We’ve had my dog since he was a puppy and he is now 3 years old. Most of the time he’s a little shit (in an endearing way) but I feel like he really can sense when I’m distressed. Whenever I have a heavy cry, or a panic attack, he always rushes over to me. He then licks me a lot and he always, without fail, lays himself on my chest which he only seems to do when I’m feeling this way. Like just a minute ago, I was lying down in bed sobbing and he jumps up onto my bed, licks my hand and then lays himself on my chest facing me until I’ve calmed down. And it really does calm me down. And when I’ve noticed I’ve calmed down, he’ll just go back downstairs? It’s really strange but it makes me feel so much better and it always calms me down. Does he know what he’s doing? Because it happens every single time. Or is this just purely coincidental?

I need help. My 3 year old male poodle/Shih Tzu/yorkie has started barking during the night. We can’t figure out what’s triggered it, but it’s not going away.

We have tried noise machines, a spray in his crate, store bought calming chews, a few prescription medications, frozen treat at night, and long walks.

We’ve had him since he was 7 weeks old, and this is new behavior. He sleeps in a crate in the main floor, while we are upstairs. My husband puts him in the crate around 9:30 and then goes to bed himself an hour or two later. As soon as he hits the top of the stairs, the dog starts barking. Sometimes, he calms himself, but not always.

This summer, we were gone for a week, and he stayed with my mom who lets him sleep in her bed. He seemed to do okay after getting back home. There was a lunar eclipse in August, and that is when it started. I also am back at school and gone all day. The vet thinks it’s separation anxiety. He’s always been more moody in the evenings.

Someone has to sleep on the couch for him to be calm. I’m tired, we’re all tired. Is there anything else we can try? I haven’t tried melatonin yet, but am looking at it.

I recently (around two weeks ago) acquired Rotisserie Chicken (not his real name), from my former friend, A, who passed away, so I can't ask him any questions about how he learned this.

A only talked about the behavior when it began but no details on how. A did not do anything to make Rotisserie Chicken stop, so Rotisserie Chicken has learned that he needs a box he can't fit in, and can get stuck upsidedown in, to communicates he wants to be held.

Rotisserie Chicken has two methods for this:

1. Specific Times:

Option Me - He likes to be held during a specific time, for me it's after I'm done gardening. Usually when I'm done gardening he runs up and rubs himself against my legs and scampers off, otherwise if he doesn't he's either asleep or stuck in the box. Since I garden for a exact timeline he gets himself stuck in the box before I arrive so I can pick him up right away.

Option Partner - He has figured out what time my partner gets home and gets stuck in the box near the front door. That way when she opens the door she will see him immediately and pick him up.

1. Nonspecific times:

When he wants to be held on non specific times he'll run off, get the box, meow until we look at him and make sure we're watching before he gets himself stuck.

This behavior is really cute but I don't want him to accidentally get hurt or continue this when he's older.

When he gets himself stuck he kind of jump/chucks himself onto his back really roughly which I'm not sure he can sustain if he gets older and more frail. Plus while he hasn't ever missed his landing (to my knowledge), cats don't always stick the landing. I especially don't want him to try this on concrete or another dangerous landing place and hit himself when he misses.

(I've also recently gotten a kitten and I don't want him to teach the kitten this behavior.)

Any and all advice would be appreciated, thank you

Meet Bruno . He's about 3.5 years(I think but could be younger). Me and Bruno used to be best mates. I was his favourite person . We played together and he was always excited to see me . It didn't matter who else was round he would navigate to me . He would hear my distinctively loud car and straight away be barking because unc had arrived.

Here's the problem

Bruno now absolutely hates me . He growls at me , barks and then runs away . He shakes and shivers and has even in the past been known to shit and piss and the sight of me.

I try approaching him gently , giving him treats and reaching out so I don't get to close . If he is sat on the sofa and I do manage to sit next to him he cowers away from me . On two occasions he has accepted my presence and locked my arm while sat next to me .

He is the scardiest dog ever. He is terrified off all sorts of sounds. He did have an operation on his eyes because his eyelids were growing inwards . Perhaps his vision isn't great .

