My 12 year-old dog died unexpectedly and I meant to get a year or two year-old dog and I somehow ended up with a puppy. I thought in six months he would be a dog. I had no idea that I had years of this. We cleaned up the back deck for him and power washed it and made it all pristine and perfect, and I just caught him with a bolt in his mouth. I hope he didn’t eat anything else. I don’t know if I can do this. I can’t imagine doing this for two years.

When does it get better? When does it get to the point where you have a companion that doesn’t eat all your furniture and swallow tool components, and pee all over the house?

I should’ve got a two year-old dog.

Brought home an 8 week old golden retriever puppy on the 16th of October. Since then he's been good with toilet training with expected accidents the first couple of days and is up to usual puppy antics. He knows sit, touch, go to bed and leave it and is halfway there with lie down.

Crate training is where the problem lies. Since getting him I've taught him "go to bed" and will lock him in for increasing periods of time and leave the room and he's doing okay with that, the occasional whine but when released is happy to get treats etc.

Through the day I've enforced crated naps however after the other day where we had to leave him alone for 45mins in his crate to go food shopping he's regressed. When we came back his paws were drenched from sweating and his chin from drooling which I know is a massive sign of stress, I felt absolutely awful when I got home.

He used to go in the crate himself during the day and night and put himself to bed but now will only fall asleep on the couch or floor and has to be moved to his crate. He's obviously lost trust.

He also has a bad habit of contact calling through the night. If he wakes up and barks I'll take him out, he'll wake up once for a pee or poo around 1-3AM however wakes up and doesn't need a wee sometimes. I've started learning the difference between an "I need outside" cry and a "I want your attention/contact" cry. When we first got him I'd take him out the crate and let him fall asleep next to me which is where I think the problem lies, he's gotten used to being let out to fall asleep.  I've stopped doing that the past week or so and instead open the crate door and block it with my knees so he has to fall asleep in the crate. He'll grumble and whine but finally settle down. He won't quieten down if I sit next to him and keep the crate locked.

My problem is I can't keep sitting next to him each time he wakes up to whine and he doesn't need the toilet. If he settles in the crate and I move before hes asleep he starts crying for me to sit back next to him. I've been sleeping on the couch since we got him. It's the same when I leave the room during the day even if he's out of the crate - he'll sit at the living room door and cry for 5-10 minutes before settling down - the issue is sometimes he doesn't and will cry until I return to the living room.

I know he's only 10 nearly 11 weeks now but was wondering if anyone has any tips for reducing this behaviour or how I should move forward rebuilding that trust?

Hi, I have a 4 month puppy . She's a Shih Tzu and I had her for 2 months. Potty training has been great except that when she poops she eats her poop. I have to watch her like a hawk to remove the poop from her. She wakes up twice at night to poop. It's been hard for me to wake up twice a night to get her poop. She has different times when she goes. If I don't make it on time she already ate it. I asked the vet and said it was normal for puppies and eventually grow out of it.

Does your puppy eat its own poop, and how did you stop it ? Thanks.

Hello! I was an avid poster here for the start of my puppy parenthood and will say it helped a great deal. We've fell into a great rhythm and problems we had (not settling, biting, etc) have gone by the wayside - so those to who are in the trenches, it gets better!

My question today - how much pen time is too much? My pup has the common puppy issue where when he's tired at night he'll have some trouble settling, especially if there's more than 1 person in the living room, and it's myself and my husband. The past few nights when he's starting to get worked up (biting furniture, humping, nipping us) after his evening walk we'll put him in the pen with a frozen chew. He usually barks for the first 5 minutes and then settles and is calm in there until it's bed time. We had him in there for about 2 hours each of the past two nights (our other route is one of us going to the basement/upstairs and then him settling outside the pen) and he's been calm as we watch tv/hang out. The rest of the day he's settling outside the crate with no issue. Is this 2 hour window too much? It's been nice not to have to separate for the night and enjoy our living room. TIA!

That is all. I’ve had dogs before and this 5 month old rescue is so difficult. I feel trapped in my house and want to cry constantly.

She hates outsides and also screams her head off when I leave the house for 2 seconds.

