Category: Top Dog

Hello! I’m happy to have found this page! Me and my fiancé have adopted a sweet Akita/Husky mixed girl when she was 8 weeks. She is now 12 week, potty training has been great, she’s getting comfortable in her kennel, and training has been good (knows touch for her recall, sit, down and leave it) of course being so young she’s teething so the bites are abundant and once that happens I put her in her kennel and she goes right to bed for a few hours. She had a moment where she tried to nip me and growled when she was eating as I was petting her. I heard that the breed (Akita) can commonly have resource guarding tendencies so we have been hand feeding her to give her more confidence and trust with us and it’s been great so far I pet her while she eats out of my hand and I get her sit back down before every bite.

When she plays with other dogs (they’re smaller breeds outside of my partners friends dog that is a big lab mix so she’s the same size as them is not a little taller) she shows teeth and gets a bit over aggressive which I can tell from her growls when she’s playing (with the smaller or same size dogs not the big ones) . I break them up once I start seeing that as I don’t want it to escalate and she or the other dog gets harmed, her teeth are VERY sharp!

Am I overreacting a bit considering she’s so young and it only happens when playing for a bit? My concern is not having her be aggressive with other dogs we don’t have the same issue with people. She’s on a good routine, I have had family dogs growing up (German Sheppard and a Border Collie) so I enjoy the high I just want to make sure I’m giving her a good environment to grow but more importantly stop any bad acts before they become a habits.

Am I overreacting or are there ways to minimize that with other dogs? I would love to hear from anyone who has time, especially if you had had or have an Akita, thank you!

My easily excited, major FOMO, under-practiced-at-settling, 10 month old rescue is currently sleeping on me on the couch!!!!!! This is her first time sleeping outside of her crate since the weekend I adopted her in January!! 😭❤️ Everything will be okay.

Brought our 9 week old puppy home yesterday. Spent a lot of the time in the garden and snuggling on the sofa. She loves comfort and being near me. We had a plastic bed that we brought her home in with a towel and small blanket that smelled of her mum. She peed all over it a few hours after we got home. I set up the crate before she arrived (we took the door off) but she cried quite a lot. Went to bed just after midnight and she was up this morning crying and barking at 5:15am! She has the whole kitchen to herself. When I came down, I discovered that she had weed and poo’d all in the crate all over her bedding. She didn’t come from the cleanest home so wondering how I can get her out of this?

Also, locked her in the kitchen today whilst we had dinner (closed the baby gate) and she screamed the whole house down like she was being murdered! I have a heated pad and towels in the crate but she just won’t settle there at all and wants to be on your lap or snuggled in your neck.

What can I do to help her settle in the kitchen? I can’t have her screaming and barking all night… or should I sleep on the sofa with her (although stressing that she might wee and poo on me 😑)

She’s 9 weeks and 4 days old.

I have a 9 week old puppy and she is obsessed with eating rocks and bugs. Every time I take her outside, she acts like it’s her personal mission to search for them. I’ve started keeping her on a leash at all times outside so I can stop her, but I’m still really concerned.

I feed her based on her weight and even started giving her a little more because I thought maybe she was still hungry, but now I’m not sure if that’s the issue or if this is just normal puppy behavior.

We got our girl just over a week ago and she is like two different dogs. In our home and in the backyard when she can run around she is confident, energetic, all wags and playing, and clearly loves us. She sleeps well in her crate, she's still on puppy pads because the breeder trained her on them and it just won't stop snowing and freezing rain here (please I'm waiting for spring) but she never misses. She is loving and intelligent, knowing several commands already.

If we pick her up (both to go outside or just sitting on the couch) or put her in a stroller or on a little mat outside she is absolutely petrified. Her entire body trembles and the few occasions we've had to do it for a long time starts panic panting. Sometimes she'll take treats in this state, sometimes not. But it will not stop no matter how long we wait. And pushing her through it when she's like that feels awful because she is completely shut down the entire time.

Then the very second you put her down again and let her move around it's all forgotten and she's all waggles and running around joyfully. She goes from 0 to 100 and back again with no period to really get her used to the scary parts before she is already shaking. The breeder did ENS with her and she absolutely is confident with new things but only when she's on the ground.