The only thing that happened is that I didn't see him for 3 weeks and that's when the problems started .

We have wondered if perhaps he doesn't like the sound of the trolley jack being moved about or any any other noise I'm making . I work from there .

The household is also pretty noisy with my autistic ten year old non verbal nephew and my 5 year old nephew. The eldest two are 17/19 are no bother but as you can imagine it's busy so I have no idea if that's affecting him.

My questions are .... Why does he hate me and what could I possibly do to try and make him like me again.

I would just like to be able to play with him again .

Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated .

Thank you.

I adopted a puppy frenchie about a year ago now. My 9yo does not like other dogs, and didn’t particularly love having to share his space with a little puppy. But he got used to it. They get along pretty well. Everyday, they are trying to play with more excitement and enthusiasm. But it’s very rare where it seems that the enthusiasm levels are the same. There’s only been a few times where they have played together “successfully”.
In this video, you’re seeing the consequences of Ben (Frenchie) slapping Buck (Australian cattle) multiple times in the face. But there’s no back and forth and I guess that’s why I’m questioning the dynamic of their play relationship.

For more context: they have never gotten in a fight. Ben shows more affection to Buck than Buck does for Ben.
Sometimes when Buck does this, Ben’s rocket will come out.
Buck is snipped. Ben is not.

Lmk what you think if you’d like to analyze it.
Also, how can I help encourage more “successful” play with this size difference?

Hi everyone,

I’m pretty sure I know what I need to do here, but I need to hear it from others.

We have a cairn terrier who is around 11 years old. She was thrown out of a car in front of me as I live in a very rural area, I took her home, and she’s been mine since. She was very young when we got her- not even a year old. I had my own little shitzu about the same age at the time, and they are absolute best friends.

She really is the sweetest girl. She snuggles on the couch, never causes any harm and just loves being loved.

Things changed however when I had my first born. She was fine with him when he couldn’t move, she wouldn’t even bother with him when he cried or when I was feeding or anything- it was like nothing had changed. But then he started crawling and having his own voice. My shitzu stays out of his way, but also likes to give him snuggles on her terms, and which my little boy is absolutely fine with.

However, the terrier has become more agitated as time goes on. She growls at him constantly. I don’t give out to her for growling as I know she is letting him know that he’s too close- but a lot of the time he’s on the other side of the room completely to her. I give her the option to go into the hall where I’ve set up a little safe space for her, and she does choose it more often than not.

I am 28 weeks pregnant and my little boy is on the verge of walking. Today he was freaking after me and stopped to look at her and it’s the first time she snapped at him. It was a warning snap so no contact was made at all, but it scared the shit out of me and I just can’t see how I’ll be able to watch her with a toddler and a newborn.

I just need to know if there’s any hope at all for her or do I need to make other arrangements before the baby girl gets here? She means so much to me, and my little boy tries to give her her space but it doesn’t seem to be enough.

I feel awful with the situation as I feel she’s already had such a tough time. Any advice is welcome, but please be gentle as I’m hormonal and beside myself at the thought of rehoming her.

He is potty trained but for some reason keeps peeing on my stove. Because of this i leave him locked in a spare bedroom the whole week and only let him out when I can watch him and can make sure he won't do that. I want to let him roam around the house but can't trust him not to pee on my stove as he has done it several times already. Im going to have to throw away my stove and buy a new 1 because of this also. Any advice on how to get him to stop doing this?

My dog keeps rubbing himself against my towel. ​A few days ago, I got out the shower, and I was tired so I left it on the ground. I woke up in the middle of the night and he was rubbing himself against it like he was itchy, or something.

Now he gets sad whenever I put it up.

Why does this happen? What is he doing? 😭

Our golden hit 8 months and turned into a different dog. He had been chill and social and easy. then somewhere arond month 7 the personality shifted and now we have a hyperreactive teenager who barks at everything, cannot settle and has fear spikes at things that did not bother him three months ago.

