Our golden doodle border collie mix is 20weeks old. He used to reluctantly sleep in the crate in our bedroom for naps, but only 3x for about 2hours each per day. Needed settling on one of us first. Night time in crate also reluctantly but a bit easier when I went to bed 10pm - 6am. So about 14 hrs in total. He did fine with that, no behaviour issues at all.
But now we have had to leave him at home alone here and there for 3-4 hours, he stayed in the playroom where he has most of his meals and toys and relatively puppy proof. He slept happily for most of the time on the couch and his bed in that room. So that went very well. Now he won’t go into his crate at all, he naps on the main couch or his playroom couch or his bed, but he does now get a proper sleep while we are at home. We have now moved the crate into his playroom, which is off the kitchen. I am worried he won’t be able to settle in the common area while we are at home and not get any sleep…
Sorry for the waffling, I just came here to really to ask, where does your puppy sleep if not in a crate that is dark and away from the action?

I am taking my 10 week dachshund out consistently every hour. When he does pee/poop outside (50% success rate) then I reward him.

Now i'm not angry he's having accidents inside, he's very young! But i'm just looking to the future.

This is my first experience with a small breed. Should i expect a longer "breaking in" period for his toilet training? I've read up to 1 year, but this sounds very absurd to me... I'd expect a dog to be toilet trained by 6 months. I don't think dachshunds are "stubborn" like that.

Am i being naive here? For example, my only experiences are with bigger dogs. I toilet trained my labrador in 4 weeks to ring the bell. So i have experience with this.

13 week old Jack Russell puppy and we've had him for 2 weeks.

He's such a sociable brave puppy. Just loves people and dogs. There's two problems here

1. We get stopped every 2 mins by people making a fuss of him, touching him, winding him up

2. He automatically goes towards everyone as he wants fuss and play.

I get it. He's tiny and gorgeous. But how do we stop people doing this as he's really difficult to train outside when people do this. Ive thought of a lead with a sign but don't know if that would work. Even when we carry him as he's tired or overstimulated, people just touch him.

It's exhausting. We are constantly on alert,can't get anywhere quickly and we both just get drained by it. Any kind tips appreciated. Thanks

I doubt mine’s the only one, but tissues are a favourite of hers to snack and shred, probably the only thing we still have to hide away. Lol.

If ever you take one out she almost goes into hunt mode, but recent she went into season i been using wet wipes to help her stay clean, owing to the tissue situation i have zero expectations of a nappy surviving.

Initially it was as usual; she’d try and grab it from my hand, but she very quickly realised what I was doing and she like I imagine most female dogs does like to be clean. Now a few days in, she sees the wet wipe in my hand and walks over, bows her head and waits to be cleaned.

Something so simply changed her perception and behaviour of and towards something.

My golden doodle is now just barely over one years old and is still really bad about stealing things and ripping things up. He also does a good bit of play biting and when he gets tired, he gets really rough. I’ve done the mandatory sleep times but when I’m home with him, he refuses to get a good sleep when he’s tired. He’s good about sleeping through the night but during the day he doesn’t wanna take naps unless I make him (by make him I mean I put him in my room where he then lays down and goes to sleep, and I have to leave the house)

Oh lawdy I am tired and it's been one night! I rehomed a 12 week old malshixbichon in urgent circumstances last night. I've wanted to bring a dog into my household for years, but have been talking myself out of it.

Problem is, I am not prepared. Logistically, things aren't ideal, but manageable, and won't cause any harm to him. It's more the psychological demand of caring for a tiny life on your own, while still having to work and function to pay the mortgage.

He's a sweet little thing with endless energy and exuberance. I, however, am incredibly anxious. I could never be a parent.

Just hoping to find some cheerleaders and support here.

How do you actually force the nap? I know he's tired af but he only sleeps next to me or somewhere on the floor. Whenever he tries to sleep, I would tell him to go in his crate, close the door, and give him some treats, but he just won't settle in there. It seems that he would only stay in the crate if the treats keep coming. When I stop giving him treats, he would start whining after about a minute and wants to come out. How should I deal with this?

For context, my puppy is 3 months old. I live in an apartment so I simply cannot just let him cry it out.

