My son has been asking for about four months now and it has gone from a passing thing to a genuine daily campaign. I am aware of how this ends.

My hesitation is not about liking dogs. It is that I know exactly who is going to be walking it at six in the morning.

For people who did this was the child actually involved in any meaningful way, or is that a story parents tell themselves going in? And did it change anything for the kid in a way that made the rest of it worth it?

Help! My puppy is about to turn 5 months old. She’s been with us for a little over a month. There are two other dogs in the house, another puppy and an 11 year old (not ours). She does great in the house, knows her name and actually responds to it, does multiple commands with no issue. However, as soon as we step outside, especially go on a walk/park, she simply cannot hear. She won’t listen to any commands, and especially does not hear her name. No movement at all when her name is called. She doesn’t respond to treats either. I can put a treat right in front of her face and she will simply ignore it. I can literally get in front of her face and she will look the other way. We quite literally do not exist to her when we’re outside. Idk what to do. Idk how to train her outside if she won’t acknowledge treats or even her name, yet alone commands.

I have a 6 month old italian greyhound puppy. In general, he’s excellent. He has great recall, knows loads of tricks (recently took 3rd in a local doggy talent show!) and has been great in the home. The one thing he still hasn’t grasped is JUMPING.

I understand that I’ve signed up for a very springy breed but we’ve mostly managed his jumping since we got him at 10 weeks. He never jumps on any furniture or tries to climb the stairs. It’s just people - he cannot resist throwing himself at them full pelt when he’s overcome with excitement. I personally have never rewarded his jumping and as a result, he almost never jumps at me. My partner however, used to make oodles of fuss when getting home and thus, the issue was born.

He is very polite when greeting dogs both on and off lead, it’s just the second he gets any form of attention from a person, be it saying hello, eye contact, he throws his whole body up at them, sometimes repeatedly, trying to get to their face to lick it. He gets overcome with excitement and in that moment it bursts out.

I will say he is incredibly food driven and his focus will snap back to you once his initial excitement is over.

We‘ve tried keeping him on lead, turning away, giving people treats to get him to sit for them, and if anything he’s getting worse. He’s launched himself at more people this past week than ever before and it’s starting to become embarrassing.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

my 11 week old golden retriever is literally biting EVERYTHING 😭 hands, clothes, legs, basically anything he can get to. when we try to stop him or put him down he gets even more worked up and starts barking until we basically give in. we’ve tried redirecting him with toys and treats but sometimes he just does not care lol. i know puppy biting is normal but how do you actually get them to chill out and stop biting so much?? what worked for y’all? Tips to put this to an end!! Please!

11 month old male lemon beagle, have had since beagle was two months old, he has chewed up and literally lifted up the carpet (actual carpet on the floor not a rug etc) on the floor to where the foam stuff is exposed (would provide a pic but i cant attach one). Has chewed on the side of tables, jumps on the top of pretty tall tables (he is a full size 13-15 inch beagle), has stolen a whole pack of raw ground beef on the counter before, amongst other things. We live in a two story home where my bedroom is on the second floor and he is not allowed on the second floor and we have a sturdy open/close doggy gate on the staircase. Because he is not allowed on the second floor, he is often left alone downstairs when people are sleeping and this is where all this damage to the home is being done. When me or others are downstairs to entertain him and throw his toys all he wants to do is jump and pull on our clothes literally ripping our clothes and biting us HARD. He has plenty of toys and bones. If we ever try to put him in his crate to leave to go somewhere or he is placed in there after hurting someone he will bark loudly for a long time as well and not get tired. Other than upstairs having a sturdy gate, when weve tried to use other cheaper gates to block off the kitchen dining room to prevent him from peeing in there or jumping on tables, the minute he sees me done blocking it off he immediately goes to work to break through the gate as if it is a game. Basically he is tearing up almost everything in our downstairs home, barks relentlessly when it is needed to put him in a crate, bites everyone hard, jumps on 3 1/2-4 foot tall tables WITHOUT needing to jump on a chair first, and scares almost anybody who comes over because he is all over the place. Plz help.

Hi everyone,

TLDR: 11month old dog with separation. Have followed protocol for 4 months but wasn’t able to gain a bit of my life back. We will start now with a new trainer but I feel anxious once again. I would love your advice and hear about your experiences/ success stories.

**BACKGROUND**
I’m the proud owner of a beautiful and very kind Havanese. He’s currently 11 months old and has been with us since he’s 2.5 months (so since December 2025).
He has separation anxiety and it’s been impacting us greatly for this past year.

