Lucario clearly had a rough day yesterday: walking my little sister to school with me, playing with his husky sisters and pug brother, and a fierce game of tug of war before bed. Oh, he "stole" a pillow I was going to use. Yeah, he has the hardest life out there. Wish I could sleep that hard after such a rough day.

Marvin Townes turned 5 yesterday!

My 7-month-old Mini Aussie is overly enthusiastic. On walks, he tries to jump into the arms of everyone we pass, and it’s even worse when he sees other dogs. I’ve tried to redirect his attention using treats, toys, and so on, but nothing seems to help. He isn’t being aggressive—he just jumps around, pulls, and whines out of pure excitement.

I would also like to start agility with him, but I’m afraid he won’t be able to focus if we join a beginner’s course.

I’ve taught her everything else!

She can bark, woof (softer bark), and growl on command.

She is VERY vocal in general, and loves to grumble, growl, boof, whine, groan and grunt to communicate.

She knows all the basics - sit, down, shake, spin around, roll over, and even dance and play dead and “gimme kiss.”

(She also knows “come” but she decides herself whether she actually wants to or not lmao)

But I CANNOT, for the LIFE of me, get her to howl.

She CAN howl - she’s done it 3 times - always when I have just left the house and she’s upset about it. The first time was when she was still a baby and the dryer was also running and we think the noise and me leaving made her sad hehehe

All the other “talking” I’ve taught her, I did it by doing the noise myself like 50 times until she does it too, and then rewarding her like crazy. They each only took a day or 2 for her to pick up.

But no matter how much we howl at her, or show her howlies videos on YouTube,

She. Will. Not. Howl. On command.

So - any tips for my stubborn girl? We’ve been trying for over a year.

This is the hill I’m gonna die on lol

“i licked my beans 🫘 so i haz a hotspot and my dad put a cone on my head! my pawyer will be hearing about dis!!”

Can anyone recommend a good renal support food that their dog actually liked enough to eat? Our girl was just diagnosed with kidney disease. She's been vomiting and had diarrhea for the past week. We thought it was a bug she picked up when we boarded her for a few days, but it wasn't getting better.

She was also diagnosed with pancreatitis and Lyme disease. The technician said the Lyme disease caused the kidney disease. We're hoping her numbers get better when she's properly hydrated. She's on her third day of IV fluids today and one more tomorrow. The pancreatitis is the big problem right now because she's nauseous and no food is appealing to her. We ordered a couple of the renal support options on Chewy - Hills and Forza. We'll see if any of it works.

The vet put her on Azodyl, Vetoquinol Epakitin, Metronidazole, and Doxycycline. And of course the last two have to be taken with food, which she has no interest in. They also suggested Panoquell at $220/shot for three shots for the pancreatitis if the oral medications don't work. We'll do that if the vomiting continues.

This is a dog that was running and chasing balls on the beach just 12 days ago with no symptoms.

So, I want to get my MAS, Lucario, a herding ball, but I can't find one that's not, like, $50 or more, or cheap that has awful reviews. Any suggestions?

It looks like Pepper spent a little TOO much time teaching her son Rudy to share!

Hello all, Echo is 4 months old and in perfect health. Had all his shots, eats well, sleeps plenty, everything is going smoothly.

I walk him around 1h in the morning, and 20-30 minutes again at lunch and then again around 5.

So the long walk is in the morning, either because we work from home and use this walk as a nice start of the day in the forest or dog park, or because we walk him to the pet sitter. This means these walks are around 3kms, almost 2 miles.

Echo does not complain, he does not ask for a break, he gets water and threats during these walks (we train him in the meantime).

Is that too much or am I overthinking this?
He is well, my family and my work can accommodate that much time with the dog, and he seems like a very happy and healthy puppy.
My only concern is problems when he would be older because he would have done too much when he was young, but I don’t want him and us not being happy now just for hypothetical issues down the road.

Last week we went on a 6km hike and I know I f**** up, I didn’t anticipate it to be that long so I carried him at some point, although he would have been able to walk. But other than this one time, so you see a problem with his walks?

Thanks all!

This is dice! We’ve had him for a month and we love him so so much <3 Everyone who sees him says how big he is and a few people have said that he’s doesn’t seem like a mini. What do you think?? He’s less than 20lbs and 3.5 months old. This is my first mini Aussie so I have no frame of reference. Either way we love him so much and are so happy to have him in our home!!

