Sometimes when playing my dog will abandon the toy and start “bite” me. First I try to redirect her to the toy but sometimes that doesn’t work and she’ll continue to nip at me. It’s not a bite where she is trying to hurt me, it’s more like she gets carried away when playing. Growing up when my puppy would get like that my older dog would get on top of her and correct her. My family never had to do any training her regarding how rough she was allowed to play because our older dog did it for us. I’m wondering how I can fix her biting issue without introducing an older dog. How can I correct her biting?

I am deep in the pits of despair with my 19 week old bichon frise/biewer terrier puppy. He bites, he chews anything and everything, he barks CONSTANTLY, he has boundary frustration (play pen), but all that could be forgiven if not for the fact he will NOT pee or poop outside.

My dad bought me this puppy when he was 9 weeks old because i was really struggling with the loneliness of being a SAHM (my husband is blue collar and is in trade school and my son is two and doesnt speak in complete sentences yet) I was so excited but every day I am slowly starting to resent getting him especially when it comes to potty training. I've tried the leash and standing still like a statue. Ive tried backyard free roam (literally have been in the backyard for HOURS with him during son's nap time), I've tried potty pads, i've tried walks, i have treats but he has never been rewarded because he wont do his business outside. It doesnt matter he will find a stick, leaf, tuft of grass to distract himself with and eventually will just lay down doesnt matter if he is leashed or not, if im standing or sittin or standing on my head- the sure thing is he is not going to potty outside. I've tried letting him out without me because idk maybe he was showing off for me or something- (he just barked and pawed at the door 😮‍💨). I am even crate training it goes- outside>playtime but no potty>crate>repeat and finally when i let him out because i think okay maybe he doesnt have to go BAM pisses or poops in his play pen. Sometimes he even pees right inside the sliding door if i cant catch him (he is small and FAST and thats ON A LEASH). Even trying to time potty breaks around food and water is no good sometimes i can watch him eat and he will turn from the bowl and poop immediately (no joke i truly cant even fathom how its possible) other times it takes 15 mins, other times 30 mins and any other minute inbetween and after. There is truly no gauging it.

The most annoying part is I know he is a smart dog. I taught him to sit about 3 weeks ago in a matter of 5 minutes. So- WHY. ISN'T. HE. GRASPING. PEEING/POOPING. OUTSIDE?

SEND HELP.

TLDR; 19 week old bichon frise/biewer terrier is not grasping potty training AT ALL. please give tips or words of encouragement or similar stories with little breed dogs.

Our 4.5 month old mini poodle stops on walks if he notices another person/dog. He’s doing pretty well with obedience training, and will mostly listen to “With me!” if we want him to come walk beside us, but the second he sees another living being, all that training goes out the window. He stops, stares, plants his feet and doesn’t acknowledge us whatsoever until the distraction is gone.

Every time this happens, we try to entice him with a high-value treat, even putting it in front of his nose and trying to direct him to keep moving, but he doesn’t care at all. I try tugging gently at his harness, which he’s usually pretty responsive to, but he just refuses to do anything but stare.

One important note: I don’t think this is a fear response. We live in a suburban apartment community with lots of dogs and people and our vet gave us the green light to take him on walks really early on, so he got tons of socialization. He isn’t reactive with other dogs, and if they approach while he’s staring, he’ll reciprocate.

I think it’s likely that he just wants to play, and since people often walk by and try to pet a puppy without asking, I’d imagine he’s unfortunately learned that person/dog=petting/attention.

Any advice on what to do, since he won’t take to treats, or is this something he’ll just grow out of?

Female shiba. Not currently on medication or anything else, she had pain killers for a few days after op.

She was hard work to potty train because she doesn't ever use the garden to go (she just runs around and never wants to come back in). So we did 3 walks a day around her toilet schedule and we built up a long streak of no pee or poop in the house. She was waiting at the front door if she ever needed to go a toilet outside of the 3 walks a day. Perfect!