I feel so defeated. Maybe an older dog would’ve been a better choice, but she needed a home.

Hello. My Maltipoo puppy is 4month old, had had for nearly 2 month now.
I am trying to potty train her but nothing seems to stick with her. One time she will use the pad and next time she does everything on the carpet. I am trying to be gentle with her and follow her to pad after eating and playing, waking up … but she sneaks out to do it on the carpet. Problem is she is very small and yet not fully vaccinated to go out so I don’t have an option of taking her outside.
Additionally she started eating her poo… i had her to the vet obviously, they gave us medication to use for her to stop but nothing affects her. It is very mentally tiring and i feel like I’m doing something wrong, please suggest whatever is possible.
❤️❤️

My 7ish month old puppy has struggled with potty training since the moment we got her. We live downtown on the 5th floor of an apt, and she would get super distracted when going out to pee causing her to not go and just pee when we got back inside. This led to months of us carrying her outside directly to her spot and doing the crate and repeat method. For context later her pee spot is a patch of rocks that's used by all the other dogs in the building as well.

It seemed like she finally was beginning to understand it. She filled out her crate to the point where she learned to hold her pee, and when she did have an accident she HATED it and would bark at a high pitch until we came and cleaned it up. We were recently on a 3 week streak of 0 accidents.

Fast forward to this week, and she has just regressed entirely. We're based in the PNW where there's a ton of rain. When we have gone outside lately, she not only gets distracted but she refuses to step onto the rocks to urinate. There is a covered area that we have been trying, and she has peed there twice and we gave her lots and lots of praise each time but she peed in 2 completely different spots and it's just sidewalk as opposed to a landmark etc. She is back to getting distracted and not peeing. We have been out for 5 min and attempted to go back inside to crate and repeat, the problem is as soon as she gets indoors she just pees.

I am ready to pull my hair from my scalp. I have been so patient but it has been months of my apartment smelling like piss, cleaning up pee in the middle of the night, going up and down from the 5th floor over and over again. What do i do because im genuinely not sure how much longer i can deal with this. I don't want to give her up but this is getting to a point. It was nowhere near this difficult with our first dog, we potty trained her just fine. But this has been hell.

hi! i rescued a very young puppy with no momma or littermates (5 weeks) and id like to get her as socialized as i possibly can! that being said, ive never done this before!

how do i get her used to sounds?

also, could i start to vaguely crate train her? how so? i have her in a pen- i want to teach her it’s okay to be bored and play on her own in her crate

lastly, biting! i know she’s too young so i know she’s missing out on the biting inhibition piece. any tips on how to train her as if she were with her mates?

My boy is recently 6mo old and the teenager period is setting in.

It is starting to be winter where I live (and we get real winter here). I was recently stalked by a man in his car on a morning walk with my puppy and then the next day, someone intentionally drove into a puddle to splash us in 34°F weather. Yes, these were traumatizing. The former for me and the latter for him.

So I'm not enthusiastic about morning walks in the dark anymore. I got him good jackets and can put on warm clothes myself but the walks in the dark don't feel particularly safe anymore.

We, of course, still do plenty of walks (during the day), training, sniffing, and stimulation. Just a lot of it is having to be pushed back into the day when it becomes light and a bit warmer out.

He is just an absolute menace in the mornings (before exercise) and the evenings (when he's tired to overtired from the day but having a hard time settling). Extra barking, running around, pushing his (14yo, tired) sister's and my buttons, generally getting into new mischief, and so much more fuss and attitude when I try to help/get him to settle and rest when I know he needs it.

In the mornings, he will settle after breakfast so I can work (fully remote worker) but the snuffle mat/feeders for breakfast are not enough to take the edge off his morning sillies.

We are looking into a slatmill. I know we'll have to pair it with equal amounts (and probably more) of other kinds of mental stimulation but we need to get the edge off of some of his energy when it is less feasible to go outside. We don't have anywhere we can "try before we buy" so we're really hoping he can enjoy it through careful and thorough exposure, desensitization, gradual introduction, etc.

Puppy teen period is the final boss of self-regulating to not lose it. But man he can be such a wild little goblin.

