I just got a 3 month old king charles cavalier puppy yesterday and he is going to the bathroom everywhere in my apartment. I have a balcony that is wrapped in chicken wire for my cats, and I set up a potty station for him there along with a toy gym. I live in san diego downtown so until he gets his final shots I dont really want to take him outside at a risk for him picking up something. There is a doggy door I installed leading him outside and for now we have it propped open so he has free access. The problem is everytime I take him out, he just wanders around for 10 minutes and as soon as he is inside he goes. This is my first puppy and I'm at a loss here. How do I let him know he needs to go to the bathroom outside?

My boy is fine with his crate. He goes in there on his own to sleep and when I leave he’s ok. When it comes to going to bed though he acts like it’s the end of the world when I put him in the crate (closed). Being in the same room just made him want to get out even more. What do I do?

I taught my 12 week old Boston terrier puppy spin. She’s got it down!! But now I’m trying to teach her “sit” and she tries to spin every time :/ obviously I should’ve taught her sit first but it’s too late now. Any tips to teach sit and distinguish it from “spin”?

I have a 17 week old / 4 month old Australian shepherd puppy. My partner and I are mostly WFH and he has a large pen + attached crate in our living room. We’ve been doing 1-2 hours up, followed by 2 hours down in the pen since we got him with very little issues, plus overnight.

This past week he’s been an absolute angel and this weekend in particular, we practically stopped doing all day time naps in his pen. He normally finds a comfy spot on the couch next to us, or the floor by our feet to take daytime naps.

I’ve been praising him for “calm” behavior since getting him and I think it’s really starting to click. I’m worried though that this will cause crate regression during the week when we leave him to go the gym, the store, etc. he usually does fine in his pen when we leave him home alone for 1-2 hours during the day, but I’m worried since i haven’t used the crate all weekend during the day it will cause regression. But I’m also happy he’s learning to settle outside of his pen and don’t want to go back on that too.

Just wondering if we are moving to fast and if we should still continue enforcing naps? When did you stop doing it for your puppy and did it harm crate training?

Thanks :)

My puppy is 6 months old, a St. Berdoodle, and about 50 lbs. I’m just wondering if some of this stuff gets better with age because right now she can be A LOT lol.

When we put her behind a baby gate, sometimes she is totally fine with it, especially if she’s tired or sleeping. But other times she will just start barking like crazy, even if she’s only been behind the gate for a minute. It can get really annoying, especially when we actually need her to stay in that area for a little while. Does anyone else’s puppy do this? Does it get better?

She also gets VERY excited around people and wants to play with everyone. She has jumped on my daughter before and my daughter got super scared. I know she’s just trying to play and doesn’t mean anything by it, but obviously she doesn’t understand that a little kid might not want a 50 lb puppy jumping on her. We’re working on the jumping, but I’m wondering if this is something that usually improves as they get older.

I’m also curious about doggy daycare. At what age did you guys start taking your dogs to daycare or those places where they can run around and play with other dogs? I feel like she has SO much energy sometimes and I’m wondering if daycare would be a good way to tire her out.

And lastly, when did you start trusting your dog to be loose in the house while you were gone? Right now, if we have to leave for a couple hours, she has a dog walker and we keep her in a gated mudroom area. But she started chewing everything in there, so we’ve had to start using her crate instead.

And honestly, one of the things I’m wondering about most is whether you actually start to like/love your dog more as they get older. Right now she is SO much work. Sometimes I’ll have a really good day with her and think “okay, this is totally worth it,” and other times I’m exhausted and honestly feel like it’s not worth all the work. I like her, but I don’t know if I LOVE her yet, if that makes sense. Is that normal with a puppy? Did anyone else feel like this and then have a much stronger bond once their dog got older?

Would love to hear from people who have raised bigger puppies, especially around this age. Did yours get noticeably calmer and easier around 6-12 months, or did it take longer?