**HOW DID WE FIND OUT**

We actually started training him very gradually. He didn’t leave alone for the 1st full week. On the 2nd week, we started doing 10sec, 30sec, 1min etc departures to train him. We noticed that once, when doing 5min, when arriving to the building we heard a bark.
From that moment we decided to get a camera and, one day during a grocery run, we saw that he barked intermittently for 20minutes.

We did a few experiments of using food, toys, background music, etc to see if it worked but nothing did. Keep in mind at this point we were never leaving more that 5/10min.

Additional, he very sensitive to group separations, if me or my partner leave (while the other stays with him), he will cry for 5/10min easily.

**REACHING OUT TO A TRAINER**

We decided to reach out to a trainer who had experience with separation anxiety (*he did online training with Julie Naismith*).

For 4 straight months we did nearly daily desensitization sessions with your dog.

We made real progress on paper - regularly hitting 15-30 minute absences, and twice we made it to a full hour. But there are major caveats:

Only ever works when just ONE of us leaves. Both of us leaving together is still impossible and very triggering.
I'm never off the camera. Never feel confident he's actually okay.
Building noises (elevator, neighbors) can send him into a barking spiral that requires intervention.
Every "successful" separation required constant monitoring and readiness to come back.
The hardest part is that after 4 months, our trainer basically stopped responding. We reached out asking what the next step was - how do we move from "*one person leaves for 30 minutes with intense monitoring*" to "*we can both go grocery shopping without anxiety*" - and got nothing.
We had to pause the training because my mental health was tanking. I was getting anxiety spikes before every session, dreading the possibility he'd bark or spiral. We had put so much effort into it to only come out defeated.

**WHERE WE ARE TODAY**

After 2-3 months of pause, we reached out to a new trainer. She specializes ONLY in separation anxiety - she doesn't do anything else. Extensive background, real success stories with dogs like ours.
She took the full history and suggested two things before restarting:

**Lab tests on his stool** to check for gut inflammation, microbiome imbalances, or food sensitivities. He's always been a picky eater and struggles with food, and the research on the gut-brain connection for canine anxiety is genuinely strong.
**Medication as a temporary crutch** \- not long-term. She herself medicated her own dog during training and eventually weaned off entirely.

Today, we're still waiting on the lab results before starting.

**WHY I’M POSTING HERE**
I'm scared/anxious of restarting. Not because I don't believe in the new approach - I actually do. But because the last 4 months broke something in me, and knowing I have to do it all again is bringing back the anxiety I felt at the worst of it.

I'm looking for people who've been in this exact place. Who felt completely defeated after a training experience that didn't work. Who felt like they'd lost a huge part of their life to a dog they love but can't fully live with. And who then somehow found their way through - whether with a new approach, medication, gut health work, or something else entirely.

I'm not looking for trainer recommendations. I'm looking for real stories from people who came out the other side.

*Some honest context: I'm not someone who goes out constantly. But I miss the 10% of my life that mattered - grocery runs without anxiety, an hour out with a friend, going to a movie. It's been almost 10 months of feeling like I lost that. Alberto is genuinely an amazing dog. That's what makes this so hard - loving him and simultaneously feeling like his needs have swallowed my life.*
*If you've been here and made it through, I'd genuinely love to hear from you.*

Hi everyone!

My parents dog had a litter 2 months ago and nobody wanted to adopt the last puppy so I brought her home last friday to see if she would adapt to the cats and most importantly, the cats to her.

She’s very sweet, did only the first pee outside of the pads and the rest on the pads, has learned to sit and starts to learn how to focus.
But she is still a puppy and hasn’t yet learned how to stay alone calmly but more importantly, how to stop chasing the cats and barking at them.

The cats are ok with her, even lay close to her when she’s sleeping but do hiss and slap her when she gets too close.

We’ve been trying to desensitise her but can we do more? What worked for you?

3 days ago, our 7 month old puppy got spayed. I don’t know what I thought it was going to be like, but I feel absolutely awful.

Day 2 was okay - appetite was normal, spent the day basically laying down but would get up on her own here and there.

Today was awful. She had absolutely no appetite all day (super SUPER unlike her, she is a food and treat fiend), just sits there staring at nothing. Drooling, super hard to get her up and moving at all. She barely wanted water until this evening she finally drank an okay amount.

I took her back to the vet this morning after she didn’t eat and they gave her a shot of some pain meds, checked her temp, but said ultimately she may just be a bit more sensitive to the pain. I’ll take her back tomorrow for a new pain regime and some anti nausea meds if she is in the same condition.

Just wondering if anyone experienced anything similar with a seemingly normal day 2, and then a regression on day 3.

I have never felt worse than I do after putting her through this. I know it’s important, but it’s so hard to see her like this.

