Blog

Hi, I have a 7 month old collie x golden retriever with what we believe may also be some spaniel (not fully sure as the breeder wasn’t honest) she has been pretty good with recall since I had her and started training it at around 3 months old. Recently her recall is slipping she gets high value meaty treats when she does come back to me but I’m finding she isn’t recalling well at the moment. Just this evening my friend left with her dog and my dog ran after her and somehow escaped through the gate and was running in the road. I tried calling her name and using the ‘here’ command I have always used and she just continued to run into the road with traffic.

I’m aware I panicked and did also start shouting as I realised there were cars coming from both directions and she was not listening and continued to run around and I know that my reaction would have made that situation worse.

However my question is how can I get back some recall with her and more importantly how can I do so around distractions and in dangerous situations where she has escaped (she’s always on a lead on walks near roads) and how can I change my behaviour in situations like tonight’s to keep her safe.

Whenever we are out I always carry basic treats and also high value meaty treats to try and make it more enticing for her to listen I’m just not sure what my next steps should be as I know she’s hitting adolescence and also showing signs of her first season (vets have confirmed this) and when out on walks we do use a whistle although she also is selective of when she listens to the whistle

Thankyou and I hope it’s okay to post I did have a look on the wiki page however the distraction recall page says it was deleted.

My dog has been having a weird issue with urinating and defecating indoors. Something he will pee on the carpet but never poop indoors but recently he’s been pooping and peeing on our way to go outside. We live on the third floor or our apartment and most of the time he will just let himself go in the hallway or in the stairwell. I have talked to my vet and they recommended me just holding him till we are outside so that way he doesn’t have an accident. When we got him we thought he was potty trained as he would always use the bathroom outside and never indoors but these last two weeks I have noticed an insurgence of indoor accidents. He does have severe separation anxiety and is medicated for that if that holds any relevancy. Any advice to stop this behavior?

My girl turned 5 months old on the 13th, she was a menace the first couple months especially with settling at night she would not let me go to sleep for like an hour or two (every time i’d go to bed she would bark) i used to have to sit beside her til she fell asleep and sneak away but now she actually is quiet in her crate at bedtime and sleeps the whole night so it does get better if anyone is dealing with the same thing!

HOWEVER – my partner is a tradesman and wakes up early on weekdays usually between 6am-7am and lets her out to go to the toilet then feeds her then lets her out to the toilet again. she whines like clockwork 30 seconds before his alarm goes off it’s kinda crazy, and will bark and bark if she hears your alarm going off until he lets her out (no more hitting snooze) – she also barks while he’s getting ready or before he gives her food like demanding it almost ? and he’s like half asleep trying to get ready for the day and she wakes me up then with how loud she is – after she eats and goes to the toilet she will go back into her crate and go back to sleep… until my alarm goes off

i work from home 3 out of 5 days of the week and she barks and barks after my alarm goes off (usually like 9:30) til i let her out which is kind of annoying but i suppose i have to get up anyways

the main issue though is the weekends, she wakes up at 6am to be fed and let out, and usually leads to both of us staying awake because she was so loud barking that we can’t get back to sleep… is there any way we can fix this?? should he stop feeding her when he goes to work in the morning? should i feed her when i wake up in the mornings instead?

My pup just turned 8 months and I think he finally hit adolescence. The main two behaviors im noticing is 1: he is refusing kibble completely. We checked him at the vet and he is completely healthy they said. No matter what we top it with, bone broth, coconut oil, pumpkin, chicken, doesnt matter he just starves himself. Its not like hes sad or lethargic either he plays like crazy and loves going on all his walks. We even tried switching brands a bunch and he is still super picky. 2: he has gotten defensive with treats and random objects in his mouth and has gotten snappy. He has always struggled with the drop it command but recently it has gotten really bad. If something is in mouth like a bone for example and I try to grab it, he bites the hell out of me. When i did it when he was younger he didnt care but now he is super defensive. Same with objects. He was getting good at not picking up shoes socks etc, but he just completely forgot his training and will grab them and run away, refusing to let go. If we try to get them from his mouth he growls and snaps at us. Really struggling here, would appreciate some help

Howdy. I have a husky who is great with cats, I introduced her to my 3 cats years ago with zero issues. Last night we got a tiny baby kitten probably only 6 to 8 weeks old. We set up a large crate for the kitten for safety with everything g he needs, and the husky is obsessed. She sleeps outside the crate, and when he's pulled out she very much wants to see him. She's not lunging or chasing or being aggressive, but she has tried nipping at him a few times, but pretty gently. We got her a cage muzzle and she's been content to follow him around with 0 real issues. No signs of growling or any obvious warning behavior, and shes tail wagging constantly. When hes in his crate and being pretty active she'll hop her front paws onto the bars and get very talky. Is this pretty normal husky behavior when introduced to a new kitten?

So i recently adopted a 2 year old baby from the humane society where she was previously a stray and she is the sweetest cuddliest little thing. she loves to climb onto my lap which i also love but she just has the most rough paw pads. her actual nails are fine but the skin on her paws is all kinda fraying making it feel like legit sandpaper. i want her to still hang out on my lap but my poor legs are getting scratched up. is there some sort of ointment or something that would help her paws be smoother?