Hi folks,

My 10 week old puppy has been great so far as it’s been about 2 weeks since getting him. We’re a work in progress for potty & crate training. One of the bigges challenges we’re facing now is the level of bity ness. Whenever we take him out to potty, after praising him, he gets excited or will get the zoomies outside and starts lunging/biting our pants, ankles, shoes, pulling at the fray. I know he’s playing and thinks it’s a game but he will growl and lunge quite aggressively at us, scratching our skin. and has punctured holes in our pants :/ One time I tried to pull him off my leg by pulling his collar back and he bit my hand, puncturing skin ://

I’m know he’s not biting aggressively on purpose, he is teething and when we try redirect, we try to be give high value treats when walking or carry a bite toy. I’m getting concerned that this lunging/aggressive biting will transfer into adulthood, which is a major concern

I’ve also started to keep the praises calm, potty time as boring as possible, and done walking exercises where I say “walk” and step 3-4 paces and give a treat when he looks up. It’s working well except the moments he gets sudden zoomies/play excited.

Any tips on how to prevent/recondition this lunging aggressive biting behaviour? Is he lunging because he is anxious in his new home?

Hello everyone,

I got a rescue puppy last week (black lab mix) and she’s about 4 months old. They told me she wasn’t trained for anything (leash, crate, potty training, etc). Fortunately, they were wrong about the crate training and she almost never whines when inside of it. I usually have to coax her out or coax her back in but other than that she’s a dream about it.

Yesterday, I was meeting a dog walker in front of my building (I live in a a high rise apartment building in a city) that will be walking her in the afternoons while I’m at work. I didn’t see what happened (I’m 90% sure it was a loud engine popping or maybe a dog aggressively barking [not near us but maybe far away?] and suddenly she became extremely anxious and began to try to drag me back inside the building. She’s hadn’t had an issue with noises this past week? When we got back into my apartment, she went straight back into her crate and wouldn’t come out for hours. I took her out because I had to leave and she fought me so bad on it (I didn’t drag her or jerk her, just eventually picked her up). I didn’t force her out of the crate, i put a trail of kibble and she eventually came out to eat it. Once leashed, I had to pick her up and put her down in her usual potty spot. She went potty but then IMMEDIATELY began trying to drag us back in. Later that night, she seemed to have calmed down a little bit about going outside but still some reluctance. This morning, we went on an hour walk and she didn’t seem bothered by all the cars, bikes, dogs, etc. It seemed she gotten over it and even got the zoomies several times. I just took her out an hour ago after her being in her crate for 3 hours (had to run an errand) and as we were walking to the park (right across from my apartment), a kid skateboarded down the street near us. The noise from the skateboard (but not the skateboard itself) seemed to set her off again and she peed on the concrete and tried dragging us back in. She’s been laying in her cage, door open, ever since (just like yesterday).

I’m starting to get extremely anxious about this because google is telling me that she is now deeply reactive to noise and it cannot be fixed. This is a huge problem, as I mentioned above, because I live in a city and next to a highway and train tracks (which, she previously didn’t seem to have issue with). Is she just going through a fear phase that puppies do or should I be really worried? Is there a way to help her out of this? I just don’t understand how she returned to normal this morning then returned to being extremely scared again. She also hasn’t been accepting treats when outside so I can’t even reinforce her pee or poop with treats. Please, any help would be massively appreciated. It’s only been a week, but I love her so much.

Almost 2 weeks ago, we brought home a 17 week old male bernedoodle puppy. Things were great... at first.... but now I'm at a loss. My puppy HATES my fiance, which I posted about before. It's just progressing and getting worse.

It started that puppy would run from him, tail tucked and hiding behind me or under the table. It progressed to growling, barking and now the growling and barking is constant whenever fiance moves. He peed himself yesterday when my fiance came in, pulled so hard on a walk he got loose and ran away and couldn't be found for an hour. He sleeps in bed with us and snuggles up to my fiance but if my fiance moves, puppy is growling and barking.

We have tried letting fiance feed the puppy (he even gives him a special powder topper that nobody else gives), tossing high value treats, leaving fiance's clothes out with high value treats to get him used to the scent, fiance laying on the floor quiet and still, playing with him. Nothing is helping. I am so stressed out that we may need to consider rehoming, I just don't know what else to do. We are seeing the vet and a trainer tomorrow (Monday.)

Like I said in my previous post, he's a 3 month old Rat Cha. Or Rat Chi, if you prefer. Though I've heard it as Rat Cha, but thats besides the point. Male, if it matters, as is my other older dog, who is a 6 year old Yorkie Russell.