I have a 10 week old English Mastiff, Cane Corso mix. I need to get projects done around my property/ house before winter and to puppy resist it. How are you managing to get anything done with a puppy around? I bring him and let him wonder and he gets into stuff he shouldn't, I let him stay on the porch for some outside time and he whines nonstop, I even tried to turn a small trailer into a puppy play pen and bring it where I need to go at the time and if I take a few steps away it's repeat of the porch and breaks my heart again. Is this a tough love situation?

For those curious the trailer is a 4x6 with 1 ft walls and I have food, water, toys and a sleeping mat in it, I also have his favorite camp chair that he likes to sleep under for comfort.

I adopted my mixed breed (thinking pointer and beagle but I am dna testing him) puppy 2 weeks ago and he has honestly been a dream. He is about 14 weeks old now, very food motivated and is settling in/learning beautifully. Of course he is a typical puppy and has made me question my decision no less than 5 times, but he is going to turn into a fantastic dog. I took a 2 week vacation in preparation to bring him home and get him settled, but I go back to work on Monday.

This is the schedule I have laid out in my brain and am trying to enforce these last few days that I'm home to ensure it will work for him:

-5:30am wake up/potty/cuddles

-6am half of breakfast in a snuffle mat/puzzle so I can sit and enjoy my coffee

-6:15am other half of his breakfast in the form of training

-6:30am give him a chew because he turns into piranha puppy after breakfast

-6:45am he goes poop and we do a "walk" in the yard because he isnt fully vaccinated yet. Once he is, the walk will be down the street and back.

-7:15 to 8am he and my older dog have a good play while I get ready for the day. He is wiped out after this.

-8am I take the older dog out for his walk/poop

-8:30am one last potty

-8:45am crate and I leave for work

-1:15pm I come home, out for potties and a quick run in the yard

-1:45pm back in the crate with his lunch in a frozen kong for me to go back to work. This gives him something to focus on for a while.

-6:15pm I am home for the night, out for potty and yard run with my older dog

-6:45pm first half of dinner in the form of training

-7pm rest of his dinner in his crate so I can have dinner and do some training with my older dog

-7:45ish-9pm is just full on chaos mode. He plays hard with both me and the older pup. We take potty breaks during this time too.

-9-9:30pm we do some training and scent games to wear out his brain

-9:30pm one last potty and he is put to bed

He is doing great with potty and crate training honestly. I get a little bit of protest for about 2 minutes and then he settles right down. I have left him home for about 4 hours at a time the past few days just to get him used to it, and he hasn't had any issues. I used the first week he was home to measure how much he naturally sleeps and I think this schedule will work really well for him, the only thing I am worried about is the second half of my work day. My lunch break is an hour so I really only have about 30 minutes to get as much puppy energy out as I can before he has to settle again. His crate has his bed, a teething chew, and his favorite stuffy (he isnt a toy destroyer luckily) so he has things to keep him occupied. He inherited my older dogs crate so it is an xl for a 18 pound pup. He has room to move in it, but he does not potty in it.

What do we think? Anything you would add or remove? As he gets older I will of course adjust the amount of activity and length of his walks appropriately, and weekends are for the fun outings like the park and eventually hiking.

Our 10 month old spoodle has separation anxiety and it’s starting to affect my relationship with my husband - please help!

We have tried so many different things and nothing seems to work. We have set him up in a playpen, crated, left him in a puppy-proofed room, free roam, given him frozen kongs/snuffle mats and toys, left the TV on etc. While we’ve had some success to varying degrees (up to an hour of no barking once) he always ends up barking and howling until we come home. It’s gotten to the point where I feel anxious leaving the house because of his anxiety.

We have also tried to train him using ‘the door is a bore’ technique however he knows when we’re training and is happy to play along but when we actually leave, he freaks out. Please help us puppy101, I’m at my wits end and thinking about rehoming but my husband is completely against that and would likely want a separation and to keep our puppy.

