Puppy Care

While unconditional love may be your first responsibility as a pet parent (kudos, you’re nailing it already), there are some other responsibilities that take equal priority. Here, we’ll help you get your house in order for the big day, study up on what to expect and run through some of the finer points of puppy ownership.

Wondering why your puppy is not eating? Our veterinary nutritionist, Dr. Justin Shmalberg, reviews possible reasons including a new environment, new food, and possible medical issues. He also provides tips and strategies to get your puppy to eat.

Nom Nom's definitive guide to feeding your large or small breed puppy, written by our expert vet nutritionist, takes you through everything you need to know about how, when, and what to feed your puppy. We include a puppy feeding handy calculator that tells you how much to feed based on the estimated adult weight of your dog. We also compare the pros of cons of kibble, wet, fresh, and raw puppy food.

Some dog parents are reluctant to put their dog in a crate. Typically, this hesitation results from a belief that crates are the equivalent of prisons for dogs. In truth, a crate is a critical component of a dog’s life, not only making her life (and yours) much easier, but allowing your dog to rely on her instincts to claim a comfortable spot to call her own.

Dogs have approximately 300 million receptors in their noses; in contrast, humans only have six million. The section of the dog’s brain that works in tandem with these receptors analyzes the scents dogs encounter.

Although some research shows that dogs may have a rudimentary concept of morality, they generally do not go out of their way to do “bad” things on purpose. Since dogs have relatively limited ways to communicate with their human family, engaging in bad things is typically a sign that they need something from their pet parent.

Many people hear the word “alpha” and immediately think of harsh or dominating tactics to get a dog to behave or submit. This is definitely not the goal you want to keep in mind when working with your dog and becoming the alpha in their life.

A daily routine helps to give your dog a baseline for what to expect in her daily life, as well as to establish you in her eyes as her fair and gentle pack leader. Over time, following a consistent daily routine allows your dog to trust you and respect you.

Dogs have been known to exhibit a certain behavior that causes deep concern and disgust in their parents: eating feces, known as coprophagia. If a dog is so smart, why would he eat something most people find deeply repulsive? And more importantly, how do pet parents stop it?

Why are some dogs so weird about their food? More often than not, the answer lies in a behavior called resource guarding.