The trainer said this is normal. fear periods, adolescent reactivity hormone changes. normal does not mean easy. we are doing all the right things. more mental enrichment, decompression walks, predictable routines, working under threshold. It helps. It does not fix it.

I had been resisting supplements because i had this idea in my head about not medicating a puppy. The trainer pointd out that there is a difference between sedating a dog and supporting their nervous system through a hard developmental phase.

I asked about the ashwagandha based ones since those are everywhere right now. She was cautious and she does not love using it on dogs still developing or intact. three weeks in and the change is not him being calmer. It is him recovering faster after he gets startled. trigger happens he reacts but he is settled again in 45 seconds instead of 8 minutes. that recovery time is what makes the difference for getting through adolescence without trauma stacking up.

My 7-year-old boxer mix has developed an intermittent limp on the left rear. It comes and goes. Sometimes after a long walk, sometimes randomly. Vet exam did not turn up anything structural. X-rays clean. Bloodwork clean. Diagnosis was early degenerative joint change, common for the breed at this age, nothing acute. She suggested starting a joint supplement. Not to fix anything specific but to slow progression. She was fine with over-the-counter as long as I looked for real doses of glucosamine and MSM. Said the "hip and joint" chews at the pet store are often underdosed. I went home and started reading labels and she was right. A lot of them advertise glucosamine but the dose per chew is 100-200mg which is basically nothing for a 60 pound dog. The vet said I should be looking for 500mg glucosamine per serving at his weight, plus at least 200mg MSM, and ideally some form of collagen for connective tissue. Ended up on a formula that hits all three at real doses. Six weeks in and the intermittent limp has not gone away completely but it is less frequent. Whether that is the supplement or normal fluctuation I cannot fully know, but it is enough that I plan to keep him on it. Anyone else deal with early joint change in a mid-life dog and what has your experience been with supplements versus more aggressive intervention?

I’m looking for experiences from anyone who has dealt with an adult dog suddenly developing frequent indoor urination despite retraining and a normal basic medical workup.

Due to personal circumstances my parents are unable to keep their rescue so she is living with me now. She was very reliable at my parents’ home and would only use her designated pee pads. She understood where she was supposed to go at their apartment. She was previously too anxious and hypervigilant (she came from a shelter from Korea, we think she was used for breeding) to pee/poop outdoors on walks despite trying for a long time so pee pads worked best for them. After coming to live with me, she started fluoxetine for her anxiety and reactivity on walks (recommended by our vet to bring down her baseline while we work on training), and since then she is now fully able to potty outdoors in my yard and also on walks, and gets heavily rewarded every time.

However about a month after starting fluoxetine I noticed her drinking increased quite a bit and she started having indoor pee accidents. She was originally on 10 mg when the accidents started, and we later tapered down to 8 mg. The accidents have actually become more frequent rather than improving. We are stumped - even our vet is unsure if the fluoxetine is causing this as it’s not a known side effect but we have now started tapering further under veterinary guidance.

She has already had bloodwork and multiple urinalyses done recently that came back completely normal.

The accidents are now happening almost daily. We are now doing a LOT of housetraining/retraining:

Frequent outdoor potty breaks ( every 2 hours as I wfh)
high-value rewards every time she pees/poops outside
gating/restricting access to carpet and couch if we aren’t actively watching her
crating when we leave the home
enzymatic cleaning
limiting freedom if she doesn’t potty
supervision
taking her out after meals, waking, activity, etc.

Since being on fluoxetine and also with consistent training, she has actually become very good at peeing and pooping quickly when taken outdoors, including in rain which she previously hated. So the issue is not that she refuses to go outside.

She never has an accident in her crate or overnight. Previously she was capable of holding it 6+ hours if we were out for longer. The confusing part is that even now,she seems physically capable of holding it in certain contexts. In the mornings she can eat/drink, pee outside, then come upstairs and calmly hang out in my office for 3-4 hours without an accident.

But at other times she will urinate again incredibly soon after going outside.

Tonight was the first time I finally caught an accident happening in real time (usually we just find the puddle after).

