Category: Top Dog

If you aren't already, you wanna distribute ALL your puppys meals in 3 ways.

• Lickimat for tray/tinned food – use the one with the "hairs" or little points, the squares/other sdesigns are a PITA to wash
• Snuffle mat for dry food/little treats or bits of meat
• Kong can be used for any type of food

They should get 100% of their meals in these…

Unless you feed dry food, in which case you may want to use a bit of their meals for training treats (I personally use meat instead/something special).

Why do this?

Because it gives them feeding and mental stimulation at the same time.

Creating a more settled, more content puppy.

Yes it's a little more work but like 2-3 minutes at most.

Hi. I’ve had our puppy for a little over a month now. Unsure of exact breed (waiting on Embark) but they said hound/golden retriever mix. She’s a little over 3 months old. She’s an absolute ROCKSTAR with just about everything. The only trouble we’re having with her is jumping up on people and counters. She’s going to be a big dog so I’d like to get this under control. What has worked for you?

My puppy is about 9.5 months, 10 months on November 16th. I do all of the training, I play with him the most, I feed him, and I fulfill his needs (due to my boyfriend being home at work throughout the day and me being a college student that can come home every few hours to spend time with the puppy). He listens to me fine when it’s just me and him on walks (he has his moments where he doesn’t but he’s an adolescent puppy, I don’t expect him to listen right away/all the time, but I help him follow through when I do ask him things and he’s struggling to listen). However, when me and my boyfriend take him on walks together, he barely listens to me. I can ask him to sit and he won’t, but if my boyfriend asks 30 seconds later, he’ll sit immediately. Is this normal? Is it some sort of teenage rebellion thing?

To preface: 5 month old Bernedoodle, he’s doing really well, sleeps through the night in the crate, is doing really well with toileting outside, has learned a lot of commands and is getting a small bit better at settling outside of the crate with us, other than being a land shark, I’d say he’s making amazing progress. The one thing we’re really struggling with though is leaving him alone in the pen, leaving the room and it’s just instant bark or whine, if we leave him he does settle very briefly but it goes back to whining. I have seen tips of starting slow a second at a time, but progress just doesn’t seem to happen, and we’ve tried repeatedly.

Anything we’re really missing? I thought taking him for good walks would tire him but they don’t help 😂. It’s hard to be annoyed as he’s a really good dog, we just want to help him get past this.

I just got a Springer Spaniel that I want to make sure I’m doing the best with my work schedule to keep him busy during the day and at ease with the period of isolation. For reference my typical work situation is 5:30am-4:30pm (commute included) for about 2 weeks, then 1:30pm-11pm for 2, with anywhere from about 2-6 days of 8am-4:30pm.

I wake up about an hour before leaving everyday for my cycle and take him out for about 15-20minutes, and leave him in his “dog cave” (80sqft play pen) with all his enrichment activities, Kongs, puzzles, etc. then take him out for exercise for about an hour+ after work everyday

On my evening cycles that hour of outdoor time before me leaving, and I have someone come by to tend to him for a few hours during my shift, still having him in the same setup as when on my day cycle.

When I’m on my layover cycle it’s kind of a combination of the two, and the weekends I’m home all day.

Is that enough quality time for him? What else could i introduce to his environment to correct it if not? I don’t have time in the morning to drop him off anywhere, and no one available during the day to come by other than when I’m on my night cycle

For context, I have a 5 month old English Bulldog that I have had since 8 weeks. I have tried crate training my pup for the last 3 months.

He goes in and goes to sleep when I tell him to or lure him with food and he'll settle down and go to sleep until he wakes up and he'll whine to let me know it's pee time or he's had enough.

Now, if I don't enforce crate naps, when he's ready to sleep he will always just come running up, jump on the sofa, climb into my lap and lay down. He will never choose his bed on the floor or his comfiest bed in the crate. He'd rather just be somewhat uncomfortable on my lap.

He sleeps in his crate in a different room over night and he's basically had most of his naps in his crate. No issues at all with the crate, but I would like him to choose it, rather than having to be put in there.

This has been my dog’s one and only favorite toy. Unfortunately, it’s been discontinued and I’ve been searching eBay and the internet for years to try and find it somewhere. Originally sold at petsmart.

Does anyone have one? It’s called:

Merry & Bright Holiday Latex GEO Reindeer

Hi there,

Night falls earlier and earlier at this time of year. I usually walk my dogs off-leash, and when I'm not in the forest or a wild place, even though they are obedient and sit down when a car approaches, I feel more reassured if I can be sure that the car will see my dogs.

There are quite a few devices available that light up or reflect headlight beams, such as LED collars, reflective harnesses, and other similar items, which are fine. But to save you money, here's a tip that you might not necessarily think of for your dog: use a headlamp.

In principle, any brand or model of headlamp will work, as long as it is adjustable (a dog's neck is generally smaller than your head). I prefer ones that can be tilted and direct the beam downwards so as not to dazzle them; the idea is to make them visible to cars.

Just a little tip to save you from buying overly expensive equipment when you can use a headlamp, and not just for yourself. Enjoy your walk 🙂


So I just adopted this cute 4 month old puppy, but she refuses to go potty outside and is very uninterested in treats. She is very aloof most of the time on account of needing to wear a cone.

I don't know what to do, should I keep her outside on a chain to get her used to it for extended periods of time? I really don't know what to do to keep her from pottying inside.

I am moving her to the potty grass I have in the house when she starts going inside but then she never goes inside? Do I use diapers? I'm a little lost with this