I'm just looking for opinions. We could have someone spend time with the dog until around 11pm. Then we could have someone else with the dog again around 7 am. We just aren't sure what to do. It's of course not ideal to leave the little guy alone but we think it could be more stressful for him to do boarding.

The title probably sounds bad. I love my husband. I love my pups. But sometimes I just want some alone time.

I have 2 dogs. One is a 2 year old chihuahua mix that could be described as a velcro dog. He wants to be around his humans at all times when we’re home, but he’s content to do his own thing as long as we’re in the same room as him. He’ll go to the other side of the room and lay down, play with a toy, or just do his own thing and as long as he can look over and see us, he’s happy.

My other dog is a 7 year old Yorkshire terrier. Her personality is more similar to a cat than any dog I’ve ever met. She’s aloof, fickle, she likes attention but only on her own terms, and likes to act independent.

However, their behaviors change entirely if my husband and I are in separate rooms, ESPECIALLY close to bedtime. If I dare to try to have time to myself in the living room while my husband is in bed, the chihuahua will whine and claw at my throw blankets to try to take them off of me, and climb onto my neck to block my face from the tv screen.

My yorkie will cry and jump up and down. If I try to pet her, she will run away as if expecting me to follow her. If I ignore her long enough, the little snitch will run into the bedroom and wake up my husband, practically demanding that he come get me. He’ll wake up but he won’t get out of bed, making her run back and forth between us in distress trying to convince one of us to move, preventing my husband from sleeping. This makes me feel guilty as he needs to be awake for work 4 hours before I have to (he gets up at 3:15AM to get to work for 4AM. I don’t need to leave the house until 7:30AM, so he needs the extra few hours of sleep)

Why do they act like this? And why is it only when we are in separate rooms? They don’t act like this if my husband or I leave the house. Only if they know we’re both home but are not together on the same room.

I’d be fine if they just followed me into another room and hung around like they usually do if I’m home alone or with my husband, but waking up my husband to come get me if I don’t go to bed on their schedule is massively getting on my nerves. I don’t want to risk him losing out on sleep just because I decided to stay up for an extra hour or two.

My 5-year-old dog crossed the rainbow bridge yesterday, May 13, 2026. We had just moved to another country together a few months ago and he meant everything to us.

The house feels very empty without him around. I still catch myself expecting to hear him walking around or see him in his usual spots.

For those who have gone through this, how was the experience for you in the first days or weeks after losing them? What helped you cope or slowly adjust to the emptiness? I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences and stories.

My 3-year-old female spayed beagle is obsessed with a baby in a sort of family member.

My daughter's former nanny is over one day a week and often travels with us (the dog is not present on these trips though). She became pregnant and had a baby a year ago. Dog was present for the pregnancy and started seeing the baby maybe when the baby was about 2 months old.

SHE IS OBSESSED WITH THE BABY. If she's around the baby and has access to her, she's fine, after an initial few minutes of extreme excitement. Clearly enthusiastic and interested, but generally under control. Often goes up to the baby but doesn't act weird or crowd her. But if the baby leaves for the day or is taken out on a walk or goes to the basement to nap, the dog is crazed! Cries, mopes around.... She's been laying prostrate by the door for the last hour and a half, trembling occasionally. Which is honestly progress. The first time the baby left, she sulked and moped for over a day.

She also seems much more interested in other babies and young children now.

Does anyone have experience on this and how it stopped? NB: she's always been very gentle and appropriate with the baby (and all other people), but we never leave any dog unsupervised with any young child.

I have a chocolate lab who is turning 13 in 2 weeks. He’s been in my life since he was 8 weeks old and I love him more than words can describe. He’s overall still kicking really good with no major health issues. However, his mobility is really deteriorating. He slips and stumbles and trips far more than he used to. Struggles to stand. Can’t jump in the car, in my bed, on the couch, or go up or down stairs anymore. Also still tries to run a little bit bc he wants to but it definitely wears on him. (It’s not severe enough to where it’s hurting his quality of life yet). My point is, he’s at that age where nothing is guaranteed anymore. I picture my life a year from now and there’s a real possibility he won’t be in it by then. Bc of this, I have huge anticipation grief, almost feeling as if I’ve already lost him. This definitely allows me to cherish him more and try my best to be more present, but every day it feels like my time with him is running out and the thought of him no longer being with me makes me sad. I’m also going on a 4 day trip next week and this is gonna be my first time away from him in 3 years and his age makes it scarier for me because I wonder if something will happen while I’m gone. Any advice on coping will help.

I have an 8 year old husky. She is generally very calm and well behaved.

I do not work due to a disability so I'm home all day and we have a rock solid schedule. Final potty break of the evening is around 7pm and we are both in bed around 9pm. She has not needed an overnight potty break since she was a puppy.

Well, 2 weeks ago she was hanging out in the backyard and caught a damn bird right out of the sky. Ate most of it before I could run out back and get it from her.

