Hi, so we have a 13 week old shih-poo puppy, who we've been trying to train since he got her about a week ago, and it's been going well in some aspects, and not in some. Was wondering if we were doing some things right or wrong, and we just need time?

• Crate Training and Potty (Indoor Pee Pads) Training. We're doing both at the same time, so we've had to manually place him in his crate a lot of the times. Helped the potty training, he's going on his pee pads in a section of the house now (used to be a pen, now we've opened it up and he's pretty consistent), but I think he hates the crate? If we lead him in or treat, he just gets it and goes out unless we close the door behind him immediately. Same with meals and food, even. During the daytime he really just won't go in and will whine when we close the door. At night he'll stay in, whine a bit maybe, but still sleep. Do we continue, or change the approach? I was thinking of slowing down crate training, with just feeding him around it and slowly putting it in, but we can't without possibly ruining potty training.

• Bitey woes. We want to time him out, or get him on enforced naps in between breakfast, lunch, and dinner, when he gets overstimulated, but like i said, crate training has not been going well. He throws a fit when we carry him into the crate, but sometimes if he's bitey, we really just put him in and let him whine, as long as we're sure he's peed/pooped/eaten.

• About being bitey, there was an instance where after I cleaned up an accident, and he was trying to fence him away with my hand while I wiped the floor. Soon after, he started biting my ankles while walking around, and he generally just seemed a bit angry? with me? Not sure if he's learning that when he bites he gets what he wants (attention), or just a symptom of being overtired.

• Training basic obedience. He can do sit, come, a bit of stay, as long as we have treats immediate or at least he smells it on our hands. But he's randomly responsive to treats, sometimes not, so it's been hard to train him. And then when he's distracted or energetic around the house, we can't get him to listen to any commands, so it feels like none of the training sticks. We can't even get his attention when he's even just a bit excited, and trying to train his name has been unsuccessful so far.

• And this training issue is especially seen when training him to "drop it", cause he bites and chews a lot of stuff. Been trying to teach him drop it using just tug toys and toys as reward, or with treats as distraction, but without treats if he just picks something up we can't get him to drop it.

Any suggestions on what to possibly change or improve?

We got our Rottweiler GSD mix at 8 weeks old. He’s now 12 weeks old.

When we walk him or take him to puppy school, he starts barking with his tail up and stance wide when he sees other dogs, then pulling and whining wanting to go toward them.

Once at puppy school, when released, he sniffed the small poodle mix nicely and they started playing, but he put his paw on her and started being dominant so we separated them.

On the walk, he barked and wanted to jump on a senior corgi (also dominant) and the corgi looked very scared, didn’t want to engage, didn’t correct him.

A friend of ours came over and their golden retriever played with our puppy on our driveway for about two minutes. He chased the adult retriever around the entire time.

Is this appropriate behavior, because it just seems like bad manners? How can I train him out of this? I’m trying to bring high value treats to distract him when seeing dogs on walks, trying to play with toys with him so he has fun with me too, but maybe he just misses playing with his sister?

We lost our older dog Lila last week. She was a five year old GSD pitty mix. They were only together for two weeks but he also played dominantly with her, trying to pounce on her, biting her neck. She corrected him, growling, nipping, and he’d flip over on his belly and submit.

This is our first puppy and we are at a loss here, would really appreciate any insight and advice.

How were your puppies when their teeth were loose? Mine has a loose pre molar that’s barely hanging on and it’s driving him nuts and making him a little depressed. I know you’re not supposed to pull them but this one is practically dangling and he won’t let me near it. I’ve given him some soft chews from the freezer to help with his discomfort but I’m wondering if a vet visit is necessary? Or should I wait it out? He’s not as energetic today and seems bummed out :(

Shes 4 months old and a very good girl, she has free roam of the house when I’m around and we haven’t been having any problems! Except…

The cats litter boxes stay in the back of the house, next to the door to the backyard. I’ll be chilling in the couch when I smell the stinkiest smell, just to look at her sitting on her dog bed with a big lump of cat poop next to her. I try and always keep the litter boxes clean, but I can’t just follow my cats around waiting for them to shit so I can clean it up!

She knows drop it and leave it, so getting the cat poop away from here isn’t the problem! I just don’t want her to mess with the poor cats bathroom PERIOD 🥲

It’s very awkward to be chilling with house guests just for your puppy to come skipping over with a big lump of stinky cat doodoo in her mouth

Any advice on how to stop this?

