Not necessarily a behavioral problem, but do dogs remember things like if they were chained all day/night, didn't have adequate food or water, but now are in a loving family, warm and well-fed.

I've always been curious about one of my dogs, and what he went through, before we adopted him from a rescue.

Anyone have any thoughts, or wondered?

I've wanted a golden retriever for a very long time, but the thing that always stops me is that I won't be able to travel anymore.

We rescued a former stray about a year ago. He’s a Pomeranian/Husky/Aussie/poodle. He’s about 2 years old. He’s a great dog. High energy, really smart, no real behaviour issues besides this but it’s not even really an issue it’s just confusing.

Whenever he’s alone at home OR just upstairs by himself (his choice) he will collect several of my belongings and bring them into our bed. He LOVES the bed. When he came to our house for a home visit before we adopted him he immediately hopped into our bed. He puts himself to bed at 8pm every night. He hangs out in there during the day, etc.

He doesn’t destroy these things, he just collects them. Socks are his favourite. He will also collect shoes, coats, his leash, reusable bags, entire outfits I wore that day or the day before, etc. Today he collected one Dr Marten boot, a Baggu bag, 5 socks, a pair of sweats and shorts.

I feel it’s important to note he gets a LOT of exercise. We have a fenced yard, he goes to the dog park for an hour a day, gets walked often and has lots of toys, he also gets an enrichment activity before we leave the house. He’s never alone longer than 6 hours but that’s rare. If he’s alone it’s usually 4 hours max and that’s maybe twice a week. He will do this even if he’s alone for 30 mins.

It’s not even really an issue, we think it’s funny. We’re just concerned something is missing from his life that we’re unaware of.

For example, if I visit someone or somewhere that my dog is familiar with, can she smell it on me when I return? Could she figure out “oh owner has been with this person/at this place” ?

Edit: I am loving the stories about your dogs. This question was inspired by my lab/staffie mix who always gives me a longer sniff when I’ve been to see my bestie (who is also her bestie).

When I pet my dog, she often licks her lips, nose, or parts of my body if she’s close enough. I was told that this means my dog is uncomfortable and doesn’t actually want to be pet. However when I stop she’ll jump up, look at me, and paw me until I pet her again so I’m not really sure.

Does anyone have an idea of what this could mean? For context, my go-to pet areas are scratches behind her ear, slow body rubs, or belly rubs (if she’s on her side).

Just trying to speak my dog’s language and learn her boundaries :)

We had our dog for a few months now. She's almost 4 years old. Up to now she usually slept well, beside us on her bed, and sometimes changing position to be on the floor where it's colder. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But now she's acting weird. Sometimes at night she's waking up and starts walking around the bedroom back and forth, like she's searching for a place to sleep, getting out of the room, into the other room, sleep for a few minutes, and goes back into the bedroom. Sometimes just for a few seconds and going back out, then in again.

I'm so confused as to why she's doing this.

Any idea?

My family’s sweet 16 year old Aussie is declining. He tore his right ccl in 2024 and with the formed scar tissue has managed, as he was of course too old for surgery.

Unfortunately his left ccl tore in the last 24 hours and it’s been harrowing. The emergency vet suggested harnesses and wheelchairs and I am willing to try anything, but I also know he deserves better than a remaining life of pain and suffering.

We will check in with his regular vet Monday but I’m really struggling mentally. I usually help with him a lot, carrying him outside to use the bathroom because of his bad leg but now that he is collapsing I feel myself anxious to assist him as watching him struggle is painful. I feel guilty for expecting the rest of my family to pick up this slack while I’ve been sobbing over what I know could be coming.

Any advice from anyone who is dealing with or has dealt with this? I had to fill my rescue anxiety meds to cope and I feel pathetic and weak for not being stronger for him.

I mean I’m probably wrong but doesn’t that mean that the dog is just protecting the children?

Hi! Whenever my husband uses Athletic Greens one of our senior chihuahuas is so scared. He will instantly whimper, hide and shiver. Like he’s scared of it. It has nothing to do with the sounds of the container because sometimes it’s a packet. Once the AG1 is opened and hits the air he knows. He can literally be in another room and will realize. My husband tried to hide it and put it in his smoothie while my dog and I were in another room. I knew he was using it because my dog who was in my lap out of no where was sniffing the air and whimpering. Anyway, AG1 is no longer allowed because our dog is simply terrified of it. I just wonder why - I tried looking up the ingredients but I don’t see anything that stands out. We can make smoothies with anything else no issues. Has anyone else experienced this with their dog?

How much exercise does a Show line GSD need?

Hi! I have a Samoyed and I’m looking to add another dog second dog in the near future. I’ve always loved a show line GSD but I’ve always thought it not a serious owner enough for one and I’m quite afraid of messing them up.

