Category: Top Dog

I love this girl so much but I’m really wondering when you start having that conversation of when to put her down? I mean, she goes outside regularly but will just choose to mess in the house. She’s getting way more snippy when I direct her. Just getting worried that she’s losing her mind.

This may be a dumb question, but how do I know if I am keeping my home too cold for my dog’s comfort? One of my dogs is a hound. He shakes a bit with excitement when I come home from work. The room I keep him in while I’m at work gets to about 67-68 degrees, and sometimes I think I see him shiver from cold as well. Is this room too cold for him? I come home from work to let him out, so he is in this room for about 4-5 hours at a time.

I think what I'm experiencing in puppy blues – maybe others can relate, or at least this will help put things into words.

So I have a lot of mental health problems prior to getting the puppy. Crippling PTSD that causes me to 1. Freeze and become comatose and 2. Violent outbursts Did I mention that one trigger for me is sudden, loud noises? Ha – well, turns out the puppy has a lot of those Autism and ADHD, which makes existing in general more difficult Depression and anxiety (of course) Dissociative disorder (companion to the ptsd, manifests as my body appearing to freeze and not react to anything) On top of that I have a severe aversion to going outside (ptsd), talking to people, and I'm insecure about my height – also related to PTSD – and being perceived in general makes me feel stressed, on edge, violent. (I had a very, very rough upbringing, lol.)

My adopted parents who are insanely nice and patient with me thought getting a puppy would help, to be a service dog later in life. I agree – I love dogs and never had a chance to be kind to a pet. We got the puppy and I consider him my little brother, but its been 2 weeks and my body and mental health just isn't holding up. I'm not sure what to do but ig ill just write it for now sigh

Also – having the puppy has generally had a positive impact on my life, and I would rather have him than not, because before it wasnt like I was all happy and functioning well either. I'm just trying to adapt, I guess…

So because puppy needs a schedule (something I'm already bad at), needs to go outside to socialize with dogs, go to puppy school etc (it is difficult for me to go out and I often get triggered and have to stabilise back home for hours), and is a puppy, so mouths me, always does behaviours that need correcting (lots of energy, which I do not have) I'm struggling. Physically I'm alright but mentally, not so much. My parents help me my dad brings his food up so I just have to put it in front of him (and I wish I could put it in his crate which is only a short walk away but I cannot get out of bed even) And my mother isn't helping, because she can be critical and unwilling to learn – like for example this morning puppy was mouthing me and by this point I was dissociated and letting him bite me because I wanted to feel something (wow, so edgy) and she was standing over my bed and saying 'is this even normal or he is biting because we are letting him' and I said 'who is letting him? What more could we do, punish him and tell him no if he bites?' And she went silent just kept staring with a frown on her face.

It might not sound that bad but people in general, especially people standing in a space I should feel safe in, make me on edge, 'fight or flight mode' – as I said before, I had a really really rough childhood, lol.

And because I don't want to hurt them, I direct the ptsd-hatred towards myself instead, so I went still, but I wasn't just daydreaming, I was inwardly screaming because she was still standing there staring.

I can take one or two days and I've put my own problems aside for the puppy but at the 2 week mark, and with no sense of privacy to express my emotions (I don't want to scare him with a violent outburst in my room, and I can't draw because he keeps following me and unfortunately I don't consider him safe to relax around yet, its not my choice, but my body's) I'm beginning to break. Day after day of walking him and people going up to pet him, and me needing to talk to them in a friendly way, and going to puppy school and needing to seem normal and stiff and just stuff like that building up and up and all the while, no way to vent it out.

I need to take care of myself too but I just dont know what to do. When I get into this state, I just stay in my room until it gets better but I cannot feel safe with the puppy in my room, and my parents aren't OK with watching him anymore because they 'cannot deal with him' aka notnunderstanding his puppy behaviours and my mother is overly critical of him without helping so it stresses me out. I dont want him wandering around the house because he's also taken to pooping and peeing in other rooms (he can pee in the right place indoors and outdoors) and I'm trying to toilet train him to hold it until we go outside. And yes I know take puppy out every two hours no issues right? Well I don't have the energy to take myself even out of my traumatised hellscape, so, yeah. That isn't happening.

I don't want to return the puppy because it's a matter of learning how to function alongside the puppy, I think this is just all stacking on top of each other and previously I wasn't doing ALL the things I found difficult on top of each other. Sigh… And now I can't even take care of myself – I'm starving but can't eat, I'm terrified and angry at something that dosent even exist anymore – my body is telling me to kill itself (I know I dont wanna tho its just an intrusive thought) And I'm very stressed about puppy school because I haven't trained him even 10% of what I want to and he's very excited in puppy school and I need to calm him down and I just cannot do that. I can't even move, I'm seeing danger everywhere. I even want to hurt the puppy because he's a moving object and moving objects aren't OK right now. And if I take him to the corridor to play (he might pee on the floor but like who cares) he's gonna whine and random crying will make my symptoms worse, thus making me more unable to help him…..

💀we're a bit screwed guys.

My pup is 6mos old and 6lbs with giant candle flame ears, which I am sure amplify everything.

For the weeks before he could go on the ground due to vaccinations I used to put him in the Snuggie and walk around my neighborhood so that he would get used to the sites and sounds of outside with lots of treats.