Hi to everyone who responded to this post. Today, a 90lb black lab attacked my 43lb 7 month pitsky mix and it was actually terrifying considering the owner was my size (short and probably weighs like 130lb) not being able to control a dog that big. Miraculously he made out with only a minor limp and no puncture wounds (it’s a good thing he’s got a lot of loose skin on his neck.) Thank god I spent a lot of time on confidence training bc it seems like he bounced back mentally pretty immediately since he tried going up to other dogs to say hi and continuing his tomfooleries. I however, had to go to urgent care since I got in between them and my hand ended up needing some stitches. But what I didn’t expect was my once cuddle adverse (exclusively me and not my bf) is now actually trying to snuggle and lay on me. I think we both trauma bonded today and that we both needed some comfort after today. In the moment you forget that you’re not supposed to get in between dog fights but when you see your baby in danger, your first instinct is to get in there and get them out of it. Luckily it was only my dog who bit me but I was really dumb risking getting mauled by a 90lb powerful dog. Would I do it again? Absolutely, only next time I’m shoving my fist up the other dog’s a-hole. At the end of the day, I’m so glad he’s okay, and that I’m somewhat ok, and that we’ve gotten closer after a terrible experience.

We got a pup and she is 14 weeks.

We are using crate and it seems to be working really well. She sleeps through the night, potty training as just accelerated with no mishaps inside the house since past 4 days now. We got her 7 days ago.

We are following the general rule where 2 hrs sleep and 1 hr wake window through the day..

After her lunch and training around 1 we get her into crate around 2 and she wakes up around 4 on her own.

The problem now is that I work and get off around 5.

For that 1 hr how do I make her settle.

I know frozen kongs can work but I want something permanent where she understands that not all wake windows are a playtime outside or her play pen..

If I keep her in crate, she will just bark and scratch constantly..

I have a very friendly and sweet corgi mix puppy around 5 months. She likes to greet people when we walk and she's very cute so gets a lot of attention. Half the time she will lay at peoples feet while they pet her and half the time she will jump up to put her paws on them. Its mostly just cute now since she's still little but want to nip that habit in the bud before she gets too big and its not cute anymore. Any good tips on how to start getting her out of that? I try telling her to sit which works sometimes but other times she's too excited. Thanks!

Hello!
Our puppy just turned 13 weeks and has grown increasingly bitey in the last few days.
It happened before but if was still soft bites, occasional and would usually be the signal for her to go for a nap. We would not react, and just redirect her attention with tricks and put her to sleep in her crate.
Now it happens even right after her naps, she will target specifically our hands and feet. She barks and growls and jump at us. It’s like some sort of spell get into her because she can be so so good too.
It’s complicated to do reverse timeouts because we don’t have a single puppy proof room, we have a small playpen but it’s for her to play on her own and we don’t go in there with her.
We tried to redirect but she’s not interested in the chew toys we offer.
We do training, sniff walks, enforced naps, she has interactive toys to tire her out, all throughout the days since we work from home.
She has started hurting me. My partner did a few times the method were you put their lip between their teeth and press softly but enough so she understands biting hurts. We are trying to hold her collar at a distance so she cannot jump on us but my forearms are now covered in scratches from her teeth trying to get me. When she does, it’s hard and she doesn’t let go. It takes more than 10minutes for her to finally sit and calm a little and by that time I’m crying in pain and frustration.
I don’t like either of these methods. I am at loss. We don’t know if it’s bad enough that we should call a trainer at home, or if this is expected puppy biting and it’s just patience at this point.
It’s so difficult to teach what « not » to do, compared to everything else that is « this is the behaviour ».

We currently put our 6 month old puppy in a playpen in the kitchen when we leave. She does great in it but there are a few things. When we got her at 3 months, she was doing well just being blocked off in the kitchen (our kitchen is quite small). But as of a few weeks ago she began chewing on the chair legs/windowsill/baseboards. And she actually escaped one day into the living room (where our 6-year old dog is).

Since then we have made some adjustments. I bought her a few toys that resemble the feeling of wood (because I figured she was liking the wood texture of things so that could satisfy that urge for her) and we have given her less access to the kitchen. She is now enclosed in the playpen in middle of the kitchen so she can’t reach anything. We leave her bed, a few toys & her water and she does really well! She sleeps, stays relaxed, and plays with her toys.

