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Hi everyone,

I hope this is the right forum to ask for some advice.

Sadly, we recently had to have our Shar pei crossed boxer put to sleep. She had been suffering from seizures for around 12 months and unfortunately this became unmanageable with the highest dose of medication. She was an incredibly sweet, albeit very stubborn girl. We rescued her at 2 years old and she passed at 13.

We are looking to welcome a puppy into our home. My preference would be a large breed dog. I like to do my research, and have gone down MANY rabbit holes around various breeds, mainly to check I can meet the individual needs of the dog to give them the best life.

I usually work from home and can get in around 2 hours of exercise with the puppy a day. On days I have to go into the office, they would be going to my mums home (which has a springer spaniel).

I understand that a lot is based on how well the puppy is socialised, but it is very important to me that I pick a breed which can blend into our family ( my close family have dogs and younger children) but also would like a breed that I feel comfortable walking at night alone. Having a dog in the home made me feel much safer, my previous dogs woof would of been enough for someone to think twice lol

As I say, I’m mindful that personality and breed are two separate things and how I raise and socialise the puppy will be a huge factor. I just wondered if anyone had any recommendations on a breeds?

Thanks so much in advance!

I took my 5 month corgi to the small dog park today because she’s always loving other dogs on leash so I thought hmm let’s give it a try. Well, when I went in it was just 1 other 10 month old puppy. Seemed to be going fine… then 2 more came and she got sooo scared. Hair up, snarling, growling and hiding inbetween me. We left within 3 mins. I then walked her around the entire dog park and rewarded treats the whole time. I’m so worried I made a big mistake with taking her there. I’ve never seen her act like that. I will never go to a dog park again so don’t tell me that please… just tell me how to build her confidence or tell me if this may make her aggressive now.

If you haven’t noticed, private equity firms are snapping up that practices all over the country. They are in increasing prices because they know people will pay.

This hurts animals in many ways; people are reluctant to adopt, and bring their pet in for treatment because of the exorbitant costs. Animals and people suffer and it’s wrong.

Did you know that Mars candy is the largest owner of vet practices in the country? They make $20 billion in profit and clearly it’s still not enough. I’ve had enough.

If I got enough support, I would take this all the way to Washington, I feel that strongly about it.

Would you support an initiative like this? Do you see any downsides aside from regular vets not being able to afford advanced equipment?

I have a 4 year old corgi, who has been pretty much potty trained since he was a small puppy. However, I've noticed that even though I walk him at scheduled times, he doesn't really ever ask or give any cue to go outside anymore outside of those regular times. That would be fine, except for one specific scenario: If he needs to poop more urgently when something upsets his stomach. He has a sensitive stomach and this happens every few months, sometimes twice in a row until he feels better.

In those times, he just quietly goes to poop in the stairwell or in a random corner of the guest room. Until now, it has only happened at night, so I thought maybe his cues were just more subtle and didn't wake us up. But today he did this in broad daylight, just left the room and popped a squat one room over. I know he's not feeling 100% and probably doesn't have much warning of it himself, but he didn't even *try* to bark or go downstairs toward the front door or anything.

Is this something that can be trained? Like how do you re-train an adult dog to give a cue that they need to go outside? Or is it not possible to train in this scenario since he needs to go so urgently?

My rescue dog really loves chews but I’m struggling to find any good recommendations. He is 5 years old and 32kg, a unit of a boy so it needs to be a pretty strong chew. However we were advised by the rescue place not to give him large treats, like chicken feet for example because he has a tendency to not chew his food, so that needs to be taken into account. I don’t want large pieces breaking off bc he will absolutely swollen them without chewing. He doesn’t like any chew that doesn’t have a smell either, like you can get hard plastic ones, but he isn’t bothered about them. He’s only got one chew right now that I’m comfortable giving him (with supervision) all the rest I’ve tried I’ve had to remove because he’s chewed big chunks off😩

What coats would you all recommend for my boy Moose? He’s a 14 lbs Min Pin – Chihuahua mic (short-haired) and we live in Chicago where it hasn’t stopped snowing and windchills will soon drop into the negatives.

Just bought him some new Canada Pooch snow booties and was considering one of their puffers but I’ve also heard good things about Hurtta? Are there any other brands I should be looking at too?

I just want to make sure my little guy is warm! It breaks my heart seeing him shiver in his current coat.

For the most part, my dog has been amazing. He’s 15 weeks and super smart. He knows an absolute ton of tricks and is super loving. BUT and this is a MASSIVE stickler point for me. He’s showing aggression. I don’t know why or where something has gone wrong. He bites clothes and starts tugging. He won’t let go unless you physically rip the clothing out of his mouth. Sometimes he’ll loosen his grip and then bite again but sometimes he catches your skin. I’m at the end of my tether. Redirection doesn’t work. Throwing treats doesn’t work. Telling him to ‘drop’ doesn’t work. He just did it to my daughter and caught her leg. She’s 4 and was absolutely petrified. My cat is absolutely petrified. When I tried to get him off her, he started barking and lunging at me to bite me. I have to be honest, it frightened me. He’s going to be a very large bully breed, a breed I’ve grown up with all my life and have only ever known wonderful gentle dogs. I lost my temper. I am covered head to toe in cuts and bruises from this dog. I’m not ashamed to say I hit his bottom with a rolled up newspaper and shouted so much so he cowered behind the sofa. I know I’m going to get hate for that but what else do you do when a dog is behaving like this and your child is screaming in pain? He’s already 12+kg so those bites pack a punch.

What can I do? He goes for a walk every day. He lies with me once I’ve put my child to bed. He’s fed, bathed, played with. But the lunging and the barking in my face I can’t deal with. He runs back and forth and jumps on the sofa to get you. Is this normal puppy behaviour or not? Will he hate me now?