Blog

We have a 6 1/2 month old mixed breed puppy who we've had since she was 2-3 months old. She rarely EVER had accidents in the house, but we were diligent about taking her outside every half hour, then every hour. She was in a large "playpen" area (about 15 square feet) for enforced naps and never once had an accident there, or in the crate where she spends her nights. During the day, she would either be running around in the room that me or my husband were in or long-leashed to the living room coffee table at night when we were watching TV.

Since she's now almost 7 months, we decided to expand her territory. We gave her access to the hallway and one bedroom, plus she was allowed to be in the kitchen if we were in the living room (basically a big L).

She ALWAYS goes to the door and whimpers to go out when she has to defecate. ALWAYS. But she's very inconsistent with urination. Although she STILL goes outside at least once an hour, she will still go into the kitchen and urinate on the floor several times a week. We don't scold her, just clean it up and try to take her out more frequently.

How can we break this bad habit? I am SO tired of tripping over baby gates everywhere and I'm really motivated for her to be trained so she can roam free!

I'm paranoid because our last dog was NEVER potty trained. She'd been abused by multiple owners before we adopted her and she remained high strung and skittish her whole life (another 10-12 years). We worked with a trainer but we were never able to train her to do anything. She was just too anxious. DItto with the potty training…so we just committed to taking her outside every 2 hours…for years. She just never caught on and I don't want that to happen again!

So we have a 5 month old puppy, Misa, and my cat is 3 years old. They love to play together! Which is great bc it’s been helping the cat lose some weight lol. But what I’ve found recently is that Misa just doesn’t know when enough is enough. The cat enjoys playing with her most of the time, and if he’s had enough, obviously he can jump onto the couch or his tree, which she can’t reach. But I want him to be able to relax at times and not always be playing with her/running from her. He’s lived with dogs before, so he’s never hurt her and I can usually go get ready in the other room while they play and not worry about them, and at times he initiates the wild play sessions with her. But she does get too much for him sometimes, like tackling him, just keeps trying to play when clearly they need to take a break- all that puppy energy! Unfortunately, we do have a smaller apartment rn so it is hard to keep them separate, and I need some help looking for alternate solutions. At times, I just grab a toy and put the attention on me and play with her, but as soon as I stop or have to do something, she goes right back to him. I’ve never owned a puppy before (bf has), so please don’t be mean, I’m just looking for advice or command I can teach her to get her to back off, as I don’t want this to continue into worse behavior over time, as she is getting to be the same size/bigger than him now. Thanks for any help!

My Maltese is 1 year old but is deep in her adolescent chewing behaviors. She hasnt been a big ripper until adolescence but only the past month we can't trust her with a bed in the crate. She gets cold as it's autumn now and I know winter will be worse but she's destroyed 4 beds in the past month and I don't want the beds to be a choking hazard if we aren't around.

Any bed recommendations for an adolescent dog who enjoys ripping so she can stay warmer overnight? Our crate size is 22" as well so the more i have a hard time finding a bed 🙁

My husband and I have a rescue dog and we try to confort her in all ways. She must have had a terrible life before she came home with us. We've had a rather difficult time. For the first 2 weeks she either only paid attention to me, or she would split between my husband and I – which is fine. In the last 5 1/2 months she's begun acting like I am her enemy and she prefers my husband.

I walk her a mile every morning and I fix all of her meals. I even started making meals from scratch for her which I never dreamed of doing for an animal in the past. But if we give her already prepared foods she won't eat and loses weight. We weigh her every week.

Here's my current concern. We had a large dinner party of 11 people last night and we let her hole up in the bedroom (her favorite place) and kept the door shut. We politely declined to introduce her to anyone as she is deathly afraid of people. Oddly, she adores other animals, dogs, cats… all kinds. She LOVES going to the dog park nearby.

This morning she seems more afraid than ever. I *think* it is because of the weird smells and unusual noises in our home last night… prolly for about 5 hours. BTW, the ages of our guests varied from 60 to 90, so it was a pretty quiet group.

What can we do to ease her fears? At least she ate half of her breakfast; usually she snarfs it all up in a few minutes. Please recommend anything!

Last thought: hubby and I are very quiet people. We don't ever raise our voices and we never yell at or strike the dog. 🙁

Hello, as said in title i need help with how to clip my puppy nails. While he isnt afraid of the cliper itself, when you reah for his paw with them he gets quite scared. We have tried bribing with treats, chees, stake and nothing worked, so would be greatful for any tips.

My near 10 week old dream of a golden retriever puppy is suddenly having more accidents.

So we’ve had our new pup for over a week now. Other than the first night, he’s slept through the night.

We take his water up an hour and a half before bed and give him several opportunities to pee before bed.

He goes to bed at 9, no fuss or whining in his crate, and sleeps until 6:30am.

When he wakes up, we immediately go outside and he does a long pee and a poop every morning.

The last two mornings we’ve had to take him out ever 10ish minutes after to see until about 9am and while most times he’s been cueing to go out, today and yesterday and this morning he’s played and then just peed suddenly without cue.

No whining or pain or blood with peeing, no extra drinking of water…. He’s like triple the size since when we brought him home though (maybe slight exaggeration), so maybe bigger bladder means more pee?

Not convinced this could be a uti yet.

Does this seem normal? Before he would need a pee once he woke from any nap and maybe on before going down for a nap…not it seems more frequent.

We have a four month old whippet called Stanley who is the joy of our lives! He’s got a lovely little personality and he has fit right in with our family.

He was a shy boy to begin with so we took him to puppy socialisation classes since he was 13 weeks old to build confidence and meet other dogs. Unfortunately last time he was there he met a staffie puppy who relentlessly went for him and play bit him until I would separate them when it was obvious that stanley had enough (owners were nowhere to be found).

Almost immediately after that experience Stanley now thinks the way to play with dogs is to bite them. We went to the same class today and I had to put him on the lead because he was being very rough and biting the more timid dogs. I would walk him away when he was being too much and then reintroduce him when he had calmed down.

My question to all you fellow puppy owners is, is this normal? Some dogs did correct him, but they’re all young like him so he would stop and then find another dog to try and play bite with. People said to us that he just needs older dogs to correct him but is this true?

All help is welcome! We want our boy to be able to make friends and play with other dogs nicely ❤️

Hello, there. My husband and I have been with our 4 month old pup for just over a week and she seems to be adjusting really well! So well, that she has figured out how to hop onto the couch and now does it repeatedly with us trying to teach her “Off” because of it. We wanted to establish this boundary to teach her to ask to come up later on. Trainers recommend giving them a comfy bed to call their own, and to essentially continue to take them off anytime they hop on, which we have been doing, but she gets fixated sometimes and will just keep hopping on. My thought is to tether her around her bed, and we’re trying to barricade the couch with pillows. Any suggestions, or do we just hang in there?