Category: Top Dog

I am trying to shorten my dog’s quicks in her nails so I can keep them a bit shorter. I took her to the vet yesterday and got them trimmed and her vet recommended cutting them every 3 weeks to shorten the quicks over time. A lot of online advice I’ve seen has recommended doing so much more regularly, like once every 1-2 weeks. I am planning on seeing how much they’ve grown in a week or so and go from there but I feel like every 3 weeks is quite long. I used to clip them every 2 weeks and they were a good length but in the past year I’ve only been doing it every 4-5 weeks and they’ve grown longer as a result. The vet said that you need to allow a certain amount of growth around the quick before you cut it but I’m still a bit confused.

I have a 5 year old German Shepard/Terrier/Husky mix. As of recent she has been refusing to go out in the yard at night time to go potty before bed. It feels really sudden and out of character for her because she loves going outside during the daytime.

I also have another dog who goes out at night and day no problems. The two of them go out together and play during the day with no issues.

So far I’ve tried to walk out with her, use a flashlight to provide her additional lighting – but she refuses to go beyond the back porch area. I’ve tried treats and praise whenever she’s outside but all she will do is sit by the back door and cry to go inside.

I have no idea if something has spooked her to the point where she doesn’t want to go out at night, so I am not sure how to rebuild her confidence surrounding it.

I am concerned because this means she’s holding her pee a minimum of 12 hours overnight now that it gets dark so much sooner outside. I have expressed this concern to the vet and they think it’s 100% behavioral as she has a clean bill of health.

Any advice is appreciated before I reach out to a behavioral trainer!

We have a sweet elder dog who's starting to freak out more at night. She's been on medication for about a year and it was working well but she's been freaking out more so we got her the Thundershirt.

So far it's been helpful but my husband and I are split on whether we should put it on her every night before we go to bed or if we should wait for her to freak out? I think we should wait, so the jacket doesn't lose its effectiveness overtime but I'm not a scientist and the routine may be good for her.

Anyone have any thoughts or experience?

We have a very small pomchi puppy that is allergic to chicken and needs a puppy food with crude fiber of 5%. Any recommendations?

My dog refuses to walk straight in through doorways or hallways or even open spaces and when she does walk forward, she runs so fast that she goes nowhere like Scooby Doo and only slides everywhere into a split to avoid that I think she walks backwards What is weird to me is that sometimes she’ll be completely normal and walk through a doorway just fine

Every so often, on a rare occasion when another dog approaches my wife, our rescue will suddenly get really aggressive. It doesn't happen all the time, and it will happen with dogs he is familiar and even lives with, but on that rare occasion, with super little warning, he will suddenly snap and go after one of the other dogs. We are a bit of a fast pace household, is there any advice?

Hi! I run a pet sitting and dog training business and recently my lead trainer and I helped my aunt find an ethical Coton de Tulear breeder. We are SUPER passionate about this topic given that we meet more dogs in a week than most people meet in their lifetime haha, and had a lot of fun interviewing breeders, finding the right breed for my aunts lifestyle and becoming acquainted with the different breed clubs. We also feel like this is important work given the state of companion animals in the United States; we believe that supporting truly ethical breeders breeding for health and temperament are essential to ending animal homelessness and unethical backyard breeders. We are also willing to help people match with rescue animals if requested.

With that said, I am looking to see what type of interest there would be in this type of service? We basically did all the heavy lifting and then passed on the contact info once my aunt confirmed that she wanted to move forward with one breeder. What would you want from a consultancy of this kind? What would make you feel like the service was worth paying for? Do you feel like finding truly ethical breeders is easy enough for the average person to make it worth it? What would make you trust a consultant in choosing a new addition to your family? Just want to open this forum up to members of the community to give any and all input! Thank you!

Hi everyone

My dog Jack is 4 years old and a mix breed. He pees inside the house when we leave him for some hours unattended. It is usually in places that are hard to clean like the fridge door or the stove.

For a couple of days I’ve been giving him treats whenever we get home and he didn’t pee anywhere. For now it is working, however I worry if that will cause anxiety or over stimulation.

What do you guys suggest?