Category: Top Dog

I rescued this baby in April 2025. She’s very sweet and loves dragonflies and looking at little lizards outside our bathroom window. I think she is just turning 1 year old. She chews on anything soft. I have lost a several good shoes and boots to her. Today she chewed my husband’s house shoes. I told him to put his shoes up in his closet or underneath his bed. She chewed it up today. Any constructive suggestions for stopping this behavior is welcome.

Looking for advice on training my stubborn Shih Tzu to stop going pee and poo inside. She’s almost 3 years old.

She doesn’t pee or poop inside while we’re home but when we leave she’ll break out of her kennel and pee on our carpets and she likes to poop on our bed which is the most frustrating part. She’s goes outside when we’re home so idk what is going on.

We have a doggy door where her kennel is attached, so she has access to the outside when we’re gone but it doesn’t help.

I’m probably not giving enough info to get to a good answer so if you have any questions to help me get to a better answer, let me know. Thank you

My dog has taken to pooping wherever on our deck despite having a real grass area to go. I’m working on the behavioral aspect – this question is purely practical on the cleaning side.

How do I clean the deck with both disinfectant AND enzyme cleaner? I want germs and smell gone, not just one or the other.

Any product recs? I usually pressure wash it with a Ryobi one washer, water, and simple green enzyme cleaner

My kids desperately want a dog. My wife and I love dogs but have very little experience owning them aside from when we were young kids. However our experiences were widely divergent.

My wife’s childhood dog was an indoor/outdoor dog, a small breed (not sure what).

My dogs were outside only (but slept in a barn).

I am repulsed by the idea of a dog indoors, partly because of how I was raised but also because I have worked extensively in the flooring industry and have seen what dogs can do to a home.

We have a 1000 sq ft home and a small lot, so those must be taken into consideration. Winters regularly get into the 30s°F, but will dip into the teens and 20s from time to time. Summers are reliably into the 90s but will exceed 100°F at times.

Main questions are:

How does one keep a house dog-safe and clean?

If a dog is 35 lbs or less can it winter outside with an insulated house?

Am I missing any questions that you think need answering given what I’ve said?

hi all, I recently (like two days ago lol) got a 4-month-old chihuahua puppy, and she’s incredibly timid and scared of almost everything. It’s like she doesn’t really know how to be a dog — she doesn’t seem to understand treats, toys, meals or even puppy pads.

I’ve been really gentle with her and trying to help her feel safe, but she’s still so nervous. I’m considering crate training her, but I’m not sure if that would help her come out of her shell or make her more anxious.

Has anyone dealt with a really shy or “shut down” puppy before? How can I help her build confidence and start enjoying things like playtime and training?

Any tips or personal experiences would be super appreciated — I just want her to feel happy and safe. ❤️

So, my puppy (now 13 weeks old) is generally pretty good and doesn't pull on short (15min) neighborhood walks EXCEPT for when we're going home. And then she will pull like a sled dog until we reach the front yard. I do walk her on a harness, so shes not hurting herself.

I'm in the process of teaching her heeling in low distraction environments, but want to get her out in the meantime to help with socialization (shes fine with cars and other dogs when shes in the car but has some fear issues with them on the ground) and energy levels. I have been okay with the 6ft leash being tight until I have a long line, but the pulling is an entirely different level and I'm trying to get in front of it.

I've tried:

"stop when she pulls and don't move forward" but after 2-3 rounds of "hit end of line, sit/look back, go again, pull and hit end of line" she starts frustration screaming like I'm beating her. I have many retired/WFH neighbors so it's maybe not ideal that she does that. Once we get to a certain point on our way back home, she does not respond to even high value treats, she genuinely just wants to go home.

"Turn around entirely when she pulls and walk the other way" but she will literally entirely stop and fight me. It doesnt matter what treats I offer her, how long I stand there. She will lean against the leash for as long as i stand there. And if I do this too many times, she starts screaming in the same way. Once we get to a certain point on our way back home, she does not respond to even high value treats, she genuinely just wants to go home.

"Walk in a circle away from where shes trying to go" the same thing happens as the first two tactics. She will not follow in the opposite direction and will in fact start to scream if I do it too much. Once we get to a certain point on our way back home, she does not respond to even high value treats, she genuinely just wants to go home.

"Take her somewhere else to walk" I did try that, we walked in an empty parking lot where she did okay (did some sniffing) but rather than pull to the house she pulled with the same fervor to every car in a 10ft radius until I eventually picked her up and carried her to our car 12ft away.

So I'm a little at a loss for fixes. I suppose I could carry her the last block back home, but she is getting heavy fast and I'm not sure thats a solution. I'm not even sure the training would necessarily work because she becomes so irrational after a certain point.

Is this something that will improve as she matures? It's not like she hates her walks; I got up late today and she was borderline upset she almost missed it.