Category: Top Dog

10 month old puppy. She was adopted from the shelter about 1 month ago. She gets fed 2x a day in her crate and she stays in for about 45min – 1hr after each meal. I’m worried about her stomach flipping.

Not anytime soon, but I do eventually want her to have meals out of her crate once she’s completely potty trained. But the whole bloat and stomach flip thing really scares me!

Fortunately, my SO will be home to take care of her and she doesn’t need to be put in a kennel, so I shouldn’t be worried about traumatizing her. But, my SO (I’ll call Pat) and Alice didn’t start bonding until a few months ago so I’m worried that she won’t feel secure with them.

Getting a puppy was my idea. Pat was not really up for it (still grieving over loss of other dog a year earlier) so I have been the primary caregiver. It took months for Pat to warm up to Alice (petted and treated her kindly, but didn’t fawn over her the way I did). Pat wasn’t involved much in Alice’s training although they would follow my lead in house rules and take Alice outside occasionally (we have to walk her bc we don’t have a fenced yard.) Over time, Alice and Pat have become closer and now will enjoy cuddle time, something they never used to do. She usually wants to immediately get back to me though.

I am clearly Alice‘s human and she is with me (or on me!) whenever she can be so, I’m not confident that she will feel OK when I’m gone overnight and then for three more days.

She stays in her crate when we go out and doesn’t seem to have separation anxiety but those times she spent alone have only been 3 to 4 hours at most and infrequent (we’re retired).

How can I prepare Alice for my absence and are there any suggestions on how to prepare Pat for the experience?

Hi! Sorry for the long backstory that's about to start. I'm planning to get a golden retriever puppy right before Christmas, she'll be 9 weeks old by then. She'll be my (kinda) first dog. So my family has a french bulldog female who's 7 years old now. I used to live with them until last year, so I've been living with her all this time. I moved to an apartment a year ago. Since then, I took the frenchie with me for 1-2 weeks at a time many times. She's VERY silent, NEVER barks except when I really rile her up and purposely trigger her during intense play. I don't know how that happened. I've never heatd of a dog who never barks. She was not trained not to bark. She just never barks. Maybe it's because she grew up with 3 cats?

Backstory over.

Anyway, now that I live in an apartment, I'd appreciate if I could train my new puppy not to bark indoors. My sister lived here before with her puppy and she had issues with neighbours because of his barking. So I know the neighbours won't be happy if my new puppy barks a lot./ But since the frenchie was not trained not to bark, it just happened, I have no idea how to achieve that. Any tips? I also have 3 cats, so she may naturally imitate them and be more quiet like the frenchie, if I'm lucky…

Can you use regular baby schampoo for your dogs?

And another question.

Can you knit homemade blankets for your pup or should you avoid it? I’m thinking wool and or cotton.

Please bear with me -this needs a little context.

My daughter is 11, an only child, and most of her family (including cousins her age) live abroad. She’s very empathetic and sensitive, and she’s been having a hard time with school social dynamics, especially bullying by exclusion. This has created a lot of anxiety around being alone.

She thrives in nurturing roles… when younger children visit their class and she gets to be a “buddy,” she lights up. At home she struggles with nighttime anxiety, and I’ve been supporting her through co-sleeping and weekly therapy. Her teachers and I are in regular contact and they are also working to help her in different ways. Some methods to re integrate her with the girls (she hangs with the boys since the girls exclude her) … and others are to help her cope with her emotions, which have become deregulated.

The dog part:

We have a female pug who bonded completely to me, despite our hope that she would bond to my daughter. My daughter recently asked for a lizard for Christmas “so it wouldn’t be too much to ask,” which broke my heart a bit. We won’t give a surprise holiday pet, but we would like to seriously consider a second dog or a reptile with proper planning.

We’re currently researching Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, since we’re hoping for a mellow, affectionate family dog. If we go this route, we’d be looking for a male to pair with our female pug. I’ve owned multiple dogs, but never a male, so that part is new to me.

My goal is to support a bond between my daughter and the dog by giving her primary responsibilities -feeding, playing, training, and walking- while I step back despite working from home.

My questions for this community:

• What are your best tips for helping a child build a strong bond with a dog who is their companion?

• Are there considerations for adding a male Cavalier to a home with a female pug?

• Any advice about breed temperament, ethical breeders, bonding strategies, or things I may not be thinking of?

We’re in the research phase and want to take our time and move carefully. I truly believe that having a loving dog as her companion could give my daughter a sense of stability and confidence as she grows, as long as we choose carefully and set everyone up for success.

Thank you in advance for your insights.

Every single morning in bed once my husband gets up for work, my dog (all 30kgs of her) will jump up and lay across my stomach, she wont move and I swear she adds as much weight as possible pinning me down. Shes the sweetest, sooky dog ever who will leap into to my lap on the couch if something scares her, so its not weird aggression, but also don’t know what she thinks shes achieving?

I bought home my 8 week old Lab pup last week. He is gorgeous and we’re just feeling our way through these initial weeks getting to know each other. I have pretty much no expectations for him, but I am worried that I’m “getting it wrong” so have a few questions:

1. He struggles to fall asleep without being on me or me comforting him. I always move him into his crate once he’s asleep, but he never starts in there. I’m concerned about separation anxiety, but equally he’s so young, I’m thinking he probably just wants warmth/heartbeat (he does have a snuggle teddy at night).

2. He sleeps in a crate with the door shut at night and only makes noise once or twice. I get up and take him to the toilet then take him straight back to bed and he settles in five minutes. During the day, bar the napping in the crate with the door open, I can’t see him ever being happy to be put in there unless he’s asleep – what should I be doing to improve this?

3. Outside he is not super keen to really do much. He constantly runs back to the door and sits there, even if I know he needs to pee/poop and I’m having to carry him to the middle of the grass, but I almost feel like he sees the outside as negative? How can I combat this? I try and make outside super fun with toys and treats, but he’s just still not a fan.

Thanks in advance from a tired, anxious pup mum who is terrified of ruining a beautiful dog!

Hello, I’m hoping some of you could share your experience of things that have helped your anxious dogs.

My Akita x Golden retriever has become progressively more anxious over the last year and a bit. It all started when she got scared of fireworks for the first time last year, and then refused to go out in the dark for a few months.

Eventually that got better as the year went on with no fireworks, but it seems she’s now very prone to anxiety or fear. Things that scare her: insects that buzz (after some wasp stings), any beeping noises, car alarms/house alarms, normal bangs in the neighbourhood like car doors or bin lids.

It’s all got a hundred times worse again with the fireworks this year, despite using sedatives (trazodone and gabapentin) as people started setting them off at 1pm when we weren’t expecting it.

She’s now scared to go out even during the day, and freezes when she hears a noise, shakes a lot and tries to pull me home.

We’ve tried : – Zylkene (helped at first with the panic reactions but not at all now) – valarian and scullcap (made her worse) – noise desensitisation using the TV every day for months running up to the fireworks

Can anyone recommend any products or medications that have helped their dogs?

How long was your dog adolescence? I have a Bracco Pointer and I’m at my wits end… he just came out of puppyhood (he is almost 13 months now) and was better and better until all of a sudden he started having this major regression and now we are back to basic training, he even started to pee on the carpet again and became very reactive/aggressive with both people and other dogs. I’m worried this will be his personality growing up and I’m particularly worried about the aggressive behaviour (not biting but barking and pushing). Any suggestions welcome 🙏🏼

I’m the owner of a Vizlsa that is very destructive only with pillows. Do you know pillow or bed made of 1000D Cordura or something similar?