Category: Top Dog

Hi, I'm at my wits end and need some guidance and advice.

Our puppy just turned 7 months old and for the last few days she has had some weird behaviour changes that I don't understand.

– She gets these sniffing frenzies where she's nose to ground sniffing like she's hunting something. This happens after and before toilet breaks, so we don't really know why.

– she also started begging and is very focused on food.

– ‼️ The one that I'm struggling with though is she would poop on the carpet in the living room… this is with the backdoor open. She would go outside and then come back in to poop. She is potty trained and has always has access to the garden.

I've read she might be in heat, but then why the pooping. I don't know what to do anymore, can anyone please give some advice as to what is going on and how to handle it. Please!

Hey all. We just got a 8 week puppy beagle and she is amazing. However, she doesn't like her pen. The moment we put her in she'll start whimpering and howling. She jumps up onto the pen and does everything she can to push through, she even begins to bite through it where I think she is hurting herself.

I was working from home today and tried to ignore her to see if she will settle and she did a couple times once I put her crate (which she sleeps all night in perfectly). But my last meeting of the day she was going nuts to the point I had to take her out and put her on the couch next to me. We have the couch close to the pen so she can see us, but are we doing this right? I worry ignoring her until she settles and falls asleep may be traumatizing her.

We've got toys, her water and food in there to try and make it a safe place. But after the last time I feel horrible and now I feel she isn't as affectionate with me. I could be overthinking.

Anyways, I just want to be able to put her in the pen when we have meetings or whatnot where we can't watch her.

We have a 7 month old shih tzu puppy and had her since 4 months old. Shes crate trained and spends a lot of time in there and we take her out periodically for play, exercise, training, feeding and etc. She has always been pretty quiet when we come home from going out. She used to also be quiet in the crate when guests come into the house. But the last two times when we had guests over, she started whining as soon as they entered the door. Today she was whining for 45 minutes wanting to come out and play when guests came over and we had to put her upstairs which was embarrassing. What are some suggestions to train her to stay chill in the crate when guests come over and greet them with calm manners when shes let out?

My plan is to desensitize her to people coming in and out of the front door when shes in the crate. Have someone come play the guest role and come in and out of the house to desensitize her. Move her crate to another room away from distraction when she whines and moves it back to the living room when she behaves. Any other suggestions?

Pretty sure my five month old lab is teething. Haven't seen any teeth around but have seen some blood on toys, gums look irritated.

For the past couple of weeks it's been confusing to get her to eat. Sometimes she would eat her kibble fine (I assume the gum tenderness comes and goes), other times she'd eat kibble softened with water no problem. We bought a few cans of wet dog food over a few days where she was really not eating much and the novelty seemed to work to get her eating.

But this past couple of days she won't even eat the completely softened kibble. I just gave her a can of wet food and she gobbled it down. I was trying to get her to eat the softened kibble first because I don't want her to get too used to the wet food and only want that going forward lol. I even mixed a bit of peanut butter into the softened kibble and I know how she loves peanut butter.

She has been eating this kibble no problem for at least a month before this change. She would get so excited for meals as I put the bowl down, etc. So I find it hard to believe she suddenly doesn't like it?

My 7/8 month old puppy is great, he just takes a super long time to settle/chill out outside of his crate. He still nips and chews things and barks a lot. He gets lots of walks, chews and attention.

What can I do to improve his behaviour in the house? I know he won’t chill out for a while but I feel like I am going insane with the constant effort whilst working full time at home too.

Any advice would be appreciated. Really struggling as doing it all by myself and feel like a shell of myself compared to before. I know it will get better, just feels super hard right now.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice on my border terrier x dachshund puppy and going outside for the loo please?

Essentially, he will go to the door for the loo, we let him out, he does a wee then comes back in. Maybe a minute or two later, he wants to go back out then will do another wee or a poo.

He does this like 4+ times a day, i can’t tell if he just doesn’t realise he needs to go to the loo at the time initially going or if he is trying to pull a fast one and get more treats instead of one for going to the loo(we don’t give treats for these instances anymore but still praise for going outside).

I think it partly could be our fault as when we were really honing in on the toilet training we would give him a treat most times he went to the loo outside and lots of praise. Am I overthinking this or is there anyone who has had similar experiences? Are there any tips on how to get your puppy to do all their ‘business’ in one garden trip instead of multiple?

Thank you!

I have three labs, one 7 month old female and two 5 month olds one male and one female. Ive noticed between the females their play is pretty relaxed but between the older female and the male they tend to play rougher and more intensely; now they do reset often and any growls are always playful and non aggressive but I have noticed they have start to have hierarchical disputes and the older female has picked a pattern of collar pulling. I’m sure this is a habit that should be quickly taught out but I’m unsure how and to what degree should I intervene since I do believe the dogs working out their hierarchical status isn’t inherently a problem.

I have a 5 month old mini schnauzer. She is my first dog and I have found having a puppy pretty overwhelming at times. She is doing really well though & is too smart for her own good.

What should a puppy be able to do at 5 months? I think our training has got a bit repetitive & I am worried that I am not giving her enough mental stimulation.

She can do sit, down, middle, spin & recall without distractions. We are working on place & leave it (doing well with a pile of kibble on the floor). Drop it has been difficult and I don’t feel we are making much progress.

Loose lead walking is a bit of disaster. She is not keen on walks so I am just happy to get her out & let her sniff about at the moment but again as concerned that I am setting us up for future problems.

We recently took home a dorgi pup and she’s a wee cutie pie. My parents have a cockapoo with a very .. frantic? energy – she calms down, but is a very hyper dog for greetings and jumps up a lot. My parents get super offended when I react or make suggestions, but I really don’t want our new pup learning bad habits or being jumped on. She’s a real sweet dog and there’s no malice, so I think she’ll be very loving to the pup but I want to make sure we do the introduction properly. So far they have only met while pup was in the sling.

So I’ve only really known crate training to be done for night time – not during the day. We have a playpen with some toys and a pee pad and the crate open during the day and she is in there when I need to get stuff done or if my toddler is being hyper. We have some toddler classes in the morning which last 1.5 hours max. I was going to leave her with the crate open and her having access to the playpen for this time when we’re out, and have her in the crate closed at nighttime. Does this sound ok? Or should she be in the crate while we are out?