Category: Top Dog

So my puppy had been struggling recently with multiple different things, some I have seen improvement and some we have yet to find a solution. I just want to explain them here and ask for advice on this, as for some of these issues im just so lost on what to do. To start the things he does really with are potty training, friendly with other dogs, crate training, still listens to commands pretty consistently, and has seen major improvement with leash walking. Now the bad stuff:

Counter surfing:

My mom and me made a grave mistake when we first got our puppy, she would occasionally feed him our food from the table (our first dog, i should’ve told her not to its mostly on me) and since then we have had massive problems with him counter surfing. The second he sees our food on the table he just goes crazy. If unleashed he will just dive headfirst into our plates, and eat the food. This is one of the only times he will fully ignore commands and not listen at all. It has gotten to the point we just have to leash/crate him in another room while we eat. We have tried multiple times to train him not to eat our food and he just ignores all if it:

Resource guarding:

This one is weird, and I honestly have no clue about this one and how it started, maybe a behavior before we adopted him. He has a really bad habit of grabbing random objects like hats, shoes, or even stealing our food. Once he takes it he becomes extremely possessive and if you try to take it from him, he will growl and snap. This is the most serious problem and the main reason I am on here, because of this behavior i am scared to bring him around younger family members :/

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Again this is my first dog ever and I know I’m probably not great at it, but I’m just trying to raise him right and give him a happy life. Thank you!

We have a 5 month old golden, and we're trying to train her to go potty outside. We've been trying to be more diligent in taking her out on a sort of schedule. However, our yard doesn't have any grass (we're renting), so we take her to a nearby park that's about 3 blocks away. However, she often sits down once we go outside and refuses to move. Even when we manage to walk for a bit, she will choose not to move again and want to go back home. So I've often had to carry her some of the way to the park or drive there, after which she walks for a bit on the grass and does her business.

Any tips to have her walk all the way to the park? It's a hassle to try and drive there when it's only 3 blocks away… I've tried to lure her with treats, but it only works a few times along the way. She also gets frustrated when I don't go back home when she wants to.

Sorry if everything here is messy, I don't really have the mental capacity to properly organize my thoughts and feelings, or proofread.

My aunt came over today with a box of 5 puppies today, and I (19f)(also PMSing) found one I was really attached to. She's the runt, I think, and is scared and shy, but seems to open up around me.

After seeing how much I loved her, my mom said I could keep her overnight if I wanted, and I decided I wanted to try, because I wanted to spend more time with her. So my aunt left me with her, and I hung out with her for a while.

My mom checked in on me a couple times, and during one of them she asked me if I wanted to keep the puppy for myself. She knows how much I miss having a dog around, since my sister and her two dogs don't visit often anymore. I wasn't able to make a decision, even with my mom reassuring me that I wouldn't be taking it up alone, and that she would help me.

A couple hours later, I'm crying because I don't feel equipped to handle her, even just overnight, and feel like she needs to go back to my aunt. So we get ready to go, but then as I'm about to walk out the door with her in my arms, I feel sick to my stomach. I didn't really want to let her go.

So about 30 minutes later I got settled with her in my bed, set up a few potty pads, and told myself it's only for one night. But then I started crying again, because I once again don't even feel equipped to keep her overnight.

I know that keeping her overnight is only going to make me feel more attached, and break my heart in the morning. It hurts extra because I know that if I don't keep her, she'll end up going to a shelter, and who knows where she'll end up.

And I really do miss having animals around. I've had dreams recently about cuddling up with animals, and then sobbing and feeling lonely when I'm awake.

But then again, I don't feel emotionally equipped to keep a puppy, I can barely take care of myself as it is, and the stress of keeping her safe and happy might make my anxiety worse. I feel like just based on my feelings right now, I shouldn't keep her.

So I'm just sitting here, holding back tears and screams because I feel like if I let it out I'll just stress her out, and I can't put her in the bathroom away from me because she's not used to being alone.

I don't know what to do. I know I'm gonna get awful sleep tonight, and I know I'm gonna feel awful when she has to go in the morning. I love her so much, and all want the best for her. I just don't think that person is me.

UPDATE

Mysister called me and talked me through making a decision. She says she feels confident in my abilities, and that she'll help me with taking care of the puppy if I need it. And honestly just being able to talk things through with her has helped a lot. I've decided instead of freaking out and making big decisions when I'm feeling big things, I'm going to keep her for at least a few days to see how things go. My sister also said that iif things don't work out, she can take her back to the shelter and reunite her with the litter. So that means less pressure to make a decision right now.