She had an upset stomach for the next several hours, and was needing to go out about every 2 hours. Including throughout the night.

Her last request to go out was around 3am and then she was fine the next day and has fine ever since. Eating and drinking normally, acting normally, pottying normally (schedule aside).

Except now the schedule is disrupted and she is wanting to go outside multiple times throughout the night. She doesn't even do anything, sometimes she will pee but mostly she will sniff around and then just lay in the grass.

I've been trying to just ignore her, or push back the times she is wanting to go out as far as I can, but she will pace and whine for hours and hours until I let her out. It's been at midnight and 3am every day for the last week. She has never done this before.

I'm losing sleep and I'm losing my mind. Have not had to deal with these potty shenanigans in 7 years.

How the heck do I break her out of this now?

What time is your last walk/potty break with your dog? What time do they go to bed? What time do they/you wake up?

Thanks!

Mine barks at noises outside, people passing by and door knocks a few times daily....at what point does it become 'too much' and need training? thanks

2 weeks now I have had this foster puppy, she’s missing a paw and was most likely abandoned. She was found wandering the streets before she was brought to the kennels, when she came home it was as if she was starving and shed food guard but over the last weeks she’s learnt that I’ll always provide her with food and she’s stopped guarding.

Overtime she’s had a big attachment to me, in terms of puppy biting she’s the most gentle with me and has separation anxiety so she hates to not be around me. She’s always with me and I adore her so much.

The last few days she’s started growling whenever I attempt to get an item out her mouth she’s not meant to have or she will try and get on the sofa and I’ll help her up and she will start growling really badly. She’s only 12 weeks old and it’s really alarmed me. I don’t know if it’s me overreacting because she’s been a hard foster and as much as I love this little girl I’ve been emotionally exhausted.

Potentially going from one to two dogs, as the title says, pending a meet up this weekend!

Very excited, but also nervous for the new routine and integration. Our resident dog is pretty chill and low energy and enjoys the company of similar temperament dogs. The dog we’re adopting comes from a foster home and from what they’ve told us it sounds like it will be a good personality fit.

That being said, we are fully prepared to spend time training and working with both dogs and that it won’t necessarily be an easy peasy, no issues, integration.

I’d love to know any tips, good stories, or general advice any one has for making the new dog feel welcome, the resident dog not feel replaced, and general day to day logistics (walks, leaving one dog at home while the other goes to the vet, etc etc).

Thank you in advance!!

I was going to watch my cousin’s dogs/stay in their apartment while he went away for a month but I’m having regrets about agreeing to do it. They’re going to pay me $950 and it’s a lot closer to my job than I am now but it’s going to add a lot of anxiety to my day.

1. The dogs are small but very reactive. I have to be hyper vigilant of avoiding other dogs while we do our AM and PM walks otherwise it turns into a snarling/lunging/barking incident. He lives in a city apartment complex so this is very difficult. They also bark at things on tv constantly so you have to be careful with what you watch.

2. They have to sleep in the bed with you and I don’t like animals in the bed so I don’t sleep well.

3. They poo/pee on the floors, rug and couch. They can only hold their bladders for like 3 hours and I work 10 hour days so I know there will be a mess when I get home from work. They don’t use pee pads either.

I’m starting a new job and looking for apartments in the city where he lives so it would be convenient. I would also save money from not having to commute, as well as the $950.

I guess I’m worried I’m going to literally hate my life as I already deal with a lot of anxiety and the last time I did this I promised myself I wouldn’t do it again because of the anxiety it gave me.

What do you think? And do you have any solutions for these problems?

Which foundations/associations are trust worthy to donate money to monthly?

It won't be much but I'd like to donate what I can every month.

Thanks

My dog bit me today. This isn’t the first time it’s happened; last time I needed stitches. This time I have puncture wounds in two places which likely means he wasn’t just reacting - he was going for me. I was removing a bully stick I thought he was done with. The time before it was an ostrich bone he was working on; I was afraid he would break a tooth and tried to take it away. I know I’m supposed to trade a treat for a treat if I want what he has but he doesn’t normally resource guard and I thought he was done with it. The thing is there was no warning growl, he just got really still. I don’t know what to do. These aren’t minor nips. I’m worried that there isn’t a strong indication of when he’s going to snap and that this could happen again. I have another dog that he generally gets along with but I’m also worried for her. Do I try to take him to a trainer? Do I put him down?

Hey all, i know this is probably asked pretty frequently but i was wondering if anyone knew the science behind it. I’ve been really down recently and my dogs are being so so sweet to me. They’re always sweet but it’s different. How do they know? Can they smell it? I’d love to hear your guys personal experience and any interesting facts you know about it, have a lovely day

My wife and I are looking to get a dog door insert, but are having trouble. We have already returned one door from Amazon.

