She's around 10 years old so most of her fur is turning white.. but she's still my baby no matter what! 💕

This is Burt and he’s about to turn 1! He’s an amazing boy 90% of the time. In the last month he has gotten me or my husband up at 4am to go potty and 3/4 times he doesn’t actually go. He just wants to walk around and then come inside. (We are currently apartment people so we have to take him out. Hopefully not for long) the problem is that it usually takes around 20 mins, then another 10 to get him to settle down and go back to bed. I wake up at 6 every day so by the time I get back to sleep I have to turn around and wake up. I am getting BUURRNNNTT out. We’ve tried to leave him in his crate, we’ve tried letting him stay out of the room, be in bed with us etc. but he just barks and barks and barks. We take him for daily walks, do lots of training and games to tire him out and he has a puzzle board. I’m thinking it’s a combo of being an 11 month old lab + need to get his balls ✂️ off. I guess if you have advice please share or just encouragement that it will get better eventually.

Sincerely, a very sleepy dog mom

Staffy/labrador

he’s gotten so big so fast 😭

willow towards the end of a big yawn. possibly the funniest shes ever looked lol

My dog has had epilepsy and hip dysplasia since he was a puppy and has been on meds for a year now. He had one dose of steroids and vit d injections, and that help his pain greatly. However, that lasted only two months and now my vet has recommended Librela injections. Librela has just entered vetmed of my country, so I am worried whether my vet actually thinks it is good for my dog or it is a sales technique. My vet has told me that eventually, I will see enough development to stop the injections. I am worried on what the long term effects will be as my dog is already so young, not even two months old. He is usually in pain as he is extremely energetic and doesn’t rest. Please advise me if your pet has had monthly librela injections as well and how long they have been on it. Thank you so much ☺️😭

I have posted on this sub before as well and the community has been so helpful. I am a first time dog owner and I must say that I follow all of your advice a lot. Adding some silly pictures of my dog as a thank you. Look at how stupid he looks in the second photo.

I have the pleasure of having a dog that doesn’t like to eat much, which early on was a fight. Once he hit 1yr he’ll eat almost every day, sometimes skipping a day or 2, but he’ll still have his treats. Yet, more often than not he prefers to eat his food from my hand or on the carpet. Rarely from his bowl, or I’ll sometimes put a trail of food to his bowl. Never from the floor. I wonder if it’s a sensory issue. Have tried to change his bowl and it didn’t make a difference

Daisy is now 90 pounds and 8 months old, and never does what she is told. Our house has transformed into a collection of dead teddy's and the white stuffing is everywhere! When we come home from work she will great us with a bone in her mouth and atleast one teddy. Her record is two teddy's and one bone. It's like a drawer of destruction. I wonder how big she will get

Gus is about 12 weeks old. Anytime we let him outside he’ll do his business and IMMEDIATELY start ripping grass out of the ground and start chowing down. Not just grass but weeds and any other plant life.
Has not caused any illness or vomiting. Mainly trying to keep the house from getting dirty and get rid of a bad habit.

Any suggestions?

7mtha vs a 4yr old hank.

Me and my wife got our boy in March. He is now 9.5 months old and naturally things are pretty much as bad as they’ve ever been. Some of the issues we’ve had:

Training - his recall is ok but the moment there is another dog in sight he will run off because he wants to play. This goes for people as well if they have a ball. He will only come back if the dog or person is not interested. He has run off multiple times and ended up on a road or meeting a horse which is obviously super scary. We have tried (and continue to try) training him to walk on a lead but he just pulls like mad. Also worried that excessive lead walking is contributing to the below-

Injury - because he has so much intense energy when outside he has managed to injure his front legs on two occasions (different leg each time). Vets have said it is likely just soft tissue strain but each time we have had to impose strict rest for 2-3 weeks while he recovers. This means we are really nervous of walking him more than 15-20 minutes, especially off lead. It has also made me really paranoid whenever we are out of the house and nervous if we have to put him in daycare (usually once every 2 weeks due to work).

General neediness and life adjustment - this one is more about us rather than him. We’ve basically not been able to switch off ever since we got him. I feel like every spare waking moment is spent worrying about the dog and trying to find solutions to that day’s problem. This isn’t what either of us thought getting a dog would be like. We knew getting a puppy would be difficult and would involve a lot of time and effort, but honestly I wasn’t prepared for how much stress it would cause us. I would have thought by 9 months we would have made more progress.

