I rescued a young Golden Retriever in May. She had spent the start of her life abandoned in a small cage, she was emaciated, covered in fleas and ticks and of course living in her own waste. She is a wonderful dog, everything is new and she has very much been a blank slate. She is well exercised, is very social with our other dogs and has successfully completed a basic obedience class and will be moving on to 2nd level training and beyond. Thankfully she does not hold her rough start in life against humans in the least. Her only downfall is that she eats stool from our other dogs in the yard. We keep the yard clean, however we have 5 dogs. Even cleaning the yard daily is likely to leave a pile. She will even wait for our smaller dog to go to eliminate so she can eat it as fresh as possible. I imagine that she probably ate her own feces when she was starving, I am quite sure that this is a learned behavior. Over the course of 5 years my family has fostered 80+ dogs. I know that this is a very hard habit to break, however “poop kisses” are rather disgusting so I would love some input on what has worked for others! Thank you in advance.

Hello, a couple months ago my home became a multi-dog household, with the newest addition being a now 10 month old GS/lab mix, and our resident dog, a 3 year old beagle/rottie mix, both males. They are both very well behaved and have never fought. However, they were not socialized properly as puppies—or at least we did not adequately socialize our beagle mix when he was a puppy, and GS mix was already 6 months old when we got him and we don’t know if or how his previous owners socialized him.

The results of their poor socialization: resident dog does not seem to recognize playful behavior from new dog and thus becomes uncomfortable, clearly cares for new dog (acts to protect new dog if anyone is playing rough with him) but won’t play with new dog, and seems to sometimes even avoid new dog.

New dog is a little better with socialization, but his main fault is that it seems he doesn’t know how to recognize resident dog’s “corrections” to him and to back off (even if most of the time he simply wants to play with resident dog), and he also has some bullying tendencies, some intentional and others not (wants to play with whoever resident dog is playing with, sometimes bugs resident dog to move if new dog wants to lay down in that spot, etc; though never has shown any physical aggression).

Resident dog is, personally, my dog, and I love him dearly, though I love new dog too, and would love to see them bond and play together, only I don’t know the best course of action to achieve that.

I would greatly appreciate any help with ideas on how to adjust these behaviors of theirs, as well as weigh in on the idea of setting up a doggie-play-date with a friend (with a stable and model dog, of course) so that maybe visitor dog can teach them how they should behave.

I have an American Bulldog who is almost 2 years old. Despite training, he is very aggressive towards other dogs. He was attacked by a pit bull, on our property, before he was a year old and every since will not tolerate any other dogs or any kind of animals for that matter. We have paid quite a bit for training to try and help him socialize but after a while he is back to his old self. No one will board him and we can’t take him anywhere that has a lot of people or other animals. He’s great at home and wonderful with our children, so I am at a loss s to what to do. He also has pretty bad hip problems and is in pain a lot if he gets a lot of exercise. I love him so much, as does my family, but I want to do the right, humane thing. Help.

Sorry if this seems to ramble. I just have a lot on my mind.

He has already broken and melted my heart. I am a teacher and will actually be off work for the next 6 weeks to train, play, and “mother” the little guy. I think I have convinced my mother to watch him for the first couple of months when school starts to help him settle in because he is so young. Our best guess is that he is a lab mix. He will probably be medium to large in size.

I know that socialization is so important for a pup of this age. What can I do to help him?

I keep crying and my anxiety about the next 6 months is very high. My worries make it hard to sleep even when the little guy is sleeping. I’m so sad for him and I just want to make sure that he is a happy, healthy puppy. The shelters around here are overwhelmed and I refuse to leave the little guy. Euthanasia rates are pretty high.

He will eventually be an indoor/outdoor dog. I won’t be comfortable with this, though, until he is older. That is why I’m going to pay my mom to watch him. I will be gone from 7-3:30 and my man works from 7:30-5. On days with inclement weather, my fella would be able to come home and let him in or out. We have a large fenced in back yard with plenty of shady areas. I live in a rural area with very kind neighbors so I am not worried about anyone messing with him. I live in East Tennessee where there is rarely an extreme temperature; however, I’m also looking into adding a doggie door, too.

Here is what I have done so far:

(1) He has a lifestyle crate (with the partition to make it smaller for now) that is attached to a large playpen in our kitchen. He sleeps in this crate at night. I’ve been sleeping on a couch next to it at night to take him out when he wakes. This is generally every 2 hrs.

(2) I’ve taken him to the vet. They dewormed him and gave him a flea treatment that is appropriate for a little guy under 5Lbs.

(3) I take him out to potty every time he wakes up from sleeping. He has only had 3 accidents in 3.5 days. I clean up his mess well so as not to leave a smell and take him out anyway. I DO NOT scold such a young pup but rather just take him out and set him in the grass each time.

What can I do to ensure this little guy has a great adolescence? Especially considering he is off to a rough start?

I have a 17- month old male GSD. We’ve had him since he was 8 weeks old. He is attached to me but is OK when I go out. He watches me from a window and then lays down and waits or goes to my father and sits by him. He goes into his crate with no problem when we go out and he may bark for a few seconds but that is it. I work from home and felt daycare would be good for him to combat boredom, socialize him and allow me to work with focus. My vet recommended the daycare. My dog freaked out when I left him and just paced and panted. He then boarded at the daycare for 14 days to overcome the anxiety. He came home happy and calm and obedient. I took him back to daycare after one day at home, he ran right to his favourite staff person for a greeting and then he freaked when I left. I called to check on him and the owner said he is anxious again and that we need to address this now and we have scheduled a home visit. Before the boarding, my father had a habit of yelling and didn’t see anything wrong with a snout slap and I was overly affectionate and babying. The daycare owner feels this is the problem and that my dad abuses and I coddle. However, we were models of calm and patience and positive reinforcement when our boy came home. We really want to create and enjoy a fabulous dog so we agreed to police each other and give our dog what he needs and deserves. After the drop off this morning and the call with the daycare owner I am feeling dejected and I really don’t know what to think. Is my dog too attached to me? Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?

I have a two year old male cat fixed happy loveable and seems completely healthy eating fine drinking fine but is urinating blood in my bathroom sink i am on social security with no cash at this time what could it be and what can I do.

I have a golden retriever 11 years male a chow lab mix 15 female and pit bull mix 6 female they all get along without any issues but the pit bull doesn’t get along with any dogs outside of the house so I would like someone opinion about my rescue dog pit bull 2 female friendly keeping her in her own room with access to side back yard area walking her daily and socializing with other dogs be ok ?