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Hi all, I have a 9 month old Bernese mountain dog cross who stopped being able to go up stairs 3 days ago. We live in a bi level and so he has to go up/down stairs multiple times a day to get outside. He’s not in pain or experiencing a health issue – it’s definitely a confidence/fear issue. He normally does a little hop onto the stairs and bunny hops his way up, but he’s lost his rhythm and can’t figure out how to pick up his back feet to go a different way. It leaves him stuck barking/crying/whining on the landing all day cause he wants to be with us but can’t get to us.

However – he won’t let us touch him on the stairs to show him where to put his feet – he bites. He actually now just bites if you come near him on the landing. It’s all fear and he’s just devolved so fast. He won’t let you pick him up – he bites. At the end of the day, we’ve been putting a cone on him to get him up the stairs to go to bed safely. We’ve tried every treat and high value item to coax him up. We brought him to a different, shorter set of stairs to try to build his confidence and he did great – and then came home and it was no change on our stairs. If he’d let us pick him up and carry him, it would be so much easier but the biting is bad.

He’s a cuddly lovable pup normally – this has been awful and he’s becoming so stressed and reactive. I’m so worried it’s gonna mess him up long term and it’s honestly been devastating to listen to him cry but have no way to intervene. Please, please if anyone has any ideas, I’m desperate to help my pup.

I'm a few weeks into a new puppy (my second post here, I'm guessing there will be more). She's 13 weeks old, 3 pounds, and an absolute terror, but we can handle that. What I'm going insane about is that my old dog (Luna – chiweenie, 14, Cushing's Disease) prefers to pretend the puppy doesn't exist, but the puppy barks and jumps and loses her whole mind anytime she sees her. The puppy does go up for enforced naps and spends most of her time in a pen because she can't be around Luna.

(Background on how I got into this situation: seven months ago we were told Luna had probably 6 months left because she has cushings and had a seizure. Our younger dog is inconsolable without her, so we started looking for a puppy. Now we're a few weeks into a puppy and Luna is going strong with no signs of going anywhere soon. We thought we'd be a 2 dog household, but now we have a very old and grumpy dog, her younger brother who she only now likes after a few years, and a puppy she wishes would leave her alone.)

I'm keeping them 100% separated for the time being, but it makes everything SO much harder. Life is simplest when I can put the old girl up in my bed and she sleeps for a couple hours. The puppy can run around to her little heart's content, explore, play with our middle dog (almost 5 and loves her), and everything is pretty chill.

Inevitably, the old lady wants to come out and the puppy goes wild. Once Luna settles, the puppy will forget about her, but give it a few minutes and Luna will want to move four inches on the couch to a new spot. I can't have the puppy out without running constant interference because she hops along the edge of the couch and barks and I am in no way confident that Luna wouldn't go after her if pushed too far. I would LOVE to just have the puppy on one side of a baby gate and Luna on the other, but Luna will whine and bark to be let back in, even though she doesn't actually want to be anywhere near the puppy.

I honestly don't know how to manage this. I want the puppy to be able to roam around safely, but I want Luna to be included in the family, and right now I don't see how I can do both. Does anyone have any suggestions?

My 4 month old puppy (toy poodle) rarely drinks her water. She only drinks after she has a peanut butter treat, but even then she doesn’t drink much. We’ve tried putting broth and ice cubes to lure her in, but it doesn’t work. At first we gave her milk, which she liked a lot. But our vet told us not to give her milk very often. So now we’re not sure how else to get her to drink

We have an 8 year old dog and a 5 month old puppy. I'm trying my best to keep up with the potty training and going where they're supposed to, but my husband does not. The biggest issue is at night or when I'm not around.

At night, both dogs get a dental stick. they're supposed to only get one, but he's a pushover, no discipline at all. When our 8 year old whines, he gives them more treats. We also have water for them in our bathroom. Eventually they need to potty, but my husband either ignores them, or gives them more treats.

it's gotten to the point that before we even got the puppy, our older dog will pee on the rug in the path to the bathroom. I started to put pee pads down in the bathroom and sometimes she uses them and sometimes she doesn't. I've cleaned up the spots I know are there, but I know there are spots I don't see.

Intro new puppy, who has now learned that when she needs to go potty, she'll go upstairs and hit the pads, the rug, or the hallway.

I've mentioned it before and told him that when she whines, find out why and don't give her treats. Needless to say, it's still happening.

Any ideas?

Hello all, we have 3 month golden puppy. She is crate trained, sleeps through the night, does well during daytime naps in crate 3 naps(1-1.5hours) and sh additionally naps in her puppy pen. I have been able to comfortably leave her safely in her crate when running errands where I’m home within the hour. Nothing longer. At this point, I’d like to be able to go out for an outing or dinner but I’m nervous that leaving her longer for 2 hours might be too much for our puppy. I know the rule of 1 hour per month + 1 is how long they can be in the crate. But she has a recessed vulva and has had a very minor uti that has cleared up. I’m being sensitive bc I don’t want her to have a uti do holding it and I’m concerned she might start to get anxious if no one is home within the 2 hour mark. Is it still to ask? But should we be holding off on leaving longer? Is it better to just get a dog sitter to be with her while we’re out? This is our first puppy so we want to help in easing her transition. What have you done with your puppy that has helped?

I’m having a roommate temporarily move into my house & he’s bringing two large shedding dogs. I’m looking for tools I can buy to help keep the house and air clean. I’ve never owned pets and have always been a bit of a neat freak with my house so I am stressing out a bit. I figured i could get a roomba & air purifiers but looking for other suggestions

Does your dog turn his head when he hears an odd noise? Does your dog bury their food with your pants? This is the thread to ask why.

Please keep this thread to non-medical issues only.

Oi gente. Estou com uma cachorra filhote adotada que peguei há 2 dias. Ela gosta bastante de morder as minhas mãos e meus pés, alguém tem uma dica pra isso? Não quero passar o no bite porque nao quero aquele gosto na minha mao.

Outra coisa, eu preciso deixar ela dormir sozinha numa parte externa da casa que é um pouco longe do cômodo do meu quarto (moro em apartamento), ela chora MUITO a noite inta para dormir, o que posso fazer?

We live in a tick area (upstate NY) and have lots of woods around us. As the weather starts to warm we are once again reminded of the enormous tick problem we have here. Today we went for a walk and I brushed and pulled 9 ticks off of our pup (gross) and this isn’t all that unusual during the wetter months of spring and fall.

We have him on Simparica which does a good job of killing the ticks after they bite. Now we are looking for an additional preventative solution to stop him from bringing the ticks inside the house. We brush him every time he comes inside but it’s not 100% effective and we have a toddler so we’ve often got our hands full.

I’ve done a lot of reading about what options are out there for sprays or shampoos and a lot of them are either chemical kill formulas that kill the ticks after biting, or are essential oil based but contain some of the ones I’ve heard aren’t good for dogs – peppermint, cinnamon, tea tree.

Is there anything out there that isn’t harmful and is an effective repellant for ticks???

My girl is 9 months old tomorrow (should probably leave the puppy sub soon) and I wonder when dogs start shedding? She hasn’t lost a single hair yet and when I brush her, all I get are 4-5 woolly strands of hair.

Does it have anything to do with when girls get into their first heat? Because she hasn’t yet.

She’s half GR and half saluki, so I expect there to be quite some shedding.