Posts

Showing posts with the label separationanxiety

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...

I Checked the Security Camera and I've Never Been Able to Leave the House the Same Way Since

I Checked the Security Camera and I've Never Been Able to Leave the House the Same Way Since Here's what happened. Last Saturday, I ran to the corner store. Just to grab a few things. Twenty minutes, tops. When I got back, my dog launched herself at me like a furry missile. The force of it wasn't excitement exactly. It was something closer to relief. Like she wasn't sure I was still alive. I thought it was sweet, honestly. Then I checked the camera footage. In the first minute, she sat by the door with her ears up, tracking the sound of my footsteps fading down the hall. By the third minute, she started pacing in circles. Then she lay down and just... stared at the crack under the door. By the fifth minute, she put her chin on her paws and stayed there. For twenty-five minutes, she just stayed there. She got up once to drink some water. Then she came right back. I watched the footage back and I didn't know what to say. Every dog owner knows that look. When you come ...