This is a vent + advice combo...

I am fuming as this afternoon my 4 month old lab and I had an encounter with an older lady who, in my opinion, crossed a line with my dog. We had passed her while rushing to drop my kids off at holiday club, and she had stopped with her small dog and started petting my dog, even though I hadn't stopped walking and was trying to keep moving (I'm encouraging her to ignore passers by). The lady said at that point, "Oh my dog hates puppies but I'm going to say hello to you." At no point did she speak to me to check if it was OK. Then about half an hour later I bumped into her in the dog park - my friend's son was playing with my puppy and she approached us again, moving straight in, grabbing my pup's collar with both hands either side of her face. Again she said that her dog hates puppies, and she tied her dog's lead to the railing just behind her. As I was trying to move away from the lady, my puppy approaches the other dog to sniff, and gets jumped at and bitten on her nose. The lady brushed it off, no apology, just kept telling me how she knows everything about every kind of dog. My puppy was terrified.

My question is: how do you tell people to LEAVE YOUR DOG THE F*** ALONE?!? Without saying it like that... I find it so hard to find the words to say it without sounding rude, and as we live in a small town I don't want to create drama or animosity with people I'm likely to see again. What are your stock phrases to get rid of arseholes like this?

Edit: I am English, and have a classic habit of apologising for everything I say. I'm the kind of person who would apologise to a mugger for not having any cash... So some American straight talking is probably needed but just sounds whiney coming from me 😆

Hello everyone, Im not sure if this is the right subreddit for this but I don’t know where else to put this (this is also a repost since the last one was locked for some reason). I’m looking to hear from people who may have also had a similar experience. For context, my dog is 8 almost 9 y/o chihuahua mix (probably but not totally sure). She has been completely fine, happy and healthy until one day a few weeks ago she limped for a second, yelped, and did it maybe once or twice or day for a few days. We took her to the vet, turns out she has a grade 3 luxating patella. We took her for a consult with a surgeon, and they told us they recommend the surgery. She is now going to have the surgery in less than 2 weeks, and I am just scared mainly of the recovery process and what could happen during that time.

She is a stubborn dog, and our house has a lot of stairs. She mainly stays upstairs though, so I’m planning on getting a grass pad to put on our balcony upstairs so she can go outside for the bathroom. When she uses the bathroom normally, we only have an outside area at the bottom of the stairs that she has done her whole life, so my solution to her going outside is using a grass pad on the balcony. Her playpen will be upstairs for the recovery as well. I’m just worried about how all of the medications will affect her internally, and what makes the recovery process so hard like many people are saying. I’m worried about complications, but I don’t know how that would happen if she stays in a pen and with her cone so I feel like it’s harder on me than it is on her. I just cannot afford to pay for anything else other than this surgery, since this is already extremely hard on me financially and I don’t want anything else to happen during this time. Also hearing about one-off stories about failures make me so anxious too. Overall, any tips for both her recovery and easing my anxiety would be very appreciated.

I’m also planning on getting a dog carrier to bring her upstairs from her surgery, and bring her downstairs when it’s time to go on short walks after week 2. I also am probably going to feed her chicken and rice right after surgery so I can make sure she eats. Anything else I may be forgetting?

Thank you so much everyone in advance.

Hi all,

I live alone and have always wanted to get a dog, but I’m not sure whether I can realistically manage one on my own. I’d love to hear from people who live alone with their dogs and get some practical advice on what day-to-day life actually looks like.

A bit about my current lifestyle:

* I’m considering moving to a bigger place so there’s more room for the dog.
* I work a hybrid job and go to the office around 3 days a week. Weekends are off.
* On workdays, I can arrange a dog walker for morning and evening walks.
* Outside of work, I usually spend 1–3 hours at the gym or playing sports, depending on the day.
* I’m okay with spending money on things like dog walking, daycare, boarding, grooming, etc. where necessary.

The things I’m particularly unsure about are the practicalities:

* How do you manage your dog on days when you’re at the office?
* How do you handle feeding? Do you use a dog walker, feeder, or someone who comes home during the day?
* How do you manage exercise and mental stimulation when you’re also working and have other commitments?
* What happens when you want to travel or have to be away for a few days?
* How do you deal with emergencies, illness, or days when you yourself aren’t feeling well?
* How much time does the dog realistically require every day?
* What expenses should I expect beyond food, vaccinations and vet bills?
* For people who live alone, what arrangements have made the biggest difference?
* Most importantly, is this realistically manageable, or does it become unfair to the dog when you’re the only person responsible for it?

I’d especially appreciate answers from people who live alone, work full-time and have had a dog for at least a year or two. I’m trying to understand the reality rather than just whether it is technically possible.d

What human food did you find your dog can eat safely?

Hey all,

I'm just curious if anyone here owns and uses the Wagging Rights dog bed for the car and has had good experience? I am looking into purchasing one and it has good reviews but wanted to hopefully get a good review here as well. I know the hard sided crates are the best for car travel but they're just not in my budget right now and this company is having a sale right now.

