I love my dog. I love my dog. I love my dog.

BIG sigh

He’s almost 5mo and we’ve been working really hard to discourage destructive behaviors and providing him lots of options for mental stimulation. It’s been going decently well all things consider imo. HOWEVER my younger sister just moved in with me and my roommate last weekend and while she’s been around lots of puppies, it’s been a while since she’s lived with one. A plumber came over today without calling us first and she just happened to be home to let them do their work but she had to deal with our puppy and older dog. She put the older dog that belongs to my roommate in my roommate’s room and my puppy in his play pen. Easy peasy. Problem solved. Except it’s right near our water heater that they needed to check. So she moved him into my room… where he has a crate… that she didn’t use… so one of my shoes gets demolished. I’m surprised there wasn’t more of a mess in there but she said she only left him in there for maybe a minute before the plumbers left. She works early early mornings and often comes home right after and sleeps. She woke up to deal with the plumbers and so when they left she went back to sleep? I had to wake her up a bit ago to ask about what happened because in the doorway to my room there was carpet pieces EVERYWHERE. The whole doorway section was shredded and ripped up. If we leave the dogs out in the house we close all the other doors and sweep through to make sure everything is put away or out of reach and usually provide a source of entertainment/ stimulation before walking away but my door was open when I came home and found this. She was half asleep when I was talking to her and said she was pretty sure she closed my door and put the puppy in his pen before going back to sleep but clearly something went wrong.

I’m not necessarily mad at her or the puppy, more so just frustrated and mad at the situation. And that fact that this is a rental… god help me. Kissing the security deposit goodbye as we speak :’(

I’m very frustrated because my puppy is throwing tantrums over his new food. He was on the Beneful Healthy Puppy food before and it was working out great, but I wanted to move him over to Purina One because it’s more easily accessible and that’s what I wanted to get him as adult food. Well, apparently he’s not the biggest fan of the food change, which is frustrating because he eats everything. I can hand feed him the food and he’ll eat it happily, but the moment it goes into the bowl, he’s ready for war. He’s taken to pushing the bowl to the back of his kennel or flipping it to get my attention and then barking because he’s spilled water on his kennel floor and won’t lay down.

We called the vet and she said that he’s just being stubborn and that healthy puppies won’t starve and to leave the food with him. I’ve tried everything to make it more enticing, but he’s just not having it. I don’t wanna give in to his tantrums but it’s also not fun cleaning the kennel every feeding.

My pot cake puppy is about to turn 7 months old and is still focused on biting me even when I think she isn't overstimulated or tired. I will take her on a walk and then come home and as soon as I sit down she will bite. Or she will be lounging on the bed with my partner and I come and lay down and she will bite. I have tried remaining consistent and telling her too bad and giving no attention or pushing her away and giving a toy but nothing has changed. Will this go away with time?

I work from home and I think me being home all day is the reason my puppy can’t rest. She’s almost 6-months old and has never slept for more than 60-90 min at a time, by the time it’s 8 or 9 pm she’s clearly exhausted and will fall asleep for 12+ hours. The only reason she even wakes up in the morning is because I’m up. She’s a light sleeper and any movement I make wakes her up and she doesn’t really settle again afterwards and will whine and whine to be let out of her crate even if it’s only been 30 min. Once she’s up she wants to be up and won’t sleep again for at least another 1.5-2 hrs later. This doesn’t bother me so much during the weekends but during the weekday it’s really hard to be interrupted so much. I do place training and she will stay on her bed next to me while I throw her kibble but I’m having a hard time focusing doing this and I’m not sure how subtle I’m being when I do it during meetings and I really don’t want to come off as unprofessional. I’ve realized that when I leave is the only time she seems to fall asleep easily and actually stays asleep. The problem is I don’t really have a reason to go anywhere for 2-3 hours at a time everyday. She’s much better behaved when she sleeps more during the day but I can’t figure out how to get her to sleep longer while I’m home. I try my hardest to sit still at my desk but I feel like a prisoner in my own home that can’t even get up to use the bathroom. I’ve tried putting her in a different room and covering the crate and playing white noise for her but she can still always tell if I move around. I’m thinking I need to start letting her whine when she wakes up from her naps until at least 2 hours are up but I’ve worked so hard with crate training and she still barely tolerates it I don’t want to set her back.

