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As the title describes, my 7 month old German shepherd x husky will refuse to go poo on walks/hikes sometimes. 90% of the time he will poop right away but all of a sudden one day he will just decide to not go poo! He is fully potty trained BTW! He's never had an accident in the house thankfully but sometimes it seems like he's just holding in his poo for some reason? I cant figure out what I'm doing wrong, I've even started to add a little bit of pumpkin puree into his lunch and dinner. His stool looks healthy and there is no clear indications of any heath issues. Can someone please help me lol some days I wanna pull my hair out. I walked him this evening for almost 1 hour in a nice secluded field doing laps but no poo ): I keep him on a strict schedule too. I always walk him first thing in the morning, again around 11:30am, and again around 3:30 and one more time before bed which is usually around 7pm. I feed him on a very strict schedule too, so I have no idea what's going on. Some days he will just refuse to poo! Please help.

We adopted an 8 month old lab viszla/GSP(maybe) mix about a month ago and are having some difficulties with crate training. She’s never been crate trained so I’d love to hear your advice and thoughts on training at this age and what we can do with her current issues.

Night sleeping

We started with the crate in our room and she had many bathroom breaks a night but would go straight back to sleep when be brought her back in. As time went on the bathroom breaks stopped and we gradually moved the crate into the living room. It’s now almost at its final destination however we’re having an issue where she will wake up at 3.45am and bark the house down.

We let her out for a toilet break but when we put her back it starts back up again. Whether I’m in the room or not. The issue is that we live in a flat and have 2 side neighbours and 1 above. Some have kids. So it’s really hard for us to just let her bark it out. Sometimes she also thrashes around so we have to let her out.

When she comes out she will sleep on the sofa if we sit on it. I’m worried she knows she’ll get to sleep with us on the sofa if she kicks off so we’ve taught a cycle that will be difficult to break.

We have an alarm that we use before we let her out to try to mitigate the idea that the barks let her out, so she thinks it the alarm. It doesn’t seem to have done anything.

Day sleeping

She doesn’t nap on her own accord so we really want her to be able to be put in the crate. We familiarised her with the crate for about 2 weeks- big treats in there/capturing calmness/closing door gradually and increasing duration. We got a few naps this way.

A week or so ago we started putting her in there, covering and walking away. She barked for 5-10 minutes , some times even 3 and then napped. However for the last few days it’s got worse and she will bark frantically, thrash around, and destroy her bed. She doesn’t seem to slow down with the barking and the most we’ve been able to leave her is 30 mins but we had to let her out. Again we use the alarm.

I’m at a loss of what to do as if I keep going down this path then I worry she will keep making a negative association with the crate.

Sorry for the long post, I just really need guidance as It’s essential that she’s crate trained as we can’t trust her home alone yet!

So I’m not sure if my 16 week old puppy is starting to show aggression or not. He’s seeing a trainer on Wednesday to see if this would be a good fit but I just need advice I’m getting worried I’m not gonna be able to control him once he gets bigger. My brother said my puppy usually tries to bite him when he sees him. Also, about three days ago my bf slept over and when we were in the bedroom my dog got the zoomies and started running around the entire room biting everything in sight. It also seemed like he wanted to bite us. Then today I was sitting on the floor playing with him. He was laying on his back trying to reach a toy I had dangling above his head so he’d be flopping around sometimes hitting himself on the floor and it’s like a switch flipped after a bit and he flipped his entire body over and started running around the entire apartment. He seemed to act the same way he did in the bedroom a couple days ago so I got up off the floor and once I did that he seemed to shake it off. A few hours later I took him out to potty and the moment he saw another dog he stood up on his hind legs and kept trying to lunge at the other dog. I tried to get his attention with treats since he’s very food motivated but he ignored me so I tried picking him up and he started growling and trying to bite my hands. Also, he seems to get the zoomies at night time when I take him out to potty and he tries to bite my legs. So how do I correct this behavior before it gets worse? I’m at a loss and honestly kind of scared of how I can control him. He has no sense of how hard he bites and often times hurts me or my partner when playing.