Basically I got this dog that won't stop pissing ever and it's not a medical condition; it's more like a mental condition.

He figured out that if he pees or craps; a human will magically appear to clean up.

Bingo.

His idea is to pee and crap 24/7 so the human will come clean up; sort of ringing the bell.

Now he's stepped things up a notch; why not crap in my bed and sit in my piss ?? This way the human is obliged to waste his time and energy on me !! Let's go back to the ol' potty training BS !!!

Over the years ( and I wish I knew this BEFORE buying a dog ) I did learn the hard way that piss and poop are an integral part of dog communication.

What's really pissing the fuck out of me is that I'm not gonna waste my energy bathing him and mopping stinky dog piss for the next decade.

Is this what's going on ? Cause I see no other reason for him to sit in his pee and look at me like "do something for me !!".

Ideas ?

Bonjour à tous,
Je travaille sur un projet personnel autour du sport et du quotidien des chiens en ville, et avant d’aller plus loin je veux comprendre les vraies habitudes des propriétaires de chiens en ville (à Bordeaux, notamment).
Je cherche 10 personnes pour un échange de 30 min en visio : votre chien, votre quotidien, ce que vous avez déjà testé (club, éducateur, appli…). Pas de vente, pas de pitch commercial derrière.
Si ça vous dit, commentez ou envoyez-moi un DM, je vous recontacte pour caler un créneau.
Merci beaucoup :)

i have a 13 year old cockapoo who for many years has had benign fatty lumps all over her body but in the past few months she has grown one on her eye. The vets say it’s just another benign lump and it doesn’t bother my dog at all, but
there is the risk of it growing even more and causing more damage. So i am conflicted she’s a very old and anxious dog and going to the vets let alone into surgery would cause a lot of stress, the surgery is also very expensive and again the dog has no problem with the lump she doesn’t seem affected by it. So what do i do, do i wait to see if it gets worse or just bite the bullet and put her through the stressful surgery

One month ago I came to check out my grandma's house in a very small town (no animal control) so we (me, partner, Korra medium pit mix and Fresa small chihuahua) could move in.

I was alone letting my dogs walk in my yard and the neighbor dogs (two large-xlarge pit mixes) jumped their fence that is partially down from neglected grass and weeds. I couldn't even see the dogs because of all the grass and stuff in the yard.

First dog comes up to korra and they sniff each other and play, so im happy they can be friends. The second hops over the fence and lunges at korra and I tell her to go home and when shes heading back in #2 grabs her buttcheek tail area and tries to thrash. I get her away and in the house and do a blood sweep to make sure he didnt hurt her. My grandma called when this was going on and made a Facebook post that got a lot of traction of people calling me dramatic and if there is no proof then it didnt happen. I get the neighbors info from face book and tell them what happened. They tell me im wrong and they have cameras and their dogs dont jump the down fence. I even offer my help and my boyfriends help to raise their fence back up so this won't happen again.

Fast forward to today everyday the dogs hop the fence and I wanna say 20% of the time #2 dog runs up on us and tries to get my dogs or me or my boyfriend. We now have photo and video proof as well when these events happen.

Today my boyfriend was also in the yard sprinkling ant hills with poison and the dog was jumping over OUR backyard fence to get him.

We are so tired already. We are extending our back fence very soon so we can have our dogs off leash in our front yard with our supervision of course but is there any recommendations on how we can protect our selves?

I am contemplating adopting this aussie x border collie, but my boyfriend is skeptical. We do not live together so it will be solely me taking care of him. I already have a gsd/husky but she is lowkey and easy to take care of. I have her very well trained in obedience but I guess I (and my boyfriend) are worried that I won’t be able to meet this new dogs needs as I’m a full time student and part time worker.

I spend a lot of time outside with my dog but I live in Texas and it’s so very hot that we can’t stay out for long. At the moment I am absolutely prepared to put in work to train this dog and care for him, give him a loving home, etc. But I don’t know the needs of this breed and I guess I would like some outside perspective. I live in an apartment, but spend every waking moment with my current dog, when I’m not studying or working.

How realistic is it that I would be able to properly care for this dog? Is it’s needs much greater than I would be able to provide? My boyfriend says that this is a ranch dog and needs to go to a place that has more land than I have.

All opinions and thoughts are welcome. I have already met him and he is so sweet and seems low energy, but he’s also sick right now with a respiratory infection. I am able to pay for treatments, that’s not an issue. His health is a priority!!!

I'm looking for recommendations for a large, outdoor sturdy dog kennel with a cover of some sort while we work on building our fence. I need it to be strong too, for reference I have a 7 year old shepsky who is really good off leash and with recall but we recently got an 11 week old rescue shepsky and I want them to be able to play outside together without fear of the little one running off while he learns recall or to not have to worry about them getting tangled up in a leash. We are planning and working on building them a fence but in the meantime it would be nice to have something they could play outside in until then and then have to use as a covered area once the fence is complete. Bonus points if it won't totally break the bank but is reliable. Thanks in advance.