Category: Top Dog

I said goodbye to my 14 puppy yesterday morning. I have a vial of vetsulin that i only used 6 units of for her last dose. I also have 99 u- 40 syringes. I’m wondering if anyone knows about anywhere I can give away these things? I live in the Chicago area if anyone themselves are interested.

I'm thinking about working front desk at a doggy daycare. What is it like? I'm a bit on the shy side and I know this is a heavy customer service job. But im thinking the more i do it the easier it will get.

Hi! My family has dachshunds, but one of them is generally considered to be mine. My family kept her while I was out of state for school, but I’m graduating this spring and she’s gonna be moving with me. Leaving her with my family isn’t an option because my family are bare minimum dog owners, and I want her to be better provided for.

She hasn’t lived with me in a few years, but I raised her and she’s still very very comfortable with me when I’m home. Shes 4, so not old but not a puppy. Any advice on how can I make this transition as easy as possible for her?

ETA: by bare minimum dog owners I mean she is fed and vaccinated, but isn’t trained, regularly groomed, or provided much enrichment. I can’t be certain she’s even going outside every day

We adopted a 10 week old puppy just 7 days ago, and overall things have been going well! He's definitely a bit of a demon shark at times and doesn't love going down for naps when he gets overtired, but potty training he knows to go to the door and any accidents happen after my wife or I say 'he probably needs to go out', so that at least is up to us to work on. I'm hoping for advice in three areas – maintaing focus, how to add cues and adding new contexts for training (these all seem interconnected to me)

He knows a little bit in terms of training, he at least associates the clicker and treat bag with sitting + looking at me or her means he gets a treat, and can kind of play leave it for a few moments, but he is very very distractable (is a baby).

He knows the behaviors for sit/leave it/going to the door to be let outside/going to crate for dinner, but besides his name to look at us he seems to totally have no idea we are even talking to him

Any tips on maintaining focus for training? Even in short bursts it is very hard to maintain his attention even with chicken or other very high value treats.

Knowing that it's still early, and not taking these as bad progress at all! He is receptive to our attention and loves food so I'm very happy with where he is at this point. Just looking to make sure we stay on the right track with positive reinforcement and help him to keep doing so well. I'm assuming an answer will just be persistence, but are there tips y'all have for helping add contexts/cues

This subreddit has been so helpful so far knowing where to go with concepts, what's normal, and all that good stuff!

our pomeranian pup has just gone 6 months last week and has always been great with being left alone. we started with small timeframes when leaving him alone during the day and have managed to work him up to 4 hours max, he even spends the whole night from 11-7 on his own with no issue and has since the second week we brought him home. he always gets puzzles/brain games or long lasting chews and has always been fine up til now.

since hitting 6 months, he's started whining and barking when left on his own. at first it was just one or two barks before he settled, but it's progressed to 2-3 minutes of barking and even scratching at the door today, as well as tearing up paper/cardboard items we accidentally left lying a few times. it never lasts longer than that, and he always seems content/settled when we do return.

is this early signs of separation anxiety or just normal "teenage" development that he'll grow out of with reinforcement and consistency? I'm debating going totally back to basics and rewarding for just 5-10 seconds alone and gradually increasing the time, but other family members think this might actually hinder him more than help.

we had a bad experience with extreme separation anxiety in our last dog who was a rescue, we ended up making the very difficult decision to rehome him for a multitude of reasons, so i think it's bringing back negative memories and everyone's a little stressed about it. I'm just not sure what to do for the best.

any advice or personal anecdotes would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance !

Okay… first time puppy parents.. we watched all the videos, on crate training, and play pen time…. Nothing prepares you for when you actually get a puppy….. he cries in his crate or pen if we are not physically with or beside him… what do we do?!?

Iv tried the treats, he willingly goes inside his playpen and his crate… it’s when we close the door he starts wailing…

So I just got a new dog yesterday, he’s a 3yo chihuahua mix and he’s somewhat potty trained, (he doesn’t go on the floor, but he goes on pee pad) and I’m unable to get him outside, I don’t want him to get used to going in the house, but I also don’t want to rush him and make him overwhelmed and uncomfortable with me. However he’s only gone pee twice, once when I first brought him home (outside) and then this morning around 5 am? (Inside on pee pad), but then he goes right back in his crate and sits and sleeps all day, he’ll eat but won’t drink water yet. Idk what I can do? He’s very skittish and shy, he won’t even let me put his harness back on that the shelter gave us, he had it on but he slid out of it, and they said not to take him outside without a harness or a leash. So I’m struggling, but at the same time, I want to be patient with him. Please help.

I find myself at the computer, I was having something sweet with a delicious coffee, when I realize that it was very quiet outside. I go out and can't find my dog (border colie). I look for her everywhere and it turns out that at some point she got in without me realizing it and hid behind the couch where I couldn't see her. When they say they are intelligent they don't say it's an understatement.