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Let me start by saying that I love dogs, all breeds and sizes. When I had a dog growing up, I always leashed her anywhere in public, even in parks and hiking areas. In most places it’s required by law.

I don’t have a dog now, but I love to run, and often have issues with people who refuse to leash their dogs.

One ran in front of me and I fell so hard I messed up my wrist. Last month a dog ran out of their unfenced yard, crossed the street, and jumped on me, snarling and trying to bite me for several seconds before I gave it a knee and sent it running away. The owner watched the whole thing, but only started yelling when I kneed his dog. I also have a friend whose child was killed by an unleashed dog not long ago.

I’ve been thinking of carrying pepper spray, not just for dogs, but in case owners ever get confrontational. It sucks to not only have to worry about being hurt by an unleashed dog, but hurt by owners who don’t want to be responsible.

In the past, if the dog ran up to me but seemed friendly, I’d politely but firmly say “please leash your dog”. People either get angry and defensive to this, or they get smug, and it changes nothing either way. In worse cases the dog is downright aggressive, but even then, no amount of shouting or pleading seems to affect the owners - they don’t care until there’s a consequence to them/their dog.

I don’t want to be reactive or unreasonable. How do you respond to unleashed dogs? What should I do? Am I overreacting? The owners always act like it’s no big deal. I’ve even had racial slurs shouted at me, been called an “entitled white b@*#h”, and much worse from owners whilst their dog was jumping on/snarling at/attempting to bite me.

Tl;dr: How do I Handle People with Unleashed Dogs?

So, I was outside picking up dog waste in my fenced in back yard today. Well, I hear something growling where there are trees and bushes near our fence. I move to where I can see what is there to find my neighbor's pitbull on top of the fence watching me.

Now this dog is huge. I have a 10 year old 47 lb husky and a almost 3 year old 70 lb GSD husky mix and this dog looks like he is around the same height as my GSD mix, but has the super thick, muscular build the the bully breed is known for.

It starts doing that thing that cats do when they are about to jump and trying to gage distance and is growling and I am trying to yell at it telling it to go. All this commotion attracts my GSD mix, who decides to run up and stand right in front of me to growl back at the neighbor's dog.

Well I decide the best option is to start slowly backing away (while facing the dog to be sure it doesn't try to pursue), and I get inside with my dogs.

I walk over to the backyard neighbor's house and one of their dogs is out front running loose and barking and growling at me (but it is a chihuahua mix, so not so bad). I ignore their little dog and knock on their door and tell the lady (as nicely as possible) what happened for her to say, "Oh, it's okay."

Not happy with that answer, I try to press by saying "But your dog was growling at me." Her reply was "He's friendly! I have other dogs and he gets along with them and I have small kids and he is fine with them, so there's nothing to worry about."

At this point I'm explaining to her how that is how he is with his perceived family and it doesn't mean he is going to be as accepting of me, a complete stranger.

She responds and it is left at "Well he is nice, but I'll call him off the fence."

I have met so many dogs at the dog parks and elsewhere and never has a friendly dog greeted me with growling at me. The only dogs who have growled at me have bitten me or my dogs, and I sure as heck don't want to worry about that happening when me and my dogs are in my own fenced in yard.

I have a 15 month old GSD and the properties surrounding us also seem to have dogs, cats or kids. My dog doesn't seem to have an issue with the surrounding dogs, and even when they bark she doesn't seem to care, but she has a big issue with cats. One cat in particular seems to have claimed our property as her territory and I see her multiple times per day either in our back yard, on our driveway, or the front yard. I've also seen her in the neighbors backyard through the fence, although I'm not sure which neighbor she belongs to.

My dog goes crazy when she sees the cat, barking and trying to chase her. The cat seems to antagonize my dog, because she sits on the driveway on the other side of the back gate where my dog can see her but not get to her, or she hisses at my dog from the neighbors yard through the fence. She also hides under the neighbors house (which forms part of our boundary line) so my dog is constantly sniffing and trying to get under the house.

It has been going on for a few weeks now and it's driving us insane. When she starts barking we try to bring her inside the house because once she starts she gets really worked up and just keeps going. Once we get her inside we can get her to calm down pretty quickly, but it means we can't leave her outside unsupervised which is the long term goal. Today she got worked up and I heard a neighbor yell at her, so I know it's not only annoying us.