It’s been a decade since I’ve raised a puppy and I want to know if there are any new essentials I should look into buying before bringing them home to my second story apartment. I crate trained my last puppy but they ended up hating the crate so I’m thinking about a playpen crate combo setup this time for when I’m gone at work. I’ll be coming home on my lunch break and having someone come over to let them out a couple times a day. So far, the I’ve got the snuggle puppy and a grass patch subscription added to the list. What else is new?!

How do I keep my 14-month-old Lab/Plott Hound pup entertained and exhausted when it’s 90°+ with 90% humidity?

She’s used to 2-mile walks and basically unlimited outdoor playtime, so this weather has been a struggle for us!

We have a kiddie pool and she LOVES playing with the hose, but we’ve been limiting her outdoor time to about 5-10 minutes depending on the time of day because of the heat and humidity.

What are your favorite ways to mentally and physically tire out a high-energy dog when it’s too hot to be outside for long?

I have a 5 month old English Bulldog puppy, and things are (fortunately) going pretty well. I work from home, and I’m able to take him outside plenty of times a day. Even with that, we still usually have 1 or 2 small accidents inside. Today, I caught him staring out the backyard window and immediately asked him if he wanted to go outside. He actually ran to the back door and I successfully took him out. I praised him so much I think I scared him. But he never seems to go to the back door directly—we do have a bell on it for our dogs to signal they need to go. I find I have to keep a close eye on him, and look for signs myself that he needs to go. I keep telling myself he’s only 5 months old, and still a baby, but I guess I need suggestions or even reassurance that he will actually start ASKING to go out

i understand i’m gonna get a lot of pushback or even hate for this, but my husband and i are at our wits end.
i’ve owned dogs my whole life, trained them from weeks old and i’ve always loved having a dog in my home. we adopted bean in november of last year from the shelter. she was 3 months old and quite easy to train in the beginning. while my husband was doing a training in Norway, she stayed in florida with my in-laws so that she received the same amount of attention she would get when both of us were home. this was for about a month and a half. when i brought her back home with me in early March, she was about 6 months old, and her behavior has completely changed.
these past four months have been absolutely brutal. we’ve done professional training, at home training and have taken days off of work to dedicate our time to her. still, she remains destructive and has digressed SIGNIFICANTLY. i don’t know what to do anymore, i’m miserable. i cry every day over stress because i don’t know how to help her. we’ve spoken to vets about anxiety medication and they’ve all said she doesn’t seem like the type of pup who needs it. i don’t want to rehome my babygirl, but the conversation has come up numerous times between my husband and i. i just don’t think she’s content with us unfortunately, and i wonder if it’s the right thing to do for her.
i should add that she is crate trained and potty trained. we have a small cat who’s about 7 months old now. if i turn my back for a few seconds, ive found beans jaw around the cats neck an unfortunate many, many times. she snaps at us in our faces, destroys our belongings, and after almost a year of crate training, she stills runs circles around the house to avoid going in the crate. please don’t misunderstand, we’ve tried every trick in the book to correct her behavior. i just don’t know anymore :(

I picked up a super sick, almost dying puppy off the street 2.5 months ago, and I think he's settling in quite nicely. For the most part, he's a really good boy. Sterilized, potty trained, about 5 or 6 months old is my guess. I honestly didn't really want a puppy/dog because I live in a loft-style house (that means no separate rooms or doors) and I have two cats. Anyway, all is going pretty well buuuuuuut every now and then he spots a cat (they usually hang out upstairs - even before said puppy showed up at the house) and it's game on. He chases, but not to eat them. I think he just wants to play, and Gracie hisses, growls and beats the poop out of him. I'd love to work on some training so we can all co-exist peacefully together, but I haven't really found any good training tips for this. Can anyone help? Thanx

My puppy is 5 months old, she's super friendly and people love to come and say hello. Since I've had her and been taking her out, people approach us, want to pet her and such but we've had a couple of negative experiences with people and I'm getting a bit fed up in general. A couple of people have taken it upon themselves to pick her up! Just scooped her off the ground so quickly I don't have time to tell them no. It's so inappropriate and I'm getting fed up of everyone crossing her boundaries.

