Blog

Overpriced toys and they never sent out my order, it’s been almost 10 days since I placed my order (over $70). And they still haven’t sent it out.

I googled it online and it looks like some other customers had same issue, and they never received their order and ended up having to dispute the charges with their bank.

We picked up an 8 week old Dachshund last week and have had him now for 5 days (including pickup).

I’d say things are progressing well, he’s becoming more comfortable with us and his routine. In most ways crate training is a massive success – he hasn’t had a single accident and he only sleeps in there.

Our setup is that his crate is in the living room of our apartment (so, 10 feet from our bedroom door) inside a playpen.

He struggles with being independent in two ways: 1. he cries when we’re separated by a barrier. he won’t be alone in the playpen unless actively distracted by food 2. he can’t fall asleep without us sitting in the playpen outside his crate. once he falls asleep we can leave him there til his next wakeup about 3 hours later

In either case if we leave him he cries endlessly.

The latter issue is the bigger one as it makes night time wake ups tough. We take him to potty and it sometimes takes 30 minutes of us sitting on the floor in front of his crate for him to settle.

I realize he’s very new to us and our home and it takes time for him to settle in, but I’m also aware of dachshunds’ tendency to develop separation anxiety, and I’m concerned that our comforting is reinforcing that.

Is the state we’re at typical for his age, or are we doing something wrong?

Hi everyone, My husband and I are dealing with a behavior issue with our 10-month-old rat terrier and could really use some insight.

We’ve had her since she was 3.5 months old. For the first few months, my husband was home with her constantly (we also have a 6-year-old American bully) and they bonded really well. About 3 months ago my husband had a sudden injury, needed major surgery, and he’s been mostly bed-bound since. Because of that, I’ve taken over most of her care — taking her out, giving treats, training, picking her up, etc. She’s crate trained, but she also sleeps in bed with us at night.

She’s very affectionate with both of us individually. You can pick her up, hold her close, whatever — she’s totally fine. But she’s definitely attached herself more to me since my husband’s been recovering.

Here’s where things get hard: When she’s next to me and my husband tries to hug me, kiss me, lean over her, or even sometimes just move closer to her, she growls. Most of the time we can redirect her, but occasionally she’ll actually lunge or try to nip. The escalation feels random and unpredictable.

Another detail — she just finished her first heat, so hormones may be playing into this too.

For bedtime, our routine is usually: We put her in her crate around 9 PM, then take her out later to cuddle and sleep in bed with us. If she growls multiple times in a short period, we put her back in her crate for the night so she can settle and everyone can sleep. We’re not trying to punish her, just create some boundaries, but we’re not sure if that’s the right approach.

It’s stressful because my husband is already dealing with a difficult recovery, and we don’t want this to turn into a long-term behavior pattern.

Has anyone dealt with this kind of person-guarding or resource-guarding behavior? • What worked for you to address it early? • Should we be responding differently when she growls vs when she tries to lunge? • Could this be tied to hormones from her heat cycle, or more likely the shift in routine and caregiving?

Any advice from terrier owners or people who’ve dealt with similar behavior would really help us out

I've been wfh for a long time, speding most days just in front of my computer, barely talking to anyone. Sometimes it really feels lonely, like life's been put on pause.

Since I got a dog, our daily walks have become the part of the day I look forward to the most. With my open-ear earbuds on, listening to some soft music or nature sounds while watching my dog happily explore the world, there's this simple kind of peace that just feels so good.

What's even better is that it gives me motivation again. Seeing its energy and excitement every day makes me think, I want to live well and keep trying. I'm really grateful to have it in my life.

Ok, this is going to be a long one – ANY help is appreciated as I’m at my wits end!

So, we brought our little girlie home just over a week ago. She is beautiful and absolutely perfect, potty training is going great so far only a couple of accidents over the past week. She eats & drinks really well & is food motivated but not excessively.

What’s the issue I hear you say 😂 well, I cannot do anything at all. I can’t cook, clean, shower, go to the bathroom – anything. She goes absolutely ballistic if she’s locked in her crate. My boyfriend and I haven’t been able to do the weekly food shop, he has to wait for me to come home to take a shower and vice versa. I know, crate training takes time etc but how do I take a shower? Where can I put her safely? I don’t mind leaving her in the living room but the second the door is closed she goes mad, crying intensely etc. the only time she’s ok in the crate with the door closed is during the night. Also, she WILL NOT go to sleep unless she’s held, she will walk around literally exhausted tripping over her own feet but still won’t rest.

Things we’ve already tried: Heartbeat bear – not really interested Feeding & treats in the crate. Stuffies in crate. Blanket from mum&siblings. No blanket. Bed. No bed. Clothing of ours. Blanket over the crate & without. I’m ashamed to admit we’ve also tried “cry it out” as we were desperate but she was that frantic she peed all over herself.

