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We’ve had our 12 week old chihuahua for 10 days now. He’s doing really well and we’re trying to socialise him as much as possible.

We’ve taken him in the car, to the vets and had guests over to the house. All have gone well. However I’m worried that it’s too much for him when I take him out in his bag (like a carry sling where I can hold him).

Today we tried going a bit further, walking along a busy road to a cafe to get a takeaway coffee. He trembled the entire time (he does this a lot as a chi) he began by taking treats but then eventually wouldn’t so we turned back. He wasn’t crying or hiding, still had his head popping out to look but had ‘whale eye’ and trembling. The whole trip was 15-20 mins.

Am I pushing him too far? I feel awful now. I’m scared of making him fearful.

Should I carry on with these sort of trips or scale back? I was thinking tomorrow I might just try 5 minutes on a quiet residential road.

It’s just so hard to know what’s right especially when you feel ‘the socialisation window’ looming over you. I’m so scared I’m going to ‘ruin’ this puppy!

My bf and I recently rescued two Lab/Rottweiler/Pit mixes from a parking lot. We own a class C camper so space is limited but they play outside a lot. They’ve had me crying every day from stress – biting everything, stealing each other’s food, potty on carpet (although they mostly go on potty pads by the door when we aren’t fast enough). We take them to work with us because we’re scared to leave them alone so soon. Someone please tell me it gets better lol. Also any tips for puppies in RVs?

Christamas is comming, not sure what to buy for my dog, do you have any idea?

Hello all.

I have an 11 week old Labrador (show line) and as he gets larger, i am considering making some changes to his crate.

He is almost 100% potty trained, he has never had an accident in his crate to date and is fairly good with enforced crate naps so i figured its time to give him more room in his crate to move around and self soothe so that i dont need to bring him out immediately.

To do this, instead of using the door at the front of the cage (the short side), i would turn it around and begin using the side door.

Will this orientation change bother him in any way? The crate will not be moving location, just what direction its facing.

Thank you

I have a one year old dachshund / chihuahua mix who will not house train. I feel like we go weeks with almost no accidents and then weeks with multiple every day. Dog is crate trained and sleeps through the night with no issues. I take her out every 2-3 hours when at home. She seems to know to signal at the door, but the accidents continue. I know I should have eyes on her 100% of the time but I WFH and can’t supervise her and work simultaneously. She will tolerate the crate for short stretches of time (I maybe get 1-3 hours a day) but doesn’t enjoy the crate when she can tell I’m home.

I’m done. I give up. I’ve failed and the dog has broken me. I will have shit and pee in my house forever.

I’m back still trying to decide if I should get this puppy. It’s like I’m waiting for some perfect answer to come to my head. I miss my sweet pups every day, but I have to admit I feel some relief from the constant caretaking. My seniors needed round the clock care for the last few months of their lives. Overnight trips have also been significantly easier without worrying who will care for my dogs. But I miss their sweet faces and companionship so much. My world revolved around them.

I constantly think about the puppy I met. I thought for sure she would have been adopted by now. She’s around 3 months now and so smart. She potties outside for the most part (still poops on a potty pad a lot) but her foster mom does keep her on a strict schedule. She sets an alarm to wake up at 1am to take the puppy outside. The puppy also already knows “crate” and whimpers a little when closed in there but only for a few minutes. She’s very affectionate but also in the bite everything phase.

About us: We’ve never had a puppy this young before. Our dogs were around 9 months when we adopted them. One had severe reactivity and the other severe separation anxiety which is why I’m probably way overthinking this puppy. They lived to be 15 and 16 years old.

I work remotely from 6am-230pm. I sometimes need to facilitate meetings with my camera on and it would be an issue if my puppy was relentlessly barking in the background. I have these meetings a couple times per week. I was thinking I could have kongs and lick mats available to distract her.

My husband works outside the home and usually is gone from about 6am-6pm, so most of the day care would fall on me. He does well with less sleep though so he said he could take the majority of the night care if needed but still would want me to help out. I’m a “I need an 8 hour sleep night” kind of person so this stresses me out a little bit.

I also looked up some daycares and overnight care. We have a few here that will 24/7 in home care if we need to go anywhere while she’s young. One of the centers has a dog bus that would pick her up, take her to daycare, and drop her back off which would be nice on my busy days (once she has her shots). The caveat is that we move frequently for work and sometimes we live in less populated areas so that level of service may not always be available.

I’ve also looked up puppy classes near us and private training that uses positive methods only and they seem like a great option.

So even with all this I’m just overwhelmed by the constant puppy care and 15 year commitment. How did you know you were ready? Is my anxiety telling me I’m not ready? Should it be 100% excitement before I get a puppy?

for context I have a 7 year old female Irish setter. She has always humped things but lately everytime I’m doing a task she starts barking and whining and trying to hump me??? This has been for probably a week straight. Not sure what the issue is and she’s not in heat

Apologies if this isn’t the place to ask this.

I’m looking for a thin glove that’ll work with touch screens and has grippy enough finger tips that I can open a poop bag without removing the glove. Waterproof would be a bonus. Any suggestions? Thanks!

As agreed on, I did a in person check in on my dog I had to rehome. It’s been couple months since I last seen him. I was extremely excited to see him. The point of this check in was to make sure he’s well taken care of. My dog was very matted, tangled fur, his fur felt very dry/dusty.. and I saw him licking his paw and saw a really red spot with no fur.. I questioned his new owners and they said it started two days ago and nothing else. They were just quiet as I was very concerned. I told them to take him to the vet. I texted them today asking if they took him to the vet yet and they said it’s getting better after ointment with a picture that shows his fur covering the area and his fur just looked even more matted. I don’t want to overstep boundaries but I’m so worried it might get infected. I don’t know why they didn’t take him to the vet…