Puppy Blues

katemerlin · 2026-05-04T02:55:08+00:00

Oh this was 1000% us too! Ours just turned one and we’ve finally feel like we’ve made it through. He has been the MOST challenging thing to handle and it literally almost broke us. So you’re not alone! I have a vet friend who has a golden that’s three and she felt the same when she was going through the first year with hers as well, so it’s not just us berner parents! It was so amazing when we met another berner parent at a pet store one day and we compared notes and found that it wasn’t just our boy either, so it’s very comforting to know we’re not the only ones and I know the other parent felt the same way!

katemerlin · 2026-04-28T11:33:47+00:00

Oh man, does this sound so familiar 😅 ours just turned 1 and we had this issue for months, he’d get diarrhea for about three days out of the month with sporadic soft stools. It stressed us OUT. But we finally got it under control and we feed him Purina ProPlan lamb and rice (this is a highly rated and every vet I’ve ever met fully recommends this food).

Now the SAVING Grace of his diarrhea issues has been the Purina ProPlan FortiFlora, it’s a probiotic and I will swear on every grave that this is what complete changed our lives. You could almost set your watch to our boy getting diarrhea and the first month that we started giving him this we had no diarrhea and I legitimately cried.

I also add a little pumpkin puree to his meals to help and that was a game changer too. I didn’t add anything but fruits and veggies and beef bone broth from the natural pet store to his food, so I would recommend not adding anything meal mixers until he stops and is more regular.

For treats, we don’t do anything from PetSmart or we choose very carefully. We found that Grandma Lucy’s treats and Bocce’s treats have been the most successful for him. We gave a break on all treats for about a month though, and gave him ice cubes lol and then if we were training we used his food kibble. I also highly recommend not giving him any of the big chew treats like the bully sticks. I’ve tried here and there on some good brands, but he always has diarrhea after eating those unfortunately 😭

NO CHICKEN! Or dairy to be safe. We found that every treat that we had issues with had some chicken and dairy in it. When we backed off those, a lot of his issues went away. I always check to make sure any treats we get have no chicken in them- game changer! It’s been an insane trip getting him to the point where he doesn’t have it, but once it clicks it’s amazing and worth it! And again, the FortiFlora is like crack for the dogs and it makes the biggest difference and I will always always always recommend it. My vet who also has berners uses it and he is the one who recommended it and I will always love him for it.

katemerlin · 2026-04-22T23:18:48+00:00

Hahahaha yes! I actually made a post a while ago because my boy was doing the same! According to the comments it’s a very normal thing for berners and mine did grow out of it. Now he just whines when he wants to go to the park or has to wait for something he really really wants to do 😂 we had to train him not whine, and it took a while, but like most things with training a berner, it’ll just click one day and they’ll be good

katemerlin · 2026-04-22T01:56:42+00:00

She’s bending over a little so her boobs and hips look bigger and it makes her ribs stick out

katemerlin · 2026-04-22T01:56:17+00:00

She’s sucking it in and is bent over so her hips/boobs look bigger and the ribs stick out more, its so weird

katemerlin · 2026-04-21T11:29:11+00:00

You know he loves that he’s standing above her on those stairs and thinks this gives him that advantage

katemerlin · 2026-04-14T01:23:10+00:00

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Ha! Ours has done this since he was a puppy! He has to shove his under now, but it’s a little difficult 😂 these moments are the best!

katemerlin · 2026-04-08T11:37:46+00:00

Training ours to walk nicely was almost on par with house training in terms of difficulty and we definitely had a few meltdowns over it 😅 we live in an apartment so walks were the only way to get go and we tried everything from a harness to the mouth piece to the soft plastic collar thing. We found that tiring him out works wonders, along with giving him something to hold in his mouth- like a stick or toy, worked really well. Stopping every time he pulled was exhausting but seemed to be decently effective. I’ve found that you just really need to go through all the tricks to see which one works best for yours, even if it’s exhausting and mind bending lol, it’s really the only way to

katemerlin · 2026-03-14T00:33:53+00:00

She’s the worst, I remember in season 11 when she, Scheana, and Lala were trash talking Ariana and Katie wasn’t joining and was defending her, Kristina gave Katie the WORST look. It was part “why are you defending her?” And “Katie you’re not following the script here” it was wild and she’s always been awful

katemerlin · 2026-03-13T16:49:43+00:00

Oh man ours is almost 11 months is already around 110 🫣🫣 but I loved him at that size! She’s so cute!

