Blog

My dog doesn't rip up or destroy toys, he likes to cuddle with them. He doesn't like small toys, he prefers the bigger ones, even uses them as a pillow. So i've been getting him larger plush toys from petsmart and petco but they don't have many of the huge ones. I'm looking for the largest size plush toys, so if you know of where to get XXL plush toys please let me know. They can be any shape, just have to be plush and huge.

Hello,

please help me obtain the necessary data for my a student project. It takes about 5 minutes to complete and is completely anonymous.

Link to the questionnaire: https://forms.gle/csNkSiSu83hGrM6W6

I would be very grateful for every response 🙂

I have had my dog for over 7 years now. He is around 8, beagle shepard mix, 60lbs. He is well trained with the basic commands and is an overall well behaved dog.

Within the past few years, he has developed an obsession with water. Not swimming in it, not playing in it, but drinking it. We are no longer able to leave a bowl out for the other dogs. He will finish an entire bowl and beg for more. No, he is not dehydrated. I give him controlled amounts throughout the day. As time went on it has gotten much worse. He forces his way into the bathroom after a shower to lick the tub, he licks the ground after rajn or snow. I have a very small pond in the backyard from the previous owner and he is obsessive about climbing in to drink.

Outside of this, he listens to commands very well. If we are outside and he is getting into something he shouldn’t, a ‘leave it’ works just fine. If he is drinking/licking, there is no command that seems to work. I have taken him to the vet where they ran several tests and found no issues. He has a collar that beeps and vibrates to get his attention, both to no avail.

I am really struggling with how to handle this. Especially as it starts to snow, he is basically unable to focus on anything but licking the snow up to go to the bathroom. This ends up with me dragging him inside where he inevitably has an accident.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Seeking wisdom. We have three dogs (two goldendoodles and a poodle, all standards) and a problem started within the past 6 months. We got a new dining table and now whenever we leave the house, two of our dogs (one doodles and the poodle) will get up and stay on the table nearly the entire time. It’s not comfortable – we have couches they are welcome to chill out on – so we really don’t know why they decided to start doing this. I thought it was to get a better vantage point to see out of our front window for us coming home, but despite closing the blinds, they continue the behavior. It’s also not food related as we never leave food on the table and they have never been counter surfers. I have tried training them with a shock collar where we “leave” and go a couple of houses away and train them through a camera. Usually just a tone or vibrate is enough to get them off, but then they just jump right back up after a couple of minutes. I’m considering buying a scat-mat but that will be a huge hassle to set up and dismantle every time we leave and come back to the house. Any advice? Or ideas of why this could be?

9 week old Hungarian vizsla will sleep when we do some quiet crate training with little to no protest – door closed

It sleeps through the whole night in there too with the door closed however throughout the day when the door is left open he will not go inside his crate. We put high reward treats in but he will find them and quickly run out.

Toys he will carry out of the crate and straight onto the couch. Never actually settling in there unless forced to with the crate door closed.

Is this normal or is there anything I should be doing to help this.

He’s an absolute nightmare when he is tired and will actively ignore everyone and bite everyone regardless of distractions, treats or toys.

Thanks

Hi folks. I just got done trying to get my dog to do her business after whining to go out about 45 minutes ago. She peed, started to do her poop dance, then changed her mind. I tried getting her excited to go as someone suggested on another thread (basically just doing an excited voice, moving around a bit). We were out in the cold and wind for most of that 45 minutes and were unsuccessful. I know she needs to poop but she just won't. I'll give as many details as might be relevant.

She's done this since she was a puppy. At our old apartment, dogs were allowed to go in the grass so we'd walk her around and she'd always pick this one bush to use. I asked my vet about that and she said sometimes dogs are all anxious around bathroom habits and it's okay. Fair enough. But often we would take her out and she wouldn't do anything. Since we've moved, it's a different place but same game. This apartment has a dog run. No other dog in the complex takes as long as she does to do their business.

