Category: Top Dog

I have a poodle mix who enjoys tug, but I’ve noticed she struggles to hold onto her soft stuffed toys and they always end up slipping out of her mouth. Do you guys have any recommendations for tug toys that are easy for them to keep hold of? She has a rope toy that she enjoys tugging on but it broke quickly so I don’t want to get another like that.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share something that helped my dog in case it’s useful to anyone else. My 6-year-old Labrador, Daisy, has always gotten anxious during car rides – especially on winding roads.

She would drool, shake, and look absolutely miserable. I assumed it was motion sickness and spent a long time trying different remedies, but nothing really worked.

Any suggestion?

Sorry for the weird question.

It's winter. My almost 15 year old little guy won't pee or even poop. He won't do anything in the house unless he's really desperate. And by desperate it means he would have held it over 48 hours. And when he does finally go in the house, I could have 20 giant pee pads all over but he will pick the one spot not covered by a pee pad to pee on.

He won't go in our lovely, fenced-in back yard. I've put up pee targets for him like fake hydrants, logs, etc. He refuses to walk. I drive him down the street so that he would be forced to walk home and even then he probably lifts up his leg once or twice in the half mile it takes to get home. I have tried almost everything. He doesn't like the cold but he hates the wind with a passion. We don't have many male dogs on our street. He won't mark over a female dog. How he even able to judge the gender from the pee mystifies me. And he's fussy about the type of male dogs too. He had a male dog pee right in front of him at the dog park and he wouldn't pee over him.

I bought a car shelter and put it in my back yard and he wouldn't pee in it cos he considers it indoors.

He has always been like this but has gotten more and more stubborn as he has gotten older. He's a rescue and his previous owner used to punish him whenever he peed in the house, hence his unwillingness to pee in the house.

I'm at the stage where I wanna purchase animal urine and put it all over the back yard and on the pee targets. What is the best urine to purchase? Coyote? Wolf? Fox?

Or any other tips on how to get my boy to pee?

Hey everyone Today I brought home a small street puppy. He is approx 20-25 days old ( not sure). He was crying alone when I found him. I put him in a small cardboard box with a towel so he feels warm and cozy.

I wanted to ask does keeping such a street pup inside the house for a few days pose any risk of spreading infections to us ?

I just discovered my girl does. Calmed her down and put her right to sleep. So cute.🥰🥰

Hi, 16 week old puppy is almost potty trained(have’t had accidents in last 3 weeks) but there is one exception- there are two carpets in my house, whenever he goes there he pees even if he just took break. I blocked the access to the area to give him more time for training but no luck.. the moment he gets access he does the same. I have cleaned the carpet throughly(with enzyme cleaner). He has access to other carpets in the house and he doesn’t repeat this on those carpet.

So my 4 month old puppy has been doing well with potty training and pen training until recently. I work 12 hour shifts 4 days a week and am paying my best friend to come take him out to go outside at minimum 2 times a day. So he goes out at 5am(quick pee) 6:40-7:10am (long walk/ sniff time), around noon (walk/play), between 4-5pm (walk and play), 8:30pm(quick pee before dinner), around 9pm (semi long walk/sniff time). He normally only pees on the pee pads in his pen once throughout the day and normally leaves them alone. Today when I was looking at the camera to check on him I saw him dragging the pads around his pen area and it looked like from my angle that he was chewing on the corners. My friend will be there in a few minutes and has been instructed to just remove them and not put new ones down for now. I guess my questions after this long winded explanation is: Can I spray bitter spray on the puppy pads or would that deter him from using it if he needs to? His pen is on vinyl flooring so its not that big of a deal if I need to just stop using them because I mop his pen area every night with enzyme stuff anyways. Also I would like to add that he does have a plethera of toys available to him in his pen (I did take out the teething keys he had because he chewed off a piece and choked when I was home but he does have kongs that get filled and freezed so he has one everyday)

Does anyone have tips for introducing their nervous puppy to camping? I have a 13 week old australian shepherd who barks at new objects in the house, and is overall scared of everything (except dogs). I've been working on his confidence every day – taking him to home depot, he gets short walks around the apartment complex where he sees people and dogs, goes in the car everyday, goes through the drive thru, and goes to a puppy class twice a week. Obviously, he is not fully vaccinated and not going to the woods to camp. I just want to introduce him to "camping" in the house. I used to have a rescue dog who was terrified of camping gear to the point of attacking it out of fear, and I don't want that to happen to my puppy too.

Currently, I have sleeping bags, inflatable sleeping pads, and a tent in the living room that I kind of shuffle around, open/close during the day while he's in his pen. Currently, he is barking bloody murder at the inflatable sleeping pad because it inflates, which is understandably scary to a new puppy. I haven't even started constructing the tent because I know he will be terrified of it.

How did you adjust your nervous puppy to camping gear? I want him to be able to camp with me when he grows up and not be terrified of all the gear like my last dog was.

Thanks!

Hi all, my partner and I recently adopted a puppy a few days ago and now we’re trying to figure out a proper schedule for him. This is what I have tentatively planned, but any and all advice/constructive criticism is appreciated! He’s 3-5 months old (surrender papers and adoption papers are listing different birthdays: his surrender papers have him at 5 months and his adoption papers from the shelter we got him at has him at 3 months) and we think he’s some sort of terrier mixed with chihuahua. Of course this isn’t something set in stone, and variations are going to happen but in general, we’d like to keep it around similar guidelines.

-7:15/7:30am – wake up, bathroom walk only

-8:00am – breakfast, play (tug of war, fetch to spend energy)

-9:00am-10:00 – longer walk (bathroom, explore/get used to city sights, sounds and smells) or if weather is bad, just enough time to relieve himself and then play indoors*

-10:00am-12:00 – naptime/quiet time in crate

-12:00pm – bathroom walk after waking up, lunch (frozen kong with a kibble-wet food-water mixture if he’s able to engage with it?), play

-1:30pm-2:30 – longer walk (or bathroom walk/indoor play if weather is bad*)

-2:30pm-4:30 – naptime/quiet time in crate

-4:30 – bathroom walk, play (training session?)

-6:00pm – dinner and then hang out in crate with maybe a treat while we get dinner/eat

-7:00pm – out of crate and playtime

-7:45/8:00pm – last walk of the night (put away living room floor bed+blanket/most toys before leaving so he’s encouraged to seek warmth and coziness in his crate and not in the living room)

-8:30pm/9:00 – wind down and bedtime (no engagement except for pets and redirecting to a chewing toy if teething is especially bothersome)

*check on him around 10/11 and see if he’s up (bathroom walk if so but if laying down/lazy, let sleep through the night)

He usually knows to go into his crate after a walk although I’m not sure if he’s fully napping in there or not. We cover the sides of the crate with a blanket since we do that before bedtime as well to hopefully associate the blanket covering as time to sleep. He’s certainly curling up and laying down so he seems to be relaxing in there at the very least, but will react at times to noises/will track us when we walk around, and sometimes will be sitting up in front of the crate door just an hour later. I’m concerned that he’s not getting as much total sleep as a growing puppy should.

Thank you all for your help!

Does your dog turn his head when he hears an odd noise? Does your dog bury their food with your pants? This is the thread to ask why.

Please keep this thread to non-medical issues only.