She does not seem frightened of the crate one bit, it just seems she just wants to be right up next to us and won’t settle unless she’s is. If I put my hand in the crate etc she will eventually settle down. But I can’t keep lying on the wooden floor for an hour every time she needs to nap.

Please please ANY help would be greatly appreciated we love her to death but I need to be able to nip to the shops or take a shower 😰

• also, I posted this on some FB groups & just basically got people saying give her time, takes weeks etc etc, so does everyone that has a puppy not have jobs? 👀 I’ve taken 3 weeks off work which is the maximum I can take! I wish I could take months off to crate train etc but I can’t!

my puppy is 5 1/2 months and she is the most confident puppy in our house. she gets herself on random high surfaces and doesnt care and bosses her 2 older brothers around. however, around other people and dogs outside and in stores, shes scared and just wants to leave. i treat her like crazy but she still shakes and sometimes stops walking. she did this when she first started walking outside after being fully vaxxed but now shes fine on walks

1 week before being able to walk outside, she was attacked by a dog and ran away. we found her thank god but she definitely was traumatized.

right now we’re taking her to the dog park and just letting her watch. she used to shake in the trunk while watching, but now shes fine. so we upped it and walked by the dogs in the park and she was so scared and shaking. wouldn’t take treats. if i keep exposing her to new places, will this build her confidence?

I have a 6mo beagle, and the training has been going decently well, except for the severe separation anxiety. It has always been bad, but after the first few weeks it got a bit better. I tried crate training for months but no luck, so I just let him be outside when I was gone. It was going well, and he would just whine for a bit and then go to sleep.

However, I recently moved apartments and it has gotten way worse again. If I leave him outside, he'll just keep scratching and biting at the door, leaving lots of damage. If I put him in the crate, he'll go absolutely insane, literally moving the crate to whatever the nearest thing he can find is and destroying it. I've tried gradually increasing the time I leave but it doesn't work. I don't know how much longer I can do this, I need to be able to comfortably leave my apartment without worrying about it being destroyed when I get back.

Have any of y'all been through something similar? How did you deal with it?

Hi there! I wanted to share good news since I posted with fears about getting a puppy after failing at it a year earlier. 2 summers ago, I adopted a little guy and totally freaked out. I thought I was going to die from puppy blues because the degree to which work and kids had me stretched became more apparent than it had been before with the added demands of a puppy. A few weeks in, I found new adopter who was fully ready. It was a terrible experience, but it was the best I could do at the time and the puppy got a great home.

A bit over a year later, i had not stopped thinking about having a family pet. I regretted not sticking it out, tho I truly was not well at the time, and I wanted to try again. The year in between, I volunteered at shelters and dog sat the neighbor’s dog. I researched the crap out of dog breeds and training methods. I slowly made a list of things I’d need to make puppy time more manageable. I noticed my kids had matured and were a bit less needy, and that work was in a bit of a lull. And then I took the plunge, even though I was shaking and almost puking the morning I went to get her.

The first two days were hard, but then everything smoothed out. No puppy blues, no big crisis. I want to share this because I posted here looking for second-time success stories after my disaster and had a hard time finding any. I know un-adopting a dog is not admirable, but for anyone who really wants to try again and has learned from their mistakes and put in the work in the meantime, it can work out.

We recently hired a dog walker because I’m working a lot more and just occasionally need help on long days. We decided to have someone come once a week so that our one girl, who is very nervous, would get to know him and it wouldn’t be such a surprise to her when he came by.

He’s a nice older man who retired young. He’s insured, was recommended by a few people, and we had a nice meet-and-greet. He seems good with our dogs.

Yes I’m a creep but I checked our ring when he came just to make sure he was being nice to them and all was going smoothly.

So the first couple of times he came it looked like he was taking them down the street though probably not for a full walk around the block (since I do this walk often, I know how long it takes.) I was fine with that because my one dog is older and has an autoimmune disease so he doesn’t always like to walk for too long.

However, I’ve noticed lately he literally takes them across the street and then immediately home to just go to the bathroom in our backyard (leashed.) I hired him to come yesterday and he literally just stood in the front yard for four minutes with them and then took them back in. My dogs will pretty much pee immediately when they’re outside and yes, in the winter I usually literally stand outside with them in the yard at night lol let them pee and come back in. But I’m hoping that if I’m paying someone to walk them he would at least try to get them to do number 2.

It doesn’t help that I was a dog walker in NYC for years and would never ever shortchange a 15-minute walk because I wanted “my” dogs to get a nice break in the day…

But that being said we live in kind of a middle of no where place and getting a dog walker at all is hard enough. He also lives down the street so it’s helpful to have someone local to help. My dogs don’t REALLY need much besides some relief (as mentioned they’re old and lazy.)

Should I say something and if so how can I not scare this guy off by basically admitting I’ve been watching the Ring? Maybe I could ask how they’re doing on a longer walk? I guess I also feel weird because it feels a bit dishonest to take pay for what he’s doing. He has to know he should be walking them more than just having them in the front yard.