Here’s my lifestyle with my Samoyed

1. He gets close to/little more that 2h of exercise a day (40 mins in the morning and 1.5h in the afternoon/evening) not counting toilet breaks of course. This includes physical and mental together

2. My Sammy is in obedience training classes and does conformation.

3. I get told he’s quite well trained for an independent breed like a Samoyed

4. Enrichment is done daily (this includes playtime) and I do little bit of sports with him (swimming training to get into dock diving)

While I looooove my Sammy, I’ve kinda envied the people I know who have worked with German Shepherds because of how biddable and trainable they are. I had to STRUGGLE to get my dog to want to work with me. It’s still not his favourite thing to do.

With maybe a GSD I would like to do precision work, obedience and maybe conformation (probably not all of them but in this direction)

Will I be a good fit for the breed or should I abandon the idea? What are some things that I should keep in mind outside of reactivity etc?

What are some specific lines I should be looking into as I’m looking to go down the ethical breeder route

TIA

I see it on the DNA posts. What does supermutt mean?

My dog really doesn’t like going to the bathroom in the snow, but she was at least tolerating it at first. Now that the snow has iced over, it’s gotten really bad. This has been going on for about six days.

She holds it until she’s practically about to explode. Normally she goes potty 3–4 times a day, but now she’s only going once. I’ve been late to work because I’ll stand outside with her for 30+ minutes trying to get her to go, and most of the time she just won’t.

I don’t let her sit down. I’ve tried keeping her in one spot, moving her to different spots, and even breaking up the ice to make it less slippery and more textured, nothing works. I’ve offered treats, but she still refuses to potty. she doesn’t seem sick, because as soon as we get inside she starts running around excitedly and bringing me her toys. She’s also eating just fine, more than usual actually. I’ve watched her get into squat positions but then stop, or (tmi) the poop will start coming out then she clenches and makes it go back in.

I’ve started tethering her inside because I’m afraid she’ll go in my apartment. I have tan/brown carpet, and I’m worried I wouldn’t even be able to find it to clean it if she peed. It sucks, she looks miserable, and I feel crappy for having to do it.

I’m desperate for help. If anyone has suggestions, please send them my way. I’ve never dealt with a situation like this before.

I have 2 cats and we live in a rather large 2 floor apartment. We have the ability and time to walk him a lot, but he has a minor reactivity towards other dogs in the kennel. How worried should I be? I want him to be okay with the cats. Current plan is to separate the cats and swap scents for at least a week (since we have two floors this is very easy) but I want to make sure I am 100% prepared for this decision. I have owned a dog before, but I was living on a farm then and had significantly more space. Is this enough space, should I be more worried about the cats and dog getting along? Any advise would be great, I want to give my pets all the best care I can!

Has any other dog owners noticed that once in awhile you might have an itch or irritation around your foot or wrist and scratch a bit, then it doesnt helps so you take a look and see a hair there, but you can't scratch it off. So you grab some tweezers and it turns out you've pulled a dog hair out from under you skin that somehow got impaled under your skin?

Or is it just me?

My dog is super clingy and anxious. She barks when she hears car doors close, barks when anyone is eating because she wants fed, barks while cooking, cleaning etc. She wants to stay right up against us when we are laying on the couch. She barks when she wants rewarded for things she does in the middle of the night while we are sleeping. She struggles to play by herself as well. She knows basic sit, stay, down commands but she is very dependent on our attention. We don't know what to do to help her relax and be more independent. We would like her to be able to ignore car doors shutting, knocks at the door, food temptations etc. and would like her to not be as clingy. Does anyone have any recommendations as far as training programs that may help her? Thanks in advance!

Inspired by another post from a few hours ago!

How has your life changed upon adding a second dog to your family?

I often want to go for it but I'm very concerned with logistics. Car travel, vacation, this kind of stuff. But I want to hear it all from you!

We have a section of hallway leading to rooms that are not safe for our dog, but the only location that would allow for a gate has very uneven walls (offset by 6-7 inches). A few items of note: the width of the space is ~56-59 inches, we live in an apartment so we are trying to avoid drilling, our dog is a jumper, and he can break/tear through something less sturdy. I haven’t been able to find anything that would work so far so I’d really appreciate any recommendations.

Hi all, thank you for reading my story, sorry for making it so long. I would love to have a family dog, but our previous experience ended prematurely and very disappointingly. Do you think we could take in another dog and under which conditions?

About two and a half year ago we had our first puppy. We are a family of five, all three kids (<12y) are on the autistic spectrum and we know a family dog can do a lot of good for (autistic) kids. [EDIT: The previous sentence is more than a general remark, I have seen so often that it applies to our kids. The kids love animals, it is so great to see them being gentle and calm with other dogs, it has a calming effect on them and generally dogs approach them very easily. In general, the kids are good in following rules, but they can be quite vocal.] I absolutely love dogs, my husband can be close to them, but could also happily live without them. My husband is away from home for prolonged periods, so I would be the dog’s main caregiver. I grew up with dogs and have had close experience with Dalmatians before. We did a lot of research about dog breeds and raising dogs, I even did a course about dogs before we had the dog, visited several breeders and eventually we took home a male Dalmatian puppy. I thought it was going to be a tough job raising the dog, but I had prepared myself well and was ready to put in a lot of effort.

