Category: Top Dog

Post a photo of your dog, get a free and kind of okay drawing in return!

I was accepted to adopt a 6 month old pup from a rescue. My old dog had to be put down 3 weeks ago. Ever since I interviewed for this dog, I can't sleep, and I'm stressed I'm making a mistake. During the day, I'm excited to welcome a new fluffball into our family, and I'm so excited to meet her. This dog Is the same breed and coloring as my old dog, but slightly bigger. Yes, I have a type, but small rescue poodles tend to be white. She is 14 years younger than my old dog, and will have a different energy. In the past, I've always waited about a year before getting a new dog. My remaining dog, a German shepherd, seems OK being an only dog, but I really miss having a small snuggly dog. I'm not going to be any less sad about my old dog's passing a year from now. Since I'm in my 60s, and retired, this will be my last dog. My motto is, if it isn't a heck yeah, its a heck no. Do my sleepless anxiety filled nights mean i'm making a mistake?

I’ve wanted a dog for a long time and about three weeks ago I was gifted an 8 week old golden lab mix puppy. At first it was going wonderfully. But around the second week she was home things started going downhill. I have a couple of kittens and an adult cat (kittens rescued in snow storm) that she won’t leave alone. No matter how much I redirect her with toys and food she just comes right back. I’ve been unable to get proper sleep because every five seconds she finds something bad to chew on despite the fact that I’ve bought her so many toys. I can’t crate her because she immediately starts screaming at the top of her lungs.

The sleep deprivation is starting to get to me. I want this to work out, dogs are so lovely but how do I train her to stop these things??

I know quite a bit about dogs, so I know usually destructive behavior is typically due to boredom or lack of enrichment, but our dog only does it while he's put away and we're at work. We used to have him in his kennel with his toys, but he'd pull stuff through the bars to tear it up. We have now started putting him in his own space (it's like a big closet) with more toys and enrichment in hopes that would help, but he's still tearing up things like his puppy pads without even touching his toys. I just don't know what to do bc I don't want him potentially eating his puppy pads/whatever he manages to get, but we live in an apartment so we can't just let him do his buisness all over the carpet.

Welcome to the fortnightly loose leash walking virtual workshop!

Join us as we compete with the squirrels, cats, other dogs, fresh urine scents and things that go zoooooooom!

Resources

Articles (All have videos embedded)

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• Train Your Dog For Perfect Loose Leash Walking by Casey Lomonaco. (With links and descriptions of several great videos, which we'll link to below.)
• Loose Leash Walking Tips by Casey Lomonaco
• Silky Leash by Grisha Stewart (blog post + videos.)

Youtube (Many of these are videos which are embedded in the above articles)

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• Silky Leash intro video with an excitable puppy
• Clicker Training Loose Leash Walking by Casey Lomonaco
• Loose Leash Walking II by Casey Lomonaco
• How to Train Your Dog Not to Pull – Loose Leash Walking by Emily "kikopup" Larlham
• Dog Training Tip- Leash Walking: Go Sniff and Marking by Emily "kikopup" Larlham
• Choose to Heel by Loridressage
• Loose Leash Walking by Stacy Hiebert Greer
• Clicker Training a Heel by Amy Norcal
• Shaping Loose Leash Walking With a High Rate of Reinforcement Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 by Helix Fairweather and Lynn Martin. (Read the text below the videos too!)
• Loose Leash Walking by Turid Rugaas

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See our page on leash reactivity for help managing and training dogs that bark and lunge while on leash.

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APDT webinar

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• Loose Leash Walking presented by Gail Fisher

Hi all –

We have a puppy who is a Very Good Dog. He is a puppy, though – about 14 weeks. It’s not our first puppy ever, but he is our first puppy in about 15 years. We have him on a 2 down 1 up schedule.

The past couple days has been a nightmare. When he’s out of his crate he’s biting incessantly. He’s a golden, so I know the velociraptor meme and understand this is normal. I redirect him to toys and he dodges them to bite me. If I have to put him in his playpen he whines, jumps, and barks. If I let him outside, he whines and barks at the door. I try to run and play with him and give him attention and he just bites me.

I feel so bad because I want to love him and give him the attention he deserves, but I don’t know what to do.