Category: Top Dog

My 13 month old yorkie has been doing pretty well at potty training, but most of this is because we take him outside regularly, not because he’s telling us he need to.

We tried bells, but he treated them as attention getters for playtime or outside playtime. To the point where certain times we were taking him outside every 5 min bc of him ringing the bells. They have been gone for about 6 months now.

He was sleeping in his crate to avoid night time potty’s until 11 months, when he started waking up and barking about 4 hours into the night. We first tried to calm him, then went back to bed – more barking. Second took him outside to go potty – would go then back to the crate, more barking 2 hours later (we also didn’t like this as we’re training him that barking means he gets to go outside during the night to potty, which we’re really trying to instill in him is not ok, up until 9 months he was holding it all night ok).

2 months ago we started letting him sleep in the bed. First month with the door closed to the bedroom – great! Now that it’s getting warmer (southwest US), we need to keep the door open for cooling our room and he gets up without us hearing him and goes potty by the door to outside. No alert, no waking us up.

Any advice would be appreciated as I’d rather not have a secondary thermostat to cool our bedroom better and pay $100 more a month in utilities to regulate the bedroom temp separately to be able to keep the door closed.

He just simply doesn’t know how to tell us he needs to potty, or we can’t figure out what his alert is.

Any advice welcome, feeling very defeated over here.

I adopted my pup 2 weeks ago and she has been a menace (as any pup). But suddenly this morning she’s calm (not lethargic) but just cuddly?

She engaged with a few toys before we even peed first thing in am, ate just fine, pooped after her first nap, but now she isn’t being crazy, she’s just sitting with me on the couch and chewing on a blanket, I tried to engage with her with toys but she doesn’t seem too interested, nothing else seems off with her physically but I’m just a bit worried. She also wasn’t crazy about trying to eat my ankles yesterday and I thought that was her favorite hobby…

(I do know she was the calmest puppy out of her litter, but I am still a bit worried something is wrong, is she just growing up? Does it get quiet before her teen age and teething comes in?)

This is my first puppy, and I lost my 2.5year dog very suddenly so I am very anxious rn…

Thank you in advance

Edit: some additional info

She even took a longer nap yesterday once (1.5h and she usually only naps for like 45-60min) and this morning she woke up from her nap when I was in the bathroom, she whined quietly as usual but by the time I came back to her crate she was asleep again and that happens very rarely)

She had DHPP vaccine at 7 weeks and a follow up last Saturday (so 4 days ago) she had next guard plus on the 19th in case this is relevant

What dog wash / products are you using that have done well with keeping your dog smelling fresh longer?

Idk if my smell is getting more sensitive or what but I feel like my dog doesnt stay smelling clean as long anymore? I wash her, towel dry and then dry with a blow dryer. She doesnt spend alot of time outside (by choice, she will try to dig her way back inside lol)- so its not from running around getting dirty.

My first dog is a 4 year old Shihtzu named Toby. He is an amazing boy, just not your typical dog. He is very lazy. He hates going on walks, as soon as he sees the leash he runs away from me, sometimes i force him but he literally sits down and refuses to move most of the “walk” lol. Another thing he hates is cars. Poor thing starts shaking before we even reach the car. He also gets car sick which doesnt help. Recently, we got another dog, a ‘now’ 4 month old chihuahua half tobys size, but with soooo much energy. Basically, this pup is the complete opposite of toby. He loves walks, loves to play for hours on end, and does very well with car rides. We started taking the new pup out on walks and out to a few places for socialization and leaving toby at home as we used to do before the pup due to the reasons mentioned above. The issue is, i feel so guilty! I feel so guilty taking this new dog on walks, and outings while toby stays home.

Has anyone had two dogs with completely different personalities? It feels wrong to treat them “differently”, but the truth is that they are different so i am stuck on whether i should keep this routine, or start taking toby with me whenever i take the pup out.

Are there any good dog-focused magazine subscriptions? I'd prefer physical issues. I don't have a specific category in mind really. My only thing is no hunting. Hunting makes me sad and it's not something I'd like to receive in the mail.

I’ve had her since she was about 10 weeks old and we just moved from a house to an apartment (about 5 hours and a state away) after 5 years. She has yet to poop and I’m worried! There is a dog park in the complex so I let her off leash to see if that would help and we stayed for a good 30 minutes and nothing. She is not used to a leash but has not seemed in bad spirits about it and sticks close to me (she’s always been this way, even off leash). But now she just doesn’t have free rein of a yard. Should I be worried?

Has anyone used a bedside co-sleeper bassinet type thing with their dog? And have feedback to share?

I’m struggling with my 5 month old chihuahua (all of a sudden, she was doing really before) with crate training. Looking into alternatives.

My 2 dogs are obsessed with the nylabone wishbones bacon flavored. But sadly they keep leaving little pieces of plastic everywhere in their dog beds, in our blankets, on the couch, in our beds, basically everywhere you can find them. Is there by chance any bones that don't "shed" like this by chance? Thank you in advance.

My dog who is toilet trained and has constant access to outside has recently started pooping inside. After many accidents and research, I’ve come to the conclusion it is attention seeking behaviour as it happens in the early mornings usually right before waking up/ as we stir.

He’s about a year old so it’s not that he is old or not getting taken out enough (as he has access to outside 24/7) We clean up outside after him regularly too.

He also knows he shouldn’t do it as he acts guilty after doing it.

Just wanted advice on how to approach this….

Is the no reaction method the way to get him to stop? It’s very frustrating as we are mostly asleep when he does it!

Ok so obviously I love my dog but omg her breath actually smells like poop. I don’t think she’s eating it cause I never see her do it. I give her greenies everyday but it still smells god awful. Please someone help 😭