Category: Top Dog

My dog is kennel trained, and stays in the kennel, which is more than big enough for him, while I am at work, and has for the last 6 years, but in the last few months, he’s been tearing at his kennel and it’s causing the metal to bend and break in some areas (kennel was in decent shape before). We have no idea what could have happened to cause this change, but we’re open to any advice on what we can do about it.

I’ve been desensitizing my 6-month-old puppy on walks for 2 months now. He’s honestly very behaved whenever we come across people and dogs (at a far, respectable distance), so that’s something i’m proud of. He can engage, then disengage well and sharply listen to commands.

Well I forgot about his boundaries on our walk today and walked head-on (instead of turning away like usual) when we came across a person walking their bigger dog. He panicked, whined, and barked all at the same time which honestly made me REALLY embarrassed. He usually won’t panic as long as we’re at a good distance. 😭

He hasn’t done that in forever. I’m not mad at him at all, but more so at myself for forgetting and going past his threshold, but oh my god was it embarrassing. That’s all I guess???

I have a 3mo golden retriever and 5 cats, Cleo, my puppy wont stop barking at the cats and i dont know what to do. I think it comes from playfulness and i play with her with toys, walks, playtime outside on the long line, snuffle mat but she just cant leave the poor cats alone, what do i do???

We adopted our lab mix puppy about 10 days ago. She was 8 weeks so about 9 now. She slept essentially through the night immediately, she just wanted let out around 4-5AM. I currently have her crate on a small table next to the bed and put my fingers in when she cries. This has progressively decreased but is still happening 1-2 times a night.

I have fairly intense anxiety, especially at night so I’m thankful she’s been so easy (knock on wood) but I know I’ll sleep 1,000 better once her crate is a little further away.

Should I wait until those checking whines fully cease before I start moving her progressively further away? It seems a little “all or nothing” considering it’s touch that makes her feel better (I can either reach her or not) and I’m definitely afraid of regression.

I walk my dog early mornings and late evenings.
I’ve seen a lot of LED leashes recently and they look helpful for visibility…
Do they actually make a difference for safety?
Experiences? Recommendations? 🙏

Hi everyone! I imagine this is a common question this time of year but I’d love to get some input. Our puppy is 5 months (30 lbs) and we just spent a week at my parents place for Thanksgiving. They have a lovely family dog (who I’m quite bonded with)- she is 7 now and a gentle Labrador, who still likes to play between naps.

Our puppy is a good boy and does well at my home- even starting to settle a bit more and have some naps on the sofa with my husband and I. He loves other people & dogs, and also goes to daycare once a week with other dogs (where we understand he does well socially).

HOWEVER the week at home sharing a space with the family dog was chaos. Puppy is obsessed with her and cannot be in a room without trying to play with her (which involves some play biting and jumping etc). Family dog doesnt love this- she’s up for playing outside (which we supervise) and will set boundaries but come 4pm onward she’s tired and doesnt want to play (or to have a puppy jumping all over her). This has resulted in me managing the dogs- managing a pretty rigid schedule to keep them separated, puppy has to be crated a bit in the day to give everyone a break, and I don’t feel like I can really leave the house because having the 2 dogs out requires more than 1 person to manage (and I don’t feel like I can leave my parents with that).

Does anyone have any tips?? With Christmas combing up I don’t want to do another week like that! Thank you 🙂

Hi everyone~ my puppy is now 4 months old. I’ve had her since the beginning of October and I really have abused this Reddit community with my problems I’m sorry haha.

I have on and off again feelings of not doing enough for my puppy’s growth.

I mean.. I’ve taught her most basic commands and trying to prioritize on what’s really important. I’m keeping in mind socialization and generalization. She hasn’t had an accident in one week and she’s starting to cue for pottying. Shes been sleeping through the night since she got here, in face I set alarms to wake us up for a nightly potty.

She’s great and happy at the vet, been in car rides plenty of times and only whine for a few seconds in her carrier but she mostly just sleeps..

I keep focusing on areas I fell short.. I haven’t really been great at leash training her so I’ve been dedicating myself to that this week. Right now I can clip it on.. and she can walk a few steps at a time with treats to lure but she does chew and bite it. Shes been reactive the last 2-3 weeks and barking at many things.. she jumps away if I try to pick her up.. I only do this if I need to move her I don’t try to hold her for longer than 1 min at a time. She does resource guards.. leave it is pretty useless unless we are in a training session and she doesn’t respond well if I throw it yet.. GAH I’m just rambling now

Idk guys I just feel like I’m falling short. Even with socialization sometimes I feel so overwhelm like there’s so much to teach a puppy 😭

We got our 10 week old lab/boxer/mutt mix a little over a week ago. So far he’s been amazing- doing awesome sleeping in the crate, etc.

My biggest issue right now is his incessant tugging on my clothing. Hes only doing this to me and my kids- my husband has been spared somehow. The issue is that he LATCHES on, growls, and proceeds to then turn it into a very intense tug of war game. He has bit right through my skin by tearing into clothing multiple times this week and I’m covered in some nasty gashes. He also goes right for the kids faces so now they’re barely wanting to play with him.

When be latched on, I’m worried that the fabric of my clothing is going to rip a tooth out (it’s freezing here so wearing a lot of sweaters). It ends up causing more of a tug of war when I try to pry it from his mouth and gives him more of that “push pull” sensation which I know is not effective. He continues to growl the whole time. We had to stop letting him on the couch completely as he would latch and growl the entire time being up there.

Tonight he kept doing it and I tried what I’ve read is the best method, which is going behind a gate and passively ignoring him. I did this about 3 times (every time I came back he was back on the prowl immediately after I came through the gate). The final time he did it, he bit through my pants onto my thigh (he’s done this a few times and it causes me to inadvertently yell). I tried making a noise by patting my thigh to get him to let go but he was hooked. I feel horrible for yelling but those puppy teeth are sharp and it gives me anxiety that he’s going to hurt either myself or him by getting his tooth stuck.

I love him so much but this is by far the hardest part. I know puppies aren’t aggressive but I worry a lot about this turning into aggressive behavior because he’s getting big fast. I use a lot of positive reinforcement (treats, good boy!, etc) but this issue has me feeling defeated. I want to be a good dog parent and feel like I’m failing. We are starting puppy class next week which I’m hoping working with a trainer helps

Our gorgeous Labrador puppy is almost 14 weeks, and she is so lovely and smart! However she is very whiny. As in will just sit and whine if we’re not directly engaging with her. She hates to be away from us and we’re slowly working on separation but are only up to a couple of minutes before she cries. She eats well, plays well, happily sits with us and shows affection, but she still looks sad! We’re getting worried she has anxiety, and it may build up to separation anxiety. We feel at this point there’s no way we could leave her unattended. We’re crate training and building duration, but we still need to be in the room with her for her to settle and she wakes as soon as we leave. I think we’re trying to do our best with her, maybe I just need a bit of reassurance that her pace is slow and she just needs our patience.