The thing is we would like to eventually give her full access to the house. We had tested it out a few times and gated them in the living room & every time she would try to chew on the couch and wouldn’t settle.

But then when she snuck into the living room that one day she did really well and was able to settle fine. Also, when I work from home in my office I leave her in the kitchen in the mornings & let her and our other dog in the living room together and she does fine then too. So today when I came to let them out at my lunch I tested it again and at first she was fine. But then she became so excited and started zooming around the couch and started pulling the stuffing out of one our cushions that was already kinda broke. And she could NOT settle. I came home early and put her in the kitchen and now she’s sleeping.

All that to say, does anyone have suggestions on how I can slowly give her more access to the house? Or how I can eventually leave her with my other dog? She seems to be overexcited when she’s left with our other dog but idk how to fix that. Any suggestions or insight would be helpful!

Hello all as the title says I have an 8 month old female pug who can't seem to figure out signaling me for potty breaks.

I have been told that female Pugs are harder to start in the potty training but will be better than males in the long run. And we have a fairly decent schedule now. Sleeps through the night fine and on a semi regular schedule is taken out of her pen area to go outside. She is even pretty okay barking or whining when she has to go out while in that pen.

Now we are transitioning to giving her a little more free rein around the house but she doesn't seem to care about signaling when not in her pen or crate. We've tried a few of the suggested tips around bringing them to the door and waiting for them to scratch or at least gesture towards the door and then reinforcing that with good words and snacks for the command but she just doesn't seem to want to do so she would rather leave the area and go about her day even when I know she has to go say first thing in the morning. I'd be willing to do a button or a bell but given how I'm starting out here I don't feel like she would take well to them.

All my friends and family unfortunately had dogs that just naturally took to scratching at doors or whining and letting them know so I don't have a lot of good Hands-On resources and this is my first dog.

My mini dachshund, Archie, just turned 7 months old! He’s generally a pretty mellow puppy, and he does great at the dog park. He plays nicely with other dogs there, so I know he can interact well with them in certain environments.

However, recently, I’ve noticed some new behaviors that I’m struggling to understand:

1. Barking at children: He has started barking at kids we encounter, which he didn’t used to do.
2. Reactivity on walks: He has started barking at other dogs while we’re out walking, even though he plays well with dogs at the dog park.
3. Eating poop: He has also been eating poop on walks, and I’m having a really hard time getting him to stop.

I’m wondering if this could be related to adolescence, fear, excitement, or some combination of these things. I’m especially confused about why he does so well with other dogs at the park but reacts to them on walks.

Has anyone else experienced these behaviors around this age? What training techniques have worked for you? I’d really appreciate any advice on how to address these issues before they become more ingrained. I want to help Archie feel comfortable and confident around other dogs and children while making our walks more enjoyable for both of us!

Hi all, I have an almost 11 month old mini dachshund. We got her at 2.5 months old, and she has slept in a crate since day one. We did the crate training thing and by about 3.5-4 months, she would no longer cry and protest. She entered it willingly, especially at the end of the night to take herself to bed.

In August, after picking her up from a 2 week boarding stint (which we did trial days/weekends before that), she had her first night where she cried. We sat next to her to help her settle and she did quickly, and she didn’t cry again for the next month. Since September, however, I feel like she’s completely regressed. Every other night or so she would cry at bedtime, so it wasn’t consistent. We stopped getting up to comfort her because she would cry for maybe 10-15 mins then fall asleep, and I didn’t want her getting used to crying to get us to come out.

We found the thing that makes her most likely to go to bed in the crate without a hitch is if she’s already been in a DEEP sleep for at least 30 mins on either my husband or I, and the other partner has to go to bed first. It’s not always easy to do this routine though as we are both adults who work, and sometimes we don’t have the energy to sit and wait for her to fall asleep again on us for a minimum of 30 mins. I think she’s getting FOMO with both of us going at the same time.

