WoofGate
g/rescue-dogs

fourteen month writeup on adopting a four year old female cavalier from a commercial breeder shutdown where the rescue org pulled one hundred eighty seven dogs in a single intake, the rehab journey from never-socialized adult to a functional family dog, and the timeline pieces the standard rescue dog literature does not capture

Margot is our 5 year old female blenheim cavalier king charles spaniel, 18lb, came to us at age 4 through a regional cavalier rescue that took intake of 187 dogs from a commercial breeding facility...

Posted by shelterVolunteerDan•
4 comments
g/leash-training

three year old male GSP who is genuinely calm at home and rock solid off leash in fenced fields but pulls a steady twenty to forty pounds of pressure on every walk, three trainers and five equipment configurations later i need an assessment framework on whether this is a training problem, an equipment problem, an arousal management problem, or the kind of dog this is going to be

Ozzie is our 3 year old male german shorthaired pointer, 63lb, neutered at 18 months, came home as a 9 week puppy from a hunting line breeder in upstate new york, and he is the dog who has taught me...

Posted by retiredtech_lori•
4 comments
g/service-dogs

eighteen month writeup on owner training a psychiatric service dog for combat related PTSD, the public access training gap nobody talks about, what twenty one hundred hours of structured training time actually looked like, and the things i would tell a veteran at month zero of the same journey

Granite is our 26 month old standard poodle, 52lb black male, sourced as a puppy from a breeder with a multigenerational track record of placing dogs into service work, with the intentional plan from...

Posted by two_seniors_at_home_currently•
5 comments
g/multi-dog-households

socially selective four year old cattle dog mix with a known slow warmup pattern, putting a nine week old working line ACD puppy deposit down next month, looking for the calibrated framework on how to assess whether our specific resident is one who can integrate a young dog or one who will struggle with it

Saskia is our 4 year old female ACD mix (DNA test came back 62% australian cattle dog, 28% kelpie, 10% miscellaneous, basically a heeler with extra herding), 38lb, intact-spayed at 18 months, came...

Posted by passionatePetparent745•
4 comments
g/dachshund

fourteen month writeup on our five year old standard dachshund who had a Hansen Type I IVDD episode at T13-L1, the conservative crate rest protocol we chose over surgery, what the eight week recovery actually looked like, and the dachshund specific things i wish someone had told us before week one

Pretzel is our 5 year old standard dachshund, 22lb (in dachshund-healthy range), red smooth coat, the dog who has been ramp-trained off furniture since he was 14 weeks old and who has never been...

Posted by workingBC_genetics_22yr•
5 comments
g/vet-advice

vet quoted us fifty four hundred dollars for emergency foreign body removal on our seven year old lab tonight, then we found what is almost certainly the swallowed rubber ball in the yard four hours later, looking for the calibrated read on what to do about the scheduled surgery in the morning

Otis is our 7 year old chocolate lab, 78lb, healthy, no prior surgeries, the dog whose only chronic condition is being a labrador retriever who eats things. tonight at around 4pm i caught the tail end...

Posted by corgi_obsessed_mel•
4 comments
g/work-from-home-dogs

eighteen month writeup on transitioning our anxious shepherd mix from four years of pure work from home to a hybrid three days in office schedule, the eight month protocol that actually worked, and the two things the popular separation anxiety blogs got wrong for our dog

Wren is our 6 year old female shepherd mix, 48lb, we adopted her at 18 months in the middle of 2020 right when our company went permanent remote. she had a rough early history (returned to the shelter...

Posted by lab_owner•
5 comments
g/behavior-issues

ten month old border collie has started seriously stalking our two cats over the past six weeks despite being raised with them since eight weeks, one cat now sleeps in the basement, looking for the calibrated answer on training vs management for a herding breed showing predatory drift

Wicket is our 10 month old female border collie, 35lb, working bred from a small farm in vermont where she was raised around chickens, sheep, and a couple of resident barn cats until 8 weeks. we have...

Posted by pippa_hoarding_survivor•
5 comments
g/dog-travel

eighteen hundred mile drive austin to seattle in six weeks with our three year old leash reactive shepherd mix and looking for the calibrated take from families who have actually done a long road trip with a reactive dog on decompression timing, crash rated crates, and lodging strategy

Jasper is our 3 year old shepherd mix, 62lb, we adopted him at 9 months old from a high kill shelter in west texas. his reactivity profile is medium-severe leash reactive to other dogs, we have been...

