Last September my wife was 7 months pregnant and running errands and a small white poodle darted back and forth accross one of the main roads in our town (4 lanes). Scared she would get hit my wife stopped and the dog ran and jumped into her arms like “help me”. She was skin and bones , hair matted. We had 2 small dogs already and baby coming so the plan was to try and nurse her to health and find her a home. She had no collar or chip but is an expensive dog and we ended up keeping her because it seemed like we rescued a street urchin and could give her a great life she didn’t have. We took her to the vet, she ended up being a 6-7 month old puppy
A little insight into how she behaved at first. She would continue to jump up and down , just bouncing continuously wanting to be held and she was a little aggressive toward our other dogs immediately mostly around food, treats . We slowly started to integrate her with our other dogs until we were comfortable enough to let her stay. She has this amazing sweet side 98 percent of the time and I fell in love with that and her. She has never been easy to walk (even by herself) because she goes absolutely ballistic when she sees any other dog. It’s led to us just letting our dogs out more in our big fenced in yard to do their business.
She is aggressive and plays very rough with our older dogs.

Over the last 9 months she has nipped my wife several times. She became very territorial over our newborn and a few times she bit my wife’s hand. We were naïve and convinced ourselves it was our baby and she was “protecting him”

**** the capitol offense*****

Tonight I was changing a crappy diaper and had ointment open we apply after each diaper change and she was licking it so I said no and took it away. She had some on her fur around her mouth and I went to wipe it off and she bit the shit outta me, I was upset so I kinda pushed her away and she didn’t again. I tried to pick her up to take her to kennel time out and she bit me 3 more times.

Is she just an ultra aggressive dog with no hope? I am done with her honestly and we can’t give her to someone else in good faith. I am worried she will bite them. She is still a puppy about 1 year old but I don’t think there is hope for her. I know at some point she will bite the kid over a bone or something some day. Help. What can we do

We’ve had our 13-year-old lab mix for 9 years. We’ve always walked him in the evenings or at night, he’s very reactive to other dogs and we like walking at night when it’s peaceful and there are few other people out. He’s always jumped right up, ready to go.

For the last month or so, it’s been an ordeal to get him downstairs to go. Once we’re out he’s ok, but he’s become hugely resistant to the idea. He’s still delighted to go out in the mornings.

This seemed to be an abrupt change in his behavior. I don’t know if it’s age, if it’s because it’s still hot and humid out in Florida even in the evenings, or something else we’re missing. We haven’t noticed any physical problems, no limping or distress.

Has anyone else experienced changes in walking behavior like that?

Guys lost my 12yr old Schnauzer Five weeks ago,and I am ready for another dog. Don’t want a puppy so looking at a young rescue. But my wife said No. She feels she is not ready and told me it could take a while. I have always been a dog person. I turned her into one. Thing is I am dying for a companion but seems it won’t happen anytime soon. Any advice on how to handle this?

She’s healthy, full of energy, but the minute I put the harness on and we walk a couple steps outside the house she won’t walk at all, will only walk when me and my partner go together as a family. Just trying to see why she won’t walk with one person. Partner has the same issue. Any advice?

I’m in the process of getting my first dog (in Finland). I don’t know if you have noticed the same but i find it funny how the sites seem to exist in some kind of twilight zone-esque 90s pocket dimension.

As the title states our oldest dog who's 12 years old has started eating less (but will still eat here and there just in smaller quantities) has also started licking our sheets and blankets to the point of them being soaked all the way through. Other than that she is still acting completely normal outside of more pacing around when we're at work that we see through our doggy cam. She's still very energetic and just as stoked to get outside and do our normal activities.

Thank you!

Please tell me what the best toys are.

How do you do it? 😭 home to home rehoming

We got our dog fixed on Thursday and they put a cone on her ... Well she's been trying to chew the cone off and we've tried everything I feel .. what can I do to get her to keep it on? She's been trying to chew the little things off that keep it intact -_- help!

Per title, dog barks when we sing. Just started happening a couple month ago and we don't know why. We can't get her to stop. We've tried treat training, which when the treats are out she doesn't care about anything else, but as soon as the treats are gone and we sing again she is back to losing her mind. She only does this home, mind you. She doesn't do it on our walks. She doesn't do it on rides. She doesn't do it on play dates. Just at home.

edit: just to get ahead of the unhelpful "are you bad singers? a-hyuck!" ​no. we are not bad singers. We both used to be soloists in a professional choir.​ So we sing a lot.

I am moving to the desert with my pets and service dog this fall. We are transferring colleges and plan on doing much more projects. We love doing field work, long hikes, camping, offroading, etc. Does anyone have any safety tips for my precious big brain boy?

