dog won’t stop barking when you have visitors to the house? We have tried bringing him on a walk and meeting them on the way in, licky mats, snuffle mats etc. They all last for a finite amount of time and he starts the barking again.

It doesn’t seem aggressive, mainly just like he wants to be involved. But it makes the visits a bit uncomfortable for our guests as he is a 40kg greyhound. So not a small pup.

I have a 3-year-old pittie who LOVES blankets. Both cuddling up in them and unfortunately, nibbling on them in his crate.

I’m at a little bit of a loss for what to do because I want to make sure he has something warm in his crate (there is a gorilla dog bed in there as a base), but I also don’t want to risk health issues from him eating fabric. In the summer, we take the blankets out and it’s no problem because he’ll stay warm, but since he’s a pittie and doesn’t have a ton of fur, he needs an extra layer in there. Any advice?

Edit: His crate is in the bedroom, but he’s not above waking us up in the middle of the night when he gets chilly.

Edit 2: Thanks for the feedback everyone! I’ll take the blankets away. He has PJs I could try putting on him before bed to see how that goes.

Edit 3: Do NOT comment with crate training opposition. That is not what this post is about.