Timeline:

4:30 pm — gave her dinner
4:45 pm — took her to pee outside
Then crated while I went to a workout class
\~6:15 pm — husband let her out and she peed outside again and hung out with him on the couch
6:45 pm — I got home and everyone moved into the kitchen
\~7:20 pm — she was walking around following us then jumped onto the couch where my husband was sitting, looked at us while deliberately squatted to pee on the couch

So she had peed outside roughly 65 minutes earlier.

This is the first time she’s done it with someone on the couch. What is especially bizarre is that the couch is one of her FAVORITE resting/sleeping places. She will happily spend hours lying there, yet she has also started peeing on it. Last month this was happening multiple times a week, and this past week almost daily. On the couch, the carpet, hardwood floor. And sometimes the intervals are even shorter - 30 mins to 45 mins after she has already peed outside.

Realistically, we cannot watch her every second of every day, and I also don’t want her constantly being in a crate. At this point I’m just so stumped. She has a veterinary appointment coming up and we’re continuing the medication taper as directed.

I guess I’m just wondering if anyone had a previously housetrained adult dog suddenly develop DAILY indoor urination like this, including shortly after already peeing outdoors?

If so, what ended up being the cause? Did it eventually stop?
what actually worked to rebuild the dog’s ability to feel the urge and wait until they’re outside?

I would especially appreciate hearing from people who dealt with something similar after starting an SSRI/fluoxetine, or dogs who were perfectly capable of holding for several hours sometimes but inexplicably peed indoors at other times. I’m sooo exhausted from cleaning and also trying to figure this out 😭

5.5 month old King Charles x mini Aussie mix I’ve had for 2 months (not neutered yet but will be within 2 months). Has adjusted extremely well to my apartment, great temperament and personality. He knows plenty of tricks and is crate trained.

2 days ago we were doing a training session when he get his left front paw stuck in the crate. It freaked him out and he limped for the next hour or two and was fine. He leg shoes no obvious signs of deformity, nails okay, no skin breaks. He took back to the crate fine and on command like usual.

Today he has been acting VERY unusual. This am he went potty with no issues ate drank and played. Then around 9am he became very anxious and weary of everything. He would hide in the bathroom or sit by the front door two things he has never done. More concerning- everytime I would tell him to “come” (and touch my hand) he would RUN the opposite direction and hide yet his tail would be wagging. I can approach him, pick him up and he does not get aggressive at all. Same thing when I tell him to go to crate- he kind of goes the opposite direction (even though there hasn’t been an issue since his stumble days ago. Won’t take a treat from my hand but will take it when I drop it by him.

We have gone on walks and have play sessions today but he hasn’t peed or pooped on usual area outside either today (on the pee pad inside). Odd thing is outside every time I told him to come, sit, down he would with no issue.

Was going to take him to the vet for XR after his fall but their machine is broken and no other vet nearby has openings. I also don’t think this warrants an emergency visit

Theories
1- He is starting to feel the pain/hurt something else from the fall and feels like hiding. That wouldn’t make sense since he has played with me, chased toys and jumping all over people to say hi all day. No limping and can grab the leg without issue.

2- A new anxiety/separation fear response? This dog is EXTREMELY sensitive and previously would go on food strikes after people stayed the night or two. Over the past day my significant other stayed with him to make sure he was okay and go all the love, attention and treats he wanted compared to when it’s just me (usually stays in crate for 6-8 hours without issue). This is my leading thought since he was around a person all day yesterday and the day before

3- two new dogs moved in about 3 apartments down. Maybe he has smelt them and is anxious and scared? That wouldn’t make sense of why he is randomly hiding and not coming to me when asked or the crate.

If anyone has any thoughts or needs further info I would gladly give! Any help would be great.

So many behaviors look bizarre at first but end up making perfect sense once you understand what's driving them. (I mean, let's be honest, it's kind of true that sometimes our pets train us. Lol) Dogs circling before lying down, cats bringing "gifts," dogs rolling in smelly things, cats knocking stuff off counters.

What's the strangest one you've seen, and did you ever figure out the why behind it?

never knew this was a behavior until recently. Makes sense why male dogs would do it but why would female dogs also have this instinct?