My puppy came home last weekend was potty trained to go in the garden. I don't have the luxury of being able to take her outside due to parvo so have been trying to get her to go in the bathroom. There is fake grass in there and pee pads but she just won't go. I spend the day going back and forth between her crate, playpen and the bathroom and I worry that I am now giving her anxiety over going to go potty. I am really just trying to avoid accidents.

She'll go in her playpen but that wasn't really the plan for it. I was hoping it would me more a space for independent play. Should I just make that the potty area so she gets confident again?

How do you get them to go? PLEASE HELP. My poor pup.

hey there. just looking for some guidance on my 22-week labrador pup. i've always had labs (4 including him) - two black and two fox red - and have always found them playful pups and placid dogs. my second lab was a rescue and he exhibited some aggression relating to trauma he'd suffered in his previous home, but with plenty love and patience (and the help of my older dog at the time), he quickly settled and became incredibly gentle and loyal. he sadly passed away this summer, so i got a new pup to keep my other lab company.

my newest addition is wired to the moon. i think he's very intelligent and he really enjoys training, but he has been in this phase of aggression - barking, growling, biting, lunging for any part of me he can clamp his land shark jaws on - for the last 2-3 months. he repeatedly instigates fights with my other dog, unprovoked, and becomes more aggressive the more i try to diffuse the situation. i've tried distracting him with toys or treats, turning my back on him, i've tried separating the two to give them a timeout. nothing seems to work longer than a couple tries. my brother adopted his litter mate, and the pups would spend every second of every visit just brawling, to the point where we can't meet up with them anymore.

he is routinely fed and walked to the park where he can run around and burn lots of energy. he is house trained, happily crate trained and (when he's not bickering with me) will go into bed on command. he is still teething, which i'm hoping will mean this is only temporary. i think he is a really great dog, i've just never had such a problem with aggression before, especially not in a lab. i guess i'm just hoping there's light at the end of the tunnel, maybe if someone has had similar experience.

thanks in advance. :)

Our puppy came home exactly two weeks ago.

It’s been hard, yes - but I think it’s been ‘manageable’. He’s 10 weeks old, he’s settled in his crate, he is fine being left alone for 0-2 hours (we watch via camera), he’s slowly getting the hang of potty, and is learning various things.

The issues arise when I am at work. My wife cannot deal with him. He plays up, he’s more difficult, and he’s just mad and doesn’t seem to listen to her.

I can barely even shower without coming back downstairs to a completely different vibe. I’m struggling because, for me, he’s difficult but I can see he’s learning. But, when I’m not there, it’s like he’s a different, unlawful pup that doesn’t listen.

My wife keeps saying she can’t do it, but I can’t do it on my own. Has anyone experienced this?

My baby is almost 4 months and I got him at 9weeks. First week was hell. I was ready to give him back in 24 hours. I even posted on here and shambles and tears. This is my first “single” dog. Meaning the other dog I have is the family dog. I thought I would have this down pack because I helped raised out 9 week beagle and she’s a handful. But I failed to realize that there was help and everything wasn’t just on me. Anyways! I have a shih poo and he has improved sooo much. He’s so smart. He’s completely potty trained. he doesn’t bite me as much. lol. He sleeps through the entire night! I had bags under my eyes the first week because he was waking up every 1.5-2 hours. Now he sleeps ALL night . I wake him up when I get up for work between 7:30-8. What helped? And I know I may get backlash, but I stopped “enforcing naps every two hours” . He goes to sleep on his own during the day which is still pretty often but it isn’t me forcing him too. He plays and tires himself out, and then plop down and sleep for about 2-3 hours at a time. I also stopped all food and water by 8pm. GAME CHANGER.(Sometimes I’ll just limit the water if he seems really thirsty). Those two things helped so much in his attitude and MY sleep. I’m sorry I need sleep! lol all to say is .. it gets better. And DO WHATS BEST FOR YOU! Take what Reddit says with a grain of salt. Take what works for you and put back what doesn’t. Once I stopped trying to follow every rule on here, the stress slowing started fading away.

