Blog

We have a almost 5 months old golden retriever. She does so well in the house with recall and getting her attention. She fetches well in the house. She listens well in the house, but when we’re outside, her mind is wandering everywhere and it’s hard to get her attention.

I want to try to get to a point where we can let her off of her leash and allow her to actually enjoy being outside but every time we try, she listens for a couple minutes and then all of her training goes out the door and she takes off and does her own thing.

What is the best approach for training recall outside?

Willing to pay for a good trainer – plus if you have experience with them or have heard of good reviews. Have an almost 12 month old rescue – per their rescue we can’t get neutered until a year so idk if that’s playing into – I want to work on his confidence, trust, and obedience. I have adhd and need structure and step by step guidance on training and would love access to a certified trainer if I need help. Or if not trainer access, something comprehensive. Mostly the confidence part which is driving the issues caused by anxiety. He lives with an 8 year old that is well trained as well

Issues we have below:

-barking at strangers walking by the house -he cannot be redirected when strangers come in either he barks and hides until he gets comfortable which takes about 30 min then he’s sweet -lunging on leash for other dogs, cannot redirect him it’s not aggressive he wants to play -smart and listens to commands but only when he wants to or ONLY when there are treats involved -he’s scared of everything – usual stuff like vaccums – but also with me or his dad walking by with a bowl or something he doesn’t recognize he’ll run in fear as well -destructive behavior when we’re gone

Hello lovely people, my Shih Tzu boy (7 months old) has been peeing frequently and having accidents after getting neutered two days ago. He stayed at the vet for 30 hours and I picked him up a few hours ago. Since he's come home, he's been peeing non stop (sometimes a lot, and sometimes a little), and he's been having accidents.

Some more context – due to our living situation, we had to rely on pads, and we still do. The pads are on the balcony. Our boy has a schedule where he naps for 2 hours in his crate on and off throughout the day. He pees on command once every few hours when we take him out to the balcony. At night, he holds his bladder for 8 hours.

Unfortunately we still have issues. If he's left unsupervised and has not peed for more than 2 hours, he will pee on carpets if he wants to. It's always been carpets as they resemble pads. He has never peed directly on the floor.

UNTIL NOW. Aside from peeing multiple times an hour, he has also somehow peed directly on the floor when I left him for 1 minute.

Is this common? I didn't think so. I'm taking him in the morning to the vet. Tonight, unfortunately, I'm going to go back a couple months in training and leave his crate open, inside the playpen, with access to pads.

The last thing I want is him peeing in his crate, which has never happened before. Even a couple hours ago, when he napped in it for 90 minutes, he did not pee in it, but something felt off, because he was going in circles for 15 minutes, unable to sleep later into the nap, and when we took him out he peed straight away.

My puppy comes home next weekend. I plan on being super careful about parvo, and have purchased puppy pads, fake grass, and plan on taking him to low traffic areas outside to potty.

However, I want him to be socialized and plan on taking him out in a sling every day before he's fully vaccinated. I was wondering how I should let him potty if say, he's in a sling at the park with people and dogs around, or at a brewery with other dogs around, and suddenly he starts squirming and needs to potty. Should I bring a travel potty pad and set that up for him? How did you all manage this? Thanks!

Before you freak out and call me an irresponsible plonker, one of my family members heard me mention a dog and has signed a contract on a 6 week old black labrador male already. I am basically legally bound to this dog through no fault of my own and i dont really know how to feel about it yet.

And i am shitting enough bricks for a decent cottage over it.

He is a Black Labrador (English), Kennel Club registered with good lineage, 6-7 weeks old as of today and ready to pick up nov 4th at eight weeks of age.

So far i have purchased a crate and crate bed, bowls, leashes, collars and puppy pads. Everything else is still to get. I understand he will need vaccinations, puppy classes etc and i have enough money hamstered away to cope with this.

I mainly come here to ask HOW ON EARTH do i get through the first four weeks with this dog? Are there ideal scedules? Tips? Things i need to do? I imagine he will need training which i can research and do. But is there anything that made your puppy easier?