We are absolutely at a loss on how to socialize her for all she's going to need to do out there in the world once she gets her vaccines when the act of getting her out the door is terrifying her and not being able to run around under her own power makes her tremble so much she just hides in on herself. I've officially run out of ideas and could use some advice if anyone has had a fearful dog that's only really afraid some of the time.

Assuming your pup will simply grow out of any ‘bad behaviours’ is wrong. Dogs will grow into bad habits and behaviours, not out of them.

Barking? Pup eating its own poop? Toilet accidents inside? Begging for attention or food?

We are responsible for every one of their behaviours. Anything you don’t like your puppy doing needs to be trained out. It’s relentless, it’s a full time job.

Your dog may grow out of undesirable behaviours, but this isn’t guaranteed, and can be achieved a-lot faster with adequate training.

I just want to make sure I'm doing this right and not traumatizing him.

Pup came home Wednesday 3/18, and we immediately started crate training. He's taken to it really, really well, sleeping overnight in it since night 2 and taking naps in it every day. He even occupies himself with his toys if he wakes up before I'm awake but he doesnt need to go out yet.

The main problem is that my bedroom would need massive rearranging to fit his crate in it, and I'm hesitant to do so because I'm disabled and more than likely the three of us (myself, my retired and newly blind senior service dog, and pup) are moving soon. So his crate is in the other bedroom.

He's nooooot handling being alone well. We've been sleeping next to him in a temporary setup overnight to keep him calm. I've also been sitting next to him during naps, and if he's out of the crate he's on leash unless we're actively doing something like playing with his ball or the flirt pole. Constant supervision, basically. Until yesterday, I only left him alone long enough to use the restroom because he got really upset with barking and howling even for just those short periods.

Yesterday, during nap times, I've started doing other things I need to do coming in and out of the room. He cries and barks but has stopped howling, and sometimes distress pees. Other than immediately cleaning up the pee, I ignore him and keep doing my thing until he quiets, then I'll either talk to him, treat him, or keep ignoring him if it was something like a nighttime bathroom break for me. I did it again today, same deal. He seems a bit less distressed today, but still upset at being alone, and still distress peed.

Is there something I'm doing wrong, or is this a workable approach to getting him used to alone time? I know he's just a baby and never been alone before Wednesday, so I'm trying to remember that and instill that alone time is A-OK and always temporary. Is there something more I could be doing?

Thanks!

We have a 7 month old Spitz x Border Collie, who for the most part has been great with training! We've had her since 8 weeks. BUT we are having major issues with her jumping up at strangers and just generally being ridiculously excited around people. She isn't allowed to jump up at home, and we've tried just sitting quietly people watching since she was able to go on walks – no change, just manic love for people. We also enrolled her in a highly recommended group training school, but she just went nuts the whole time and the trainer just kept telling us off for not keeping her attention better 🙁 we actually didn't finish the classes because we felt like us and our pup were being looked down at from how excited she was. My question is – is this par for the course with her age/breed, or are we doing something wrong or missing something with her training? We love taking her out but it's so stressful going anywhere with people! If you have a high energy breed, what worked for you???

last night, I was cooking dinner, and everything was completely normal. my dog suddenly sat by the front door and started shaking. we brought her into another room and calmed her down. when she came back to the living room, the same thing happened

we then went to bed thinking she would be fine in the morning. this morning, she acted totally normal until we went into the living room. she ran back to bed and didn't want to leave. this repeated a few times

this afternoon, she has been totally normal and actually spent the entire day in the living room. but it just started again! she randomly just started shaking in the living room

this is highly abnormal for her, so we're worried. I have to emphasize that we have been making sure everything in the living room is completely normal—no unusual objects, neutral temperature, no new light, etc.

not sure if a vet appointment would be able to tell us anything. has anyone heard of something like this before?

edit: also worried about seizures

Hi I got a 3mo puppy a few days ago. I have two other dogs and need advice crate training the puppy. The older dogs are well behaved and free range. They are very upset about the puppy whining in the crate and the puppy wants to come out and “play” with them. We have a cover on all but the door of the crate. We live in a studio apartment so not possible to move the crate to another room. Should I cover the door too? Any other tips? Everything I see about crate training doesn’t take into consideration other dogs (that aren’t crate contained) Thank you!

Edited to ask about my other dogs barking and waking up the puppy in the crate. Any tips for that? TIA