I have a mini Aussie who is 8 months old, I got her at 5 months. I started kennel training her about two weeks ago, a little late to the game I know. I normally put her in her kennel while I’m at work 4 days of the week and let her free roam whenever I’m home. I recently tried putting her in at night but she barked the entire time and I got annoyed and let her out. I thought with how much time she spends in the kennel during the day (about 9 hours) she would be getting used to it by now.

Do I need to start putting her in the kennel on my days off as well? It is 3 days that she doesn’t go inside so maybe that is the problem.

Edit: I come home periodically throughout the day, atleast 3 times, to let her out so she’s not in the kennel for 9 hours straight. The longest she’s in is probably 3 hours but I try to come home every 1.5 hours. I also have a long lunch so I take her out for the majority of it and play with her.

When and how did you transition your puppy from sleeping in crate to be sleeping free at night? Our puppy (6mo) is doing so fine in his crate next to bed at night, but would love for him to be able to sleep free. But he can jump on our bed where he’s completely unable to chill, and in general will just wander around …

Is there a rough guideline for how far a growing puppy should walk? My 5 month (Beagle) has been walking 1 mile daily for about 1.5 months. When is it okay to up the distance, and how far is OK while still being safe for growing bones, joints. Thanks!

Hello everyone. I have a puppy at 10 weeks old and we live in an apartment building in a busy area with lots of other dogs being walked. I don’t have a balcony, and he’s only had his first round of vaccines. I am hesitant to use pee pads cause I feel that may work now, but not in the long run.

Should I not consider taking him outside to potty train? Should I do it regardless, but avoid other dogs? I would say everywhere in the nearby surrounding area has seen dogs regularly going potty regularly.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

We brought home the puppy about two weeks ago, my older dog was very unimpressed for the first week. They've been warming up to each other a lot but the older dog growls when he wants to be left alone and snapped at the puppy a couple times when he wouldn't leave him alone. Now the older dog wants to play but the puppy runs away or just rolls on his back, the puppy still tries to play with him but its when the older dog starts playing he growls so puppy thinks he's telling him off? Is this normal and they'll work it out?

We must own the craziest puppy in town. She is a six month old cockapoo and is testing her limits so bad, I am at my wits end. We had a dog trainer come in when she was 3 months old and everything she learned seems to have left her mind. She still bites, rarely listens to her name, destroys carpet, furniture, clothing, nothing is save. Nothing can be left out. If she finds a piece of paper, it has to die. We have another cockapoo who is the sweetest dog. They play a lot together, we have toys and play times, nap times etc. Any training is met with resistance unless a lot of treats are involved. They are rarely left home alone. Two days ago she started digging in the backyard. She just got spayed a week ago and is digging outside, elbows deep in mud with a fresh scar. Now she can only go outside on a leash. Our trainer said she is probably bored. How can she be bored?! Is this ever going to get better, or do crazy puppies turn into crazy adults? We have raised several dogs, but I have never encountered such resistance to training.

What methods you use to potty train? she is 4 months old and will not use the pee pads, she will find the smallest space where the pee pad isn’t and PEEE& POOP!!she hates the leash to go outside she starts jumping and spiraling it scares me. So i take it off 😭

I've got a wonderful (sometimes crazy), extremely friendly male border terrier. His biggest issue is that he is too over excited and friendly. He wants to be meet every dog or even person who says hello. For 1.5 years we have been trying to work on this with varying levels of success.

But just now for the first time ever, as we were walking past a big golden retriever, he cowered away and tried to walk the other direction. It was a lovely friendly dog, which makes it all the more weird. My dog has been barked at, growled at, snapped at, yet he still tries to be friends with them all. So it's strange that for the first time ever, he's not tried to meet another dog.

