Category: Top Dog

Hey all.

My 5 month old Labrador has had his last chance at the vet before drastic measures have to be taken. This is his third induced vomiting since we got him at 2 months as well as having a full foreign body abdominal surgery just two weeks ago.

He is currently in getting vomiting induced again after eating a balloon and a raisin in a timespan so short i couldnt even get into his mouth quick enough. Our vet has thrown in the towel and told us he will need to be muzzled in areas where ANY foreign objects are, INCLUDING GRASS.

I was wondering if anyone had recommendations for muzzles that are ethical for him to wear (not permanently, but a LOT). As well as ones that dont make him look mean? 🙁

Thank you for your assistance

Hi!

10 week old puppy who sleeps alright in her pen overnight but won't willingly take herself in when she's sleepy. We've been trying to get her more relaxed in her pen during the day and she naps in there if we put her on her bed when she's asleep but it she's slightly awake she'll get distressed and try and clamber out.

How long did it take for your puppy to learn to relax in their crate/pen? And take themselves to sleep by themselves?

Hey, everyone.

I brought home the most adorable 10 week old pup almost a week ago. He's super intelligent and is already picking up basic commands like sit, stay, etc, and although I still have a puppy pad inside to cover accidents, I take him outside regularly to the toilet and he does it no problem, so I feel like potty training him is definitely going in the right direction and he's learning really fast.

He also sleeps through the night without needing to go to the toilet and his bed is always dry, so he's very easy in so many ways.

Where I'm having trouble is using the clicker. I do tend to overthink details and worry that I'm not doing everything perfectly or exactly right, but I just can't seem to nail this and it's really stressing me out.

I started using the clicker for getting him to go "down" when he's trying to jump on the couch or annoy my older dog when she's no longer up for playing, as soon as I say "down", he sits down, waits for the click and then knows his treat is coming.

My first problem is, I feel like he now just expects a treat whenever I say "sit" "down" or "good boy" because I always say "good boy" when praising him after, and I can see the little cogs turning in his head whenever I say good boy for anything, so he looks at my pocket to see where his treat is.

He also does this when he does the toilet outside – that I don't mind so much because rather that than the house.

At what point will he learn that he doesn't get a treat simply for just sitting down normally, but that he has to stop doing something unwanted first? I also feel like I'm going to be stuck in the cycle of him doing something unwanted so that I will treat him for stopping, when I just want him to stop the thing he's doing full stop.

I know he's just a baby and I need to have patience, but on average, how long should I expect to keep using the clicker for this stuff and how many times a day should I be doing it?

This brings me to my other concern. I feel like the amount of treats I'm giving is too much if I'm having to use praise and treats for everything he does well.

If anyone can share any examples of their clicker training schedule and how you use it with treats, I would really appreciate it.

Am I stuffing my dog's toys incorrectly? I mix kibble, a little canned food and goat milk (for her digestion) together and put it in Kongs and Freezbones for Juneau and she has been scraping at the stuffing with her front bottom teeth. I am worried that the food being frozen solid might eventually injure her, wear her teeth out or even knock them out? Should I not just keep the toys in the freezer (I just make a bunch at a time and keep my freezer stuffed with them so I can take them out at a moment's notice). Should I only freeze them for a little bit of time so they're still kinda mushy frozen and not frozen solid? Should I make the filling less wet by taking out the canned OR the goats milk? or is it fine for her to do this behavior?

Hey All,

We recently adopted a 19 week old Jack Russell Terrier and are having a bit of trouble with her using the bathroom in the crate.

There are times where she has to be alone in the crate for 3-4 hours as everyone is at work. We try to limit food and water before these stints and take her out right before she goes in, but oftentimes the result is the same.

I know that limiting the crate size can help with this , but I don’t want to cram her in too tight of a space. Right now we have a fairly large crate that we use a divider in to make it smaller (see attached). Does this need to be made smaller in order to limit potty accidents? I realize 4 hours is pushing it in terms of bladder control.

I’m also considering buying a smaller crate that doesn’t have to be divided. Any suggestions are welcome and much appreciated!

Picture: https://imgur.com/a/SWWfao3

Before you attack me I had no idea of how unethical petland is and about all the puppy mills, I should’ve done my research. I went in and fell in-love with a little bull dog puppy and got him. But now I feel so sick after seeing all the terrible things about Petland and how poorly they treat their animals. Has anyone else been in the same situation? I just feel so guilty about it… I would’ve never gone if I knew how bad they actually are. 🙁

We have a 13 week old yorkie pup who we’ve had for almost a month now. We have a porch potty situation (turf/drainage bucket) that we initially had on the balcony of our high rise balcony (23rd floor), but then my area had the snow/ice storm about a week after we got him. We moved the porch potty situation inside for obvious reasons as well as the brutal hypothermia-level cold and he learned very quickly that’s where he goes potty. He goes up there during playtime and does his business all by himself. We very rarely have accidents and if we do, it’s a couple dribbles on a carpet after a stimulating day/socialization activity but we pick him up and he finishes on the porch potty. He’s also had a handful of accidents in the crate overnight which is a whole other story (he wakes up, pees, THEN signals to us)

Now that the weather is getting nicer and snow is melting, we want to move the porch potty back outside. We also want to get him to start signaling with potty bells we hung on the balcony door. My worry is that he’s gotten so used to doing it inside all by himself (we still lead/carry him there before/after naps, and after meals and playtime) that he will have issues transitioning to using the porch potty on the balcony again while we wait for him to be fully vaccinated. Other than the barking/whining in the crate signal, he really doesn’t signal to us during playtime or anything – he’ll just go and do it on his own if he needs to go.

Has anyone gone through this transition before specially with the turf/balcony set up, or is going through it now? Any pieces of advice or ideas on how to slowly transition him out there, then again transitioning him to learn to go outside when vaxxed? We plan to keep the porch potty on the balcony an option for him overnight. I’m fully aware we set him back by bringing the porch potty inside but negative degree windchill for a <3lb pup learning how to go potty was not sitting right with me. So here we are now. Appreciate any and all advice!

We have a gorgeous (and suspiciously smart) 18 week cocker spaniel pup. We have to keep her brain engaged because she’s so smart. One thing we’ve started doing, after our trainer put us onto it, is hand signals instead of verbal cues.

I think this is really effective, particularly for loud or chaotic spaces like near a road. She responds to hand signals so well, but we (humans) only know a few basics so far, so it got me wondering if there any useful signals you use with your pup?

I’ve had my puppy on Purina Pro Plan Salmon kibble since I brought him home at 10 weeks. He’s 7 months now and just 2-ish weeks ago he’s refusing to eat it.

I tried it with water, adding some peanut butter or yogurt, some toppers, different bowls… he just eats around it and leaves the kibble.

I thought maybe the bag went bad so I bought another new bag and same thing. So then I thought maybe I’d try a new flavour and same thing!

I know it’s not his appetite because he still happily eats treats, toppers, etc.

I’m not sure why he’s suddenly refusing to eat it. I’m thinking of picking up Hills Science later today in hopes he will like it better but I’m just confused why this sudden change in behaviour. I’m also frustrated that I have wasted puppy kibble now.