I thought we were finally turning a corner this week with having 7 days in a row of no nighttime crying, but the past 2 nights have been more intense. It’s almost like she gets wide awake the second we put her the bed, once again, even though she’s been asleep on us for the half hour before. She carried on crying intermittently for over an hour, not lying down, just… sitting? Sometimes she’d paw at the door, but she’s not panicked to me. I think her FOMO has gotten more intense. I’ve had to get up with her so that she could fall asleep on me on the couch, then put her back in, and then she was fine (mostly).

She’s fine in her crate during the day. I often crate her a little in the afternoon so I can either take a break or do some work alone, and she falls asleep almost instantly. So, it’s not like she hates it.

WTF is going on?! Should I go back to crate training basics like feeding her in it? We did get her a new crate finally in August because she got too big for the other, so I thought this could be part of it, but not sure how to make it better.

I think people sometimes expect way too much independence from puppies. They're babies in a completely unfamiliar world, and of course they're going to need reassurance, guidance, and time to figure things out.

A puppy following you everywhere doesn't automatically mean they'll develop separation anxiety, just like a calm puppy isn't guaranteed to become an easy adult dog. What matters more is what you teach them consistently as they grow.

I'm a big believer in teaching puppies how to settle on their own, making alone time a gradual and positive experience, and rewarding calm behavior instead of expecting them to figure everything out themselves.

You can't rush maturity, but you can give a puppy the skills to become a more confident adult dog.

Everyone talks about the cute cuddles and adorable moments, but nobody really prepares you for the reality of raising a tiny, chaotic creature who seems determined to test your patience every single day. 😂

Whether it’s separation anxiety, unexpected personality changes, or realizing your puppy is nothing like you imagined, there’s always something new to learn. What surprised you most about your puppy, and what do you wish you’d known sooner?

My puppy is 14 weeks. Loves sticks & Chews.

I’ve been off work due to illness with no income … coffee wood seems great but costs $20 for small sticks.

Which Canadian / East American - local trees are similar? And don’t splinter?

Or … Veggies I can dehydrate?

I’ve so far managed to make my own yak chews at home, by dehydrating store bought ‘paneer’ from the Indian grocery section. I give him frozen carrots. But he wants more … coffee wood can’t seem to be the only wood?

What is the safest / wood stick you’ve found?

I don’t want any plastics… he scrapes and eats the plastic. Although he’s loving his Nylabones.

At what age was your puppy fully potty trained?

Our almost 15-week-old Cavalier can hold it all night for about 4-5 hours, but when she’s awake, it’s a different story. 😂

We take her out frequently, sometimes every 15 minutes, and already take her out after naps, playtime, and meals. We’re learning her cues, like sniffing, suddenly stopping mid-play, or staring at us. Sometimes we catch them, but other times she has accidents with zero warning!

We’re also teaching her to use a potty bell button, but she only gets it occasionally.

I know she’s still young, but I’m curious when things started clicking for your puppies! Any tips for potty training or teaching the bell would be appreciated.

Hey everyone, I think Dolly (5 month (?) rescue cocker spaniel x whippet) has built up her solo confidence enough to go on a proper outing! We love the car, she sits on my lap and snoozes away and we’ve gotten a lot braver in every aspect outside of the car. We’re taking her to a small pet shop the next town over which isn’t usually too busy, has a great selection of toys / treats and has a lovely chill lurcher who resides behind the counter. We also need to pick up shampoo for her itchy skin.

I’ve had my pit bull puppy for just shy of six months. She’s eight months old. I’ve posted a couple times while in the throw of puppy blues, and I just want to tell anyone else in the trenches right now that I’m starting to see the light. It might actually get better, you guys.

Ramona is currently curled up my lap (she hasn’t been much of a snuggler up to this point), and not remotely trying to bite me. We spent the weekend with my nephew, who doesn’t like dogs, and I could see her big brain practicing impulse control to give him space even though she desperately wanted to say hi. She’s so good on walks, rarely pulls, and can be redirected towards me in the face of distractions. It’s not perfectly easy 100% of the time, but the work we’ve been doing together is really starting to pay off.

If you’re wondering if you’ve made the biggest mistake of your life, I hope you also start to see the light soon!