Golden puppy is 6mo old, currently crate train every night, and when we leave, he’s well behaved in his crate, no accidents, sleeps all night and waits for us to wake up in the morning without barking. When we leave him for long periods (5 hours max) he is in his crate, barks a few times throughout but he’s well behaved with no accidents. Would transitioning to leaving him out of his crate cause any regression in training or would it be better to start while he’s still young to develop good habits? when I work from home he’s in the other rooms for hours without supervision, doesn’t chew on things and doesn’t try to jump his gate. I want to give him more freedoms but don’t want to slow or regress our current progress.

Hello,

My puppy is constantly growling/barking at everything outside especially if it’s new. What can I do to modify this into neutral behavior?

Is this normal behavior for a 12 week old pup?

We have a 5 month old mutt and we love her to death. She has a queen's set up in her crate, nice plush bed and soft blanket. We keep the crate door open all day and she will nap in there freely, but we close her in overnight. She won't play with a toy in her crate so we usually pull her bed and blanket out during the day and have it in the living room so she can play with her toys on it instead of the couch-she can get pretty slobbery with her toys. We're contemplating buying her another bed to keep on the living room floor to keep us from moving her bedding in out and of her crate everyday and kinda keeping both options open if she wants to nap she can do it in her crate or other bed, if she wants to play with a toy she can do it on her non-crate bed. We're in the process of teaching her "place" and I was wondering if this would confuse her, I'm assuming it would be fine if we keep it consistent, which would be her bed on the floor, not in the crate. What's everyone's thoughts? TIA

So my 2 year old golden doodle has started going pee in the house at night. It started a couple months ago, and it’s not every night. She sleeps on my bed and has free rein of the house (I know that can’t be helping). I’ve started making her go potty at 8:30pm and picking up her food/water by 7:00pm.

She will come and wake me up when she’s already gone potty inside, not really ever before hand. I know this has gotten so out of hand because I don’t really reprimand her because by the time I find the pee she’s gone to my parents room so she’s not learning to not do it.

I just really don’t know what to do. I know putting her in a crate would solve this but she never liked being in a crate.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

My partner’s parents have a nine year old dog who is lovely to human. Literally everyone loves him. Earlier this year my partner and I brought home a new puppy. At puppy’s 10th week we invited family dog to visit, and it was terrible. Puppy was excited, jumping up and down, trying to sniff the older dog, as it might be the first’s dog he met in his life other than his mother and litter mates. Older dog absolutely hates him and won’t let him get closer. He growled, then turned into bark to warn puppy to back off. The first meetup ended with two dogs barking to each other.

This week puppy turned 15 weeks old and we invited them to visit again. And it got worse. Puppy still excited, older dog growled and barked more aggressively and won’t even sniff the puppy or let puppy get close. At some point I felt his was going to attack puppy. According to partner’s parents they’ve never seen their dog be so aggressive like this.

The place we live in is where the older dog grew up. They moved out 3 years ago and come back to visit us occasionally - less than once per month. I think this might be the main reason why he hates our puppy? He might still think this is his home and other dogs are not allowed?

I don’t know how to fix it. Should I allow puppy to get close to the older dog or should I train puppy to leave him alone?

Help!!!! Our 10 month old pup still wakes every 2 hours for the toilet, which is strange for us as our other two do not do this and never have done. She sleeps in our room with the other two and will cry to go out, we’ve started ignoring her but then the husband will persistently ask if she needs to go out.

She isn’t desperate when she goes out and is taken in a lead, she has many hours out playing and activities etc Food no later then 5pm and free rein to water, she doesn’t leave our bedroom when upstairs.

After 8 months of broken sleep I need some help with this, willing try it all now

Our 13-week old shih-poo puppy is getting way too bitey it hurts, and my question now is:

• He usually bites my pajamas, but takes my legs in the process. He feels like it's a good tug of war game I guess. The problem is, he doesn't stop even if i stop moving, he just keeps biting, and it gets hard not to move or pull away because it really just hurts when he keeps biting. I've tried facing a wall but it also doesn't help.

How do you properly redirect? We have a tiny tug toy he likes, but I feel like if i give it to him to redirect, he'll just see it as a reward for his biting.

He also doesn't properly learn "drop it." What to do?

Also, he gets bitey a bit after eating his meals and and a bit of training, so during this phase he usually is also already a bit tired of treats so he doesn't respond to them.

Forced naps and time outs also don't seem to be efficient since he already doesn't like his crate much, so putting him there after 30 minutes of being free (meals, pee, some training) seems counter productive?

Have news about your puppy? Updates or Questions that don't need their own post? Wags that just can't wait? Or anything you wish to discuss about your pup and pup raising experience? Ask or post them here!

