Category: Top Dog

We have a 7 month old golden retriever and as the title says she is obsessed with eating poop. No matter how much we monitor it and clean it as quick as we can, we have a huge garden and she will see our other dog pooping and be in there before we can get anywhere near. Normal recall, no matter how we try (treats, excitement, etc) is totally ignored.

We can't stop her going in the garden, it's just not fair and especially on our other dog. We are going to try supplements to make it unpleasant but she weighs nearly 20kg and our other dog is 40kg so you can imagine how much it would cost to use no poo supplements for both going forward.

Is this something she might grow out of? We hoped she would have grown out of it by now but it's getting worse if anything. If our other dog goes out and poops she will actually bark to try and get out to it to eat it…

I have a Labradoodle puppy who is nearly 5 months old. I have been crate training him since I bought him home (just after 8 weeks) and generally he has been doing really well.

As the title says, he has been doing really well at night (touch wood! I'm scared to jinx it!) Since night 3, he has been sleeping through the night from around 10pm until roughly 7 to 8am – there have just been a handful of nights where he's barked and/or needed a pee in the middle of the night.

However, in the day it's a bit different. It's clear that he tolerates his crate; he doesn't hate it but doesn't love it. Usually when I put him in there, he won't cry or bark initially, but he will only nap in there for about 45 minutes to an hour and then he will bark to get out. He does sometimes go in there independently but usually I have to put him in there for nap time.

Recently, when I put him into his crate during the day he will go in absolutely fine, but after about 10-15 minutes he starts barking. Most times he has just been to the toilet, just had water, and just had a walk / played / had an enrichment activity so I know he's tired. Still, I will take him out to see if he needs the bathroom, and usually he doesn't go. I then put him back in his crate and again he usually goes in fine but will start barking about 10-15 minutes later.

Also just to add, I go to work during the day and he goes to doggy daycare (and for reasons I won't go into here, he's currently going to a handful of different people at the moment.) I give the people his crate and do ask them to please try to encourage him to nap in his crate, but of course it's up to them if they do this with him and I will never really know what they do or don't do. So it's hard to be fully consistent with him with crate training during the day, as I'm not the only person looking after him.

So my question is, would it be really bad if I stopped crating him for his naps during the day? He naps really well in the day either in his playpen or on my sofa, so he's still getting lots of rest. My only concern is that it would get him out of the routine of sleeping in his crate, and then he wouldn't sleep in it at night (I do need him to still sleep in it at night, as I often go to visit my mum and my dad and he sleeps in his crate when I go to both their houses.) Part of the reason I think this might happen, is because there was one day last week where he didn't have any naps in his crate during the day and he had a really bad time in his crate at night (which might have just been a coincedence, I'm not sure!) but it makes me worried.

TL;DR:
My puppy sleeps well in his crate at night but sometimes barks during daytime crate naps, even when tired. He naps well outside the crate. Since daytime consistency is hard (different carers), would stopping daytime crate naps affect his good nighttime crate routine?

Hi all,

I have an 8 month old Malinois thats absolutely obsessed with my cats track toys (the ones that have a ball inside a series of tubing they can push around). She goes nuts for them. I was wondering if anyone knows of anything like that for dogs?

I wish I could add a video of her doing it but it only happens with certain toys where she’ll whine and cry chewing on them, I hope it’s not dental pain!!! Thank you!

I have a 6 mo male yellow lab who was bred for hunting. He follows his nose wherever it takes him and enjoys walking through our property with me sniffing all the stuff he can find. He’s on a leash with me outside 95% of the time. He goes off leash to play fetch (still working on bringing the toy all the way back to me though). I have been treating and praising him every time he comes back to me, looks at me, etc. His recall is good when he knows I have tasty treats and he’s bored. But when he’s on a scent, super excited, or just wants to play the “I have something and you can’t have it” game, his recall is non existent. I understand some of his impulse control will come with maturing, but is there anything I can try training on now that will help me get his attention when he’s excited and work on his recall. I’m down for games, training methods, whatever I can try.

hello, sorry if this is a bit all over the place im literally sobbing as i type this. i feel so frustrated and lost, ive drained all my savings and have gone into debt trying to figure out why my puppy keeps getting yeast infections. where i live they dont offer allergy tests and there are no veterinarians that specialize in allergies either. im just so frustrated and sad because all i want is for him to get better. ive switched his food many times (yes ive been on royal canin too and other hypoallergenic puppy food), hes been on apoquel, citrizine, on medicated shampoo, gets fully blowdried after batjs, etc. still no improvement. there was only slight improvement and then it just suddenly got worse. it went from paw licking and an infection in his ears to now his eyes are swollen too. i really dont know what to do and its also been hard medicating him because he snaps at me.

I have a 13 month old Patterdale springer spaniel cross. he is extremely high energy but we're giving him lots of exercise and enrichment I was almost obsessive about socialising him when we got him and he loves other dogs most of the time. while he is my dog technically, due to work my dad is the one who cares for him most of the time and he babies the pup aggressively and has no issues while on walks.

I take him out on the same walks the same routes and I tend to be sterner with him and he listens but for the past 3 months or so he goes for other male dogs. I thought it might be because he isn't neutered yet but my dad doesn't have the issue and on occasion hes gone for a female dog as well but under different circumstances (the dog was sniffing around his ball)

I dont understand what it is im doing wrong or why he responds so differently with me.