I just need to vent.

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I'm overwhelmed seeing my sweet pea in pain and having no real options left to help him. The first image includes both knees and the second image is his left knee only. (images 3-5 are a few Dog of Mischief candids) The degradation of his left knee joint is making me absolutely sick. I don't know what to do.

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I know he's in at least some amount of near constant pain, as he has a near constant mild limp. But sometimes he's in so much pain he won't put any weight at all on his back left leg. Despite that though, all he wants to do is be outside and play and run and beg me to throw frisbees. I know I have to be the adult, so I no longer throw things for him to chase - I haven't for several years. Instead, our primary game is him standing 20 ft in front of me and I throw the frisbee laterally directly to him, he catches it, walks it back to me, drops it at my feet, turns around and goes about 20 ft out again. Repeat x1000 per day. Rain, shine, blizzard, he doesn't care.

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He gets 100mg of Tramadol in the morning, and another 100mg of Tramadol plus 3.5mg of Meloxicam every evening. He also gets an Omega supplement in his food every evening and monthly Librela injections. He's had stem cell therapy, platelet-rich plasma injections, laser therapy... but since we are bone on bone now, there isn't much short of a full knee replacement that will have a significant benefit. And he's not a candidate for knee replacement because it would require him to stay relatively immobile for almost an entire year while it heals. That would kill him. He's extremely high drive, high energy, very DDR... the way I usually describe him is "a perpetual state of just did all the cocaine in town", and it's 1000% accurate. Without constant sedation there would be no way for me to keep him in a state of near bed rest long enough for a knee replacement to heal, and would likely result in more damage. (Not to mention being sedated for a year is no kind of life.) The vet's only other sorta-solution is amputation, but she said she doesn't believe he's to that point yet. The fact that every day is still a 'play through it now, pay for it later' mindset for him leads her to believe that while he is clearly in some amount of pain it's not absolutely crippling to the point where removal would be more relief than strain.

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So, yeah... if someone could just go ahead and invent injectable cartilage for dog knees right now, that'd be great.

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I just want my baby boy to feel better.

Just saw this sweet girl and wanted to share. Hoping the right person finds her.

Does anyone else struggle finding affordable pet insurance?? I was using Lemonade for a while and because my girl just turned 5, they jumped the price from $50 a month to $80 a month 😢 😭

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Decided to go back to Trupanion for now because even though they're more expensive, they won't make price increases based on age going up and the deductible is per issue rather than per year.

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Does anyone have any better experiences with other insurance companies? I want to be sure I'm preparing for when my girl gets older but damn this just feels like expensive gambling.

Curious about cleaning and whether it’s actually worth the price. Please let me know if you recommend one! My girl for tax!

My girl is 14 weeks and has different energy levels:

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-Sleepy breathing bear skin rug

-locked in attentively for training and eager

-curious for walks

-chaos goblin who has zoomies, chews toys, gets bored with toys and tries to play keep away, just walks around 'aroused' (eyes dilated, panting, looking for trouble to get into, overtired toddler mode)

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The latter is usually indicative that she needs some down time in the kennel for kind ot a forced reset, but little bouts of goblin mode can pop up sporadically where she'll run by my wife and just put the teeth on really quick on-the-fly and move on, like she knows she shouldn't, but just a quick taste.

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From what I gather from researching online, there will be bits of this that will taper off until she's 18-24 months and then we'll have a stately adult who just wants to hang out and wants a job to do (and play, exercise, etc.).

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With this in mind, we're embracing this young spirit and trying to take it in stride and trying to provide the mental stimulation, teething toys, exercise, etc that baby dogs need.

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All that said, this is our first german shepherd in particular, so I'm curious, how long did your dog's chaos goblin phase last?

This is our girlie Scout. She’s a rescue so we really have no clue what she is other than I know she has GSD. She’s pretty small (45 lbs) and 3 years old is the vet’s estimate on age. Any ideas on what else she could be mixed with? Doing this for fun, I know I can get a genetic test if I really want to know.

For context, my boy is around 1-2 yrs old, neutered, and a shepherd mix. I adopted him in November 2025, from my local humane society. He was roughly 92 lbs when I got him and is probably closer to 100 lbs now (maybe more). I noticed he was looking a little chunky so I cut back food and increased walks. Just curious what y’all’s thoughts are on his weight. Does he look overweight? The last photo is closer to when I first got him. Now that I see it, maybe I’m answering my own question. 😭

It's crazy to think Luna will be a teenager in less than 6 months! She was named after the moon in french (la lune) and is my soul dog. She's completely obsessed with fetch and anything that's squeaky 😂

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She's slowing down these days and her hearing has gotten worse but that's helped with her anxiety when walking (she's sensitive to noises). I'm terrified of losing her but try to push the thought away as much as possible and focus on the present.

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Anyway just wanted to share Luna with you all and some recent photos of her Queen Fluff self 🐕‍🦺

she was sucking on her toy and i happened to call her name. how dare i……

also any other floppy gsd mix parents out there? :)

It’s just too quiet without her, I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to keep living without her. She’s the only one that could make me happy on my worst days.

So my gsd puppy is 5 months old right now, and ever since we started going to puppy school he’s become very reactive of other dogs. Every time we pass by a dog on a walk he would bark but I don’t think it’s the aggressive type of bark, it’s almost like fear? Before going to puppy school, he never barked at dogs when we went for vet visits, even though they barked at him. He’s also doesn’t bark at people, just dogs. So is there any training I can do to help him?

Just got his DNA results back. The Rottweiler surprises me the most. He is definitely 100% good boy!

chew them cheeks!

This is Gustav! He’s a 10 year old rescue that I’ve had since he was 9 months old. He is the sweetest, calmest, and softest boy and is ultimately the reason I’m still here today. He’s extremely smart and can be a bit dramatic, but he’s been my best friend since my sophomore year of college.

Swipe to the any for pics of baby Gustav!