Please upvote this post for visibility if you enjoy the thread!

Hi all,

New poster and soon to be new dog owner... as in, have never had a dog before. We’re expecting to get a puppy in the next few weeks, and while I’m lurking to cover off on everything that I can plan for, I can’t find any posts relevant to this specific situation so thought I would ask.

We will have our dog for about 6 weeks before my kid goes to sleepaway camp for the summer. He’ll be gone almost 2 months.

On one hand, this is good timing as I’ll have more time and headspace to be able to focus on puppy training, socialization, etc. On the other, I’m worried (perhaps without warrant) that when my kid comes back from camp, they will have missed a crucial bonding period.

Am I overthinking this?

Thanks in advance.

I recently adopted a 6 month old puppy from a rescue. She had parvo before I got her so I suspect she didn't get outside much in the last few months. This has made her a bit shy about, well, everything.

My main concern is that she has been bathroom retentive, I've yet to get her to potty outside, she's gone a few times on the only carpet in the house (now no longer allowed off lead in that room) and once on the bed. I caught her about to poop inside, stopped her and she successfully went outside (tried praise, but she was distracted) she later had about 2 poops worth of loose stool at the pet store.

I'm curious if anyone has had this particular issue before and any tips to help her understand that outside is the place to potty. I take her out every 1-2 hours as well as after meals to give her s walk out at least 5-10 minutes to attempt to potty.

I think she might just get overwhelmed with distractions outside as she's still in the "everything is new" phase.

I've had 5 dogs in the past, 3 started as puppies, none with this issue however.

Any advice will help.

Hey! My girlfriend has had her dog for about 2 and 1/2 years, she got her when she was just 8 weeks. I've been with her for that whole time and then some, so the dog knows and loves me. I adopted my puppy about 3 months ago. Hes about 6 months old now and I want to have them meet soon so they can start to get used to eachother, as my girlfriend and I want to live together at some point. Can anyone give me some advice on how to make this go as smoothly as possible? We've already decided to to a quiet, neutral location. Thanks so much for your help and time!

Got a new puppy 2 weeks ago tomorrow(10 weeks), and it’s been going great, i was so prepared for puppy blues because i remember that’s how i felt when i got my very first dog. it was extremely overwhelming so i really prepared myself even more this time around and i think i over prepared and now i have all this knowledge and opinions of trainers telling me what dogs “need” and i feel like i’m not doing enough with her.

She’s in training to be a psychiatric service dog and i spend about 30 mins/1 hour a day practicing commands with her. i feed her 2-3 times a day depending on our routine/what she gets fed that day. She’s on a pretty consistent routine/schedule. i take her everywhere with me because she’s still very small and i’m able to carry her all around giving more chances for desensitization & socialization. She has plenty of puzzle toys & kong-like toys and i feel like that’s where a lot of my guilt lies, i feel like i’m guilty for giving her a toy to get treats out of or a chew just so i can have some alone time which i know is important to teach. But i tend to avoid direct playtime with her often because of her puppy biting or resort to pull toys/toys where my hand will be further away from her mouth and ultimately resort to a bully stick or her kong tire to redirect the biting completely. idk im not feeling overwhelmed or depressed about a new puppy. i just want to do the very best i can and i feel like i could do more even though im doing the most and i’m driving myself crazy.

Needing advice on what to do about my puppy’s 5am get ups.

So she used to sleep right through until 6:30-7 and then she would wake up and start barking for attention, me or my partner would go downstairs and let her out and then usually we would just lay on sofa as it wasn’t that early and she would go back to sleep (sometimes we’d drift off for a hour or so depending on work days) so this was fine I didn’t feel like it was much of an issue but then my work shifts changed and I get up at 5am occasional days but now every single day she will get up at 5am barking for one of us to go and lay on sofa - which is what we stupidly do just for a bit of peace

Basically I just need advice on how to stop her wanting us to go sleep on sofa at 5am - she won’t stop barking but do we just need to push through or is there a better method??

No judgement please we know we’ve made this mess for ourselves!

TIA

We have a 14 week old puppy. We are crate training because she eats everything and cannot be left alone or with no supervision (we are more concerned about her health than furniture because she likes to chew on plastics and paper and doesn't want to chew on toys for more than a few minutes). We do all her main meals and naps inside the crate, never use it as a punishment. And it wasn't that big of a deal for her after a week or two - if she is sleepy and we put her in she would stay, after meals sometimes she fell asleep with no fuss. Until a few days ago. Now she doesn't want to be inside the crate no matter how tired she is. She is barking, whining and digging into her bedding. It feels like a torture to me watching her like that. I don't know what went wrong :(

I want to feed my dog more organic he’s 3 months old and hates his kibble I’m buying fresh pet tonight to get him going transfer to fresh pet and adding a multivitamin for puppies i bought zesty paw s for each meal, please share your thoughts

My puppy, 8 months, is going to be spending a few days with a dog sitter later this week.

