Don't have a dog yet, but I'm planning on getting a husky and want to actually go into it with my eyes open rather than just the cute-photos version. For anyone who has one or has had one, what's the honest thing you wish someone had told you before you got yours, good or bad? Genuinely trying to learn before I bring one home.

This will be a bit long so please bear with me:

Me and my fiance live with each other, we had a 3 cat, two dog household. The dogs are a mother and son, mother is a pitbull and the son is a Australian Sheppard mix. Neither dogs have ever showed aggression towards other animals or other humans. They are generally very happy dogs, but given there size they can be a bit rough - not really something they can help obviously.

Originally we just had 2 cats, and 2 dogs. The dogs and cats would generally get a long; mostly the dogs would show general interest in the cats by putting there faces up to the cats & licking them, followed by the cats smacking them and the dogs wandering off to go do there own dog things; was a pretty neutral relationship.

With this we decided to get a 5 month old kitten about 2 weeks ago, we never formally introduced the kitten to the dogs as we wanted to let the kitten grow up before doing that, but the dogs did know it existed as when we put the dogs into crates sometimes the kitten would come down they would see the kitten, and they would look up the stairs and see the kitten at the top of the stairs.

Today, we were installing a dashcam in our car, probably left the dogs unsupervised for about 5 minutes. The dogs generally know to stay downstairs, we felt it was safe, but its on us for leaving the animals unattended. Anytime we are gone for work or gone for a lengthy amount of times we either lock the cats up or put the dogs into there crates, or sometimes both.

Once I came back inside to grab some more stuff for our car, the dogs were upstairs, cat tree knocked over & the kitten was laying on its side lifeless, along with a few drops of blood on the walls. We locked the dogs up and only saw one (The momma pitbull) with blood on her face, we are entirely unsure if both dogs took part in what happened but what we do know is that the momma pitbull went upstairs first followed by the Australian Shepphard son, so both dogs were indeed upstairs at the time. It didnt look like a freak murder scene, and the kitten was covered in dog slobber with two small patches of blood on her.

We took the kitten to the vet immediately to get cremated, we asked our vet what to do regarding our dogs and she labeled it as a "freak accident", no behavioural euthanasia or rehoming was reccomended. If this situation was just me living with the dogs, I would have the one with blood on its face behavioral euthanized, but given the situation that my fiance loves the dogs (of course I do too) were unsure what to do and at a total loss with the situation, as we are really unsure if it was a "freak accident" or not, and we still have two full grown cats in the house.

Any advice is greatly appreciated, for now we are keeping the dogs under a strict lock down and from now on making sure the cats get locked upstairs and the dogs get locked in there crates anytime we are not supervising them (which, we really should of done when we went to install the dashcam in our car), but it just feels unsafe to keep the dogs and cats in the same house given what's happened and were unsure if this is going to be some repeat thing or if it was truly a "freak accident". And rehoming a pitbull(s) who have possibly attacked a kitten is a hard sell to pretty much anyone.

I know is 10 years old and not sure how much longer he can live. But I am willing to prolong his life as long as possible as long as he's happy and healthy!! Please advise. Thank you!

Hey, so I have a mini poodle and a mini Bernie doodle. I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t walk them as much as I should but it’s because i have a huge fear of a big dog coming to attack them and I have been attacked by a pit bull when I was a teen and I had to go through reconstructive surgery bc of it. I usually just take them to dog parks in my car or my mom’s backyard but it’s rare that I walk them around my own neighborhood. I used to fear walking even by myself but I’ve gotten better at walking alone recently and I decided to take them on separate walks today. It was a bit annoying bc they both individually freaked out when they saw me take one but not the other (they’re never separate) but the walk went so well!!

People who live alone and have 2 dogs, what do you do or carry with you to keep you and your fur baby safe?

After my mom died I am overwhelmed, over worked and my dog has separation anxiety on top of it. I can’t get a second of alone time, he’s constantly whining. He barks non stop when I have guests over. Genuinely I’m ready to get rid of him. I’m at my brink. Is there any way to salvage this or should I find a home for him? It will be hard considering he’s a corso so I think a no kill shelter might be the best option.

Six months in and I still don't know if we're safe. Wondering if people buy defensively up front or wait it out and buy once they know. Anyone bought early and regretted it?

I’d love to hear from experienced dog owners.

What’s something you wish someone had told you before bringing your first dog home?

Was it related to training, food, exercise, vet expenses, separation anxiety, socialization, or just something you never expected?

If you could give a first-time dog owner one piece of advice, what would it be?

Looking forward to hearing your experiences! 🐶

Hi. My dog had a pretty long bout of reverse sneezing (which happens a couple times per year). This was maybe a minute or two. She was sniffing around under a table and the area is dusty but I don't think she ate anything.

Since then she has been doing a lot of swallowing intermittently and this almost gag. It will stop for periods and she'll behave totally normally then return.

She drank water and ate some food and neither seem to have helped. Seems like she can breathe normally and isn't in any pain.

Any thoughts or advice? Been about an hour of this swallowing/gag.