I know she does have to go because she runs along the fence, does a dance, and poops in the corner. The problem is that she'll get all queued up, do her dance, and then stop. Sometimes it's to stare into space, sometimes she comes running back to me there's no rhyme or reason.

Walking does help and she will often poop after a walk. Idk how she knows that she's not supposed to go in the grass here but we didn't even have to train her on that. We'll walk her around the neighborhood, come back, and she goes. It's just not practical for me to walk her every time she needs to go out. Sometimes I am working from home and need to get back to work, sometimes, like now, it's the middle of the night and it's just not safe to be walking her dog. When she does do her business, she gets a treat.

I don't expect her to poop and pee every time she goes out, I know that's both unreasonable and probably an indication of a problem. I'm only concerned about when she shows signs that she needs to, it's been several hours since she last pooped, and she chickens out. I also don't expect an exact routine. I'm not using the restroom at the same time every day so why would I expect her to? When she does go consistently, she'll usually go out around 4 times a day. Twice to pee, twice to do both, but we'll take her out more or less based on her indications. We do let her cue us that she needs to go out and typically she'll whine when we get up, mid day, mid afternoon, before bed, and sometimes at night. If we take her out when she doesn't ask, I don't get upset at her if she doesn't do anything, though my husband kind of does. He doesn't punish her, just rants about it.

Just to reiterate my concern: what can I do when she indicates she needs to poop but stops and refuses to go?

8yo doodle girl. I'm quite sure she used to know the difference between these two commands/places as she's very smart but as I'm trying to get her to distinguish now, it seems like she's only going by the tone of voice I'm using to say each one (that's how she was trained, not on purpose, by the person who taught her).

So at this point, if I say either phrase neutrally, she just thinks "okay he wants me in one of these places, I'm just gonna run there immediately" without distinguishing one from the other. Even if I try using the specific tone of voice, sometimes she gets it (maybe by accident) and other times she just goes to either one.

She DOES get it immediately when I point towards either place and say the command, but then she's really just following my gesture and not my voice, so I'd like to be able to just say it and have her go to the right spot. I've tried using a clicker and high value treats + hand gestures simultaneously with the voice command to show her exactly what means what. When she matches the phrase to the place, she gets the click and treat, when she doesn't, she doesn't get the treat etc. Still doesn't seem to be sticking.

Maybe relevant background, maybe not: the person who taught her most of these commands was her former companion and my ex, who passed away recently. She (my dog) but also I went through a ton of trauma in the aftermath that I don't really want to get into but suffice to say is she survived and I am thankful.

I'm not sure if the confusion is coming from something to do with her dad passing away or the aftermath of it.

Anyway, any step by step suggestions on how to train her how to distinguish between these two beyond what I've already tried?

Thanks

We will be bringing home an eight week old golden retriever at the end of the month. We have two cats that can be anxious. We have a plan to keep the puppy in the empty guest room upstairs with her crate toys, etc., and slowly introduce the cats by exchanging scents, allowing them to see each other through the gate, slow introduction.

My question is, I know that it’s a no no to have the dog and cat see each other outside of organized “meets”. But to potty train the puppy, we will need to bring the pup downstairs and into the backyard through the back door. Our cats have free range of the whole house and have always been that way and I dont love the idea of wrangling my cats and putting them away each time we bring the pup out to go potty so wanting to see if there are other options.

Does anyone have any tips tricks or maybe just anything to put my mind at ease that if they see the puppy while we quickly bring it downstairs and outside that will be OK or will that ruin the socialization training between them?

Sincerely, an overthinking puppy mum x

I just adopted a four month old lab. I bought her several rubber Kongs and Nyla bones. She is crate trained. I noticed her trying to chew my wood coffee table and wood couch legs. I calmly tell her no when I catch her doing this and give her one of her toys to chew and then praise her profusely. Does anyone know of any type of protectors for coffee tables and other wood furniture items like couch legs? Or maybe a homemade solution? She is not allowed to freely roam the home unattended, but I’d still like to use something to protect my furniture as a precaution.