Then we started leash walking, he always was a little intimidated by the outdoors, but he was getting used to it, with lots of treats and praise. He always struggled with loud engines, motorcycles, sirens, landscapers, etc., which unfortunately are very common in my city area. When I would see something coming that I knew was going to be jarring to him, I would give a high value treat so that he would associate loud sounds with Something positive. It it is working pretty well when he hears something loud. A lot of the times he will look up at me for a treat and remain still instead of having a complete fear reaction where he tries to get out of his harness, etc.

Then there were a couple of incidents with garbage trucks, I had to hold him because he was thrashing wildly and we couldn’t get away in any directions so he was exposed a couple times to this pretty terrifying situation, that I did my best to navigate. He doesn’t really wanna go outside anymore, I have trouble getting him out of the elevator. He doesn’t wanna walk down the front steps. I know I shouldn’t be luring him with food because that just enforces the behavior. Often I pick him up and carry him to the back of my block, and then he will walk home. (He will walk towards home, but not away- we also practice walking at the park, etc)

But I don’t want him to feel this scared in the world, and I would like to help him understand that these noises aren’t scary without reinforcing fear behavior through treats, which is what I’m afraid I have started to do by accident.

We’ve been working with YouTube videos of garbage trucks inside, but they do not really replicate the real thing. It’s gotten to the point now on garbage day, which is several days a week, he’s now afraid inside my apartment and just listens for them and runs around trying to hide. It’s pretty bad and I’m wondering if anyone has had any experience training a dog that big sounds are fine. I am consulting a trainer in two weeks. I also know that they go through different fear periods and maybe this is just that, I hope but I want to do everything right to set him up For an anxiety, free, happy life right in the beginning. So if you have been in this situation and found anything that really works please let me know. Thanks in advance.

We’re bringing home a lab puppy around Christmas and I’m trying to figure out what kennel to get. We plan to crate train and want to invest in something that will last long-term. Right now we’re between Diggs and Impact.

I know labs grow fast, so we want to get a size she can grow into and just use a divider while she’s little. We’re torn between getting a large or XL because we’d rather not have to replace it later.

If you’ve raised a lab, what size crate worked best for you? And if you’ve used either Diggs or Impact, would love to hear what you liked or didn’t like about them.

I have had 6 puppies throughout my life, all of which I trained. I don’t know if I’ve just been lucky in the past, but I have NEVER had one this difficult to potty train before.

To start, yes I know he is still very young and I do not expect him to fully potty trained anytime soon.

I have a 12 week old mixed breed puppy I’ve adopted from the shelter at 10 weeks old. He seems very smart and has been quick to learn things like sit, down, wait, and drop.

However, we are struggling majorly with potty training. In the past, I’ve always kennel trained and daytime potty trained (knowing if I were to be gone an extended period of time and overnight, there would be accidents until they were older and able to go longer between potty breaks).

However, this puppy will pee small amounts (slightly larger than a quarter) every 15 minutes to hour. Sometimes more frequently than that. He’s in an appropriate sized kennel and will pee in there within 10 minutes of going outside sometimes.

We’ve tried to limit his water intake to mealtimes and no less than 30 minutes before he may need to be in his kennel. We take him pee every time he gets up from laying down, anytime he starts sniffing around, or anytime he gets suddenly distracted when playing. We also take him potty right before and 30 minutes after every meal and 15-30 minutes anytime he drinks water. He’s still having several accidents in the house and urinating in his kennel often.

He’s a medium sized breed and from what I’ve been told by my vet should be able to go up to 3 hours between potty breaks. He has a visit next week for his vaccines and I will be having him checked for a UTI to rule that out as a possibility, although he has no other signs of having one. I do think he CAN hold it, as he will hold it up to 2 hours if he goes with us in the car.

Because of him urinating so much even when in the kennel, he is getting frequent bathes and his skin is getting dried out from it. I know it’s not good for him to get 5+ baths a week. What am I missing that I can try?

So far I’ve tried the above plus taking him outside 15 minutes after he’s peed the first time, taking the paper towel we clean it up with and putting it where he potties outside, stopping him as soon as we catch him and immediately taking him out, and putting him in his kennel anytime we can’t continuously watch him (this is where he’s peeing on himself a lot and going within 10 minutes of being kenneled, even if he just went).

For background I’ve had my cavapoo for about 4 years, I got her when she was a puppy and she’s just turned 4.

I’m unable to afford training for her and even with my 9 to 5 I don’t have enough time to really dedicate to any type of at home training. The biggest issue is her potty training. She only likes to go and pee outside when it’s warm and absolutely hates when it’s even a little bit cold. She also had a bit of anxiety and if she hears any type of sudden sound or loud noise, she’ll refuse to go outside and drag me back to our house. And on mornings I have work I can’t do the whole “keep her outside until she goes potty” thing without being late. So I’m at a real loss for what to do.

The thought of giving her up breaks my heart because she’s truly helped me and my mental health.

Any advice is truly appreciated and needed!

Does your dog turn his head when he hears an odd noise? Does your dog bury their food with your pants? This is the thread to ask why.

Please keep this thread to non-medical issues only.