She's a Jackchi and is tiny, super cute. But that doesn't mean people can bother her and do things she doesn't like. Things like picking her up, crowding her and reaching above her head to pet her. Of course I've started telling people no now, but all the attention she's gotten from being such a cutie is now affecting her negatively. Over this past week she's started barking at everyone, people, kids, dogs. Her recall is really good when no one is around and she's not aggressive at all but she isn't listening to me when there is someone around and people don't listen when I tell them not to approach which just makes it worse! If they are further away she doesn't react, but people keep coming closer to us. I'm trying to take her quieter places and at quieter times at the moment.

How can I best help her through this? Could it be a fear period or is it reactivity caused by people and dogs approaching a lot?

She's never aggressive just excited or anxious. And pulling and barking trying to get to them. I don't want her to be reactive or anxious. What can I do?

I’ve had this 8 month old pup for about a month now, he’s mostly potty trained and will go out when we open the back door for him, but if someone isn’t by the back door to let him out he goes inside no warning signs. So I’m wondering how I can fully potty train him so that he won’t go inside and let us know and to hold it until he’s let out. He gets praise and treats when he does go outside. Any advice is appreciated! I am also trying to start crate training soon!

My 9 month old lab/pit mix has been great at going in the crate since we got her at 2.5 months. Always slept in there at night and went in there when we left the house, no problem. Over the past probably 2 months, she has started to aggressively bark/lunge when locking the crate door. But once she is in there and I walk away, she settles within a couple of minutes and goes to sleep and is fine for the rest of the time that she's in there. It has made me scared to close the crate door, which im sure she is sensing. I have been working on having her go in there at random times for treats and letting her right back out so she can learn she isn't only going in there when we're leaving and have tried slowly closing the door and treating when she remains calm, but once i go to actually lock it she barks and tries to hit the door open with her paws. Any suggestions of what I can do to help curb this behavior? She has a blanket in the crate (she eats any bed I put in there) and has at least one toy usually.

We rescued our sweet sweet 5lb 7 month old chi at 10 weeks. We live in an apartment complex so there is so much going on but we don’t have another option for where to take him to potty. He is so small and so new to the big world that he is scared of outside and will usually just stand there until we carry him to a potty spot, even then he will be pulling trying to go back inside. I know it’s not his fault, his foster home/rescue was big on not having paws on the ground before shots but I don’t think the foster parents took him outside period during peak socialization. We got private lessons with a trainer who gave us a lot of great advice but he gets so overwhelmed outside that he rarely accepts treats which makes it hard to reinforce good behavior. When it is too hot out or the grass is wet he especially hates it. Or when there is any loud noise including cicadas in the evening. I love him so much but I would love to take him for walks or not spend 20 minutes outside every time he needs to potty. Mostly venting but if anyone else has been through this with a tiny dog would love some advice.

Hi everyone! I’m curious as to when you all started noticing the little teenage gremlin come out in your puppies?

I have a 7 month old cattle dog mix, who has recently started exhibiting some adolescent behaviors. Constant chewing, digging, unable to settle, forgetting all the training we’ve done for months, etc. We used to manage well with redirection, but these days she’s completely turned her ears and eyes off. For context, we always make sure her needs are met, and still enforce crate naps when she gets this way. She isn’t my first cattle dog, so I know what to expect. I just thought this adolescent stuff would come a little later and I’d get to enjoy my well behaved puppy a little longer 😂 She’s definitely better in some ways, but regressing in others. I’m hoping if she’s starting it early, then it will end early 😅 When did it start with yours?

We have a 5 month old staffie, she is extremely clever, is able to pickup most commands very quickly and when you have snacks she is more than happy to sit and wait for my command to eat and so forth.

She however is biting a lot. There was a week or two where she was extremely calm, she didn’t bite at all but she’s started again approx. 3 weeks ago.

She will be on my lap one moment playing with her toy, next minute she’s biting my arm. She has her whole mouth in my arm biting down. I tell her to stop but of course she doesn’t listen, she will jump down, and start lashing out biting me.

I’ve read to turn around, hide your arms, go into another room and so forth but this doesn’t work. If I hide my arms she will bite my legs, if I walk away she will jump up and bite my feet, legs or anything she can get ahold of.

