Category: Top Dog

So we have an almost 9 week old beagle who is doing great for the most part. He sleeps at night from 8pm-1:30 i take him for a toilet break then from 1:30 – 6:30 am. We are also doing really well with enforcing naps too and he gets on well with sleeping in his crate.

HOWEVER, everything goes out the window just after he’s had his food (5:30pm). We want to eat our food around 6:30pm too and because his crates in the kitchen we put him in there just before but my word he doesn’t stop barking whining biting the cage- it’s relentless.

Now we don’t want the dog roaming around while we eat but don’t want him nearly breaking his jaws and barking non stop.And also we want to eat in peace…. what solutions are there for this. Was thinking at a licker mat but unsure how that holds up?

On Saturday (4 days ago now) I rescued an 8 month old border collie, she’s done fantastic so far! EXCEPT FOR POTTYING! I live in an apartment complex, and we have a dog park. I’ll take her out and release her in the park and stay out there for an hour and she will refuse to go and go in the floor the moment I bring her back inside. She has been extremely receptive to everything else except the potty routine! I take her out after every meal and after drinking, and she won’t go until we come back inside. She will only poo inside her crate if I’m not home. I know this could just be a situation because she’s in a new place but I want to nip this problem in the but.

I was walking with my dog in dark alley and heard another dog barking, my dog also started barking and just when I thought about turning around (I had no time to do that) I saw a dog running at us.

So what should I do to de-escalate?

Hi everyone,
I’m hoping this kind of question fits the rules. If not, I’ll remove it immediately.

I’m currently looking into different types of cooperative care and general support resources for dog owners. I know there are various organizations and programs out there, but it’s hard to figure out where to start.

I’m NOT asking for medical advice, diagnoses, or any financial support.
I also won’t mention any health conditions, treatments, or vet-related details.

I’m simply trying to understand:

• what kinds of non-medical support programs exist for dog owners,
• where people usually look when they need logistical or practical assistance,
• any general guidance on navigating support organizations for pets.

If this topic isn’t appropriate here, please let me know.
Thank you for your time. 🐾

To start, I love my dog. She’s definitely gotten easier as she’s gotten older. Shes about 1.5 years old, super smart and fun. It does get better.

My friend got a dog (6~month old small breed mix), and I came over today and let her outside and played a bit with her. Oh my god. This dog is so gentle. Teeth aren’t nearly as sharp as mine was at that age. Plays with a toy not her mouth. Well behaved. pretty chill. Her only issue is some separation anxiety that my friend is working on with her.

but wow. It really was eye opening. My dog was a demon at that age. Really until she was a year old. She still is sometimes. But she’s a high energy mix. i went on hard mode and my first dog is a mix of German And Australian shepherd, Australian cattle dog, and border collie. Endless Energy. Super mouthy. bitey. Stubborn. Smart. wants to herd. Needs a TON of exercise and mental stimulation. i had days when she was a puppy where I would cry because my arms were covered in bruises from her biting, I was overstimulated because she ate my shoe and wouldn’t stop barking at me, and tried to herd me on our walk. And again, she’s gotten soooo much better, we’ve done a ton of training. I used to feel like people thought I was crazy when I told them I had to work my dog 1-2 hours a day and do professional training once or twice a week. Now I realize I was talking to people with chill dogs lol.

So yeah. All puppies are hard. But people aren’t kidding when they warn against certain breeds over others if you aren’t prepared.

Hi, we recently adopted a 4 month old male German Shepherd. We’ve been working with crate training and potty training since we got him a little over a month ago. He’s so timid, he had no socialization when we got him. We take him out every hour, he still pees his crate full, it never fails. We limit water after 6pm. He also cries in his crate, even though we reward him when he goes in it. We have a 4 year old female shepherd, and she is trained, but he doesn’t seem to follow that. Any advice would be appreciated.

I adopted my miniature Dachshund puppy when she was 6 weeks old, she has been with me for 4 weeks now. Her mommy dog abandoned her, so that is the reason I adopted her at 6 weeks instead of the usual 8-10-12 weeks.

Every day, she sleeps, wakes up with chaos, sleeps, wakes up with chaos, sleeps, wakes up with chaos. And before every nap, she screams and cries.

I can't hold her properly, I can't have any calm moments with her, she a a furry ball of chaos.

I tried:
-Benchtraining (disaster)
-Putting her in a pen (disaster but, better) (Make the pen as small as posible)
-Putting a blanket over the pen (which works very well! But also… to a certain limit)
-tried excersising her (Rough tug, throwing a ball)
-Tried small excersises (Sniffing game, find the treat etc)

I have rarely seen her calm.

She only has 3 modes:
-Insane Chaos mode
-I am trying to settle mode
-Sleep mode

TBH, I this is getting a bit out of hand. I was hoping for some, sweet 1 on 1 calm cute puppy moments. but the moment I sit down with her, it is "Chaos attack mode".

For now I am restricting her to the Pen and only with supervised visits in the living room. But I can only stay a few minutes in the living room before she gets overstimulated.

What overstimulates her:
-Going outside to pee/or poop (She barely pees or poops inside anymore. I potty trained her from day one with a good puppy schedule.)
-If I move one meter
-When she gets hungry
-Every sound ever
-if I breath

What is going very well?
The fun part, training overal goes very well!
She knows: her name, "sit", "bench", "Place", "Free", "Stay". She is very food driven.

Also socialisation is going very well.
She loves all humans and also wants to approach all dogs. She is very very kind and loving.

But getting her to calm her ass down, and self regulate? Impossible.

I still love her. But my life is kinda getting destroyed by her constant chaos.
What can I do?

I've had my labradoodle pup for just under 4 months now, she just turned 6 months on Monday.

It seems like it's always 1 step forward 2 steps back. My daughter lives half the time with me and the puppy causes so much stress in the house that she doesn't even want to be here. We just can't get any sort of traction going.

The dog had zero accidents in the house after the first week home until a couple of weeks ago, and has now peed twice in the house (not long after a proper outside bathroom break) since then. At the same time I'm sitting here with her in her crate all morning because she's refusing to go to the bathroom outside after now almost 5 hours since her last pee.

I haven't been able to sleep past 6 am since she's been home. I've cut down on enforced naps, started keeping her up hours later in the evening, and I'm still getting woken up at 5-530AM every day.

There is no joy in this house, it's all stress and I just don't know what to do anymore. If I give her up I feel like I've failed my daughter, and if I keep her I feel we'll always be miserable here.