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Archie is a 9-month-old Chihuahua/Havanese/terrier mix. He's a great little guy, but we just cannot seem to get to the point where he will be consistent with potty training. Maybe I'm expecting too much? He will keep his kennel clean overnight with no issue. In the morning, he will go straight to the door and ring the bell to go out. He pees and poops like a champ. He gets treats immediately and we celebrate. From there, it gets less consistent. He will ring the bell and go out to pee if prompted, but will rarely ring it on his own. I mostly work from home and take him out at least every 90 minutes. He always pees when he's outside, but will also pee or poop within minutes of being outside. I'm trying to keep eyes on him anytime he has freedom, but he will literally poop in 2 seconds if my back is turned. If he has access, accidents area always right near the door where he goes out. We've been trying to keep him corralled in the living room away from the problem area, but then he started to have accidents in there. Ugh.

He recently went an entire week with no accidents. As soon as he peed on the floor near the door again, it's like all the training went out the window and we're back to multiple accidents a day. I don't love kenneling him all day when I'm home, but is that the only way we're going to get past this?

Hi everyone! I have a 15 week-old Irish setter that I brought home at 10 weeks old and have been crate training since day 1 of bringing her home.

She does really well when we put her down for naps when she's tired and is getting better at settling faster and staying in her crate for longer even if she wakes up after a nap. She sleeps in it overnight happily too.

A general struggle I'm finding is she doesn't seek out her crate to sleep or nap in herself and will only do so if I put her in there. She knows when she's overstimulated/overtired that we will put her in the crate to nap so will stay as far away from it as possible. I used to be able to lure her in by scattering her food inside and she would very quickly eat it then go to sleep fuss free but now she won't go near the crate with food inside if we are standing nearby.

She stays with my parents during the day two days a week and she would much rather sleep on the hard floor than inside her crate. She has three dog beds within our house that have been gifted to us which she just thinks are big toys but she will sleep in my parents dog's bed just fine if given the option. We've given her one of my parents old dog beds which smells the same and again, she thinks it's a toy.

We have tried to let her settle herself and fall asleep wherever in her own time without us putting her down for a nap but she just gets so feral with biting we can't even distract her off with toys. The only place she will settle herself is on our couch which we don't want her to get in the habit of, we would much rather she seeks out a bed or crate.

Apologies for the word salad but any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

Hi all, I’m having problems with keeping my dog’s face clean (not smelling like poop every week).

I’ve been having health issues this year so I’m not as mobile as I have been in the past. I pick up after my dog’s poop every 2 days. He does it on the gravel in the backyard, so the smell doesn’t really go away? The issue is, he sticks his face to sniff his poop either before or after he goes. Sometimes I let him roam around in the backyard multiple times in a day. It’s almost every week now where he comes back in smelling like poop. I don’t know if resorting to shampoo his face every week is the best idea.

I also don’t know if this is anything health related but I do have a vet’s appointment scheduled soon.

Does anyone have tips to help get rid of the smell? I saw some website recommend using a baking soda mixture to wipe the dog’s face with. Haven’t tried that yet, thought it would be better to see what others have tried first.

Does anyone else dogs always give ay the belly or her neck any time u touch them i try to rub my dogs head and back but she only lets me for a few seconds before she turns around and gives me her belly or her neck why does she do this is this a good thing or normal for Velcro dogs

First time (potential) dog owner. It’s difficult but let’s get some non biased opinions on whether or not owning a pet dog is truly worth it? The good the bad the ugly.