Category: Top Dog

Our pup is almost 4 months old and still has 1 more set of vaccinations to go. Just in the past week or so, she seems to be more afraid of things outside than she used to be. She moves people and dogs, but is afraid of machinery. Our neighbour was mowing, and she wanted to run away. Later in the day, a delivery driver came and she was afraid of the vehicle (but not the person who got out). 3 houses down the street there's a dumptruck and a backhoe doing some work and she wanted to run back inside.

However, if I play these sounds inside the house, she doesn't care and is fine. It seems like it just the sight of these things that bothers her.

She's normally treat motivated, but when she's in those situations, she could care less about treats. I can put them right up to her mouth and she just doesn't care.

I'm not sure how you improve this besides re-exposure.

My first post here, so I am just posing a question. How do others feel about iVet? My family’s been using them for almost a decade and a half, since they were a small company before being bought out. Many people I’ve talked to have never heard of it, but it’s on par with Royal Canine and Nutrino as well as a few others.

Recently re floored our home (vinyl plank hardwood) and since doing so my almost 3 year old micro sheepadoodle has been peeing all over the house multiple times a week; sometimes even peeing on objects. I was thinking he was marking his territory but I’m not so sure. My 7 year old bernedoodle doesn’t seem to partake in this activity.

She has always been protective of her food. Whenever I get close while she’s eating, she stiffens up, lowers her head, and growls. It seems like she’s guarding her food, and I’m trying to understand why she does this and how I can help her feel more relaxed during mealtimes.

Hello everyone, honestly I'm probably going to keep this post short because I've tried to write a long-winded and detailed explanation in another dog community but it got deleted. So for context I have a miniature schnauzer and two cats. So as you can imagine I have to do a lot of management. Currently that will look like place training, rewarding for giving me her focus to me after looking to the cats, if she does try to chase and play with the cats (no I'm not downplay the situation, my girl genuinely wants to play with them which still of course is bad but I think full transperancy on how the animals see each other is very important for training), I’ll recall her off them and treat her.

As you might guess I've also recently gotten a crate, and am currently working on crate training her for multiple reasons. The issue is my silly little schnauz pup, has recently with her create training started mixing up her marker word, and her release word. So our training will look kinda like this, lure her in, mark, reward. She’ll eat the treat that I slipped, then I’ll mark again trying to build duration, but before I can slip the treat through the top of the crate (I don't hand feed her the treats in the create, I want the reward to come from the create), she’ll leave the create. I know this isn't a confidence issue and more a mix up on her cues because of how confidently she leaves her create, the same way she would when I give her, her release word (honestly it's kinda funny and cute but of course not what I'm looking for). She always had a habit of mixing up her commands but those would be things like “sit”, and “down” (which seems to me like me and my girl have to go back to the basics of reteaching those until she has a better understanding and foundational skills) but this being her marker and release word of course it's different. It might be handler error with how I tought her, her release.

That would look more like “down” she downs, mark “yes!” gives her the treat, “free” she releases, “yes!” mark and reward. So now I have this mix up. If anyone has tips on how I can help her understand the difference in differentiating this I'd appreciate it. Honestly this applies to both her mixing up her marker and release, as well as just commands in general. I'd appreciate help in both territory.

I got my 10 week old lab/English pointer puppy two days ago. We immediately started her on crate training and she’s doing great. When we are sitting on the couch, she will bark and or growl when I get up to walk away to the bathroom etc. is this separation anxiety? And how can I fix it? To add, we also have a 1year old Boston terrier that never did this and I’m new to owning a big dog. She does try to play with the puppy but I’m worried it’s stressing the puppy out causing the anxiety. However, the puppy keeps going back to my Boston initiating more play time so I honestly don’t know. This is my first time owning two dogs at the same time and I don’t want mess either of them up so any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you.

A big maybe?

My golden is fat due to his hypothyroidism, and his old harness no longer fits, I need the best option for him

Which pet insurance is best for you? Are there any that may cover your dog's current treatment? Did your dog get injured during the waiting period and want to know if you're covered?

Here's the place to ask.

Do know we cannot help you here with medical concerns, and lying or not disclosing things to the insurance company is illegal so we don't allow that either.