I'm hoping this is not the start of something. We recently moved to a busier area and he's been a little stressed with the move and new environment, but he did grow up here when he was a small puppy, so it's not completely new to him. Hopefully he is adjusting and he just had a bad vibe from this one dog. I tend to avoid on lead interactions anyway, but of course sometimes you need to walk past someone on a path. I'm not very knowledgable on fearful behaviour because for his whole life I've had to deal with overexcited behaviour and all the problems that brings.

Anyone had this happen? Also any tips on keeping my dog calm or is it just a case of giving him time to adjust?

So my bf wants to get a puppy, specifically a golden retriever. He's always grown up with dogs and I'm pretty sure I'm on board. My only hesitancy is that I've never had a dog or really been around dogs my whole life (personally more of a cat person), although I do love all animals, but I also have a 4 year old cat who I've had since she was 12 weeks old and she is *severely* co-dependent and is very possessive of my attention (the vet has even put her on anxiety medication for when I have to leave for more than a day or two).

She's the sweetest thing with people, however she can not be around other cats at all or it will end badly. I know when she was in a foster home she was around puppies and dogs and got along great but that was so long ago.

I'm wondering if any of you have any solid advice on how to navigate this possible transition? If we adopt a puppy I want to make sure he comes into a safe and comfortable home but I also want to minimize any sense of threat my cat might feel and want her to remain feeling fully comfortable in her home and not change her regular behavior permanently.

Hi all, my dog is now 13 months so please feel free to redirect me if she's too old for Puppy101.

Anyway, 13 months Irish Setter who's generally fairly well behaved, a bit mad and quite mouthy but friendly and affectionate.

She's in week two of her first season, and all of a sudden has started to very aggressively guard her bed in her crate. Never really seen her growl or snarl before but now she is doing both and quite aggressively snapping at us.

She can access her crate and bed whenever she wants, but sometimes chews and pulls the stuffing out of it. We've always just been able to take the bed away and hide it for a bit while we fix it, but now she is guarding it very aggressively. This has happened three or four times now.

Is aggression part of heat? Anyone experienced anything similar and have any advice? My plan is to restrict access to her bed for a while to avoid confrontation, as I don't want her to practise the behaviour, and will also ring the vet for their guidance, but would appreciate any wisdom to help ensure I don't do the wrong thing or excaserbate the behaviour.

Thanks in advance

For context, my 5 month pit/coonhood/misc. mix has been actively teething for at least a month now. Most of the teeth have come out fine, no concerns there.

However, she currently has two complete sets of canines. Top and bottom--puppy and adult tooth are both fully grown in.

She doesn't seem to be in any particular pain, still eating and chewing like normal, but I'm starting to worry about the potential need for extraction. And before anyone says "they can just take them out at spay," she's already been spayed, so we have no plans to put her under for anything at this time.

Basically, my question is, when do we see the vet about this? 6 months? 8? And if you have any pro tips to encourage those little buggers out naturally, please let me know. While I certainly can afford an extraction, I'd like to avoid it if at all possible.

So im a teen, i live in a smallish house (this info will later make sense) and about 4 days ago i got my first puppy who is 2 months old. Ive been having some ups and downs related to them and thats why i made this post.

Also i apologize if the flair is wrong, there werent any question related flairs!

For a starter, i share 2 cats and a bunny whos mainly in a large cage, and ive decided with my mother (who has trained 2 dogs before) that letting the pup be in my room only at the moment. Me and my mum share a room, im on a bigger proper bed and shes on an air matress, all of the time the puppy can free roam in my room, we cant really potty train the pup at the moment as its pretty cold outside, and we tried to take her for a walk outside 3 days ago, but the puppy was too interested in the surroundings and ended up being pretty cold and shivering so we took her inside and wrapped her in a blanket. We dont have any jackets for the pup at the moment but are planning to. So far we havent let her outside anymore and decided to start potty training next week as im going to be home alone this weekend (at the moment the puppy does all their business rly nicely on those pads that go on the floor)

The question with that is, any tips for going outside with this weather? And how to teach them to do it only outside as we cant be outside for more than 5 minutes to avoid her starting to shiver from the cold.

