Category: Top Dog

Hi!

My name is Johanna Grondin, I am currently undertaking the Bsc (Hons) Animal Training and Performance programme at Hartpury University.

I am doing a study looking at dog owner perception and management of the sensory loss of their dogs in the United Kingdom (U.K.). This would deepen our understanding of owners of a sensory impaired dog and allow professionals to better support them.

This questionnaire should not take more than 20 minutes to complete.

Please note, this questionnaire mentions potentially sensitive topics such as illnesses, previous pets, and pets in their senior years.

To qualify for participation, participants must:

• Be 18 years old or over.

• Reside in the UK.

• Currently have or have had a dog with at least one sensory impairment (impairment of vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste or balance).

• Confirm that they have read the participant information.

The survey is anonymous.

This survey is not to be taken as training or medical advice.

You can find more information and the survey by following this link: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/sNPEWAwVHr

All participation and sharing of this link are greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration!!

Johanna Grondin

It gets better it gets better it gets better. I know I’m probably in this sweet spot at 5 months where my pup hasn’t tip toed into teenage boy zone, but already my life feels way more regulated than when I got him at 8 weeks.

Anyways. It gets better! You can do this alone! And chat gbt is surprisingly helpful.

I have a soon to be 6 month old Golden Doxie and we got her when she was 5 month old.

Her precious person did a pretty good job with her as she slept in her pen from the first night she came home. She does however have some separation anxiety when she can sense us in our own room while she’s in her pen in the living room.

So on her second day, we started to just let her be with us in our bedroom while we work and she’s been pretty content playing on her own and still getting into her own mischief.

What I realise though, is that if I put her in her pen while I lay on the bed in my bedroom (she can see our bed from where her pen is) she’ll whine and cry and bark. But if I let her into our room and I take a nap, she’ll nap below the bed around my side of the room.

It’s super cute to me but I’m not sure if this is good training? Or should I really just put her back in her pen to get her more used to being in there in the afternoon?

Hi all,

Dog: Poppy, maltipoo, female, 3lbs, dob 10/13/2025

My girl Poppy is turning four months old on the 13th this month, and I am under the impression that she has perhaps started her teens early?

Yesterday from 4-6am she suddenly began crying/barking and scratching in her crate. I took her to potty but she just sat there and stared off. She has not behaved this way in several, several weeks as I thought we got crate training down wonderfully. At 11 weeks she was sleeping through the whole night and it stayed that way till last night. Now, it’s 11:30pm as I type this and she’s been crying/barking and scratching the same way. All of her needs have been met, there are no problems in the crate; she is simply busting my chops. And it doesn’t help that her bark literally pierces my ear drums, it is absolutely deafening. Moreover, earlier today she was laying in there just fine while I was away (watched her through the camera).

To some, two nights in a row might mean nothing, but for a pup that would automatically shut off once she got in her crate to suddenly act this way, I’m not wasting any time.

Did I get a girl with the case of early teens?

Hey all! For those of you with small breed puppies, what time are you feeding them?

I have a 4 month old Shih Tzu/small poodle/Chihuahua puppy. He's about 6lbs. Previous owners were only feeding him twice a day due to their jobs (also the reason they gave him to me). I've been feeding him 3 times a day at 7:30 am, 1:30pm and 7/7:30 pm. Is 12 hours too long between his last and first meal of the day? I keep reading stuff online that the last evening meal should be around 5pm but also that small dogs can become hypoglycemic very easily so I'm not sure how I could feed him dinner meal earlier without risking hypoglycemia.

He goes to sleep around 8:30/9pm and it's impossible to keep him up later than 9pm. He wakes up around 5:30/6am but tends to cuddle with whoever in the family gets to him first with zero attempt for food and I haven't noticed signs of hypoglycemia.

I took my puppy out to potty at our apartment complex and there’s cement mixed with grass in the area. He got the zoomies and was tangled up in his leash so he’d jump and fall on the cement that happened twice and then on the third time he rolled over and fell on his head. He doesn’t seem to be in any pain but I’m so worried he’s about 13 pounds. Should I take him to the vet tomorrow morning or Monday morning or just monitor him?

Our pup loves to have a collection of things out in the yard. Most of the things he has right now def do not belong outside. Any recs for relatively weatherproof, durable stuff?