Category: Top Dog

I have two French bulldogs. Mother (6) and son (3). The boy has recently been pooping in his crate at night. Before this, he was fully housetrained.

His last meal is about 5-6pm, let out every half an hour or so, and he’s in his crate from about 12am-6am.

The vet said there was nothing physically wrong. So I’m thinking it’s maybe separation anxiety from his mother, as she sometimes sleeps upstairs at night. My mum refuses to have him upstairs because of him pooping, as she doesn’t want it upstairs on the carpet. He sometimes barks/whines when his mum is separated from him, which is why I’m suspecting separation anxiety.

My mother is now wanting to get rid of him as she’s fed up waking up to him pooping in the crate.

I’m unsure how to go about solving this, as different sites have different approaches. I don’t just want to leave my other dog with him 24/7 as this won’t resolve the issue, and I assume it will only worsen once she dies as he’s seems so reliant on her.

My mum said if he doesn’t improve by the end of the year, he’s gone. So any help would be appreciated

Hello, I am looking for advice on how to nip my dog’s growing reactivity in the bud. Here’s the situation:

He’s a very social boy with other dogs when off leash, and I generally avoid on-leash greetings. He comes to work with me at a daycare and board a few days a week and plays with dogs of all sizes, age, disposition, etc, and I do keep an eye on signs that he’s overstimulated and needs a break in a kennel so he’s not just playing allllll day long. Not necessarily important info

The problem is that a few months ago, some people moved into our apartment complex with 4 or 5 highly reactive chihuahuas. These dogs start barking the moment they come out their front door whether there’s anything to bark at or not, and they’re all on retractable leads so they charge at us when we are outside. It’s put my dog into this state of constant high-arousal even when he’s inside our apartment, pacing with his hackles up and unable to settle. Outside when I take him out to potty, he’s hyper vigilant and anxious, and has recently began reacting back to them and all other small, yapping dogs on leash. I have experience with reactive dogs, but this situation feels harder to navigate as these dogs are impossible to avoid.. they are barking outside of our apartment, and always encountering outside. We are low income and can’t just move, especially not with breed restrictions in almost every complex. I need ideas on how to work with him to diffuse this before it becomes something he struggles with forever. I’m not resistant to the idea of working with a trainer, but being low income and having an inconsistent work schedule, I’d like to try to do this myself before trying to bring in a third party.

Some pup info, if needed: 11 month old bully breed mutt (primarily APBT and Australian cattle dog) Neutered Treat motivated but obviously in a high arousal state, it’s hard to get him to focus

My 1.5 year old dog is a 14 pound ShiPoo. She pees quite frequently and when she’s at home, she scratches the door to let me know she needs to go out. She rarely has accidents.

Whenever she goes to other people‘s houses and is there for more than a couple hours, she will find places to pee. How do I train this out of her? She is capable of holding it for a long time because she does hold it overnight and sometimes I have to wake her up to get up and pee.

So I’m genuinely just lost at the moment. I’ve had my pup for almost 3 years now. Since day 1, I knew she was a chewer. She has loved destroying stuff, from toys to random objects she got a hold of. We kennel trained her early on, and she’s good about being in her kennel. When she was younger, she was in there during the day while we weren’t home, and at night when we couldn’t watch her because she would destroy stuff at night. As she got older, we got her to simmer down at night and were able to leave her out with no issues (except for getting on the couches, which is a separate issue, but it’s whatever at this point.) Fast forward to a couple months ago. She’s been kenneled during the day and free at night now for about a year and a half, and I’ve hated that for a while. We had gotten her a bunch of toys meant to be shredded, but she hadn’t destroyed a single one. We thought good, great, maybe that’s a thing of the past, so we began putting her in the den with her bed and toys. For reference, our den is a big room. We have turned it into an animal room for all the cats and what not, and figured why not have the dog in there since she gets along with all the cats and would have a decent space to be in during the day. She did great for about a month. Nothing god destroyed, including the bed and her toys, and we figured the shredding behavior was gone…until a couple weeks ago when she ripped her bed apart. Over her lifetime with us, this is bed #4. I was quite disappointed with that, so she resumed kennel life for a couple days. We tried again, and she didn’t make it a day, and she shredded the bed again (we have been patching it at this point instead of buying new ones). Rinse and repeat about 2 more times. She shreds nothing but her bed. I’ve looked up tips and tricks but nothing is really working. Is there anything anyone has done to curb such a stubborn behavior? I would love to not have to kennel her during the day again, but she really isn’t leaving me with much choice. I’ve contemplated taking her bed away completely, but I know I’d be miserable sleeping on the floor if I was her. Any advice?