Currently our routine is waking up at around 10am, cuddling/napping until 12pm, food at 12pm, calmly the first 60 minutes to be sure their stomach doesent get twisted, then playtime as much as they want until 3pm, around 3pm is next feeding, calmly, playfully and then napping until 9pm, ood, and then sleep time. Currently the puppy sleeps with my mum in her bed at night and at cuddling or napping time in the morning shes with me in my mums bed.

Here is where i really need help, how do i get her not so attached to me? If im outside of my room for 10 secs or more shell start whining and scratching at the door, the only time that doesent happen is if shes occupied aka with my mother in the room. We cant really let her roam in the other rooms beacause of the cats, we dont know how theyll get along (yes im aware of a house line, but my mums not so sure on using it), and the other rooms are not puppy proofed (we have alot of stuff so its hard to puppy proof, we dont have alot of cabinets or storage spots)

Random note: my room is fully puppy proof, wide range of toys, no cages or pens as we had a pen until yesterday beacause it didnt have a good affect on the pup, causing her stress and big seperation anxiety (even if she was right next to my bed with it), could hardly get her to calm down in it if she was awake. And she doesent only get fed the food from those plastic packets, also kibble every time the bowl gets empty as she doesent eat it as much.

And thats about it! It was a long post as i put all the possible details. If you have any questions, tips, answers, tell them in the comments please!

So I have a 7 month old Great Pyr and Australian / German shepherd mix. He likes to bark and everything. We try calling his name, and it does not work. On walks, if he starts barking, I will tug on his leash and tell him “no” but it doesn’t stop either. It is getting to the point where I’m almost embarrassed to take him out. He’s a very sweet puppy, he loves other people and dogs, but only if he’s up close to them, he sees anyone walking by or at a distance, he looks intimidating. I got him socialized at a young age, but it’s hard to do that now with the fear of him barking at everyone. What do I do here? I have been praising him for not barking at people, or when he stops, but it does not stick.

These past 2 weeks have been rough with my 4/5 month old puppy regressing in potty training. I dread walking him because he yanks and lunges on his leash, especially when dogs and people pass, and is so hyperactive outside. It didn't start like that. He finishes his puzzles and snuffle may quickly. He gets quiet inside more quickly now and I enforce crate naps that he doesn't seem to sleep long in; if I move, he's awake and if I have the house- forget about it. But the potty regression and walks are so tiresome. Last night he pooped in his crate and smushed it EVERYWHERE. Pushed it outside of the crate, on every side of the gate, really high too. I'm out of my mind today.

We adopted a labrador puppy 2 weeks ago - he is now 4 months and i was wondering if it is normal for him not to like being left alone? Even if I leave the room and close the door to grab something from another room he will just sit at the door barking

Flying from Paris to North Carolina (9 hours) with my 5 month old Chihuahua mix puppy next month. She will be in the cabin with me in her carrier. We’ll be staying for a few months so she’ll have a lot of time to settle in before we have to fly again.

Does anyone have tips for flying with a puppy? What has worked best for you? Most of my friends with dogs say they sleep the whole time - I’m just super nervous and have never done this before. Since we’re in a big city, she’s used to the metro, trains, etc. - but 9 hours is a long time!

Hey all,

This is my second puppy and I'm at a loss for what's going on with this little guy. I know puppies won't be fully house trained for a while but we seem to be going backwards. Our little guy is a 10 week old Saint Bernard. We've had him for about a week and a half. He doesn't poo inside, so I'm pretty sure he knows not to. We've had days where we have zero accidents. We take him out AT LEAST once an hour, sometimes more when we see him sniffing.

The last few days he will be outside, come in and take a pee on the floor in front of us, usually three times. (Pee, tell him no, take him out, pees outside, praise, inside, 5 minutes later pees on the floor, repeat).

He's completely crate trained with no accidents in there, so I'm worried he's not differentiating outside the crate with outside the house? All hardwood, so it's not rug/grass confusion. Any ideas or advice?