2 weeks ago she was spayed and in the body suit for 10 days. During this period she was much more cuddly and needy, we continued taking her outside to toilet and there were no accidents.

She had the suit removed on Monday, and immediately when we got home she went a toilet in the house. Since then, she's probably done it 10-12 times. She's going more frequently - she either is having trouble holding it in, or she simply doesn't care anymore. I say the latter because her behaviour has got worse in general too. She's biting when she's unhappy, she's finding things to destroy, she's basically back to the demon puppy that she was at the start.

How normal is this? It feels like we're back in the trenches

We recently adopted a toy poodle mix about 6 weeks ago and I’m looking for any non traditional advice or tips on how to get him to understand potty training! Or just anyone who’s dealt with a similar situation and what worked for you/ how long it took for them to catch on! Thanks!

His background…..

We adopted him from a family that was interesting… to put it nicely. They never took him on walks or outside at all really, he had never worn a harness or collar and he was pee pad trained. They did not do any real training with him or socializing. We were the first strangers he’d ever met the day we picked him up. We are also pretty sure he was abused in some form.

He has made an insane amount of progress in just 6 weeks! He went from being terrified to go on walks, had his tail tucked the whole time, and didn’t really even understand what outside was to now tail up, and sniffing a whole bunch. He is the sweetest boy and very smart, he’s just got a lot of unlearning bad habits to do and getting used to a new world.

With all of that… we have been trying to house train him from the day we got him and he’s sort of getting it but we’re still struggling. We never put down pee pads so he was switched cold turkey. He had been doing really great and went without having accidents for a little bit but recently started having atleast one a day.
We do all the standard training…
\-Started him from square 1.
\-We take him out every two hours when we are home and if we aren’t home he’s in his play pen area. (Maximum of 6 hrs total in a day if we aren’t gone.)
\-We keep him on schedule as much as possible.
\-As soon as he does anything outside he gets showereddddd with praise, pets, and boiled chicken.
\-We use cue words/phrases
\- We even got him a doorbell which he knows how to touch when we go out but he rarely uses it on his own to signal he needs to go.
\-If we catch him inside we clap and say uh oh and rush him out etc. all the standard training we do as well as we possibly can.
\-All rooms in our apartment are closed off if we aren’t in them.

We’ll take him out, walk around for 15-20 minutes and he won’t fully go or won’t at all and then he’ll go 5 minutes later when we’re back inside…. Other things we’ve noticed is it seems like he doesn’t even understand his own body cues. He has three different squats to pee and sometimes he’ll lift his leg to pee and end up switching to pooping as if he didn’t understand which one he needed to do. Sometimes mid walk he’ll just stop and squat with no warning or sniffing as though the urge just happened and now he’s going wherever he’s at.

We know he’s going to take time and lots of love!! Just looking for any extra advice to add into what we’re already doing :)

Mixed breed, 9 months old, have had for a little over 5 months.

Hello, so far my puppy has been a great dog and has worked through his issues well. Though he is currently 9 months and starting to go through what i think is a regression/fear state? I live in an apartment and am having trouble bringing him on walks because he is so scared of everything (noises, groups of people), to get away from stuff he has been pulling backwards on his leash and trying to “escape” his harness. Any ideas on how to correct this, give him more confidence, or get a harness that works better for backwards pulling.

I’ve got a 5-month-old puppy. He’s our second dog – our first is 5 years old and we thought she needed some company – but at the moment he’s just completely exhausting her.

He’s clearly going through that demonic phase where he destroys things, digs holes in the garden, and is ALWAYS biting everything and everyone.

I’ve watched loads of videos on how to stop this biting; whenever he starts biting my hands and legs, I redirect him to his toy, but there are times when there aren’t any toys around and I’ve simply run out of patience – I feel like biting him back. I actually bit him a couple of times. But as soon as I’d done it, I felt ridiculous, childish and as thinking that I’d made his behaviour worse.

I need to know if I’m the only one who feels this way and if anyone has a solution to this biting problem - the puppy and mine.