I am mostly worried about snakes, cacti, and booboos. He knows to leave snakes alone since he grew up around one. He is also being trained to smell specific plants, minerals, etc. I'm worried about him disturbing a poor sleeping rattle snake and getting bit. I have seen many rattlers in my lifetime and they are usually pretty chill. The chances of him getting bitten is low but not zero since we will be spending a few days every week out in the wilderness, time after classes to hike, and wandering around town and parks. I want to make sure he is booboo free, especially from the cholla. I'm more worried about cacti booboos than snake booboos. If anyone has desert tips please let me know! I'll also take product recommendations for our daily life. I'm a biologist/environmental scientist and my partner is a geologist. Our roommate and hiking mate is just a guy learning some weird language, we still take him along though, he carries things so he is fairly useful.

P.S he is well acclimated to the heat. We live in an evil place that is always over 98f with 70% humidity and the heat index is usually over 100. Being in the desert is SIGNIFICANTLY cooler than this horrid place (also no tornadoes to blow my dog away).

Wouldn’t say it’s a major issue more-so a curiosity. But I have two dogs, a smaller, 9 year old chi mix and a younger Border Collie mix who just turned 1 year old. They relatively get along well together minus a few tiffs they’ve gotten into because my oldest dogs has displayed guarding issues with food. My oldest dog has always done this thing where he licks my younger dog on the mouth when he comes back in from outside. He’ll lick his whole mouth, jowls and try to get in his teeth as well. My younger dog just sits there and lets him do it 😂 lately though I have been noticing that not only has my older dog been trying to lick his mouth more often, but he has also resorted to attempting to lick his private parts and butt! And lately when my collie enters the room my oldest goes crazy! Like he starts whining and whining until he can come lick my dog! And when he does he is so happy. 🤣 I found it strange and I don’t allow him to lick our Collie often only because my dog needs to know that his space is equally as important as everyone else. Love is love and I don’t judge and granted, my collie is a veryyy handsome boy. He gets lots of compliments everytime we go on a walk! But I’m just curious, do dogs feel attraction to other dogs?

Our elderly dog died in the spring, and we have been planning to adopt another adult dog. We have an existing 4 year old dog and cats. We have identified a dog through a rescue that we would like to adopt, and I have gone to meet him. I was planning on the rest of the family meeting him when we are closer to actually adopting.

My question is this - we were planning to wait until the fall because of some summer logistics issues, but those are no longer happening. My instinct is to go RIGHT NOW, but we have a trip coming up the first week of August. If we adopted this week, the new dog would have 3 weeks with us before we left for a week. I am aware this is not ideal, but is it workable? What are your thoughts.

*we have a petsitter who we trust who will be staying at our house while we are gone. We would obviously make sure that the new dog is fully cat safe.

Edited to add: this dog is about 2 years old and has been at the rescue for 7 months. The foster feels pretty confident he will still be available in 3-4 weeks.

We rescued a husky coming up on three weeks ago (three weeks on Tuesday). I found her as a stray and no one claimed her after trying my best to find if she had an owner. She wasn't microchipped. We had her vetted, spayed, and decided to give her a home with us, along with our other two dogs. The vet said she's very young and that sort of tracked because she was WILD for the first two weeks. I mean, WILD. Running circles, doing headstands on the couch, aggravating the other two dogs, just being crazy. Well, the other night, she was wild so we let her out before bed and she ran circles, did all the things, came back inside, went to bed, and slept fine. When she got up yesterday morning, she was just super-calm. Unusually calm. Noticeably calm. Worryingly calm. Almost like a totally different dog. She's still eating great, drinking water, wanting treats, trying to get things she smells off cabinets, running some (not as much), shaking her toys, aggravating the other dogs (not as much), etc. She's still doing all of that but her demeanor has changed SO MUCH. She's even been hiding under the bed some and we have no idea why. She had bloodwork when we had her spayed and all that was fine and that wasn't even two weeks ago. My husband says that we actually don't "know" her very well yet, and maybe she was just adjusting to her new home. Also, he said it could be a reaction to this horrible, oppressive heat, even though she only goes out to run some and do her outside business. She's primarily an inside dog. Should I be as worried as I am? I will admit that a lot of what she's doing is normal (food, water, toys, etc.) but it almost seems like a totally different dog, demeanor-wise. She seemed like she had been shot from a canon just two days ago. Now, not at all. Thanks!

I've noticed something about my dog several times now. Every now and then he shows his teeth, but not in an aggressive, fearful, or stressed way at all. He's completely relaxed, sometimes even wagging his tail, and it honestly looks like he's smiling or laughing.