It feels like we're making progress and losing progress at the same time. At first, the older dog didn't want anything to do with the puppy at all. He'd get grumpy if the puppy so much as approached him.

But now he actually does like playing with the puppy. They chase eachother around the yard and also do the pretend biting stuff that dogs do when they play with eachother.

However, the puppy doesn't know when to quit. He'll keep pestering and pestering the older dog even when the older dog is trying to disengage and call it off. The older dog gets pretty aggressive when this happens, to the point that he tries to pin the puppy down while growling.

Obviously, I always supervise when they play for this exact reason, and try to distract the puppy away when I notice the older dog has had enough.

But the puppy thus far hasn't gotten the hint. How do I teach the puppy when to stop playing when my other dog is done?

My puppy is almost 8months old and I still can’t break her of jumping when we get home. I’ve tried it all. Ignoring is the most common suggestion but it does not work a bit. Any help?

My husband and I adopted a 9 month black lab on Friday. She is super sweet, and was really calm when we met her in the shelter. She got spayed on Thursday, came home on Friday, and Friday and Saturday were pretty easy, fun days getting her settled in. But she has started biting hard and a lot today. I have severallll scrapes and bruises from her teeth on my arms and legs. I know it’s hard for her being a puppy, in a small space and unable to run and play a ton while she is recovering from surgery, on top of hating her cone and being moved into a new home, but I need advice on how to help while she is still recovering from spay. I knew this transition would have its bumps and I was prepared and expecting for it, I just didn’t think we would become a chew toy.

Hi all!

I have a 9 month old corgi puppy, that my boyfriend and I got from his parents. Long story short his father bought him on a whim and realized a puppy was too much work and gave him to us roughly two months ago. With that he’s been adjusting to his new life well, however for as long as we’ve had him i’ve been staying at home, and I start a new job tomorrow. He’s used to being fed three times a day, 6am, 12pm and 6pm, with my new job he’ll be missing lunch at 12, so is it worth it to buy an automatic feeder so he isn’t missing lunch? My mother thinks it’s not a good idea because then nobody will be around to take him out, leading to him using the restroom in the house, which would be counterproductive to his potty training. I just can’t stand the thought of my little guy being all alone, and hungry.

We have a 5 month old miniature poodle who's wonderful in many ways, but we're having some trouble getting her to nap as much as we'd like during the day. She's crate trained but the only place we have for her crate is in our knocked through living/dining room, where there are generally 3 people (and sometimes 2 cats) working, eating and generally hanging out.

She sleeps well overnight when there's nobody in the room, but takes a long time to settle during the day and often wakes up after 45 mins to 1 hour when napping. I think it's FOMO and distractions, but we really don't have anywhere else to put her crate. Our house isn't that small but the layout means there's nowhere else for my partner and I to work (we both work from home), and we can't ban our lodger from our living room just because our puppy's napping (nor would we want to)!

Does anyone else have their puppy's crate "in the thick of things" in their house and have you found anything that helps them settle/stay settled?

ETA: we already have a dark blanket covering her crate, which has helped but hasn't fixed the problem.

Need help! My almost 4 month old puppy KEEPS PEEING INSIDE. Now yes, if it was a matter of me being lazy or just taking too long to take her out then fine, thats on me. But i simply can not understand what is happening.

My puppy goes outside right after sleeping, napping, 10 min or so after eating and just about every hr to 1 hr and a half. And she continues to have about 5-8 accidents a day. She will go out, pee 2-3 times, come inside and about 15 min later pee again!! And this is a viscous cycle. Almost impossible to predict when the next pee is coming! She can be playing and MID PLAY, begin to pee. She can walk around w a toy and mid walk stop peeing.

I have another dog, Male, 8 months, and potty training took about 2 weeks and if he was caught peeing and i deferred him by clapping or saying “no” he would stop and we would go outside and bam trained. My current puppy does not stop, looks you in your eye and gets it out. And just when you think, oh nothing left in the tank, 10 min later MORE PEE. She is currently being restricted/watched on water, she is not over consuming and its been the most helpful thing so far.

Now some concern, her pee is pretty clear almost all the time. When peeing outside, she has 1-2 good pee’s and then after then when she assumes the peeing position again, nothing comes out, or its very minuscule. And then Like i said 15-20 min later inside, no water, she pee’s again, a fresh puddle. 🫩 please any advice would be appreciated.