I have a nearly 7 month old beagle crate trained from 8 weeks old. Recently he is more reluctant to go down for his day naps while my partner and I work from home. Unfortunately he has the hardest time in the crate when he cannot hear me in the house in the morning while I try to get all the domestic chores done. This is a 1915 bungalow, there is nowhere in the house he could be crated where he wouldn't hear the creaks of the floorboards while I am going about morning chores.

I am growing more and more frustrated that he not only is napping less in the morning, but will howl in the crate for longer periods of time. It is worse if I leave his crate open and leave him in the kitchen because I have to do chores like laundry where I pass through the kitchen or I have cleaning to do in the kitchen. He used to wake up to me working in there then I would hear him snoring within 10 minutes, but that's not the case anymore.

Our morning routine is to go potty at 6:30, hang out for an hour or more of quiet time while we wake up in the living room, then I will do at least 2 activities each for mental and physical exercise. So if we do a training session where I have him moving around a lot it counts as 1 for mental and 1 for physical. Usually this has tired him out quite a bit for his morning nap in the past. Then we eat breakfast together, he chugs water, another potty break, and then naptime. We do the same routine midday and after work, with plenty of mental and physical exercise to keep him happy.

He used to only nap in the crate because he would get so overstimulated, so we have a routine of a morning, afternoon, and evening nap established in the crate. He's making it overnight from a 10pm last call potty to 6-6:30am when I get up. He is definitely living a happy life and I'm glad to see that, besides this whole teen phase thing. I don't see any warning signs for his health and he has been to the vet recently. Great health.

I am most frustrated that I have to take extra time now to make sure his needs are met. It's taking away from my creative work in the afternoon since I have to now do up to half the chores I should have completed in the morning since he's resting less in the morning. I think I've done everything I can and I'm starting to be at my wit's end not being able to do what I need to do everyday more and more as he gets worse and worse in the mornings. I feel I have sacrificed enough especially in the early months where I got no sleep, so how come he's the one not sleeping suddenly? I don't know what to do.

I want to start this by saying I had already discussed this with my vet and she was okay with it, but I just want to be sure!

I have an 11 week old puppy & he has had 2 parvo shots (1 at 6 weeks and 1 at 9 weeks) he will be getting his 3rd round on the 27th.

My husband and I are planning on visiting our families for thanksgiving out of town. My parents and his brother both have dogs. We are planning to bring the puppy, but I’m nervous about him being around other dogs without being fully vaccinated.

All of the dogs he will be interacting with are fully vaccinated and we have been reassured they will not come to thanksgiving if their dogs are sick.

My vet isn’t worried about this interaction since our puppy will have 3 shots by then and the other dogs are fully vaccinated. Should I be worried?

Hi! My furry menace is 7 months old now and I'd like to start working with him on a job to see if it will help settle some of his bad behaviors (food stealing being the worse). Anyway, I have no idea what a good job his breed would be and I'd love suggestions! Thanks!

I know it’s a misleading title, but literally, when I am training my 5-month old Pom with instructions, he doesn’t listen to me. He learns to sit and lie down now, but apparently he doesn’t match my instruction with the behavior. He would randomly sit and lie down whenever he wants treat, and sometimes when I speaks he has no action. So the training session now is kind of like:

• I don’t give out instructions for five seconds.
• He looked at me for 5 seconds and if he doesn’t randomly sit or lie
• I randomly say “lie down” or “sit down”
• I wait three seconds. If he doesn’t move, or do the right thing, I move on to a different position. If he does it, gives treat and to a different position.

However in this way he seems to be frustrated sometimes and would eventually become unresponsive to any of my instruction, or when he is listening, he just knows I am “saying something,” and he would randomly sit or lie, and he knows he would get treat eventually sometimes. I don’t know if this would actually work.

My 8 1/2 month old apbt/gsp mix has been eating costco “Natures Domain” puppy food and never had an issue until the past few days. She seems disinterested in eating but will eat treats, her sisters adult dog food, and anything else she finds around the house lol. Any suggestions on getting her to eat the costco food or should i just take the loss and switch?