r/DogAdvice

We found Buddy as an adult stray about 1.5 years ago. He was extremely skinny and dirty, so he had clearly either been neglected or living as a stray for a long time. We didn’t even want a dog, but he wandered into my boyfriend’s work yard, they bonded after he started feeding him, and eventually Buddy literally followed him all the way home. We immediately brought him inside.

The beginning was rough. He was completely untrained and extremely insecure. He would pee if you even slightly raised your voice, scream when put in his kennel, and scream for hours whenever my boyfriend left for work. He’d even pee all over himself, including his face, if you accidentally stood over him and looked down. He could go on an hour-long walk and still come inside and poop.

After about 1.5 years of patience, he’s completely different. He has no accidents, no submissive peeing, and his kennel is now his safe space. He goes in on command or even chooses to nap in there. We can correct him sternly without him peeing, he’s great on walks, and he won’t even leave the house without his leash.

In the beginning we lived with my boyfriend’s parents and their dog, and they became best friends immediately. Now he lives with our 4 cats. In the beginning, they were honestly mean to him and even attacked him a few times, but Buddy would never defend himself. If they tried to steal his food, he’d back away. If they hissed, he’d just leave. Eventually they all got used to each other, and now the cats try to cuddle and groom him. Buddy usually just gets up and walks away because he doesn’t like being touched. We’ve been comfortable leaving all of them free roaming together while we’re at work and have never had an issue.

We recently went on a 6-day vacation, which was Buddy’s first time away from us. I researched dog camps and found one with great reviews that seemed very involved with the dogs and posted pictures every day. I thought it could be a fun little retreat for him where he could make dog friends, build confidence, and maybe help with his separation anxiety.

They required a 2-hour evaluation where they introduced him to other dogs, and after about an hour they told me he was approved and did great. We dropped him off the night before our trip feeling really good about it.

Then, 24 hours later, while I was on the other side of the country, I got a message saying Buddy had been aggressive. They sent me a 5-second video of him running with a group of dogs before suddenly locking onto a large dog and trying to bite his neck. They grabbed him from behind and separated him. I was completely shocked because I had NEVER seen anything remotely like that from him. They assured me he’d be separated and muzzled and could stay until we returned.

The next day, I got an even worse message. Buddy tried humping another dog, which turned into a fight. He got his muzzle off and both dogs were injured. At that point I was literally on a cruise ship about to enter another country and couldn’t even go home.

I was terrified to come home. I genuinely started wondering if Buddy had been hiding some aggressive side of himself this entire time and if I needed to worry about him around my cats.

When we picked him up, they told us he basically didn’t listen to any commands, wouldn’t play, and fought them whenever they tried to leash or kennel him. None of that sounded like my dog AT ALL.

He’s now been home for two days and is completely normal. He happily put his leash on for a walk, got into his kennel on command, and is acting like himself. He’s even more tolerant of the cats touching him than he was before.

I genuinely have no idea WTF happened at dog camp or what could have possibly caused this behavior. I wish he could talk. I obviously will never put him in group boarding again, but I want to understand what happened and figure out what I can do to help him and prevent anything like this from happening again.

TLDR; Buddy was a severely neglected, insecure stray who became a sweet, well-trained dog who peacefully lives with our four cats. His sudden aggression at dog camp. despite being completely normal since coming home.was totally unexpected, and I’m trying to understand what happened and how to prevent it in the future.

question: how much gabapentin should i give my 50 pound pitbull to sedate her enough to trim her nails?

background: the last time my boyfriend and i tried to trim her nails she became extremely aggressive, she had a muzzle on and we only trimmed 1-2 nails but as soon as we took it off she ran to our other dog who was minding her business and viciously attacked her to express her anger. we just got plenty of gabapentin to sedate her, but not sure how much to give her. should i dose her a few times a few days apart to see how she reacts to it and get a better feel for how much we need to actually do it? my boyfriend doesn’t want to take her to the vet to do it in fear she hurts someone even with a muzzle on. is it even worth trying or should we just pay the vet and drug her a little before we take her in and they can do the rest?

EDIT: yes, she was prescribed these from a vet FOR SEDATION, but from a while ago. we didn’t buy her some boof drugs online or something lmao you guys chill. thank you for the kind responses, we will be bringing her to the vet soon to get a maintenance trim and then trying to train her and dremel from there on if possible.

edit: as stated below, we are still training. i just want a backup plan in the meantime as an extra precaution.

this is the set up of my new house. i have two pittie mixes that love trying to bolt out the front door— we live on a VERY major road (45mph+, 6 lanes, heavily trafficked, with a large bend right before our house (blind spot for oncoming drivers) and it is only about twenty feet from our front door. we are being extremely cautious and working on training them to stay away from the door but i want to have a backup plan in case they slip past us. does anyone have any ideas for a gate/fence/ anything i could set up as an extra precaution? i rent so it would need to be temporary but durable enough to contain two very strong pitties. it would also likely need to be exterior because there is no hallway or anything to attach a gate to inside- it opens up directly into the middle of our living room/kitchen area. any advice helps, thank you!!:)

My stepdaughter just went back to another state to live with her mother for the school year. Our boy bear is distraught, panting at her bedroom door and whining . Its been 4 days and he won't let up. He has also fallen back into his demand barking, destroying things and resource guarding behaviors he had been getting better at. Just yesterday I walked by him and he bit me for seemingly no reason. (I said "not nice" and sent him to his place for 5 min but maybe I might of pressed a boundary I wast aware of) I let him into her room a couple times and hed pace around sniffing but ultimately leave again and keep looking through the house for her. Is there a way I could aid him while he recovers? I tried giving him one of her dirty blankets but he started eating it. Should I work extra on training the resource guarding or just let it go for a week or so? He also started burying all his toys and has never done so before, would it be mean to unearth them ? (Btw its 68 in here the panting is anxiety) thank you in advance I know this is kinda a book.

