Category: Top Dog

Hi all – looking for ideas. On Dec 26th we’ll be driving two hours to our breeder to get a golden retriever pup. We have a 4 year old golden now and she’ll be the aunt!)

Looking for creative ideas to tell my two kids on Xmas. Whether we wrap a collar with her name on it, or we pretend we’re going somewhere else on the 26th.

I’m bringing a 10-week old toy poodle tomorrow. She’s not fully vaccinated so I don’t want outside yet. I also do not want to use pee pads because I want the transition to outside potty to be easier when the time comes.

After doing some research, I think I’m going to do this:

Alfalfa pellets at the bottom of a litter box, fake grass on top. The alfalfa pellets smell like grass and the fake grass will give her used to the grass feeling.

Any thought on this approach?

getting my new shih tzu soon. i just got a playpen and was wondering if crates are really necessary. my playpen just has its bed, pee pads and bunch of toys and it’s bowl. should i get a crate too?

Trying to decide between a Berner or Swissie and was wondering if anyone had experience or opinions that might help my decision? Thanks for any help!

For context, we have a rescued GSD mix that we rescued when she was 6 months old and is now 6.5 years old. She’s a great dog, great with kids, listens, etc but ever since about a year ago she won’t stop jumping and opening doors in the house. Even if it’s locked she will claw at it and has almost made holes in drywall. She can’t be in a kennel due to she broke the last one in many places trying to escape. She tore her CCL in July and we are using home remedies for her as we cannot afford another $5k+ bill. Any tips or advice on what we can do to stop these behaviors??? I have to take lunch some days at 11 am to race home because she knocked the gate down and opened the door to the garage. We live in the Midwest so she cannot just be outside all day every day as it’s too cold out. I’m just at a loss and my husbands instant fix is to euthanize her due to her health issues (her CCL tear does bother her now with the cold) and these behavioral issues but I just can’t give up on her.

We adopted a senior pug about a week ago from the humane society and she has been holding her pee for 24 hrs each day. I take her outside every hour during the day for 15-20 minutes but she will only go pee once. I took her to the vet yesterday and they were concerned about it but didn’t give any advice for it. She eat and drinks completely normally and is still active. I’m just truly at a loss for what to do because that can not be comfortable holding your pee that long.

I’m looking for some advice because I’m navigating a new situation with my dog and want to set her up for success. My dog is a small Cavalier (3) who is generally very sweet, smart, food-motivated, and does great at the groomer and her regular vet.

Last year she had to go to the ER vet that seems to have made her more unsure when someone enters our house, especially when I’m home. She barks at first and needs a few minutes to feel safe, but she does eventually warm up once things are calm and I’m not in the mix. Or if I keep her on her place, she’ll bark a few times and wag her tail SUPER excited for me to let her off (not an anxious wag, an excited wag) I’m learning as long as no one reaches towards her to pet and respect her safe, she is able to stop barking and learning that she can simply walk away.

Here’s the situation: I have an event coming up and none of my usual sitters are available. I’ve never used a brand-new sitter since her ER incident, so I honestly don’t know exactly how she’ll respond. She will need someone to come to the house, let her out of her crate once, clip her leash to her collar (she’s an escape artist, so I’m avoiding a step-in harness), take her out for a quick potty break, and then put her back in her crate with a treat. No petting or handling is needed beyond clipping a leash.

My concerns are that she’s wary of hands reaching toward her if she’s overwhelmed (she has air-nipped before) and I want to make this as stress-free and safe as possible for both her and the sitter. Before this she has had a handful of random people watch her and she’s been excellent.

What’s the best way to introduce her to a new sitter so the sitter feels confident and she feels safe? Does a short paid “test run” or meet-and-greet usually help in these situations? Again – she is excellent at groomers, vet, etc. Anywhere where I am not.

Any advice from trainers or people with anxious/shy dogs would be so appreciated. I just want to do this right and keep things low-stress and safe for everyone. Have worked with many different trainers to find what works for us and although I feel confident handling her, I am unsure of how she’ll be alone (with my moms dog who could care less) with a new sitter. I’m thinking a few stop by, give her treats, repeat kinda moment. This really stresses me out so please nothing unkind. 🥲 Thanks so much!

