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Does your dog turn his head when he hears an odd noise? Does your dog bury their food with your pants? This is the thread to ask why.

Please keep this thread to non-medical issues only.

Hi y’all. My dog is an inside dog but likes spending a lot of time outside. We’ve got a big backyard that provides a lot of enrichment for her. But when it gets cold she only spends about 10 minutes outside at a time vs her usual 2 hours. She’s a German shepherd mix and running around outside is how she expends a lot of energy and makes her very happy. When it’s warmer she’ll go outside just to take a nap in the sun or watch the birds.

So the most obvious answer is a dog house. It’ll be a wind breaker, keep her off the cold ground, and help insulate her while she just enjoys being outside. But she chews anything and everything, especially wood. When we first got her she chewed on a pillar of our house. She will find a nice stick and then fall asleep outside while gnawing on it. I cannot overstate how much she loves chewing on wood. Yes, we know this might be pica, but we haven’t identified the cause after working with our vet and dog trainer, so we just redirect her to things that won’t cause any health issues.

Without a doubt, if I get her a wood or plastic dog house, she will definitely chew on it. It’d still be functional, and she’d only chew for about a day before going back to her sticks. But she can do some decent damage in a day and I’d prefer to avoid all that. Any advice? I just want her to be able to enjoy her time outside again.

Important information: we are in Louisiana. It snows once every five years max, and the temperatures drop below freezing about 10 days out of the entire year. So this is purely about providing comfort for my dog, and she will never be in any danger because I work from home and let her in and out as much as she wants. This is purely a quality of life thing.

I was bored and buried under dogs, so I wrote these for fun in about ten minutes or so. Enjoy, or don’t, I’m not holding your leash. 😜

Dog asleep on lap

Dreaming of chasing squirrels

Now my nuts are sore

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Warm breeze and sunshine

Dogs playing in swaying grass

An angry squirrel barks

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A ray of sunshine

Warm fur, paws and belly up

Scritches for my boy

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Dogs soundly sleeping

Dreaming of warm sun and grass

My lap is sweaty

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I love chihuahuas

Tiny dogs, big attitudes

Scared of the vacuum

I though some things will change as my dog grows but am surprised they didn't change.. My dog is now 3yrs old and still cries countless times whenever she's hungry and sometimes its annoying.. What should i do to solve the problem??

Ever since I brought my puppy home (4 months ago), she's been quite enthusiastic towards the cat (which isn't very nice/friendly/interested with the puppy).

Puppy wants you to play, and gets in the cat's space a lot to the point that the cat has stopped coming into the living room (where the puppy is baby gated most of the time). She used to snuggle on the couch with me all the time, but now she keeps away.

I'm wondering if they'll ever be able to cohabit? I protect the cat a lot. She's 9 and she's scared of my puppy because she's so huge already (6 months – 45lbs/20kg).

The puppy isn't scared of the cat hissing at her or the smacks on the nose. She keeps insisting and I have to walk in, body block the dog and point her in another direction ("out"), which only builds her frustration and doesn't discourage her to repeat the behaviour a little later in the day or whenever the cat builds up the courage to come in the living room.

Anyone had a similar experience? I don't want my cat to be alone all the time. Feeling bad for her and wondering if there's anything I could do to make my puppy understand to leave the cat alone.

I'm a first-time dog owner and I just got a puppy, who will arrive next month. The puppy will be 3 months old.

I'm trying to prep as well as I can before she arrived so I am prepared. Literally any tips you would leave for a first-time dog owner / things you may have overlooked or didnt expect will help!! I'm curious what I need to buy and how to prep my house.

Also, should I immediately take her to the vet to get checked up on and make sure all shots are cleared??

I'm mostly worried about biting, crate training and potty training. I don't have any experience with dogs but I really want to do a good job at training her.

Thank you so much 🙂

When home alone, my 1 year old dog is not destructive and does not soil, bark, pant, pace, etc. She mostly looks out the front window and stays awake/alert on the chair or sofa watching the world go by. Occasionally she'll put her head down and rest, but mostly she's alert.

We have cameras because she used to cry instantly when we left and we did a lot of training to remedy this over her lifetime. We've worked up to being able to leave her for 1-2 hours and to date she has seemed pretty okay with that.

Today she is much more unsettled though and we are stuck with work obligations where she has to be home alone for another hour or two. After about 45 minutes alone this morning she went and howled by the back door and then went back to the front room and is whining once every few minutes while sitting in the chair looking out the window. I have a meeting soon and will have to stop watching the cameras.

If we didn't have the cameras we would have no idea she was vocalizing. We had our first snow of the year—that's the only thing different about today versus all the other weeks where she has seemed much more settled in our absence.

In the time it took me to type this she has not vocalized any more—she did settle down more into her usual spot, but her head is up and alert/

Is this level of distress/vocalization okay when trying to avoid escalating separation anxiety? Will it get worse?

My now former partner and I got our pup in March when she was about 10 weeks. She will be a year old next month. I am the primary caregiver and will be taking her with me when I move out in the next few weeks. Although I am the primary, she and my ex have a strong bond. She’s already been looking out the window for him since he hasn’t be around much the last few days. I feel so heartbroken for her. We will be having no contact with my ex after the move. Does anyone have any advice for how I can help her get through this?

Wondering from other people’s experiences what dogs you find are best with children? Looking for a mid- large dog to join my little family. Thank you in advance. Open to suggestions as well as advice as well!