Category: Top Dog

Seeking wisdom. We have three dogs (two goldendoodles and a poodle, all standards) and a problem started within the past 6 months. We got a new dining table and now whenever we leave the house, two of our dogs (one doodles and the poodle) will get up and stay on the table nearly the entire time. It’s not comfortable – we have couches they are welcome to chill out on – so we really don’t know why they decided to start doing this. I thought it was to get a better vantage point to see out of our front window for us coming home, but despite closing the blinds, they continue the behavior. It’s also not food related as we never leave food on the table and they have never been counter surfers. I have tried training them with a shock collar where we “leave” and go a couple of houses away and train them through a camera. Usually just a tone or vibrate is enough to get them off, but then they just jump right back up after a couple of minutes. I’m considering buying a scat-mat but that will be a huge hassle to set up and dismantle every time we leave and come back to the house. Any advice? Or ideas of why this could be?

I have had my dog for over 7 years now. He is around 8, beagle shepard mix, 60lbs. He is well trained with the basic commands and is an overall well behaved dog.

Within the past few years, he has developed an obsession with water. Not swimming in it, not playing in it, but drinking it. We are no longer able to leave a bowl out for the other dogs. He will finish an entire bowl and beg for more. No, he is not dehydrated. I give him controlled amounts throughout the day. As time went on it has gotten much worse. He forces his way into the bathroom after a shower to lick the tub, he licks the ground after rajn or snow. I have a very small pond in the backyard from the previous owner and he is obsessive about climbing in to drink.

Outside of this, he listens to commands very well. If we are outside and he is getting into something he shouldn’t, a ‘leave it’ works just fine. If he is drinking/licking, there is no command that seems to work. I have taken him to the vet where they ran several tests and found no issues. He has a collar that beeps and vibrates to get his attention, both to no avail.

I am really struggling with how to handle this. Especially as it starts to snow, he is basically unable to focus on anything but licking the snow up to go to the bathroom. This ends up with me dragging him inside where he inevitably has an accident.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!

I took my 5 month corgi to the small dog park today because she’s always loving other dogs on leash so I thought hmm let’s give it a try. Well, when I went in it was just 1 other 10 month old puppy. Seemed to be going fine… then 2 more came and she got sooo scared. Hair up, snarling, growling and hiding inbetween me. We left within 3 mins. I then walked her around the entire dog park and rewarded treats the whole time. I’m so worried I made a big mistake with taking her there. I’ve never seen her act like that. I will never go to a dog park again so don’t tell me that please… just tell me how to build her confidence or tell me if this may make her aggressive now.

Hi everyone,

I hope this is the right forum to ask for some advice.

Sadly, we recently had to have our Shar pei crossed boxer put to sleep. She had been suffering from seizures for around 12 months and unfortunately this became unmanageable with the highest dose of medication. She was an incredibly sweet, albeit very stubborn girl. We rescued her at 2 years old and she passed at 13.

We are looking to welcome a puppy into our home. My preference would be a large breed dog. I like to do my research, and have gone down MANY rabbit holes around various breeds, mainly to check I can meet the individual needs of the dog to give them the best life.

I usually work from home and can get in around 2 hours of exercise with the puppy a day. On days I have to go into the office, they would be going to my mums home (which has a springer spaniel).

I understand that a lot is based on how well the puppy is socialised, but it is very important to me that I pick a breed which can blend into our family ( my close family have dogs and younger children) but also would like a breed that I feel comfortable walking at night alone. Having a dog in the home made me feel much safer, my previous dogs woof would of been enough for someone to think twice lol

As I say, I’m mindful that personality and breed are two separate things and how I raise and socialise the puppy will be a huge factor. I just wondered if anyone had any recommendations on a breeds?

Thanks so much in advance!

I just adopted a four month old lab. I bought her several rubber Kongs and Nyla bones. She is crate trained. I noticed her trying to chew my wood coffee table and wood couch legs. I calmly tell her no when I catch her doing this and give her one of her toys to chew and then praise her profusely. Does anyone know of any type of protectors for coffee tables and other wood furniture items like couch legs? Or maybe a homemade solution? She is not allowed to freely roam the home unattended, but I’d still like to use something to protect my furniture as a precaution.

We will be bringing home an eight week old golden retriever at the end of the month. We have two cats that can be anxious. We have a plan to keep the puppy in the empty guest room upstairs with her crate toys, etc., and slowly introduce the cats by exchanging scents, allowing them to see each other through the gate, slow introduction.

My question is, I know that it’s a no no to have the dog and cat see each other outside of organized “meets”. But to potty train the puppy, we will need to bring the pup downstairs and into the backyard through the back door. Our cats have free range of the whole house and have always been that way and I dont love the idea of wrangling my cats and putting them away each time we bring the pup out to go potty so wanting to see if there are other options.

Does anyone have any tips tricks or maybe just anything to put my mind at ease that if they see the puppy while we quickly bring it downstairs and outside that will be OK or will that ruin the socialization training between them?

Sincerely, an overthinking puppy mum x

I have a 4 year old corgi, who has been pretty much potty trained since he was a small puppy. However, I've noticed that even though I walk him at scheduled times, he doesn't really ever ask or give any cue to go outside anymore outside of those regular times. That would be fine, except for one specific scenario: If he needs to poop more urgently when something upsets his stomach. He has a sensitive stomach and this happens every few months, sometimes twice in a row until he feels better.

In those times, he just quietly goes to poop in the stairwell or in a random corner of the guest room. Until now, it has only happened at night, so I thought maybe his cues were just more subtle and didn't wake us up. But today he did this in broad daylight, just left the room and popped a squat one room over. I know he's not feeling 100% and probably doesn't have much warning of it himself, but he didn't even *try* to bark or go downstairs toward the front door or anything.

Is this something that can be trained? Like how do you re-train an adult dog to give a cue that they need to go outside? Or is it not possible to train in this scenario since he needs to go so urgently?

If you haven’t noticed, private equity firms are snapping up that practices all over the country. They are in increasing prices because they know people will pay.

This hurts animals in many ways; people are reluctant to adopt, and bring their pet in for treatment because of the exorbitant costs. Animals and people suffer and it’s wrong.

Did you know that Mars candy is the largest owner of vet practices in the country? They make $20 billion in profit and clearly it’s still not enough. I’ve had enough.

If I got enough support, I would take this all the way to Washington, I feel that strongly about it.

Would you support an initiative like this? Do you see any downsides aside from regular vets not being able to afford advanced equipment?

My rescue dog really loves chews but I’m struggling to find any good recommendations. He is 5 years old and 32kg, a unit of a boy so it needs to be a pretty strong chew. However we were advised by the rescue place not to give him large treats, like chicken feet for example because he has a tendency to not chew his food, so that needs to be taken into account. I don’t want large pieces breaking off bc he will absolutely swollen them without chewing. He doesn’t like any chew that doesn’t have a smell either, like you can get hard plastic ones, but he isn’t bothered about them. He’s only got one chew right now that I’m comfortable giving him (with supervision) all the rest I’ve tried I’ve had to remove because he’s chewed big chunks off😩

What coats would you all recommend for my boy Moose? He’s a 14 lbs Min Pin – Chihuahua mic (short-haired) and we live in Chicago where it hasn’t stopped snowing and windchills will soon drop into the negatives.

Just bought him some new Canada Pooch snow booties and was considering one of their puffers but I’ve also heard good things about Hurtta? Are there any other brands I should be looking at too?

I just want to make sure my little guy is warm! It breaks my heart seeing him shiver in his current coat.