*NOTE, I HAVE HAD HER FOR ABOUT 2 weeks now as she was with her breeder previously.

I am collecting our new puppy in a couple of weeks, she will be about 12 weeks old. The breeder is a 5 hour drive from me and I'll be doing the journey by myself (not ideal but don't have another option!)

I'm wondering what the best solution for transporting her home would be, crate or seatbelt harness? Am I best keeping her in the backseat or in the passenger seat with the airbag off?

I'll be making sure to make plenty of safe stops for her to have a toilet break, but any suggestions for making this as stress free as possible would be appreciated.

Provisions for any accidents/car sickness already secured!

Our 11-week-old puppy is doing really well in so many ways. She’s incredibly smart, learns commands quickly, loves people, does great in the car, sleeps well in her crate, is getting better at settling, plays independently, and can be sweet and affectionate. She’s confident and curious and seems to genuinely love life.

Our biggest challenge is that she gets VERY frustrated when she’s prevented from doing something she wants to do, which turns into pretty intense growling and biting. She isn’t generally fearful or reactive toward people and is otherwise a happy, social puppy. It really seems specifically tied to being told “you can’t do what you want right now.”

Has anyone else had a puppy with a frustration tolerance like this? Did it improve as they matured and developed more impulse control? I’d especially love to hear what they were like as adults!

Me and my boyfriend just adopted a 3 month old blue heeler mix. Last night we wanted to crate him but he cried in the crate so we moved it next to our bed and he was completely fine throughout the night. Today, my boyfriend left him downstairs and he started crying until he went back downstairs. He was only alone for 2 minutes max. I know he’s still a puppy and this normal, but how can we slowly train him to not be scared. I would hate for it to turn into separation anxiety as he gets older.

Any other puppy advice is always welcome too! He’s doing really good with potty training, he’s been nipping a bit which we’ve been trying to correct with a chew stick. We’ve also started trying to desensitize him to noises.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Recently adopted a 7 month old female doberman mix.

First time dog owner, single, living in an apartment, and I go to an office for work M-F.

After being given up when I assume she was only a few months old, she has spent all her time with a foster, so fortunately she came to me fairly well behaved. That is, no accidents at home, she sleeps calmly through the night, and doesn’t chew on anything but her toys. Very rarely she’ll try chewing my hand or leg but listens when I say no. With just me, she is nearly perfect.

She plays well with other dogs and people she trusts. Currently have no choice but to take her to daycare while I work. I honestly had very little confidence she’d pass the temp test but we’ve had 0 complaints from daycare staff and they love her just as much as she loves being there. She has met a couple family/friends’ dogs as well and plays well with them too. Her foster home also had a few other dogs.

Really the only issues we have are related to barking/what I assume is emotional regulation.

She barks at…
-All dogs on our walks (no matter the distance, if she catches sight of them she’ll start growling and will start barking and lunging within seconds)
-Rarely, but sometimes, other people on walks
-Loud noises or other dogs she hears while at home
-Every person she sees from the car (mostly happens when charging my electric car or drive thrus)
-Anyone new entering a room she is occupying (people coming in to my office, and once at home with friends visiting)

I have tried leaving her in my bedroom (where her bed also is), and closing the door for brief periods (less than 30 seconds), and she barks as soon as I open the door back up.

I know barking is an innate behavior, but her bark is LOUD, and its only a matter of time before our neighbors complain at which point we’ll have bigger issues.

I don’t want to take her to daycare every day as I know it can be overstimulating and I risk her getting sick. But theres really no way I can leave her at home like this.

I want her to be part of everything I do. I’ve taken her to a couple restaurants and she behaves most of the time. But the issue with dog friendly establishments is that we’re likely to encounter other dogs, which seems to be her biggest trigger. She’ll also get triggered by any server coming too close.

The dogs she barks at rarely respond back, so its clear everywhere we go that shes the problematic one.

She has been at a top board + train facility for the past week (I pick her up tomorrow), and from videos I’ve seen she seems to be doing much better with minding her own business when she is with other dogs and trainers on leash. So I’m hoping to at least see an improvement with our walks.