Any help is greatly appreciated. And i am doing my own independent research on the side as well.

Thank you!!

Hi guys,

I've been to view a lovely dog today who is almost 3. She was supposed to be a sheepdog but she's not cut out for the job so they are trying to rehome her. She's got a lovely temperament, the only issue is she is caged outside.

I'm worried about how she would adjust after spending almost three years outside to living in a home. She's smart and young so hopefully she would adapt quickly but does anyone have any experience with a similar situation?

Hey y’all, My neutered 7.5 month shelter mix

(30/20/20/20/10 pitbull/husky/aus shepherd/cattle dog/“supermutt”)

has had felt and fabric and rope toys just fine since we got him in April… until now 🙁 the last 2-3 weeks he is HELL BENT on ingesting any and all string, fabric, rope, felt, wool, carpet, you name it.

I can throw enrichment puzzles, treats, bones, horns, …I’ve tried so many kinds of toys and if they have anything that can get compacted in his intestines it’s like his life’s mission to f it up and consume it as fast as caninely possible.

He’s been pulling and kind of a jerk on walks too and it’s been hard to take him out. He’s super well behaved most of the time and usually a chill dog but I worry he’s either not getting enough exercise or he’s anxious or something?

If I give him too many kongs and stuff he won’t eat his puppy food either so that’s tricky.

Some trainers have suggested he needs a “job” bc of the cattle dog in him but all I see is lazy pit vibes and stubborn husky vibes at home. I’ve tried a few approaches from YouTube and stuff for giving him jobs and if hes not internally motivated, forget it.

I’m losing my mind bc I’m worried he’ll get an impacted bowel. He’s gone constipated twice now only to poop a day later and it has a bunch of string or long unchewed plants or god knows what. I had to pull a 9” long undigested frond of plant from his behind the other day😵‍💫

I have two kids and I’m very vigilant to try and keep any of their stuffies or toys or drawings etc. safe and it’s just been a shift that has me really stressed. I’ve asked at pet stores for toys that might satisfy that front-teeth-flossing, shredding sort of fix he seems to be looking for but everything they’ve suggested has either been fabric (snuffle ball he tried to tear apart and eat immediately) or treats that take him no time to consume and are costly ($12 beef tendon jerky or something from yesterday that he has almost gone through entirely in less than 24h because I’ve given it to him when I have to take something else away).

I bought him a new rope monkey yesterday and the last two lasted him MONTHS and within 15 minutes he’d destroyed it!

And it’s so subtle, it’s not like standing up and tearing and shaking it back and forth or growling or whatever. He lies down politely and just seems to quietly gnaw and shred.

Hellllllllp!! Suggestions? He’s not interested in any of his hard toys including bully sticks or bones or yak cheese anymore aside from occasionally. Boy only wants fabric ☠️

EDITED TO ADD: he doesn’t have parasites (labs are clean recently) and he takes semparica trio or whatever it’s called monthly.)

We have a beautiful 10 month old Maltese mix (believed to be part dachshund) that we got from a shelter. He'd been found in an abandoned home and was with the shelter for about 2.5 months before we got him. All they know is he was abandoned. No idea of his life prior to the shelter. He has been with us for about 5 weeks now.

Overall, he's an amazing dog. Very wary of strangers and loves to play and cuddle but he also really loves hand biting.

We've tried saying "ouch" and tipping, we've tried standing up and ignoring. We've tried "no bite" nothing works. He gets distracted and goes off and then comes right back.

However, the worst is when we're doing something…could be anything. May be playing with a pull toy, maybe my wife and I are at dinner sitting at the table and out of the blue he goes into this frenzy and starts biting. First ha ds and if that doesn't work, anything on us he can grab. If we stand up, he will go for legs.

If I pick him up and hold him he'll usually calm down but may or may not go back into a frenzy or may or may not just go on biting hands.

Any tips? Thoughts? Ideas?

We love him dearly and he's been with us just over a month now.