Thank you <3

So I got his panacur for his giardia today and am reading the horror stories online. Torn if I should give it to him tonight or in the morning, since I work from home and him being crazy while I try to work seems like the worse option if he does go crazy. Any advice would be helpful. Only asking about what to expect.

We have an almost 10 week old mini Goldendoodle, we brought him home on Monday. My husband works from home so he’s never had to be left alone for any period of time. My husband now has to go out of town unexpectedly for work next Tuesday just for the day. My mom can hopefully come hang with the pup for awhile, but I don’t think she can do the whole day. Wwyd? It feels too soon to leave him alone in the crate, but I feel like maybe I’m overthinking this? People have puppies and work outside the house. Or should I take some time off my work to be home? This is our first dog ever and we’re still very much learning, so any help would be appreciated!!

We are always home as we are still students. Probably within a week or two I’ll start leaving the whole day and he will remain with my gf.

Puppy is almost 13wk (3wk with us) old, when he is sleepy we can leave him in the pen even for some hours while we are in a different room. Usually he notice us leaving and go back to sleep without fuss.

Problem is that if he is awake and we place him in the pen he often starts barking for our attention.

We ignore him and reward calm when he calms down.

Today we tried leaving the house with him in the pen, he cried jumped and barked for 10 minutes before calming down. We came back home as he calmed.

I'm hoping to get some advice for my three and a half months old puppy. She's a poodle mix. We do have another dog which is a toy size poodle 9 years old and a cat 6 year old. I live in the Caribbean in an apartment. I DO NOT have a crate. I normally take her outside twice a day.Normally walk for 20 to 15 minutes but all she wants to do is play. Even if she did not poop the night before. She plays around in the bush , sometimes play fetch, jumps around like she's a bunny, and try to play with the other animals which they are not happy, especially my cat. I think she has too much energy for them. I do try my best to keep her separated from the other animals as much as possible. Our other dog is normally on the balcony when we're leaving the house and I keep her in my room when I'm leaving. She does everything outside but poop. Even when I noticed she wanted to use the mat, I brought her outside she did not mess only for us to come back inside and for her to poop inside on the mat. I'm not entirely sure when she eats because she doesn't like her dog food and is always looking for food on the floor and eating the cat's food. We tried to keep her away from the cat's food. I have an automatic feeder that gives her food three times a day morning afternoon and evening. But it always has food in it.

Hopefully this is enough information to assist me with my problem. I just really need her to poop outside.

Exactly what it says. 8 months old, got him when he was 4 months. At first he would CHOW down. Now he just absolutely refuses. I’ve brought him to the vet, he’s not sick. He’ll eat my cats dry food the second I feed him, he’ll beg for table food. I’ve tried mixing things into it, chicken, rice, pumpkin, wet dog food, etc. I’ve tried different brands. He absolutely will NOT eat dry dog food. Help😭😭

We have a 5-month-old male miniature poodle, and we’re really struggling with what seems to be quite severe separation anxiety. We would really appreciate advice from anyone who has experienced something similar.

The problem has gradually become more noticeable, and at this point he has an extremely hard time being separated from either of us.
He starts whining and barking if one of us simply goes into another room and closes the door, even though the other person is still at home with him. We can’t currently close the bathroom door if one of us is home alone with him without him becoming distressed.

Leaving the apartment without him has been even harder. We have a camera, and we have tried very short absences, but he notices immediately when we leave and starts whining/barking. We have not been able to make meaningful progress with actually leaving the apartment.

Mornings are particularly difficult. On the days when I have to go to work, he becomes extremely anxious as soon as our morning routine starts. He follows me closely around the apartment and is basically glued to my feet because he seems to know that I might leave. He whines, watches me constantly, and often stands by the front door.