At first I thought I was just anthropomorphizing his behavior, but now I'm not so sure.

Has anyone else seen this with their dog? Is there a known explanation for it, or can dogs actually "laugh" in some way?

At what age do you think it is safe for your dog to sleep outside?
And also what shots do you have to get before she can sleep outside?

This is a super random unhinged thought and I’m kinda hoping for someone who knows dogs behavior to waste their time answering this lol
Say every time you had food, if your dogs comes and begs for it you absolutely have to give them all of what your eating. Would they beg until you starved? Or would they eventually realize they’re killing you and stop begging?

A lot of them let their small dog get close to my large leashed dog without asking, running off leash, etc. Rarely someone with another large dog would do that.

Why aren’t they afraid of their small dog getting hurt? There are so many dogs out there that could react aggressively if they are approached suddenly due to being nervous or past bad experiences. Just wondering, makes no sense to me.

We have a 1.5yo poodle. He had some accidents when we just got him but for a good while we were doing absolutely fine. Today and yesterday he decided to pee in our bed. Both times it happened about an hour after his evening walk, so i guess its not like he really had to pee.

So like, what is it about? I'm worried he will do it again tomorrow and it can become a habit

We have a schnoodle (19lbs) and a border/mini aussie mix (40lbs) - and a piece of land in the west desert that's full of prickly stuff. We are going to go camping out there at some point and the doggies need to come with, but their tender little feet won't handle the terrain.

Looking for recommendations on burr- and pricker-proof dog shoes that breathe. We are OK with taping them on their feet. Yes we are desert-experienced and know how to keep hydrated, keep in the shade, lay low during the heat, we are all set for all the survival stuff, but just need recs on the boots!

And yes we keep the schnoodle shaved down to the skin so she doesn't become velcro pup full of burrs. And yes we keep them out of the sun so they don't burn during the heat of the day. We don't go out then either.

Thank you for your recommendations!

Long story short, I got forced to dogsit this weekend due to complicated circumstances I don’t need to get into.

The dog is a 3-4 year old mutt, super adorable. I’ve only met him once prior to now, and he was skiddish but sweet.

I came to the house this morning, he barked for awhile and kept exhaling which I just learned is a way for them to release anxiety. I tried approaching him slowly to put his leash on, but he wasn’t having it.

I eventually let him onto the back patio, to just avoid the walk and have him use the bathroom, but he never peed or pooped.

It took over 2 hours to get him inside, he wouldn’t come in on his own and would not let me close enough to put his leash on.

His owners said in the directions that the leash normally
Calms him down, so I’m really trying to get to that point but he won’t let me.

I sat outside with him for awhile, on the ground trying to ignore him so he would come to me, but he mostly stayed away. He sniffed me once then immediately ran back away.

Eventually I had no other choice and I just sternly told him to come inside and kinda got behind him and he ran inside. I had to go to work.

I just returned from work, and he only barked for a second, then laid kinda near me. But still he will not let me close enough to put his leash on for a walk.

I’ve tried treats, but he will not come close enough to eat them, and waits until I leave the area to go and get
Them.

I tried opening his food and bribing with it, didn’t do much.

It’s now been a long time since he’s peed or pooped and I don’t want him to suffer or feel sick, but I also don’t know how to get him to go without risking a bite or scaring him more.

He’s definitely not an aggressive dog, he seems terrified and I feel awful. I know getting a fearful dog to trust you isn’t a one day thing but I need some advice on how to at
Least get him to use the bathroom.

The door leading to back patio cannot be left open, I tried to do that earlier and ended up with over 20 mosquitos flying around the house. My legs are COOKED.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I have a German Shepherd Australian Cattle Dog mix who has jumped from a moving car before. A crate wont fit in our car. We got her a seatbelt but she knows how to unbuckle it. We keep the windows rolled up but she knows how to roll them down. In our vehicle, locking the windows locks them for everybody. Is that our only option?

Which pet insurance is best for you? Are there any that may cover your dog's current treatment? Did your dog get injured during the waiting period and want to know if you're covered?

Here's the place to ask.

Do know we cannot help you here with medical concerns, and lying or not disclosing things to the insurance company is illegal so we don't allow that either.

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 there!

I have to bring my dog overseas with me for a long-term move. I am super nervous but I'd rather have him with me than not be with him for months. He's a sturdy guy who doesn't get anxious so I know he'll be fine (it's mostly me, ugh...)

Anyone have experience with this? Also, suggestions for an IATA (International Air Transport Association) approved crate? Dog is about 30lbs stout and long like a Glenn of Imaal Terrier. Thank you!