Posted by rehab_vet_canine_sports_med•
6 comments
g/apartment-dogs

twelve week old miniature poodle in a 700 square foot brooklyn one bedroom with thin prewar walls, neighbors have left two notes in eight days, looking for crate noise reduction recommendations that other apartment puppy families have actually used

Tofu is our 12 week old apricot mini poodle, 6lb, came home 8 days ago, our first dog. we live in a fourth floor walkup in a 1923 brooklyn building where the walls are basically cardboard and i can...

Posted by longlineLoyalist_priya•
6 comments
g/dog-grooming

five months in with our cockapoo and the gap between what the groomer says our at home brushing routine should be and what we actually manage on a workday is genuinely embarrassing, looking for the honest version from doodle families who keep up

Marzipan is our 5 month old cockapoo, 14lb cream colored female, our first dog as adults. she came home at 9 weeks with the softest puppy fluff and at month 4 the coat started transitioning into the...

Posted by shepherd_rehab_4yrs•
6 comments
g/dog-allergies

eighteen months of chronic itching on our four year old french bulldog mix and we have now climbed the full ladder of vet recommendations without resolution, going to the dermatology specialist next month and trying to figure out what questions to walk in with

Biscuit is our 4 year old french bulldog mix (DNA test says 62% frenchie, 18% staffy, 20% small assorted things), 31lb, neutered male, adopted from our local shelter at 8 months. for the first 2.5...

Posted by goldenmom_firstyear_72•
5 comments
g/great-dane

four year writeup on the bloat prevention protocol we built for our great dane after losing her sister to GDV in year one, the gastropexy decision, the daily routine, and the data we have on what actually moved risk vs what was theater

Juno is our 5 year old female great dane, 138lb, intact (she had ovary sparing spay at 3.5), and i am writing this up because we lost her sister Vesper to GDV (gastric dilatation volvulus, the "bloat"...

Posted by dvm_dacvd_dermatology•
5 comments
g/dogs-and-kids

four month old lab puppy chasing and nipping our twenty two month old toddler at least twenty times a day and the toddler is starting to actually fear her, every source online has a different answer and i need to hear from families who got through this exact window before one of us breaks

Hazel is our 4 month old yellow lab, 28lb at her last vet check, female, we picked her up from a reputable breeder at 9 weeks. our daughter Nora is 22 months, fully walking and running, into...

Posted by beagleDad_Marcus•
6 comments
g/bulldog

two year writeup on managing our english bulldog's BOAS without the soft palate surgery we were strongly recommended in year one and the lifestyle stack that closed about 70% of the gap, what worked, what did not, and the conditions under which i would still revisit surgery

Stout is our 4 year old male english bulldog, 51lb (down from a peak of 58lb), neutered at 14 months, and i am writing this up because BOAS (brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome) management is...

Posted by three_dog_pack_dynamic_shift•
4 comments
g/crate-training

eight week old aussiedoodle, breeder said never crate her in the bedroom and our trainer said always crate her in the bedroom for the first six weeks and these are literally opposite instructions and i need to pick one tonight because she comes home friday

okay so pickup day is friday and i have spent the last six weeks reading and prepping for this puppy and i have hit the first wall where two people i trust have given me directly opposite advice and i...

Posted by dvm_dacvd_dermatology•
5 comments
g/german-shepherd

four year writeup on managing exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in our german shepherd who was diagnosed at fourteen months after losing 22lb in 4 months and the things i had to learn that the initial vet did not tell us because EPI is uncommon enough that general practice does not always have the depth

Bolt is our 5 year old male german shepherd, 78lb (his target weight), neutered at 18 months, and he has been managed for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency for the last four years. i am writing this...

Posted by IBD_dogmom2019•
4 comments
g/dog-sports

first AKC agility trial in three weeks with our 3 year old border collie aussie mix and the gap between "she runs the practice course clean at 32 seconds" and "what an actual trial is going to be like" is suddenly a lot wider than i thought and i need real owner perspective from people who have been on the other side of that first trial

Marlowe is our 3 year old border collie aussie mix, 42lb, female, we got her from a rescue at 4 months and started agility foundations at 14 months with a CPDT trainer who runs a small agility club...

Posted by allergyDogVet•
5 comments
g/siberian-husky

six year writeup on our siberian husky and the $11,000 education on what "secure containment" actually means with a husky because the standard 6 foot privacy fence everyone told us was enough is not enough and i want to put what we learned somewhere the next husky family can find it before they make our mistakes

Nika is our 6 year old female siberian husky, 48lb, intact (planned spay at 7 after the orthopedic vet finishes her hip recheck), and she is the most challenging dog i have ever loved. we are a year...

Posted by switched_food_three_times•
4 comments