Blog

We go through blankets like crazy because our dog nests and shreds them over time. We hit a gold mine 10 years ago when a local hotel went out of business and sold all their old queen sized “mattress pads” for $5 each, but have used those up. We’ve also had some success using those fleece tie blankets.

Looking for suggestions on something durable, bedding safe, and reasonably affordable.

We are thinking of getting a family dog. This is going to be our first dog as owners. We have a 12 and 14 year old who are willing to help out. Where would you recommend we go to get information on how to start the process? We are thinking of a rescue that may be 2-3 years old to skip the training process. Any pros/cons with this?

Basically the title, lol. I adopted a high energy herding mix this morning and even though we did lots of research and thought we were ready, now that the dog is here and staring at me, I suddenly feel a lot LESS ready. I read all about the 3-3-3 rule and know he needs time to decompress and settle in before we can start training stuff and playing games etc, but I'm only just now realizing I don't know what we do in the meantime.

How do I keep him entertained and meet his exercise/stimulation needs when he's still decompressing?? He would like to be interacting with me or my husband all the time so far & does not really seem to get the concept of toys.

Only marked NSFW in case anyone didn’t want to read any sad content. I miss my dog. I lost him in early August. He was about fifteen years old, my first dog, my baby. I got him when I was still in high school and now I’m thirty. Many people grew older and had kids, but I had my lil baby boy, Coby. In our childhood home, Coby grew up with my niece and my nephew, they’re both 10+ now, and I feel at such a loss. He was like my child, I loved him so much. I knew he wouldn’t live forever but I tried not to think about life after his passing. He was an integral part of our family, the kids and my siblings loved him, he was special. Very gentle with children and elderly, but disliked the people he could tell were no good. Well it’s been over six months since he has been gone and it just feel like there’s a hole in my heart, I’m gutted. I have therapy every month and of course I talk about these feelings and everyday life. But coming home after a long day of work and not seeing that little face looking up at me has been extremely difficult. Some days even seeing a dog outside or on tv will make me cry. I just wanted to post my ode to Coby, to let everyone know what a good boy he was. It gets easier, but the feeling of loss is never ending unfortunately.

My new dog, Zorra, is a husky, and absolutely loves fetch. However, she also absolutely loves chewing on the balls with the full strength of her jaws. She’s broken open at least 10 tennis balls so far, including a chuckit rubber ball. I’d like to get her some balls that she won’t break open so quickly, and I’d love advice for it.

My dog is like really into trash and tearing up/collecting trash. I bought her from a woman online and it could be from trauma but I'm trying to buy her actual toys for the problem. She loves cardboard and plastic bottles (Specifically ice mountain bottles) and also foam. She likes foam balls but only when they're really small and likes collecting stuffed animals but never likes smaller chewable ones. She's pretty smart and very uncomfortable when not surrounded by clutter. We just moved and I'm trying to avoid giving her any trash or letting her find any, and she's been noticeably less active.

I'd like any advice or suggestions on what to get her that she'd love and actually play with.

This is my first time posting here so I don't really know if I'm using the right tag, apologies in advance.

I have a 6 year old large mixed breed, she is my baby. Since we've had her any vacation has been road trip based, and she has come along. She is dog reactive, but loves people.

We don't really have a 'village' that could watch/house sit her for 2 weeks, and I'm very skeptical of Rover (especially with her reactivity if they were to go on a walk etc). On the flip side, a boarding facility seems like it would stress her out if she heard other dogs all day long, and didn't get 1-on-1 time with humans.

How do we reasonably go on a vacation that I don't feel extremely guilty about leaving her, while also needing to realize I am allowed to prioritize myself every now and again.

I'm curious how others are handling this (especially reactive dog owners).

Hi this is probably a long shot, but given there’s like a ton of people in this group maybe a few people will be able to answer!

I’m looking at getting my dog a full body fleece so he can stay dry over winter and not come home covered in mud.

I’m currently looking at equafleece and Hilaryshounds.

I know equafleece will do the job, but the down sides are, it costs a lot extra to add length to the legs (there too short and won’t cover his whole leg) and that they are quite tight fitting. Now I know that has a purpose but idk to me it looks a little silly.

I then found hilaryshounds. They do custom leg lengths for a fraction of the cost that equafleece does which is great! They are a looser fit as well ! But I’m not sure how they will hold up in rain. Iv seen a few people post how it keeps their dog super dry in heavy rain, but I don’t know if I want to put my full trust in these posts as I wont be able to return the fleece for it not working as I had hoped. So I don’t want to waste a ton of money if that makes sense!

Any thoughts or reviews?

Welcome to the fortnightly loose leash walking virtual workshop!

Join us as we compete with the squirrels, cats, other dogs, fresh urine scents and things that go zoooooooom!

Resources

Articles (All have videos embedded)

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• Train Your Dog For Perfect Loose Leash Walking by Casey Lomonaco. (With links and descriptions of several great videos, which we'll link to below.)
• Loose Leash Walking Tips by Casey Lomonaco
• Silky Leash by Grisha Stewart (blog post + videos.)

Youtube (Many of these are videos which are embedded in the above articles)

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• Silky Leash intro video with an excitable puppy
• Clicker Training Loose Leash Walking by Casey Lomonaco
• Loose Leash Walking II by Casey Lomonaco
• How to Train Your Dog Not to Pull – Loose Leash Walking by Emily "kikopup" Larlham
• Dog Training Tip- Leash Walking: Go Sniff and Marking by Emily "kikopup" Larlham
• Choose to Heel by Loridressage
• Loose Leash Walking by Stacy Hiebert Greer
• Clicker Training a Heel by Amy Norcal
• Shaping Loose Leash Walking With a High Rate of Reinforcement Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 by Helix Fairweather and Lynn Martin. (Read the text below the videos too!)
• Loose Leash Walking by Turid Rugaas

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See our page on leash reactivity for help managing and training dogs that bark and lunge while on leash.

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APDT webinar

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• Loose Leash Walking presented by Gail Fisher