Hi I need some help for harnesses. My pup is 8 months old and keeps slipping through her harness. She’s learned that if she jumps back a certain way she can slip out. Looking for any recommendations about harnesses or any other tips and tricks.

She’s about 9lbs and is a chiweenie mix

Me and my wife took in a puppy (we think he’s a Staffordshire bull terrier) that my friend found in the park. The other option wasn’t the best for him so we decided we would try to take him on to give him a shot at a life.

We already have another dog that’s been apart of the family for 2-3 years. We got through the initial blending stage and he seemed to mesh well with us, we have slowly built a routine which works for the most part, but recently he has been barking from his pen/crate area CONSTANTLY. I mean he would often bark an hour almost non stop. We make sure his needs are met ie feeding, toilet, play time ect. But if he doesn’t go to sleep immediatley he will bark the most ear piercing bark for an insanely long time. We keep him in an area of the house that isn’t reachable from our other pets. We try to keep the area as low stim as we can. We have tried white noise. We try to burn as much energy as we can but nothing seems to work and it’s becoming an issue. We don’t want to place him elsewhere as the options aren’t great where we are in the world and we’re worried he may end up in a bad situation. It’s literally becoming an issue with our neighbours and we keep him inside. We aren’t trainers by any stretch but we have managed to raise a dog before this and he is extremely well mannered ect.

Please, any help will be appreciated. We don’t want to have to look into other options but as it is we cannot keep things as they are.

What can we do to try and get a cap on the constant barking for attention.

I have a berner turning 5 months next week. I got her at 9 weeks, and have been crate training ever since. I keep her crate in the office right next to my room. She takes about 2 naps a day in her crate and sleeps in there at night. Usually, I’ll walk her to the room and she’ll lay down or sit at my feet instead of going in the crate, so I coax her with treats or try to pick her up/direct her into the crate. Sometimes if I put her to sleep way too late she’ll walk in by herself, but if other than that she never chooses to sleep in her crate. Once she’s in, she’ll go right to sleep, but it’s always a small (albeit adorable) battle getting her in.

Should I just keep moving forward like this until she gets used to it or should I be doing something different? She’s my first puppy of my own outside of family dogs so I’d love any insight! My past family dogs were never crate trained.

i have had my vizsla pup (male) for around a month now and he is still having accidents inside, i havnt raised a puppy in years but have had adult dogs forever and am just needing a bit of help with what to do!! (this is editted as i didnt word it properly before:)

My puppy is so nice 90% of the time until he gets either too hyper or has to poop. When he has to poop he jumps and bites and is just mean. Tonight I started to take away his independent outside time if he’s going to be aggressive about having to poop. Instead of letting him out and having him do nothing until I step outside and him attacking me I decided to take him for a walk around the block. His favourite place to poop is the police station so we walked that way and he got a bit aggressive when we first left the house but then was just happy to walk.

I don’t mind taking him around the block to poop but this isn’t a long time solution as I can’t always take him for a midnight walk. Has anyone else experienced this?

My 14 week old cavoodles potty training was going so well until it rained! Now she has had a few accidents inside or on the outdoor lounge rather than her grass patch which is wet.

How does everyone get their dogs to potty outside when their patch is wet?

Unfortunately, she is not crate trained. She got so distressed in it she bit the latches and broke them but I’m waiting for play pen gates to show up.

TLDR: pup randomly barking at noises and sometimes nothing. Stopped sleeping through the night doesn’t want to be in crate

I have a cockapoo pup (mini poodle x cocker spaniel) she’s 5 months old now and for some reason she has started not sleeping through the night?

2 nights ago she woke us up around 2am husband took her out and she went potty and he put her back to bed. She kept crying, he went down again and realised there was vomit on her blanket so we removed it and put a different blanket in her crate but it took her ages to settle she was whining and howling off and on for quite a while.

Last 2 nights have been similar she wants to sleep on the sofa and not in the crate but my parents are looking after her in 5 weeks when my husband and I go on our honeymoon for 2 weeks so we want her sleeping in the crate. We do wonder if the crates too small? She’s 6kg. She will go in it when we put her to bed with minimal fuss.

She randomly barks at noises now such as planes flying over, birds chirping sometimes and sometimes at seemingly nothing.

Any help and advice is much appreciated!