I have 3 dogs – all older. 1 is 7.5 years old. I haven’t never had an issue with any dogs destructive chewing and have not needed to crate train.

About 8 months ago, my 7.5 year old began chewing destructively every once in a while we left the home, even for short periods, which has never been an issue.

Over the past 8 months i have attempted what i believe is every imaginable solution. Increased stimulation, tons of toys and chew devices while gone (he does not touch them at all), crates – with slow introduction (he has destroyed every type, including gunner, or harmed himself attempting to do so). It doesn’t matter if i leave for 30 min or 5 hours, he chews. And he only chews things that he believes will get him out of the house (doors, trim, etc).

I have resorted to putting all 3 dogs in a spare bedroom while gone, to avoid continued thousands of dollars in damages to my home. I put a metal plate on the door, because he almost chewed all the way through the first one. He is now metal plating and filing down his teeth from trying to chew it.

Obviously, none of this can be good for him, or me. What in the world could be happening and how can i help him?

Working through reactivity with a picky eater who’s also allergic to chicken! What are your guys’ highest value and CHEAPEST rewards/treats for your pets (home made or brands!) that are allergy friendly.

Bonus points if you can give a crap ton of them to your dog a day. We’re finally making progress and I wanna keep the good vibes going 😎

Hello! This is my first time posting in this sub. I adopted a poodle a month ago from a rescue. She was being rehomed bc she started fighting with the other dog in the house after her previous owners had moved. From my understanding she could have killed the other dog. She’s now living with me by herself, but she’s aggressive towards other dogs and certain people. She’s had full vet checkups to rule out anything physically, and she’s a very sweet and docile dog towards my mother and I, but it’s clear she’s learned some bad habits, and I’m not sure how the trainer she was sent to before I got her trained her, so I’m posting here to figure out how I can mitigate any dog/dog interactions with the least amount of stress and excitement.

Background: female standard poodle, 2 years old, spayed at 18 months. Sent away for training after first dangerous encounter with previous owners dog.

She knows sit and stay, and has a space she goes in (not crate trained, previous family didn’t like using it, she really hates it)

Very food motivated, but also stubborn. It’s clear that she was trained in a way I haven t deciphered yet.

Had one unplanned interaction with an off leash dog at her groomer which went poorly (neighbors dog ran over and got in her face, had to get between them as the strange dog was pushy and also aggressive.)

I grew up with dogs, but all those dogs were puppies when we got them, and they weren’t dog reactive like she is.

Any tips would be very helpful. Thanks!

I have a young male chihuahua (<2 years old) who has a terrible habit of having a sneaky poo whenever he’s in a new place that isn’t home. I take him to work sometimes, and he’ll go into my boss’s office to have a poo! 💩 He also does it when we visit family or friends, usually in a quiet back room.

It’s almost worse when he does it somewhere he’s been a few times before, like at work or a neighbor’s house. It’s mortifying. I take him outside all the time, so it isn’t like he doesn’t have the option to just do it outside. He is completely house-trained and very rarely messes in the house (only if he’s poorly). He has never had an accident in the car. And it doesn’t seem like he’s marking territory, because he doesn’t wee. I just don’t understand it.

He is currently not neutered (I will get him neutered soon) — so I’m not sure if that has something to do with it. But it’s embarrassing and his worst trait. Please help!

Hello all! First night with our puppy (10 weeks) and we’re nervous about messing up.

Took him home— about a 40 minute drive— and took him on a walk to use the bathroom. Nothing. When we took him inside, he immediately peed in the house.

The same happened on our second walk. We were thinking it was because he’s on a harness while we walk him and we took it off of him when he was in the house, but he peed the second time while wearing the harness.

Our plan right now is to keep him in the harness until he successfully goes potty outside.

Are we overthinking?