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Showing posts with the label DogWailing

12 Useful Tips for New Dog Owners to Avoid Common Raising Mistakes

12 Useful Tips for New Dog Owners to Avoid Common Raising Mistakes The first three hours are a blur. I remember the box was open and Biscuit stood in the doorway of our apartment and did not come in. I had read that dogs need a few days to decompress. That sounded reasonable at 2pm on a Saturday with a dog I'd never met. So I sat on the floor in the hallway and waited. He waited. We were both fairly certain we had misunderstood something about this. Three hours later he was on the couch, head on my foot, asleep. Nobody had told me what those three hours were actually for. That's the thing nobody tells you. Raising a dog well isn't a set of rules you memorize. It's about a hundred small decisions, most of which you make once, in the first weeks, and then live with for a decade. Get a few of them right and the next ten years get easier in ways you can't measure. Here are the twelve I'd give a friend on day one. Start With a Vet Visit Before You Start With a Traine...

Why do dogs kick their legs and whimper when they sleep?

  Your Dog Is Kicking and Whimpering in Their Sleep — What's Actually Going On? Here's how it started. Last week, I got up in the middle of the night to get some water. I walked past the couch and found my golden retriever fast asleep — all four legs pumping in the air, making these muffled little whimpers, eyelids fluttering. Like he was chasing something. Or running from something. I just stood there, frozen. He never woke up. Eyes shut the whole time. But his entire body was moving — legs, mouth, eyebrows, all of it. My first thought was: is he dreaming right now? What on earth is he dreaming about? My second thought, right on its heels: should I wake him up? I didn't. I stood there for maybe two minutes until he settled back down and kept sleeping, totally unaware. Like nothing had happened. But I couldn't fall back asleep. Dogs kicking, whimpering, even letting out low half-barks in their sleep — there's actually a pretty solid scientific explanation ...