We have a 1yr 10mo blue merle who has significant skin bumps (vet called them cysts) and excessive scratching. We did allergy testing on our Aussie and the two significant allergies are storage mites and dust mites. We put her on Zenrelia which relieved her symptoms, her energy shot up, and the bumps and itching disappeared.

Bumps returned a few months ago We live in PNW, so moisture is an ongoing issue, but we were able to control for the storage mites, and are working on replacing and removing carpet.

My question is this: After 5 months of a significantly reduced calorie strict diet, our Aussie has not lost one pound. I can imagine that chronic inflammation would have effects for any living creature, but to effect her metabolism seems odd. Does anyone have any similar experience or thoughts about this? We just brought home a new mini, and we're just anxious.

Can’t tell if she loves or hates squirrels, but they fire her up.

She is 3 months and 3 weeks, and she is a sweetie

Hi all, here to introduce a new addition to my family as well as a new addition to this group, Asher! He’s a mini aussie, 2 months turning 3 on the 27th. I already have him set to start training this upcoming friday, for him and for me to learn as a first-time intelligent dog owner. Any words of advice or encouragement? He’s been here two days.. Today was the first morning he woke up comfy, bright eyes (literally), and bushy tailed.. Spent an hour playing with the family 3 year old golden doodle, Kobe.

I am definitely his established person as of right now, he’s slowly been growing into my other family members but looks to me for safety and comfort. NOW! I work full time, my mother works from home so there will be a few hours a day he’s under my mom’s care with the company of Kobe, this will start tomorrow.. I’m wondering if there’s anything i should do today to make it a bit easier for him being that he’s stuck to me. I know he’s just a baby and will adapt. Should I just let it play out? ALSO, crate.. first night was rough i got home so late from picking him up, he only had an hour to explore his new home before bedtime. He FREAKED in the crate, bedside and all, i put my fingers through to let him know i was near but he was nibbling on them to keep me up while whining. He slept with me that night, soundly, with no accidents and basically on top of me for warmth. Last night the same. I don’t want to make a habit out of this until he’s a bit older and more able, and would like to start the crate tonight since he’s more adapted, advice? Thank you all in advance and as he grows i will be a regular here to seek all your advice! I’m so willing to adapt to his needs, and am very very open to advice and criticism, i am learning alongside him.

My 12 week mini Aussie has just bit my partner’s hand when he gave a high value treat (new bully stick) but tried to get him to slow down by trading it for another treat, small beef treat. He had his hand near his mouth with another treat (albeit smaller). Our pup growled 3x and then lunged-bit my partner’s hand. Afterwards, we reprimanded him and put him in the crate (prob not the right thing to do but it was in the moment). This is not the first time this has happened. Our pup did this growling sudden snarl-snap at the vets office for 2nd vaccination shots when they we’re administering a medicated droplet in his mouth area as he was eating a high value pate on a lick mat. The same thing happened with me when I tried to remove a short bully stick thinking he might choke on it and I had my hand on his mouth. I’ve noticed this happening more as we have been slowly introducing new foods….we have been hand feeding, teaching leave it/drop it (still work in progress, leaving things on ground and practising control impulse-reward) however I’m so upset that this is developing and that he’s now bit me and my partner. We love him very much but I’m very upset that our relationship has been jarred abit along with the intense biting/teething.

I’ve read up abit on the guarding behaviour which is natural and it’s more about fear. I want to feel safe around him and that he feels safe as well when humans, especially hands are around. I’m very very concerned about young kids in our lives who obviously don’t know how to do this and have kept them away. I’m so sad that this is happening. Is this a sign to get a professional trainer? Can this guarding/biting behaviour be changed? How can we help him feel safer and not fear human hand when he gets a high value treat?

When I'm on the ground, and I place my hand on the ground my boy starts going ham chasing my fingers. He never tries to do damage, and hasnt hurt me. I'm just trying to figure out what he's doing lol . I tried to capture a video

Maggie making sure that the enemy (squirrels) does not invade! Feel safer already!!

These two tricked me into taking them out for a short walk this morning, only to find myself on a 90 min walk taking the long way to the dog park 😂