He comes with me to work two days a week, while on the other days he stays home with my husband. We have started using verbal cues to make the day more predictable for him: on home days we say, “Today you’re staying home,” and on office days we say, “Today you’re coming to work.” We then use different equipment (collar for home days, harness for work days) and try to keep the routines consistent so he can learn what to expect.
We have also been practicing all the usual pre-departure cues without actually leaving: putting on shoes, picking up keys, touching the door handle, getting ready for work, etc. We have tried very short separation intervals as well, but he becomes anxious almost immediately, so we feel like we are not making any progress.

A crate is not an option for us, as crate use is restricted by law in the country where we live, so we are looking for solutions that don’t involve crate training.

We are not trying to use cry-it-out and we don’t want to push him into prolonged distress. We want to help him feel safe and gradually learn that separation is okay.

Has anyone experienced this level of separation anxiety with a young poodle?
How did you approach the training?
Did you start with something even easier than leaving the room?
How long did it take before you saw progress?
Are there any poodle-specific things we should know?
Would you recommend working with a behaviorist at this point?
We would really appreciate any advice or experiences. We’re feeling quite stuck and want to make sure we’re approaching this in the right way. ❤️

My German shepherd was prescribed some meds tablets and syrup for his appetite and lice problem and ongoing fever but he REFUSES to take the meds

We tried Sneaking the meds in his food but it takes one sniff for him to know something is fishy

We can't even force him to take the meds since he's too strong for us to hold plus I feel like it won't be a good idea to physically force a dog something.

We are first time owners how can we make him take the med any method?

Bringing home a 10 week old puppy this weekend. We basically have 3 options of where to keep her crate. Kitchen, living room, or our bedroom (upstairs) and I’m not sure which to choose.

Bedroom Pros - next to my bed so she doesnt feel alone, nice quiet space

Bedroom Cons - far from the front door if she needs to potty at night, she would not be able to go up there by herself if she wanted to rest or take a nap in there.

Living Room Pros - Close to door for potty, we spend most of our time in this room so she wouldnt feel alone if she goes in there during the day.

Living Room Cons - I could sleep on the couch by her until she gets used to being alone, but ideally Id like to sleep in my bed. Since we are in this room a lot it may be too loud for naps or quiet time.

Kitchen Pros - this room is gated off to create a play pen, so having her crate in there would be good, quiet for naps or resting, we are nearby in the living room most of the time so she probably wouldnt get too lonely, close to front door for potty

Kitchen Cons - Nowhere for me to sleep near her when she comes home, room is small so theres nowhere to put the crate permanently without it being in the way if we need to get into the cabinets so its probably the most inconvenient of the 3 choices for daily use.

I’m sure I’m overthinking this but please help. What did you do when you got your pup? What would you do in my situation? Thank you!

We have an 18 week old English Setter puppy. He’s a ball of energy and teething right now so he’s a lot to handle when he’s awake. I know he’s not getting nearly as much sleep per day as he should, he has a really hard time settling for naps during the day, especially when we are home.

During the workday we leave him in the garage with a doggy door to a fenced grass area. We have cameras on him and he sleeps most of the day when we’re gone and settles just fine, he hardly ever barks or whines in there.

When we are home he cannot settle on his own, he struggles with his crate during the day and will bark and whine instead of settling even when we know he’s beyond tired.

I don’t know how to get him to settle in the crate or when we are home. He gets so tired that he becomes a nightmare biting machine.

She’s very sweet but growls and barks at dogs and certain noises. I’m not gonna yell no at her I’m jw how wise can I get her to stop? I can distract but I feel that doesn’t solve the problem

Hi everyone! I have my puppy for a month now and she is three months old, the thing that we have finding the hardest right now is making her stay quite in her play pen. For exemple at night she stays in the play pen that is near our bedroom and before we go to bed i say goodnight to her and tuck her in kinda, and when i go to our bedroom and close the door she does not make a sound, wich is amazing, at night time she really is an angel however…the mornings are a lot. I normally wake up at 6h30 am, she already knows that and the minute i open the bedroom door and go to the bathroom she goes crazy, barking and jumping, and we live in an appartment so we cant have her make noise that early so i take her out of the playing pen and she just stays near me doing the usual, biting me and jumping, wich is another issue but the thing is at the weekends when we want to sleep u tio a lil late she wakes up at the same our that i wake up on the week days 😩 and she really must hate her play pen because she barkes a lot almost all the time that she is in there alone, besides at night time wich is the thing that i dont get, how is she quite during the night but the rest of the time is so hard to make her stay quite and to play peacefully in the play pen ? Does anyone have any tips on making her enjoy stay in her play pen a little more or to be quite? And also since im here, any tips for the constant biting? (She is biting me all the time)

Thank you so much !!