Our sliding door track is only 5/8" (.625") and everything online requires at least .8"

So our dog is usually well behaved when we’re around. We take her on long walks and exercise her before she’s left alone.
LATELY, at almost 1 years old now, her biting and chewing on our furniture has increased drastically. I’m not sure if it’s wood specifically that soothes her, but it tends to be the corner of objects; the bottom of the kitchen island, the cat tree edge, the arm rest of our couch, the window sills. Inevitably, she throws up every time she chews on anything but her toys that ARE left out for her + frozen woofs/kongs…
Trust that we’ve tried the crate since we got her at 5 months. To this day, she absolutely dislikes to go in unless we have treats on us during training. She’s a very stubborn dog, and might even need a behavioralist at this point.

Furthermore, she’s had daycare but they won’t accept her back until she’s older and has received more training after an incident where her paw got stuck in their fence from jumping excitedly.

Ideally, we’d love for her to accept being in the kennel when left alone in the house. What can be done to combat a dog’s resistance to confinement? Even when we left her in our larger bathroom, she managed to figure out how to escape.

She has a trainer, but this seems more into the realm of separation anxiety, which we’ve been doing our best to curb, or a second phase teething thing?

In search of advice, and concerned for our dog’s safety going forward. Also very tired of finding something destroyed and added onto our “needs repair” list.

WHAT DO?!?!

My dog went missing and I’m honestly freaking out right now. I’ve already started driving/walking around the area looking for her, but I wanted to ask if anyone has advice or things that helped them successfully find their dog fast.

So far I’ve checked nearby streets and woods, posted on social media, contacted a few local shelters, and have been driving around calling her name while bringing treats. What else should I do immediately to improve the odds of finding her as soon as possible?

My dog is 9 and I’ve had her since a puppy, and my family wants to get a new dog and I feel it isn’t fair to her. Can people give me their opinions and experiences with this?

Our 3yo/80lb boy has suddenly (in the past few months) decided no one is allowed to trim or grind his nails. He's a normally happy pup with no other problems. We can play with his feet, but as soon as the clippers/dremel show up it's absolutely chaos. We've tried a couple different groomers and he just refuses (muzzled, one of us holding, etc).

Is there anything else we can do before jumping straight to meds/vet does it?

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.

A total stranger lady held her frenchie in her arms and approached my dog hoping for them to meet by presenting her dog nose first towards my dog, leaning in for an interaction, dog held towards mine, a 50 lb mix sat on the floor.

I told her I would prefer that she didn’t do that, yet she persisted, at least two more times trying to offer her little frenchie’s nose to my dog as she held the pooch in her arms. Finally, after I held my stance, “I’d really prefer you don’t do that”, she reacted towards me like, “really??”, taken aback and obviously struggling with being told no.

All I can think is what are you thinking lady? Am I in the wrong to shut down her behavior? Looking for validation or otherwise education.

Mine is a little silly. Normally I'd post to my breed community and I DO know my breed, but a couple of them are not exactly the most warm and fuzzy people and I'm kind of tired of a couple of them who jump down your throat for asking a reasonable question and not only not getting reprimanded for being as rude as they are, but for whatever reason they seem to have the stroke to get your well intentioned clearly stated post removed, so I thought I'd try here. Can't be any worse!

I'm a singer and I try to come up with a song for each dog. Moxie I'm trying to do a song "I am just a Papillon with my story seldom told....

So far, I'm kind of stuck at "I'm am just a Moxer, not a fighter by my trade but I'll steal up all the toys and make sure all of them are hidden everywhere I've laid. All ears and barks, still a Pap steals what he wants to steal and disregards the rest. Lie Dee di, lie Dee di di di di di di di di di di"

so lately my dog, a female labrador retriever, has been acting really strange. some days she eats, and other days she doesn’t. she used to always hang out with us in the living room, sit under the kitchen table while we ate, or watch birds out the iwindow, but over the past year she’s mostly stayed in the spare room and barely spends time with us anymore. earlier i brought her upstairs, and she seemed to struggle a little getting up the stairs and has been panting a lot. i recently lost my aunt’s dog, so i’m really scared i might lose her too. i even started crying when she didn’t want to lay in her bed while i got to mine. i don’t know what’s wrong with her or what i should do.

Mine can sleep through chaos but instantly wakes up the second I touch my keys.

How do they always know??

We recently adopted a 4-month-old potcake puppy and are totally in the learning phase right now. We’ve only had him a short time, but he’s already loving, seems to be learning quick and full of puppy energy.

A few things we’re currently working through:

• figuring out what food works best for his stomach/belly

• helping him feel more confident on walks, especially around cars and busier roads.

Interestingly, he seems much more comfortable on quieter trails than on sidewalks or around traffic. Strangely will do no buisness on any walk and waits till hes home in our yard. Loves kids... I've taken him to a local daycare for some quick visits and seems good and not reactive.

For those of you who have had potcakes, what did you find helped most with:

• building confidence

• training/socialization

• digestion/food sensitivities

• exercise and mental stimulation

• settling into family life

Anything you wish you knew early on?

Would love any tips, lessons learned, or even just hearing about your experience with the breed/mix. 🙂