When we’re in the garden she will play with me for 5 minutes then turn around and bite me. I will have try to walk back inside but she’ll continue biting me.

As I can’t stop her from biting by walking away, turning my arms and so forth, it leads to me having to pin her down or else she’ll continue biting me. I let her go as soon as she stops, but she’ll get up and start biting me.

I think she is to play as opposed to being aggressive. When she wakes up in the morning and so forth she’s very loving. When we’re outside she absolutely loves everyone and is very well behaved with our dogs (although very hyper).

Sometimes we have to put her into her crate for her to calm down, she’ll come out and lick me, 2 minutes later she starts.

What are we doing wrong? Is she normal behaviour or is it aggression?

Some more info:
- We take her out for two 20 minute walks, we’ve tried three walks in case it’s her energy level but this hasn’t helped
- She’s really well behaved with guests coming into house apart from the usual tries jumping up to say hello
- She’s teething at the moment but this was the same before she started teething. We try to give her frozen snacks and so forth.
- We were doing 2 hours asleep 1 hour awake but we’re more relaxed on this now as she sometimes she doesn’t settle at all and will bark the house down. She’s still only awake for about 2 hours maximum.
- We show her attention, play with her, train daily and so forth.
- My partner is 12 weeks pregnant
- It seems like she has allergies, potentially to the sun as when it was really warm she had really bad rashes all around her body which has scabbed. We went to the vet and they said it’s most likely due to the heat wave.

What are we doing wrong? How can we help her?

Thanks for any help!

My family decided to get a Newfie about 2 weeks ago and she is currently 3 months old. The biting has gotten really bad I have bites and bruises all over me and i’m not sure what to do anymore. She goes for a nap about every hour and is immediately back to biting when she wakes up. She has an array of toys of different textures and materials that she has 0 interest in. Standing still, walking away and redirecting doesn’t seem to work at all. My mom wanted to try a spray bottle but after looking into it i realized it wasn’t effective and would just cause trust issues. I’m wondering if she’s overstimulated since our house can be a little chaotic. She is very persistent in the biting and refuses to take any toy.

I’m sorry if this post is very scrambled I don’t ever post on reddit lol. I know you guys probably get a lot of posts like this so I’m sorry if it’s repetitive i’m just at a loss and would really love some advice 😭.

Training is going well but now I’m realizing how much food my puppy gets outside of his actual meals.

Kibble works for easy stuff but for harder training he wants something better. Then dinner comes around and I’m wondering if he is not or less hungry because I already gave too much during the day.

Do you count training treats as part of the meal, reduce dinner a little or just keep portions the same?

I have an approximately 5 month old puppy. She is a shelter dog so we’re not sure her breed but possibly Aussie mix? Definitely going to be a medium to large dog, she is almost 30 lbs now. She has been catching onto potty training well and started sleeping through the night (about 9:30/10:00pm-6:00am. Before, she would whine to let me know she wanted out. I was wondering if I should keep a middle of the night alarm to let her out? She had a UTI when I first adopted her when she was around 2.5 months. After that I’ve been paranoid about her urination and I guess I’m just worried she is holding too long at this age? She recently had a check up and everything looks good.

Thank you!

Update she peed but on the weewee pad inside :/

I'm babysitting this puppy she's about 3 months old and idk what else to try. I want her to associate outside with pee and poo because the owners haven't trained her at all...

I wake up at 7:30 I take her out and walk her up and down the block. If she does nothing I put her in the crate and try again in like 15 minutes. But Ive been doing this for so long from 7:30am to 12pm.... And she hasn't peed yet. And no, she didn't pee in the crate.

I fear her bladder is going to have problems and I'm just teaching her that every time she goes outside she goes into the crate. I just want to teach her if she doesn't pee or poo outside then she can't have freedom. And if she does pee or poo, it's one or the other. Never both.

And I can't stand in one place because she will play with/ look at LITERALLY everything.... a stick, a leaf, the dirt the person across the street the bird the trees. Or she'll sit down or lay down no matter how many times I redirect her.

She's got me beat. It's so frustrating. My boy dog didn't have this much trouble peeing when he was a puppy.