Is this behavior that I can train out of her? I know she's only acting on instinct, and it's not her fault. I thought maybe us having our own cat would help as she would have to learn to live with a cat, plus it would mean our property was the cat's territory rather than the neighbor's, but it's not really a feasible solution at the moment.

My 2 year old male corgi has a bad marking problem. I think this is largely because when we first got him, we used training pads. Worst. Idea. Ever. He got the idea that he can go inside, took him FOREVER to get him use to grass, but eventually after lots and lots of walks, he got the idea.

However, he still marks. Sometimes it seems like he genuinely needed to go and I missed the signals. Other times, it’s such a little bit that I think he‘s trying to make me mad - but I know from research that’s not the case.

It’s actually gotten a *little* bit better lately since I bought these wraps to put on him - he HATES them, so whenever he ends up peeing and I catch him, I put it on him, wait an hour, then take it off and take him outside, then reward the hell out of him after he goes. That seems to work, because now he starts to wine and stand near my living room door if he really needs to go.

But just last night when we went to bed, he peed just a little bit! This is right after his evening walk, where he peed and pooped!

I already spent the money checking for bladder infection or kidney infections. He is very healthy. Eats scheduled meals, I stop giving him water after 8pm. I keep him in my line of sight at all times.

His sister is an angel, and holds it always. So it’s just him. Am I doing everything right? Is there more I can do? I know correcting past behavior takes a long time, but I really hoped he’d be past this by now.

We adopted a rescue puppy. My first puppy ever. We have always had rescues (always adults), and, although I love them dearly, they always come with so much baggage from the people before, who really should never have had dogs. So we get a little 11 week old sweetie. I am told by the rescue vet that he has a stage 1 heart murmur that should go away when he gets older. I'm not really worried since one of our other rescues had a stage 1 heart murmur that never went away and still lived to be a ripe old age.

I bring the puppy in to see my regular vet. He says it's absolutely not a stage 1 murmur. He rated it a stage 3, and puppy needs to see a cardiologist. I tell the rescue what is going on. They are very apologetic and refund me all fees while still paying for his neuter. No way we are giving him back because that's just how we are. All of our dogs have had issues, and we just do the best we can while loving and getting love.

Cardiologist does a echocardiogram and determines that the pup has severe valvular pulmonic stenosis with mild hypertrophy of the right heart. He tells us that the only course of action, other than the puppy having a much shortened lifespan and slow deterioration of quality of life, is to have him evaluated at the Oregon State Small Animal Hospital to assess for and perform balloon valvuloplasty. The hospital estimated the cost to be between $4-$7k.

My vet of 20 years, who I completely trust and respect, doesn't have much information because he said my puppy is the second dog in his care that has been referred to the college animal hospital.

Has anyone else had this surgery done on their dog? What was the outcome? Do you recommend it? I feel like this is a big chunk of change for a crap shoot. The cardiologist said that he could even get a heart arrhythmia from the procedure. Our other option is to let him live his best life until his heart failure significantly impacts his quality of life. I'm feeling pretty lost here and would love some feedback.

One more piece of information that my be relevant is that, because of his breed, chiweenie mix, he is very small. Right now 7 lb and he's 18 weeks old.

Hello!

Recently, I adopted the sweetest 10 (we think) year old purebred golden retriever! She’s such a lovely dog, and I really want to give her the best remaining years she has left.

Unfortunately, she has lots of health problems. She’s very overweight, can’t stand up for too long, has sores on her legs from where I assume she just spent most of her time laying down on, and other medical issues. Already, she has an ear infection and eye infection :( (She also smells really bad, but we’re working on that haha)

I’m doing everything I can to try to better her life! What I really need help with though is the best food for her (and any other tips for care of senior dogs). She’s the first old dog I’ve really had, and I have no clue what to feed her. Right now, we’re using the IAMS mini chunks - chicken and whole grain recipe, since that’s what the place I got her from recommended. I’m not sure if this is the best thing for her.

I’m brushing her weekly, trying to work up to 2 baths a week with a special medicated soap, she has lots of room in the backyard to roam, and gets lots of attention. I’m trying my best to keep up with everything!

Please help!

Taco truck for dogs. Around $4 per taco (after some negative feedback on $6.69) I guess. I’m planning on setting up at parks, breweries and wherever else people take dogs.

If anybody has any ideas for this business please don’t hesitate to share.