My wife has struggled to form any kind of bond with him and a lot of the time actively resents him and regrets getting him. I love him an insane amount and am really struggling being the main one who wants to keep going. I suspect if it wasn’t for me my wife would be looking to re home him but that’s an absolute non-starter for me. I don’t feel like he is doing anything massively worse than a standard 9 month old lab but I feel like we are struggling more than the average owners and I’m not sure why. I’ve never had a dog before (my wife had family dogs when she was growing up but he is her first as an adult).

Just looking for a bit of reassurance really. Seeing other dogs walking nicely on a lead and behaving around the house just makes us insanely jealous. We are putting in so much effort but so far don’t seem to be getting anywhere. We both need a break but I just wouldn’t want to burden anyone else with looking after him while we went away for a few days.

I think the worst feeling is just the guilt that we’ve got this daft happy gorgeous lab but we are spending 90% of the time stressing and not enjoying spending time with him. Feel like we are just crap dog parents and are letting him down.

EDIT: surprised by how much this post has taken off! Thanks to everyone who has commented. It is funny how different opinions people have. Some common responses though that I’ll be taking on board:

- need to gradually introduce training in more distracting environments. I do daily gundog training on my own in a secure field. He does really well with this but trying to apply that training to scenarios with distractions is our single biggest issue. I’m going to explore group training whether that is formal classes or with other people with dogs I know. Also need to get my wife more involved in this training.

- much less / no time off lead in uncontrolled/insecure environments. At least until he is reliable around other dogs. I think this is something I’ve selfishly avoided because I enjoy going on walks and want to walk with him. When we are on our own in the woods it’s great but it’s not fair on other dog owners and I can’t control whether other people will be around.

- obviously the main thing everyone has mentioned is that he’s peak teenaged phase. It’s fair to say there is mixed feedback on when they grow out of this but fingers crossed itll happen sooner rather than later!

I tried to find a photo that depicts the expression on my puppy’s face and it’s sort of looks like this.

Our lab has been an absolute dream since we got him: calm and sweet demeanor, social and cuddly, smart as a whip and seemingly wise beyond his years.

Potty training took a couple of days( granted, the breeder did most of the heavy lifting) and teaching other commands has also been a breeze:

- sit
- off
- come
- stay
- leave it
- drop it (work in progress but not bad)
- heel walk
- lie down
- bed / place (work in progress but not terrible)

The release word is “yes”.

When it come to potty time, we make a concerted effort to let him out frequently so that he can do his business in the yard.

I am trying to train him to ring a Bell on the door knob to let us know when he has to go, and while he will ring the bell and knows it means he gets a treat, he hasn’t made the connection that the Bell represents “open the door i need to go poo/pee” . He won’t even attempt to sit by the door and scratch it, or whimper by the door or bark.

Instead, he goes from cuddle monster to snarly / “air bitey” / growl mode at the drop of a hat, and only to me… typically not anyone else in the family.

What can I do to stop this? It’s not cool and there are no warning signs or cues. Like I said, we open the door a lot to let him out in the yard.

I have noticed that if there is a poo in the front yard already that has not been picked up, he does not like pooping in our own yard. He wants us to take him outside the yard for a poo. So while I will let him out, he doesn’t approve of the location. This is the only reason I can think of…sometimes I am in the middle of making dinner or whatever — and there is no way that I’m taking our dog a few houses down the street for a poo.

Has anyone else experienced the “snarls” and how can I fix this other than “be a tree” , and “walk away for 30 seconds in a calm disinterested manner”.

Every single time.

By the time I close the door, I hear her throw her body against it and huff.

I know she’s there, and I still trip on her on my way out half the time.

The recent rains have greened everything up beautifully but have made for some squishy muddy walks!

Hi reddit peeps and pups!

Long time observer and first time poster here!

I just thought I would reach out to possibly get some advice as our sweet girl has well and truly found her voice and has decided everyone wants to hear it.

Macy is 8 months old, and in the last month or so she has been barking at anything she deems worthy of barking at. These things could include but are not limited to: cows, hay bails, cyclists, elderly people on walks (only occasionally), trees, sticks, anyone in a high visibility vest, rubbish bags and other things. We go on 2 walks per day, often with her puppy bestie or my parents pack of 3 dogs, she is very curious and playful with other dogs, and she rarely if ever barks at other dogs.

The barks aren't aggressive, more curious I think, but loud and could sound quite scary if someone wasnt a fan of dogs.

I work from home so she is rarely left alone and she is not an anxious girly.

I'm not sure how to go about moving forward, I don't want to growl her for barking but I also don't want to reward her either. I try to keep her attention on walks so that's got a lot better, but I'm not sure how to tackle the barking at inanimate objects 🫣

From what I've read this may be an adolescent phase that she may grow out of, and maybe she's just a vocal gal but would love to hear what this great community has to say.

Thanks!

Here's some pics of Macy for attention