We have a 16 week old beagle. She was really good about whining when she has to go potty and being let outside. We would take her out every 2 hours.

The last two weeks it went backwards tho. She has only been using the restroom on my couch and when we take her out she just wants to play. We have a fenced in backyard we let her and the other dogs use the restroom and play around but lately its just been play time for her outside. Im not sure what to do to stop this behavior. We had her outside for over 20 mins and she immediately went in and pooped on the couch.

Hi so I have a 9 year old pit mix. She is amazing and is great with people. I recently got a cat (back in July) who she seems to be ok with but is having issues as well.

A little back story on my pup. I adopted her from a shelter when she was about a year old. She was great at dog parks and she lived with a second dog that my dad got 8 months after we got her. They got into fights at first but worked it out and were best friends. When my father passed I was able to adopt the other dog out as I moved in with my mom who already had another dog. He was also a pit. They got along great never had any issues. When I moved in with a ex boyfriend we got a puppy together. There was a Incident with food that she attacked the puppy resulting in needing to get the puppies eye removed. They never had a issue after that. When we broke up my ex took the ( a year and half after this incident) he kept the puppy and I kept my dog.

After the fact she was a only dog for a good amount of time and I didn't take her to any dog parks. At the time she was living with a cat who she got along great with.

When we moved my friend took her for a night and bit my friends dog on her head when she entered my dog's kennel where there was food (yes we know she is food aggressive with other animals and I've been keeping food away from other animals since the day I got her.) after this I was worried that she would hurt another animal and kept her where she couldn't. My mom would take her and tell me she was getting along great with 2 dogs she was around.

Now on to today. There has been 3 instances since I've gotten the kitten. The first was for sure food and was 100% on me. I let my dog sit by me on the couch while I was eating and the cat walked my. My dog corrected him but he did get marks on his face that bled. We did take him to the vet and he was 100% ok and just got some meds for swelling. Since then she has been a lot better about this and we have made it a point to keep her away from us while we eat. The second incident happened while we were sleeping. It seemed like my cat hit my dog in the muzzle while she was sleeping between us on her back. She got scared and flailed her arms hitting my cat in the face. He didn't really get hurt besides a mark above his eye from her nails. Again we got him checked by the vet who said he was 100% good.

Now my dog did break her dew claw this week and we have been keeping a eye on it. She doesn't like anyone touching it as she starts to do nervous licks and growls when I look at it. I'm not sure what happened as I didn't see it today since it happened behind me but my dog and cat got in to it again today. This time my cat got cut above the nose and down the cheek. I'm not sure if my cat walked between her legs and hit her dew claw and she clawed him or if it was because there was a bag of trash near by. (From the looks of it, seems to be the dew claw) My question is where do I go from here? I Iove them both and I don't feel like my dog has any aggression towards the cat at all besides these instances. My boyfriend doesn't want to give away either animal but I don't know if this is something a trainer could help with or what I should do. Any advice would help alot.

Also I did call the emergency vet for my car and they said my cat will be fine to go to the vet tomorrow and shouldnt need stitches. Also probably going to take my dog in for her dew claw.

Our 1.5 year old big boy is a Great Dane and black mouth cur mix. He’s the sweetest and goofiest dog that we love very much. He has had a traumatic past and is afraid of all new things and easily overstimulated in new environments. He has been a good dog up until recently when he started digging in our backyard (which is a decent size for him) when we’re not home. We’ve gotten him toys and a lick puzzle but he doesn’t seem to enjoy them much by himself. We’ve taken him to the holes when we got home and showed him why we were upset with him. He didn’t like it but he stopped digging for about two weeks and now he’s back to digging when we’re not home. When we try to take him to see the holes he digs he starts peeing himself and crying/flipping out when we try to guide him to the holes so we can’t properly show him what he did wrong. He knows he’s in trouble but I feel like I’m traumatizing him more. What do we do? Why does he do it?