My puppy usually sleeps inside of his crate, on a dog bed. I like it this way because it makes our home routine really clear for him and me. I also have a very strict role that he is never ever allowed on the bed. My bed must be clean in order for me to be comfortable in it, and he is not a clean creature.

He is amazing about never getting on my bed, even when I leave him home alone. I love this about him. He's such a good boy.

The dog sitter has expressed that she would like him to sleep in her bed with her. At her house. Not mine.

I'm wondering, will this confuse him about whether or not it's okay to get on a bed? Does the change in the location and the caregiver help him to distinguish that it's okay to get on her bed but not mine? Or should I just tell this dog sitter that I would like her to not have him on her bed?

TIA!

hi everyone so i am getting a puppy in a few days & am making a 2 1/2 hr drive to get her. I am very excited but nervous. she’s 9 weeks old so she does not have all her shots yet to be safe outside. But my question is about on the drive home, do i not make a stop for her to potty but i can’t because she’s not protected yet? do i need to bring her crate to keep her in in case of an accident? how can i prepare for a potty safely and without her being stressed? thank you in advance! <3

Wondering if anyone else has encountered this and has any suggestions!

Our pup (just reached 6 mo) is odd about his food, which is proving difficult as he needs 4-5cups kibble + at least 1 can of wet food every day to meet his calorie needs. (Currently around 70lbs, American bulldog/shepherd/mutt mix)

He seems concerned if we give him what he seems to think is too much food and will either refuse to eat, or try to bury it (in his blankets) for later.

We had to cut his breakfast down from 2c to 1.5c to get him to finish it - if we give him 2 he'll usually eat 1c at most.

If he refuses to eat I can get him to eat 70% of the time by taking a handful out of his bowl at a time and either handfeed it or place it on the floor in front of him - but if I put the entire bowl worth on the floor in front of him he'll act upset again and refuse to eat.

Smaller, more frequent meals often still result in needing to put a handful down at a time to get him to eat.

Any thoughts on what's driving the need for the handfuls of food and not a bowlful? He's erring on the skinny side so trying to throw calories at his face whenever we can.

Hi there! I would really appreciate some advice on the subject. For more context, we have an 8 month old puppy half Chihuahua (male) and we've just gotten a 2 month old puppy (female) from a shelter. We've been doing great with our 8th month old and saw this other rescued puppy in need of a new home. Since our Chihuahua loves socializing with dogs and gets pretty excited when going on walks, we thought it would be a great idea to find him a little sister and so we did 2 days ago.

Long story short, he didn't like her at all when introducing her. Next day they kind of existed around each other but mainly bc my Chihuahua pretty much ignored her. Later that day, when she tried getting close to him, he growled and tried to bite her and of course, she got really scared and had to comfort her. My 8th month old it's not usually like this but I understand he might feel jealous and threatened by her in some way. I diced to give him some space at night and created a sort of crave for her but not exactly like it, it's more like a couple of boxes surrounding an area where she usually sleeps so at night our dog can sleep in our bed and she can be sleeping, peeing or playing in the middle of the night if that's what she prefers. I added toys, blankets etc. Do you think this might help? I'm honestly worried about both pups safety and health. Do you have any other advice for me? Do you think we made a mistake by adopting another puppy so soon?

Please only honest and helpful comments. I really worried about them and want them to be relaxed and happy.

Thank you!

My 5 month old puppy has not had any accidents at my apartment in about a month! However, every time I take her to my parents’ house, she always poops on their carpet.

Feeding time and amount stays the same. I still take her out with the same schedule. Any tips?

My puppy (we’ve had for 3 weeks) is super intelligent and obedient however she HATES her crate, but only at night. If I put her in during the day no issue but when we try and sleep she yelps like shes being hurt. I dont know how to solve this. We have a heart beat pillow and everything in there.

Basically what the title says! I currently have a just turned 3 month old huskey/collie/german shepherd mix and would love to know your personal favorite and least favorite thing about when your baby was a teenager!

Can't wait to see what to look forward to and what to look out for!

Hello, I just got an 11 week old welsh terrier. She is my third dog. When we got her, her and her littermates were in a kennel.