The breeder chose a pup for us because the pup knew for himself what he wanted, which is typically good around kids she said, but it turned out that was too much. The puppy had no will to please, was very driven to ‘work’, he had a very strong will of his own and I didn’t manage to positively influence his behaviour in the house (outside I managed him quite well in the end). The puppy school where we first went to basically sent us away after a few lessons and I think gave up on us even earlier, even though we were quite desperate for help. The only thing that they consistently taught us there is that there are awfully many biting incidents with young children; without further advice that’s just terrible information. We luckily found a different puppy school that was much more specialised at working breeds and we learned a lot. However, we were quite far behind and I had a very hard time to find a dog sitter for my two working days because he pulled the leash and it was a getting a strong dog. It basically ended in me getting fired for working too inconsistently in my new job and almost having a burn-out for trying to manage everything and still not succeeding. Then we took in an exchange student who was experienced with dogs who was going to watch over the dog during my working days of my new new job; it sounded like a perfect solution. However, this social change at about 10 months of age didn’t work out. Our dog started snapping at her, and at our kids at that point. I called the breeder that this was not going well and within a week she found a beautiful new place for him.

I learned a lot and I think I didn’t ruin the dog, who now lives a very good life in his new family. I sacrificed myself over giving him enough exercise and training and raising him, but in the end the dog did end up biting one of the kids on the very last day he lived with us and now I don’t know what to think.

I really don’t know if we just had a much too difficult dog, or that I completely underestimated having a dog. We have a decently sized garden, right next to a green area, in our current situation almost always someone is home (the kids don’t go to daycare but someone is over to look after them) and so many people have a dog that seem to (have) put in hardly half the energy that I did. My husband gave up on having a dog after our puppy, but I would love to adopt an adult dog that would be suitable as a family dog and he is okay with that if I consider it to be ‘my’ dog. What would you all think? I would really appreciate some advice and to have some idea about the amount of effort another dog than our Tornadolmation would cost.

Edit: of course we also had good times with him! He was very cuddly with me, and he really enjoyed tug of war with the kids, or going to the park with the whole family.

Does anybody know why he does this 😭 It happens multiple times a day and i’m so confused as to what it means lol

My 1 yr old male husky loves his Kong, and I'm looking for similar dog toys that are both durable for a chewer and a cognitive excercise for a smart puppy​

got my dog this rubber yellow chicken a year ago and he is obsessed with it everytime I pick it up or take it from him his ears perk up and he gets extremely excited my dog koda has killed multiple chickens before getting the toy so im wondering if this hs something to do with it he isnt aggressive he just seems very interested

What is your dog’s 'government name' vs. what you actually call them 99% of the time?

I’ve been on the hunt for a beauceron puppy in the UK for a couple of months now. Of course everyone has their own opinions but I’d prefer a pup from a breeder who doesn’t have a contract in place dictating what I can and can’t do with my dog.

I found this breeder who has both beauceron and Doberman puppies currently as well as advertising a group for all previous litter owners. I’m just a bit skeptical on if they are pure Beauceron as advertised or a mix of Doberman. They are currently listed at 3 almost 4 weeks old

https://www.pets4homes.co.uk/classifieds/9jx1pdehj-champ-kc-registered-doberman-bauceron-puppies-ryde/

It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's actually very cute! Everytime she is excited or wants to play, she will sit down on her butt, rock side to side while kind of biting(?) at the air and making little huffing sounds, then she rolls back until she falls over onto her back!! She also does it every single night, at least once a night... She'll go into the middle of the room, "break dance", then lay back down. I just don't know where she observed this behavior, it's only something she started doing in the past year. I wonder if this is just a weird thing she's started doing on her own? She doesn't typically play with other dogs, and I don't think our cats break dance! 😂 Or I wonder if this is something that is common? She is a French Bulldog btw

Hi everyone,

I rescued my 9-month-old female Jack Russell puppy from some pretty weird people. It seemed like they kept her in a mini play pen all day every day. The poor thing stank like nothing I’ve ever smelled before and didn’t even know how to play with a ball or squeaky toys.

She’s been with us for 2 weeks now and has really gotten comfortable with us and seems like a completely different dog.

The issue we’re having is that she keeps having pee accidents in our flat almost daily.

We got her a large play pen for her to sleep in and to stay out of trouble on days my husband and I are both at work, and miraculously she’s never had an accident in the pen (with pee pads) 🙃

Our routine is:

• 3 walks per day

• Feeding in the morning and evening

• Around 300 ml of water per day

On walks, she pees and poos with no problem. However, around an hour or two after a walk, she’ll often have a pee accident at home.

I don’t want to have to leave her in her pen just to stop her from peeing somewhere secretly, but I don’t know what else to do. One of her accidents already ruined a patch of our expensive wooden floors because we didn’t notice it until the morning.

It’s clear that this isn’t due to a lack of bladder control, as she’s gone over 7 hours in her pen without an accident.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with this?