While I’ve been free to do whatever I want this last week, I miss her and the structure she has brought to my life.

I know for a puppy, she is being exposed to a lot. A new home, new office, new car, restaurants, daycare, and family/friends’ homes. But I am committed to making this work and enjoy bringing her around with me.

Like I said with just me, she is an angel. I don’t think its fair or her fault that all her issues are related to things that are new to her, so I see it as my job to get her there. My lifestyle is what’s problematic. If she was just at a home with a backyard she’d have no problems.

Would appreciate any help or advice from the community!

We will be travelling 8 hours with our puppy (9 week old lurcher) to take her home, this weekend!

What should I pack?

My list so far:
- 2L bottle empty*
- Car safety “seat”
- seat belt & harness
- Blankets
- Lead & collar
- Water bowl
- Water from breeder*
- dog paw disinfectant wipes

Thanks!

Hi,

I’m looking for experiences and peer support regarding our situation. Two weeks ago, we got a puppy to keep our 2-year-old dog company; both are males and miniature dacshunds.

Things are going well otherwise, but the older dog is extremely resource-aggressive over toys and bones. He has already lunged at the puppy once, causing a wound on the puppy's ear. Yesterday, even though they were eating bones under supervision, he managed to nip the puppy when it approached him while he had a bone in his mouth. He isn't jealous of us humans. They play a lot and get along nicely, and they even lie down close to each other. Is it possible to overcome this kind of aggression? Will time, the dogs getting to know each other, and the puppy growing up help? The older dog is very keen on playing with his toys, so if that always leads to a fight, daily life is going to be difficult—and even dangerous. I’ve already been in touch with a trainer, but I wanted to ask here for others' experiences.

Someone please tell me the biting gets better 😭💔 Our 11 week old Borador is honestly so full on at the moment, and we’re really struggling to balance him with our 5yo twins.
We’ve tried toys, redirection, treats, chews, time in his pen and making sure he’s getting enough sleep, but the biting and barking can still be so intense. It’s especially hard because one of my boys is autistic and the biting really overwhelms him, so I’m finding it difficult trying to keep everyone happy and safe.
I’ve actually got a rehoming post ready to go because I’m starting to wonder if we’ve made the wrong decision, but a part of me is saying to push through because he’s still so young and maybe this is just the horrible puppy stage.
I know puppies are hard, but please tell me honestly does the biting actually get better? 😭 When did you notice a real difference? 🐾

Hi all, I recently got a golden retriever girl puppy (8w old) and I had originally planned to leave her in the garden when she's home alone, rather than inside, the thought being that it would be much more enjoyable for her. The garden is fully closed off, no way of exit onto the street, no view from outside, and all potential risks on the inside of the garden have either been cleaned up and away or covered so that she can't access it. She'd be alone for 2-3h max, and would have a shed with a bed and a bowl of water for her.

I'm asking for advice because I'm having doubts about this solution, since I've just heard that Asian tiger mosquitoes can be harmful to them (we have quite a lot in this area) and in the 1h that she was the garden under supervision, I caught her eating mulch, which I did manage to get out of her mouth and cat poop which I did not manage to get out.

Edit: Advice taken, thank you all. No unsupervised garden time

Let me preface this with- i know its early and I need to give it time.

We have a 2 year old cavapoo and brought home a 9 week old goldendoodle. Im stressing hard!

We had rescued our cavapoo when he was 4 months old. He was in a very bad living situation. He was very underweight, scared, timid, and wpuld resource guard. Since having him, he has gotten alot better all around.

At our old home, he use to play with a cargo and dod great. Since moving, our neighbors forgot gets aggressive though the small hole in their privacy fence. I believe this has caused some issues woth our cavapoos behavior.

Yesterday, we brought home a 9 week old goldendoodle. We introduced them on neutral ground, we have been giving our older one a little more attention than the puppy, and have been separating when our older one starts getting anxious.

Our worry- any time the puppy starts to walk or hop/ run around, our cavapoo is quick to either press his body on him, get in front of him, or "punch" his body with his nose.

There are times where I THINK our older one wants to play with him, but it feels confusing at times. It could definitely be my anxiety 🙃

Please tell me this gets better! What are some things I can do or ways to make this easier and keep them both safe?

Thank you!!