I’ve done everything, play with her before bed, feed her in the kennel, she has the heart beat puppy, one of my T shirts, and she works on a frozen kong there is puppy soothing music playing on the tv. Doesn’t matter. she screams. not even whining it’s screaming. it’s getting to the point where’s she’s lodging her snout and paws into the crate.

I sleep on the second floor, her crate is on the first floor. I am really trying to avoid putting the crate in my room because i’ve seen it make separation anxiety worse. I have just been sitting in front of her crate on the couch staring at her until she quiets down. i reward her and then she falls asleep and i go upstairs. Am i doing this wrong? Am i being too tough on her?

I took off work to get her and train her for the first few days. I tried to pop her in the crate for a quick thirty minute errand and she screamed the whole time. whole time. (i have a camera watching the crate) tmrw i have work and im planning to check on her every three hours. I am worried, sleep deprived and feel like im doing this all wrong and she’s not happy with me.

Please help. I’m almost in tears stressing out. I don’t want a noise complaint or HOA fees. Or the worst case scenario, an unhappy dog who resents me.

Hey! I have a 7 month old bernedoodle puppy who I crate during the night and when I am away (3-4 hours at most). She goes into her crate on command and gets rewards, and we have done crate games. She does fine at night when the blanket goes down. She is in my room and when morning hits, if she hears me get up the whining starts. It's usually when I get into the bathroom and shut the door that she goes crazy with her whining. Also, when I leave her in the crate during even short periods of time, she is always whining. Specially, when I am in the room. I ensure she doesn't need food and has gone potty, but she whines regardless. She also whines when have her in "place" and she has to stay on her mat. She is allowed to stand, sit, lay down, and play as long as she stays on her "place." I am just not sure what to do to help her whining and would love suggestions.

Things I Do: crate games, rewards in crate, toy for when bored, wait to let out until quiet

Side Note: I know some people are against crating their dog, but I weighted the options, and crating is the best option for us. Her safety is my first priority and I'm not going to put her at risk of swallowing a foreign object or chewing on power cords if she gets bored. We have done test trials of her roaming while I leave the room for short periods of time. We are working up to full freedom, but until I can trust her to be alone, I am going to keep her safe by crating her.

Tell me if this is too much. Or if there's a better place to post this. Or if I should just delete it. I'm just in an absolute state of shock and I just. Don't know how to feel right now. Mostly I feel terrible but just.. shocked.

I'll try not to make this too long. I was out walking my puppy. We were doing a sniff walk. My neighborhood is pretty dead around 5pm. It's also raining and gross. Well, one of my neighbor's dogs, down the block, got out of the backyard. The fence wasn't latched. A flurry of events happen, I go to move my puppy and block him from the dog. I'm handling it, ready to snatch up my 43lb puppy, blocking the dog. The neighbor eventually comes out, calling his dog, reassuring me he's friendly. I'm like "Mmm, sure, okay." Still staying between dogs, monitoring the interaction.

His dog play bows, my dog play bows, I'm trying to move along and keep my puppy from an on leash greeting, but play ensues between dogs. My neighbor is apologizing for the scare and wants to chat with me. I'm awkwardly trying to move along. Dogs are trying to play.

Then his dog has a seizure. They're playing and suddenly, his dog seizes. It gets back up, we're staring at one another like "What just happened?" Then his dog seizes again and just. Drops dead. In an instant.

Suddenly I'm left standing awkwardly, managing my puppy, as his whole family comes running outside because he's yelling for his wife and son. Wife starts crying hysterically, he's trying to perform CPR, I'm standing there. In absolute shock. I apologize over and over "I'm so sorry that happened, he just started having seizures. I'm so sorry for your sudden loss."

His wife explained that he's had seizures on and off for years. Crying, the whole family is in hysterics, while I just stare on with my puppy. I eventually said "I'm so sorry this has happened. I feel really uncomfortable standing here with my puppy. I'm going to leave you to process everything that just happened." Then.. then I left. Walked home.

Now I'm home. Just going. What the actual fuck just happened? I feel terrible for their sudden loss. My last dog had to be put down because he had seizures.

I've never, in my 29 years on this earth, experienced the series of events that I did today. I've experienced some wild shit in my life. I'm a manager in retail. I've seen and been through some real shit. This just.. floors me. I'm trying not to feel like it's my fault he suddenly seized. That's not a rational train of thought. I'm also not sure how I'm ever going to pass through that portion of the neighborhood again.

All I can say is. What the fuck? Just happened?