Category: Top Dog

Background – We have four shelter dogs all with their own quirks. Two medium, two small. (Two dog lovers got married and merged our families. He had one medium, I had the two small).

About 2 months ago we adopted our fourth. Shes a staffy, basset mix from a hoarding situation in our town. Seemed very, very sweet and laid back in the first few meetings and first week. Got along with our other dogs and gave his dog a playmate in the same size range.

We live in the county and fenced in our backyard for ample safe play area for our dogs. We work with a local trainer for general obedience and to help with behaviors that come up.

Current- She does not seem happy here. She is constantly pacing, barking, crying, peeing in the floor when we try to play with her. She resource guards her kennel, toys, food, us, and it seems like it’s getting worse every week.

Things we have tried- food enrichment (kongs, pupscicles, slow feeders), more off leash time outside, leashed walks, one-on-one time with us, independent training.

We are planning to take her back to the vet for another look over to make sure she is not in pain and have a conversation about anxiety medication management.

Basically- what i’m asking, when do we consider giving her up? I feel terrible that i’m not doing enough for her. Or does she just need more time? Am I missing something vital? Im open to anything to try to make this better for her, us, and our other dogs.

Thank you in advance.

Why are dogs so cute and innocent?

Does anyone have advice for how to stop demanding barking? My puppy doesn't bark at anything external, but he will bark at me for 10-20 minutes at a time for my attention, whether he is in his crate, leashed to me, or free roaming in the living room. We are working with a trainer who has us ignoring the barking/rewarding with a 'yes' and a treat when he is quiet for 5 seconds or when he is generally being calm but it's honestly not catching on. Any tips? It's starting to make me really anxious about being alone with him during work from home as I know I will be barked at which sounds silly but it really gets me nervous about being around him/bothering the neighbours. He also is not making the connection that we dont interact with him when he bites us. He's almost 16 weeks and I'm so nervous?

Please I’m in a desperate need of help. I have an almost seven month old puppy. I am losing my mind bc he is just not grasping to go on the paper. We take him outside when we can but unfortunately it’s hard with our schedules, so we do have a pad in the apartment down for him (well one on the outside and one on the inside of the pen). He pees/poops on every door, wall, bed, mat he can find and I am just losing my mind. He steps in it and then trails it all over. I am have a hard time feeling comfortable in my home bc I feel like I’m gonna step in it any minute. I genuinely don’t know what to do anymore. When we’re home he has free range of the kitchen and living room, should I block off only a smaller area? He does have a pen but he doesn’t go in it on his own and it’s rlly hard to clean bc there’s a cover over it (he’s escapes from it otherwise) so god knows what’s in there. I am just at my breaking point. He’s innocent and just a baby I know this is completely my and my partner’s fault so what can we be doing better? It’s just not clicking in the puppy’s head. Please please help :(((

Hii! Im just wondering if anybody has a dog car seat, and do you have a favorite or do you guys even recommend them at all/find them necessary? I want to get the dog car seat from pelsbarn but its very pricey and its more for comfort than safety i guess? Just judging it based on how it looks. And want to be sure its worth it before i drop $$$ on one. Thank you!

Hi! I’m an owner to a 3 month old border collie male. I’ve posted on this thread a couple times for guidance about puppy blues, thankfully this isn’t the case this time and I’m just looking for some help as well as some advice and guidance on training and timelines.

For example:

-with crate training what’s the timeline on how long they can and can’t be in the crate for each month/ year old they are?? (He’s currently 3 months old but I can’t trust him for longer than the current 60-90 minute intervals he has outside of the crate every 2 hours (when I’m home) not to chew, consume, break ect… however I also understand that he needs to be able to be put to learn and train what he is and isn’t allowed to do??)

-I’m also struggling with potty training him outside of the crate: when his in the crate he’ll bark or whine in some capacity to ask to go potty (he also sleeps through the night with no problems and it’s a minimum of 10 hours without a potty break during the night) however whenever his outside the crate, wether that’s my room, the living space or whatever he will just go potty, and I understand looking for the signs like sniffing and pacing and restlessness but it’s so hard with him as he’s constantly sniffs and paces to get used to his environment and looking for food (he still does this a lot as we have two cats that he constantly sniffs for their scent and their stuff and we also just put up Xmas decor which has also increased his sniffing, and pacing to acclimatise to the new changes and scents) we do positive reinforcement every time he goes potty outside, if he starts to go inside we attempt to immediately take him outside so he can continue and get treated and if he does go inside he obviously doesn’t get treats and we ignore it, clean it up (as my research has told me to do) this has been happening since a week after we got him as by then he would know to signal in his crate but won’t outside of it, and nothing has changed. Please advise is extremely needed!!???

On another note training commands are a work In Progress he knows a few, but doesn’t know them by word just be actions and with a treat reward but that hasn’t been to hard but I’ll probably post asking more about that in the future as I’m going to be attempting to train release, stay, heel, and recall for when his able to go in public and on walks (he’s obvi not fully vaxed yet) however I do need some advice on teaching impulse control, I’ve been trying for ages now but when it comes to any kind of food which is the only thing we can use that excited him enough, he just won’t, because of how he reacts he nearly ends up hurting himself with how he literally throws himself around, it’s also why I can use a leash or collar holding to help, also some info that can help us he doesn’t know how to stay for the same reason, so help os greatly appreciated?!!??

Anyways sorry for dumping all this I just need some advice, and I’m a yapper so sorry for all the extra unneeded info, hava a great night and or day

Ok, so my baby corgi is 26 weeks now (~6 months); have had her since she was 12 weeks.

Just this week, we went out of town for the holiday and we went a full week with no accidents! A hotel and a family members place. She met soooo many new people and a lot of cranky old dogs (she wasn’t great at picking up their “leave me alone” signals but wasn’t terrible).

Then on the seven hour drive home, she was baby angel. She was angel when we got home. She was angel today. It’s like a switch flipped in her head and she’s not psycho puppy anymore!

Is our training finally paying off? Did we finally form a bond? She is super cuddly now when she was r before the trip.

It’s the first couple of days that SO and her seem to be really getting along!

I'm thinking of making a series where I try to train my dog new tricks as quickly as possible. Hes a poodle mix and usually picks tricks up within 2-3 days. I need ideas on what tricks I can train (ideally I'll like to teach him 10 new tricks).

A couple he already knows aside from the basic sit/down/stay/come/high 5/shake/heel combo are spin, roll, up/jump, bang/ play dead, freeze, find it, take/ pass (fetch with various objects)/ drop it/ leave it, toss (basketball), back (reverse walk), tunnel/under, dig, walk (on two legs), close door etc.

When it's pissing down rain OR when it's freezing cold, what do you swear by when you have to suit up to take your pup out?

ETA: I mean for humans, but I'll take recommendations for anything you use for your pup as well. We're just tired of struggling with being extremely cold, really damp, etc etc and wondering if we just aren't suiting up well enough when we go out.

My dog and I live in Shenzhen, China, so most of the people we see every day are Asian. After moving to a more developed area, we started seeing a more diverse mix of people. That’s when I realized my 4-year-old Pomeranian has a weird issue: he almost never barks at anyone… except Black men.

Whenever he sees a Black guy, he goes absolutely nuts barking.