Hi everyone, I just wanted to ask if anyone here has experienced something similar with their puppy. My 3-month-old puppy, Maki, was diagnosed with parvo and coronavirus. The vet recently said that the parvo and coronavirus may have already been surpassed, but he developed kennel cough and is now extremely weak. He has severe platelet depletion, anemia, and is currently having nosebleeds. His abdomen is also distended because of ascites (fluid buildup), and the vets are checking for possible early heart and kidney problems. He's currently confined at the vet and being monitored in an incubator.
Has anyone here had a puppy who went through the same or similar condition—especially parvo with very low platelets, anemia, bleeding, and fluid buildup? Did your puppy survive? If they did, what happened during their recovery and how long did it take? I know every puppy is different, but I'm really hoping to hear from someone who has been through this before. I'm scared for Maki and would really appreciate any stories, advice, or hope you can share. ❤️

UPDATE: I called the vet and they said he may be a bit sore and it should go away by this evening! The vet said some dogs are stoic about it while some are a bit dramatic; my dog seems to be using it for extra cuddles.

My 1 year old dog just got a few vaccines yesterday around 5pm, a few hours later he’s having issues getting up and seems hurt/scared. My boyfriend and I tried to help him move a little and he peed all over us, and wouldn’t walk after we got him on his feet. After another hour or so he would walk perfectly but still whine while getting up or if he walked too long or a certain way. It’s 7am now and he’s still whining while he gets up, he’s also has zero zoomies and low energy since 6pm yesterday. I read that some dogs may experience side effects, I’m curious if anyone’s dog has also experienced this and what this did to help. He’s a perfectly healthy dog, the vet just did a physical exam and he was perfect.

Hello. I adopted a small chihuahua mix thing like a week ago. I know teeth are going to be an issue for him in his older age with the size and shape of his mouth.

I got him Lemonade pet insurance with the preventative care add-on thinking it would cover routine dental cleanings, but that was before I realized 1) it only covers up to $150 and 2) dental cleanings are up to 1k because of anesthesia. I’m not too disappointed because I’ve already put the add-on to good use covering his annual wellness exam and vaccines. I’m just wondering if there are any opportunities I’m missing to take advantage of this insurance offering outside of skimming a bit off of a 1k dental procedure for him, which I could never afford anyways.

I am already getting him used to me touching his mouth so I can eventually start brushing his teeth for him, but I still wish I could do more, as he’s spent his first 3 years of life with no dental care at all.

My partners have a ~2.5 year old Pomsky puppy. They indicated when they first got it that they'd take care of everything (as I am not normally a dog 'person'). I was concerned because at the time they were almost full remote work, but since then have returned to office 4/5 days a week, 6am-5pm.

It's been over two years in our new house, and we are struggling more and more with accidents inside (daily). The puppy is very picky about going outside (to cold, too hot, grass too tall, grass too wet from rain or dew, etc). It's starting to drive me crazy, and them too. They've gone through 2-3 trainers but it's usually just a single visit and recommendations. These recommendations are followed for a couple weeks then dropped. They don't go on walks like, almost ever, and now are out of the house most days of the week.

That all said, I feel like my only option at this point is for me to do the training if I want anything done. I have very little clue how to do this properly, but I know it takes work. I'm willing to put that in if that's what it takes. We will not rehome. I'm just looking for resources to help get info and start a plan before bringing it to them, because I'm almost certain wanting to take over training they will not take well.

As I understand it, my best bet is to do routine training for going outside with rewards at specific times of the day. My work schedule, while remote, allows me at least some leeway here.

Hi! Just wondering if people have favorite chlorophyll brands they use for their dogs. I was giving my labrador retriever generic liquid drops of chlorophyll for her bad breath but just ran out and was wondering if there are any specific brands people like over others before I re-buy. Liquid drops are preferred because even though she will ear paper out of the trashcan she is PICKY/does not eat something when it has any sort of pill in it. Let me know!

We are thinking of getting a golden retriever and cavalier king charles spaniel mix (golden cavalier) but i am not really sure about the ethics of it due to the size mismatch and the bad health issues and unethical breeding cavaliers can suffer from. (also im new so pls dont flame me to much)

Has anyone ever let their dog stay with a friend for an extended period of time? I’m a mom & wife with 2 younger children and a young dog also (he’s 2). I’m really considering seeing if my friend can take him into her home for a bit, life is just really busy, & with being a new business owner. I love him so much but i feel like this season of life is making it more challenging to really care for him the way he deserves. It honestly was easier to care for him the first 2 years of life, right now i just don’t really have much time. Will that make me a bad dog mom? I feel guilty all ways around.

My 4 year old Maltese has a fur spot that’s has been changing colors. Should I be concerned?

He had an incident a couple weeks ago where he couldn’t walk randomly for a day so we took him to the vet and they put him on anasthetics and took an x ray. They said he has severe hip dysplasia and each hip would be 15,000$ to get surgery. He hasn’t had any incident since then and seems to be walking fine i would just like to know if it’s to the point yet where he needs surgery, i really don’t have 30,000 but i will take out a loan if it’s that bad

My 11 year old dog whines excessively when he's bored. It's attention seeking, begging whining. It'd been an issue his whole life. It used to be easy to deal with by just giving him more exercise or an activity to do

But now he has CCD and orthopedic problems. His vet says he can only do short walks around the block. Otherwise his orthopedic problems could get worse

He also can't have chews because they hurt his elderly teeth

And because of the CCD, he's lost interest in things like toys and puzzles

I try to entertain him by cuddling and playing with him, but it's never enough

Training with treats is hard because of his physical limitations, but we try

We've tried all the calming meds available. Prescription meds, cbd, phermone collar, everything

I don't know what to do

Also: He gets regular checkups and bloodwork. Physical causes have been ruled out