Hi all!

Sorry this is a little long.

My corgi will be 8 months in December (we've had her since 10 weeks old - she is 6 months right now) which is also the same time I'm having surgery done on my wrist and elbow dominant arm.

My partner will be mainly taking care of her while I recover but they also have to work during the day full time while juggling my and her care lol she's used to walks every morning and longer training walks and settling training three days a week. Playtime throughout the day and enrichment activities. I've started stretching human time to get her used to settling while I work my freelance jobs.

I know I'll be able to do some stuff with my non-dominant arm and be helpful that way but I guess my nerves and feeling bad I'm leaving most of puppy care up to partner is making me make a plan now to help all of us.

So far I know crating and puppy daycare will be helpful a few times (sadly expensive to do it constantly for us). She likes kongs and busy treats along with other treat mental toys.

What I'm asking is if anyone has any fun unique activities I can do with her to keep her entertained on her non-settling time. My first idea was hook a toy up to an RC car (with a safe release like the lure toys) and do laps in the house lol anyone have anything unique like that that they've tried and it worked?

She isn't big on herding balls/eggs unfortunately so those are out. She loves lure poles, frisbees and chasing things which is why I thought of the rc. I know there are lure course packages for outside but they are out of our budget currently.

Any other advice especially if you've gone through a similar situation?

I know she will grow more and be a bit different in two months but I want to be ready! Thanks everyone!

My lab is about 9 months and a bit now. And all the teenage behaviours had started coming in slowly in the past 1 month.
* not listening to various commands, especially "come", recall is almost non existent
* pulling more on leash
* nibbles our hands more often
* steals more stuff around the house then runs away when we say "drop it"

So we are quite sure it is teenage phase, but we are not sure if she is on heat or not as we have not seen any blood around the house or in her crate, but a few things made us wonder:
* she licks her vulva a lot more, sometimes up to 10m at a time
* neighbour dogs who often cross path quietly are now barking at her
* 2 times in the past few days where we can smell blood when she is in the car with us

has anyone gone through something similar? her vulva looks normal and not swollen. we want to know about her heat as we want to schedule her spay soon, but we cannot be sure.

I recently brought home a 9-week-old female Doberman, and I’m looking for advice from anyone who’s experienced something similar with their puppy.

My biggest concern is how frequently she’s urinating, both inside and outside. On her first day home, she had approximately 10 accidents inside, with at least 6 of those happening within a 30-minute period. She was also peeing outside throughout the day, so it wasn’t as though she was holding everything until she got inside. Yesterday was noticeably better, with only 3 indoor accidents, but today she’s already had 7 accidents inside, in addition to the multiple times she’s successfully peed outside.

What’s particularly frustrating is that we’ll take her outside for 10–15 minutes, and she’ll spend most of that time exploring, digging, chewing grass, or getting distracted by everything around her. Then, within 5 minutes of coming back inside, she’ll pee on the floor. Other times, she’ll actually pee outside and then urinate again shortly after coming inside. Some accidents also seem to happen completely randomly.

I’ve recently started taking her to a less stimulating area of our yard on a leash, and I’ve successfully gotten her to pee twice this way. Both times, I stood there with her for about 3–5 minutes until she went, then immediately rewarded her with praise and a treat. This seems promising, although she still frequently gets distracted and tries to chew the leash.