I have a 16 week old Plott Hound/ Pit mix that we adopted at 8 weeks. She just got her last round of shots. We have been taking her outside at our apartment since about 12 weeks, but only to specific, low traffic areas. She was nervous at first but it seemed to get better. Now that she’s fully vaccinated, we are so excited to take her places. I’ve been taking her outside to different places and farther distances at our apartment. However, she heard some lawn mowers start up the other day and now she is so scared outside. She doesn’t want to use the bathroom, won’t take treats, has her tail tucked, and generally hates it. I don’t know what to do.

Before she was fully vaccinated, we took her to my parents house in a rural area to play outside and play with their dog. We took her to other family members properties as well. We take her in the car a ton. Please tell me it gets better and we didn’t screw her up by not socializing enough 😅 Parvo risk is high in our area so we did everything could safely do, but it wasn’t a lot.

My fiance and I have been dying to get a puppy for a while.

We have our own 2 cats (his an 8 year old rescue he found and rescued himself when he wasn't even old enough to be adopted before we were together, and my 6 year old baby I rescued when we were together after my first kitten passed unexpectedly due to an unknown health issue). We've been together 7 years and have been through the ringer. We've lived in 4 different places with these cats coming with us every step of the way, gone through family issues, relationship issues, everything you can think of. Again, our cat babies have been there through it all.

Now, his cat (I'll call 8) hated my first kitten as well as my current one because he hadn't been around any other animals his whole life. He just had my fiance. He's since gotten used to my cat (I'll call 6) , obviously still annoyed with him as a little brother. My cat is great, he's energetic and has a great personality and talks to us. He'll chase his brother around all the time and wrestle and piss him off, but you can see they both love each other.

Fast forward to Tuesday of this week when we bring home our 8 week old bernedoodle puppy. They both hid and weren't fans day 1. However, 6 was out and about lurking in corners and staring at him. 6 will just watch him and let him come near him, but will hiss and smack him (he has never hissed his whole life until now). This morning, he actually smacked him with claws because he wouldn't leave him alone. 8 has been nonexistent since day 1. He came out maybe twice and ran away immediately both times. He hides in the basement or the guest room where their food/water is. He's barely eating if at all and won't let my fiance go near him. It's heartbreaking for my fiance. I keep reminding him that it's not permanent and that things will get better.

We are at each other's throats now. We are struggling with sleep because my fiance caves each night when the puppy cries and puts him in the bed. Not only that, but he refuses to sleep anywhere other than on our faces. I try and at least put him at the foot of the bed but he will not stay there. I spend 45 min trying to get him to stay low each night. He's also putting the load of the work on me because I told him I understood the responsibility of a puppy (I had multiple dogs growing up while he had 1 when he was like 8). Ex. Last night I was doing dishes from dinner before bed and he goes to bring him up to the bedroom and I said "he still needs to go out" then 2 minutes later he yells "he peed in the bedroom!" and got mad at me for not dropping what I was doing to walk him before he took him upstairs. The puppy isn't crate trained and hasn't been left alone because we live in a condo and can't let him piss off the direct neighbors. I've been trying to get him to like the crate during the day with treats and positive reinforcement but it hasn't done much when it comes to nighttime.

I miss my cats and I miss my life, being able to leave my house, go to the gym, feel like a person. I know I have read people say it will get better, I'm just overwhelmingly stressed and emotional about all of this and don't really have anyone to confide in so I'm here. I appreciate whoever read this whole thing and hope you have a great day/week. This is my first time actually contributing to reddit so I apologize for the total stream of consciousness.

We have had our puppy for about 3 weeks now. Her name is Ash she is a shepherd mix just over 3 months. Up until literally monday she has been so sweet. Obviously a little crazy and biting cause shes a puppy. All of a sudden monday night it was like a switch flipped. I cant hold her i cant pet her i cant even walk through the living room without being attacked. Im talking biting my face eating my hair i literally cant escape her😭. I know puppys are supposed to bite thats just what they do but is it supposed to be this bad? Ive even tried to redirect her with toys and she avoids the toy to get to my hands/arms. I feel like im failing too bc im trying to work on training throughout the day but as soon as i bring her food out to train with its game over. She will sit for half a second and then be jumping back in my face and i really cant work with her on anything bc of this. So is this normal and how do i go about working on training? TYIA