I’m trying to desensitise my 12 week old labradoodle to grooming but I feel like I’m failing.. I try to brush her then give a treat but every time she’s still biting at the brush.. any advice pls?

I have a younger brother and I'm planning on giving him a puppy but I don't know which is best for his age.

Edit: HE'S 7 YEARS OLD

Brought home a beautiful little 8 week old golden retriever puppy last Saturday (2/7). He’s so great in 99% of the ways. Until it’s crate time. I started by sleeping in same room as him (my guest room that I turned into his room) and he was totally fine. He sleeps about 4-6 hours until he has to go potty. No problem! But I’ve been sleeping literally on the floor next to him and it’s starting to get to me. This week I’ve tried to move rooms and the 2 times I’ve tried he whines literally all night. Not just little whines. Screaming bloody murder. Same thing happens when I leave the house. Every time I come back he’s whining his butt off. I’ve tried taking the softy approach and being with him to start off. Is it time to just do the tough love approach and just let him whine it out? Keep in mind his crate is filled with a blanket and a shirt of mine. With a snuggle buddy or whatever it’s called. No matter i do, if he’s in the crate and I’m not in the room. The whining starts. Advice?

For context, my dog is 12ish years old and is a shepherd/staffy/boxer mix. He has what my vet described as a fatty cyst on his back right leg by his knee. My vet has told me that it isn’t something I need to worry about but it has continued to grow in size slightly the last few years. I have been getting targeted ads lately for all these different substances that allegedly treat these type of cysts/tumors, so I’m wondering if anyone has had any experience successfully treating these on their dogs. He has some arthritis in his hips and back legs but he still gets around pretty great considering his age, size and breed mix. I just don’t want to see this eventually grow to a point where it hinders his mobility, this cyst is in the range between a quarter and half dollar size wise at the moment and is the only one he has. Thanks in advance for any advice/help you can offer.

Are there any breeds you recommend to a single person that does not have a yard, and will be gone during the day for work?

Or is this means for not having a dog. I don’t want them to be miserable.

Hello all! I need some advice on what to do with my dog while I’m at work.

My question is, from a health perspective, is it better for dogs to be at home and go out for walks as needed compared to being at a daycare where they might be surrounded by dogs of unknown health status? While I can pay for care, my priority is to keep my dog as healthy as possible because no matter how much I love her, it’s not an option to take off work for anything short of an absolute emergency (plus, I obviously don’t want her to be sick). Daycare has been for stimulation and socialization but I’m wondering if the nightmare of bodily fluids and constant monitoring of this weekend likely resulting from something she was exposed to while there is going to become a recurring theme 😬. I would rather pay for daily walkers and have some peace of mind that issues like this will be less likely as she is otherwise fully vaccinated and getting monthly preventatives.

First time dog owner. My dog is 7 months old. We got a Kong retractable leash. I’ve heard great things about this brand so I thought I couldn’t go wrong. She’s high energy as still a puppy so we’re working on recall and not trying to run off. But she’s on a leash!! No problem, right?!?!?! Well, within 10 minutes my puppy was running in front of me and the leash snapped in half!! And she went running down the street!! Took me 5 minutes of chasing her down the street as I’m yelling at her to come back. She thought I was playing, so I know I’m not blaming her. But a leash that snaps on the first use?!?!?! She’s 8 lbs (I was going to attach a picture, but can’t). Leash is for dogs up to 45 lbs!!

I’m so, so lucky a car didn’t come through at that time, as cars usually zoom down this street. I’m traumatized now and don’t even know what kind of leash to get!

ETA: thank you all for telling me retractable leashes are a bad idea. I had no idea at all! However, thoughts on the fact that I wasn’t even using the retractable part?? The actual leash itself ripped in half (8 lb puppy and leash is meant for dogs up to 45 lbs).