So my dog Darcy (5yo, female, the grey one) has recently become obsessed with licking/kissing my other dog Clementine’s (6 months, female) face. I’m really trying to not encourage it because I don’t want Clementine to get infections etc. but I’m totally puzzled by the behaviour. Darcy never did this with her older (recently passed) sister who she idolized. Any ideas what this means?

(I circled on the photo where I feel the mass).
Our dog Dinah is a 10-11yr old chihuahua mix. She was on the streets before my partner adopted her 7 years ago, and estimated to have had 3 litters. She has a big flap of skin under her belly because of that.

We noticed she wasn’t pooping a lot the past few days, and then noticed that where that flap of skin is under her belly turned red/purple and had a weird mass in it.
Because she wasn’t pooping I figured it was just backup and caused a bunch of bloating.
When Dinah woke up that morning when we noticed the mass, she was very lethargic and wasn’t enthusiastic about eating. So we ended up getting her some stool softeners to see if that is what was causing the issue. She ate normal, hasn’t vomited, but still wasn’t pooping.

The next morning we took her to the MedVet near us because she hadn’t pooped and her belly still looked red and swollen. They ended up doing some quick tests on her. One of her liver levels is high (that’s been that way before) and she does have a heart murmur (which she has had basically her whole life).
They then told me that she ended up yelping in pain when she pooped in her dog carrier while she was with the doctor still. They said she could have a herniated disc in her back that is causing her pain when she tries to poop.

They ended up sending us off with anti inflammatory and pain meds.

It’s been 24 hours since we first started her meds. Her stomach is still bloated but with the help of the meds and her stool softener, she is pooping again. However, she still has a mass in that part of her belly (which there has never been any mass in that stretched skin part of her belly). And she looks bloated, which we have seen before.

She’s eating normally, a little bit slower than usual.
She did end up peeing in the bed this morning, before we usually take her out. And she usually has control over her bladder.

My question is why didn’t the doctors look into the mass in her belly? What could it be? They said they didn’t see any fluid build up which would mean heart failure, and they didn’t see any signs of blockage in her intestines.

The mass feels firm. So I don’t know if it’s just more backed up poop? Anyone know what this could be?

Just to clarify first and foremost we are planning to go to the vet tomorrow! But I have OCD and have been googling like crazy what is up with my dogs behind and have found nothing that is the same situation we are having, so I would just appreciate an idea of what we could be walking into.

My dog is a 10 year old pitbull mix and as of 3 days ago now he has been obsessively licking at his anus and lower tail area (underside where the tail meets his butt area). It got super red and irritated looking from all of his licking so I got him a comfy cone he’s now been wearing to avoid licking.

He had a poo stuck out of his butt the day it started with a single strand of human hair in it. I didn’t pull on it of course but just got the poo off of him so we could continue walking. It seemed like initially could have been why he started licking, but it seems to have continued days later. His poo is normal (no blood, no worms, no struggle or crying to poo) he’s eating normal, drinking normal, and still very active and hyper aside from his cone limiting him a bit.

It seems like the base of his tail is bothering him most (as you can see he licked it raw almost when he sneakily got out of his cone for a few minutes 🫩) so I was thinking it could be fleas (thought I saw some flea dirt the first night), but I’m not sure why his actual anus would be red in those 2 spots if it were fleas? Google keeps telling me that’s anal gland issues.

I’m so stressed! Please share similar experiences they would be much appreciated!

My dog has been licking her paws and I just now noticed this injury on one paw. What is it, do I need to take her to the vet to prevent infection or is there some ointment I can order to heal and prevent infection? (The pink spot on top is from berries in our backyard).

I recently rehomed a Belgian Malinois and she is honestly such a sweetheart. I’d really like for her to become a house dog, but she seems very uncomfortable with the idea of coming inside.

I spoke with her previous owner and found out that she spent most of her time in a cage and didn’t get many walks. The first time I took her out for a walk, she was extremely excited and seemed to really enjoy being outside. But when it was time to come back home, she refused to go inside.

I’m wondering if this could simply be because she isn’t used to living indoors and doesn’t understand that the house is supposed to be her safe place yet.

For anyone who has rehomed a dog with a similar background, how long did it take for them to feel comfortable inside? Is there anything you did that helped them gradually associate the house with positive experiences?

I don’t want to force her inside and accidentally make her more afraid. I’d rather take things slowly and let her build trust with us.

we got a rescue dog about 7 weeks ago and recently like a day or two ago she started baring her teeth at us. it’s usually right before she lunges at our face to lick or she’ll bare and kinda open her mouth and teeth our hand or something. a couple times when my partner has been hugging her she’ll scrunch her teeth and bare them but then go for a lick. I can’t tell if she is just smiling of some sort? playing? or is uncomfortable and trying to sign for us. She does it a lot after we stop petting her and she’s pawing for attention. it’s mildly weirding us out and just wanna make sure we’re doing the right thing!

pics (in comments) from dog walker she sent of her “funny smile” lol so seems like they were relaxed when this happened.

she’s reactive with other dogs and will bare her teeth at the similarly but is very clearly stressed then

My dog nangi has been eating lesser than usual lately and has been acting like she has bipolar, sometimes she's very loving other times she just growls if I try to touch her. She'd just want to lay on her bed cuddling her penguin toy and not interact much. It's been like this for almost a week. I tried introducing her to new snacks, car joyrides, she just seems very dull and occasionally angry lately.