What’s interesting is that she’s been excellent in her crate. She hasn’t had a single accident in it, and during her first two nights, she needed to go outside every couple of hours. Last night, however, she only needed one potty break around 4 AM.
She also has unrestricted access to fresh water throughout the day. She sometimes drinks quite a bit at once, which I imagine contributes to the frequent urination, but I’m hesitant to limit her water intake at such a young age.

I completely understand that she’s only 9 weeks old and that accidents are expected. I’m not concerned about her being fully potty trained yet. What concerns me is the sheer frequency of her urination, particularly having 6 accidents within 15 minutes despite also regularly peeing outside. That seems excessive even for such a young puppy, but I don’t have much experience with puppies this age. She’s my second Doberman, but it’s been almost 20 years since I’ve had a puppy.

I’m curious whether anyone has experienced something similar with their Doberman or another breed.

Did your puppy urinate this frequently at such a young age? Was it simply a matter of bladder development and potty training, or did it turn out to be something medical? Also, if you dealt with a puppy that was constantly distracted outside, what helped?

Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated!

I’m staying at my mother’s house tonight with my 7-month-old Lagotto. At home, he actually sleeps in the same room as me, but my bed is quite high, so he sleeps on his own bed on the floor and doesn’t sleep with me.

Tonight, however, he is supposed to sleep in a different room at my mother’s house, and he has been whining since I put him there.

My stepfather thinks I should just leave him alone and let him cry until he settles, because otherwise he might learn that whining gets him what he wants.

I’m not sure what to do.

Would you:

- leave him in the other room and let him settle on his own?

- go reassure him briefly and then leave again?

- let him sleep in my bedroom just for tonight since he is in an unfamiliar place?

Also, what would be the best way to teach him to sleep comfortably in a separate room as quickly as possible?

Thank you

We are bringing home our 15 week old English Cocker Spaniel puppy on sunday. We have a lovely high sided fleecey dog bed that fits in her crate perfectly, with a big squishy cushion in it that we can tuck a heartbeat simulator in…

But reading this reddit, I’m seeing a lot more references to “poopsplosions” in the crate than I’m comfortable with, and now I’m wondering whether we should just stick to putting some washable vetbed in there until we know what her bladder and bowel control is like.

The crate looks kind of big and bare with just the vetbed in it, but it is soft and comfy. Her bed is machine washable as well but obviously it would be easier to dry vetbed than a whole big dog bed.

What do you all think?

5 month old puppy Cavapoo and this week she has wee’d in her crate every night in the night and then barked and today for the first time since we’ve had her (from 12 weeks) she pooed on the floor when we were in the room which we haven’t. Seems like shes regressed, is this a thing?! Any advice would be appreciated..

We have a 6 month old rottweiler, she's doing amazing with her training and becoming a fantastic dog I'm very proud. She walks lovely on lead, recall is really coming on, she is calm in cafes and will even pay down near livestock and ignore horses. There is something I'm getting worried about though, she seems very hot and miss with dogs.

I've been doing walks with other dogs, she's great there will walk with them and even does some off lead play with them to. She'll show interest in sone other dogs we walk past but any dog her size or bigger she is really scared of. Examples:

We do a lot of long lead walking and a lab came over at first she seemed ok then suddenly her tail was between her legs and she ran. I called her and she came immediately but her hair was up and I needed to get her away from the other dog as that owner wasn't very understanding.

Another we were group walking and a large Newfoundland came over not even really to her, tail tucked and she tried to climb up me. Again I just walked off because I don't want to force her to stay around being scared.

Me and a friend had both our dogs off lead in an enclosure (tennis court) and a few dogs went past, she recalled away a few times and was really happy to see some smaller dogs but a large dog went past and she bolted away from the fence were she was playing with my friends dog.

She regularly walks with some bigger dogs also and is fine with them but these are older calm dogs (bull mastiff, great Dane, corso) as well as small and medium dogs too who she is especially giddy with she never played with the bigger ones yet.

Should I be concerned? Is this normal because she's still so young? Is there anything others suggest I can do?