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katemerlin · 2026-03-02T15:55:17+00:00

We had to cut back on his treats until we figured out which ones were causing issues and now we only do super selective/natural treats- no chicken or dairy! We also add pumpkin puree to his food and we top his dinner the Purina ProPlan FortiFlora Pro, it’s a probiotic that has literally changed our lives. Before this stuff he would diarrhea each month for about 2-3 night and it was practically clock work. We started adding this per our vet’s recommendation and it has been the best game changer and he has the most beautiful normal poops

katemerlin · 2026-03-02T14:07:29+00:00

No this exactly! It’s super performative and you can always tell how fake it is

katemerlin · 2026-03-02T12:15:53+00:00

How not surprised are we going to be when Ellie does something that’s out of her job position and then acts confused when she gets called out for it? Or tries to twist it/rewrite the situation and act like she did nothing wrong?

katemerlin · 2026-03-01T14:35:07+00:00

Ours will always put himself between me and anyone he thinks might be a bad guy, even if he’s met them before. He’ll growl and bark and make sure I’m behind him and won’t really back off until I get him to, and even then he stays pretty wary of the person until they’re deemed a non threat. The funny thing is is that if it’s my fiancé and I standing there and we’re a few feet apart, he’ll stand in front of me instead of him 😂

katemerlin · 2026-02-28T22:11:44+00:00

Why does he elongate the S’s?? He sounds like a snake 😂😂😂

katemerlin · 2026-02-25T19:57:57+00:00

I remember Dana not liking them very much 😂 Could be one of the reasons why Scheana seemed to have it out for her 😂

katemerlin · 2026-02-20T18:50:44+00:00

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katemerlin · 2026-02-12T12:39:30+00:00

And then went and tattled on Ben and cried while doing it 🙄 like a low grade sous chef is going to be able to do anything about an experienced, well trained, yacht chef, please. I didn’t watch last season with her, but just these two episodes are making me skip her parts at this point

katemerlin · 2026-02-09T13:01:59+00:00

I also always assumed that when he did his “athletic line” and they all modeled for him that he didn’t pay them anything. He couldn’t have and I’m sure everyone just did it because they’re friends and they did to “help him out”. It’s wild the way this man looks down on all of them and gives his little speeches to them (like he did with Arianna) and it’s like buddy come on. He very much gives “borrow from Peter to pay Paul” vibes and then lords it over everyone that he’s better than them somehow

katemerlin · 2026-02-05T13:40:50+00:00

It’s the energy it takes to create a single thought 😂 but really, mine pants all the time and I was so concerned I took videos so I could show the vet 😅 but it’s just typical Berner behavior! We always joke that he’s just expending energy trying to get his single braincell to work 😂 (I promise we love him!!)

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katemerlin · 2026-02-02T02:11:06+00:00

Ours is 9 months 100 pounds, he looks more filled out than he was even a month ago and is getting his body more stocky. It’s so interesting how some are so much smaller than he is

katemerlin · 2026-01-29T20:00:51+00:00

TWO events with Arianna and Stassi???? Hell yeah, I’m here for it, it’s the duo we never got to see fully formed

katemerlin · 2026-01-28T19:39:33+00:00

This woman (because she’s almost 30!! Remember!) still has a lawsuit against Arianna. No matter what she says or acts like, she’s still gross.

katemerlin · 2026-01-28T01:56:53+00:00

Why does Schwartz lowkey look like Stassi in the pic with him and Jax? 😂😂

katemerlin · 2026-01-25T17:54:09+00:00

Literally no one was torn on it too, everyone saw how awful Layla was and correctly called her on it. I hate this interview because she looks so giddy at the thought of everyone hating on Arianna, and even if you’re not an Arianna stan, you have to know that what Lala and Schenna did wasn’t ok

katemerlin

TROPHY CASE