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My best friend’s 6 month old puppy tonight snatched the poppy right off my jacket. I noticed immediately and I grabbed his mouth, we retrieved the red piece and the black piece of the poppy from his throat, but no pin in sight. My heart dropped, thinking he swallowed the pin we rushed him to the vet ER, about an hour away. I was devastated that I’d been so careless, I didn’t even think about how he might go for the poppy. After making it all the way to the ER my friend stepped out of the truck, and that’s when I noticed it… on the floor right where his feet had been, the pin for the poppy. I’m still so overwhelmed and devastated by how bad this could have been, and how scary it was. I’ve been crying thinking about what ifs all night, wishing I had the foresight to see that happening, and I feel awful for all the stress I caused my friend tonight. However, I’m so very thankful to share an ending to the story that is happy, and that it turned out okay. It was lucky finding the pin, before having X-rays and all that done, and needless to say no one’s going to have poppies kicking around with this puppy near

Hi guys, so thankfully I'm not dealing with a puppy anymore, but I do have a stubborn 1 year old dog! And I'm hoping for some advice …

She has recently developed a fear/dislike for rain. If we try and go for a walk in the rain, she will hang back on her leash and/or stand still (we have tried positive association, it's still early days, but it doesn't seem to be too helpful yet). The issue I'm having is that she has started to potty inside, and stopped telling us when she needs to go (she usually stands by the back door and hits it lol) but now she has just been doing it inside, in front of us sometimes.

The big issue is we live in the UK so rain is basically all the time!! I will stand outside with her and do positive reinforcement, I have tried catching her in the act and immediately moving her (it just doesn't seem to have the same effect as it did with a puppy!), and I've also been giving her more frequent toilet breaks. She seems to hit a freeze response if she's in the rain and will just stand still, then make a dart inside when she can.

I'm just unsure on where to go next! It seems like creating discomfort (e.g. Moving her mid toilet) isn't having the same effect now shes older, and it actually seems to do the opposite and scare her more. I feel like my next option is to try and tackle the fear, any tips please?! Thanks in advance, if you read all this.

Hi everyone! I have a 4-month-old puppy, and she’s been pretty nervous around other dogs. When I first got her, she had Giardia, then got another parasite, and then Giardia again. So we basically couldn’t socialize her with other dogs for the last couple of months. She recently got her rabies vaccine and is finally cleared and healthy, so we’ve started going on walks.

The issue is that whenever another dog comes near, she gets very scared. She’ll hide behind my legs or try to run away. She’s also very tiny (about 3kg), so I get why the world feels big and loud to her. I really want to start introducing her to my friends’ dogs (they’re dachshunds too), but I’m worried that pushing it too fast will make her even more fearful.

Does anyone have advice on how to help a small, shy puppy gain confidence around other dogs without overwhelming her? Any gradual intro tips would be super appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Hello! I’m trying to figure out the right time to bring a family dog into the home. We have a first grader and toddler. When did you guys get your puppy if you had children and how was it? I think it’s important to raise our children with a family dog like we were. Thoughts? Experience?

I have an 8 month old female labrador who hasn't come into season yet. Not sure if the hormones here is adding to her personality flip.

From 3 months old to just recently, she was completely fine in the crate on her own with no toys for a few hours during the day. Sometimes she naps in there, other times just chilling and watching what's going on outside her crate. During the night, she's perfectly fine to sleep in there the whole 8 hours.

But today, she just hated being in the crate during the day for 3 hours when I had to run a few errands, pulling at the door with her teeth, trying to get out. I took her out to pee / poo when I got back, but she didn't, it seemed she just wanted to hang outside of her crate.

I'm not sure if this is the raptor stage shift in personality or some other issue and how to go about approaching it.

Hi! I recently had a big litter of 7 puppies (by accident, the mother is sterilized now 😅) 2 months raising them and me and my dad gave them away 4 of them, we were going to keep only 2 (two girls) but my dad wants to keep the third ( a male), I have been reading about the littermate syndrome and now I'm worried, will sterilize them in 5-6 moths could avoid that? Training then separately? I'm more worried about the aggression than about the codependency, I have other 4 dogs (2 females and 2 males), what I can do to avoid that? Or is not that frequent in littermates raised together with a mom? I'm still debating if keeping the 3 puppies or just 2, any advice would be very helpful!

For the first time in his four years of life, we left him to a boarder while going away on a trip. When we picked him up he lost a significant amount of weight, from roughly 25 pounds to 20 pounds. He got home, was excited but has been drinking a lot of water and appears to always be hungry! Before boarding, he used to be a picky eater, not drink a lot of water, and would rarely finish his kibble, but now he cleans up the whole bowl and even appears to ask for more. It's been 2 days now, is this normal?