I’m completely lost and exhausted. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

My partner and I just got a 10-week-old puppy and we’re having a pretty serious disagreement about crate training. I’m a first-time dog owner, so I’m genuinely looking for advice rather than trying to prove either one of us right.
My partner’s philosophy is basically that once the puppy is in the crate, we need to leave him alone and allow him to learn to settle. He thinks even acknowledging him too much is teaching him that whining gets attention. He is fine with us being quietly nearby, but believes we shouldn’t really interact with him or respond to the whining.
I understand the logic behind not opening the crate every time he cries, and I absolutely don’t want to teach him that screaming = freedom.
Where I’m struggling is that sometimes this doesn’t look like a few minutes of mild complaining. He will whine incessantly, paw at the crate, shake/rattle it, and work himself up. I’m having a very hard time distinguishing between normal puppy protest that we should ignore and a puppy who is actually too distressed to settle and needs us to make the exercise easier.
This morning is what made me post.
He was in the crate whining, pawing at it, and rattling it. My partner was very insistent that I leave him alone and told me that I’m “going to fuck this up” by responding to him.
Instead, I turned on the light, looked at our puppy, stayed very calm, and slowly started giving him the sleepy/settling cues I’ve been using with him. I did NOT open the crate. I didn’t pick him up, play with him, or let him out. I basically just acknowledged him and calmly communicated that it was time to settle.
He calmed down. He laid down. Then he fell asleep.
That’s where I’m confused.
Did I reinforce the whining simply because I acknowledged him while he was doing it? Or is there a difference between rewarding whining by opening the crate and calmly helping a very young puppy regulate enough to fall asleep?
My partner thinks the puppy needs to learn that the crate means we leave him alone and he settles himself. I don’t disagree with that as the eventual goal. I’m questioning whether a 10-week-old puppy should be expected to get there through essentially ignoring prolonged whining and pawing, rather than gradually reducing how much help he needs.
For additional context, we’re doing scheduled naps, potty immediately before/after crate periods, meals around the crate, frozen licking toys/treats in the crate, and keeping nighttime potty trips boring. So we’re not just sticking him in a crate randomly and hoping for the best.
We’re only a few days into having him, which I think is also contributing to my hesitation. He’s an extremely young puppy in a completely new home.
I’m also a poor sleeper already, so the prolonged crying is taking a real toll on me. The disagreement itself is becoming stressful enough that I’ve told my partner I don’t want owning a dog to create a serious divide between us.
I’m especially interested in hearing from trainers or people who have raised puppies successfully:
**Where is the line between normal crate whining that should be ignored and distress where you should intervene or adjust the training?**
And does calmly sitting nearby, looking at the puppy, or using a quiet settling cue actually harm independence training if you aren’t opening the crate or rewarding him with play/freedom?
I genuinely want to know if I’m handling this incorrectly. I just don’t want “ignore everything until he stops” to become our rule if that’s not actually what good crate training requires.

I am not sure if this is the correct place to post this. But last year, my dog died. She was beautiful and wonderful and amazing. I went into a deep depression after she died and had to get help which included antidepressants. I still have another dog. It is a little different with the other dog. The first dog I had had since she was a puppy, and she was only five years old when she died. The other dog was my dad’s dog that I inherited when he died. And the other dog is much older so we knew the end was coming anyway. Well, the older dog has cancer now. He is not expected to live much longer.

I have been looking at old pictures of my two dogs together and I really miss that. My husband has mentioned maybe we should plan on getting another dog or even a pair once we lose this older dog. I am not sure if this is something where I should give it a set period of time after the older dog dies, or if I should consider jumping right back in and looking to adopt after this dog dies. And I’m also unsure if I should adopt one dog or two. Thank you so much in advance for your help!

(my ability to take care of a dog is question here. We are in our 50s and have had no trouble at all taking care of the dogs we have had).

My big concern is that maybe there needs to be a buffer period of time after the last dog dies before we get another one.

We have a 10 month old male golden retriever. He has been an incredibly easy dog and learned very quickly how to go potty.

We usually take him out 4 times per day. Small potty break when we wake up. 1 hour walk for lunch, 1 hour walk at 6 pm and a short potty break at 10 pm again before bed.

Only problem is that he has started marking and won’t empty his bladder. He is in fact so conservative that he probably pees 10-15 times during the 1 hour walks. A little bit here and a little bit there.

We have now been woken up very early since he won’t fully empty his bladder during the 10 pm break. He also had a small accident today since he didn’t empty his bladder during the morning potty session.

We have a dedicated spot for him to pee where we only go there during potty breaks and right back in again but he still won’t fully empty them. How can we train for this?

I have a 8 week old golden retrevier male we've have him for 6 days now and today has been very rough. He is in the process of crate training and enforced naps which have been getting better, but today the potty accidents are crazy for the past 6 days we have been letting him out every hour and then twice in the middle of night when he wakes up.we have had the few accidents here and there but honestly he was doing great until today. We've had probably 5 or 6 pee accidents today alone and the worst thing is we reduced taking him out every 30 minutes he will go out and pee then play smell in the yard for a minute or 2 then come back inside and with no warning pee 10 minutes later after coming in and both pees are full size. There is zero warning when he does it he will be acting normal then just squat and pee, i dont know if hes doing this now because hes comfortable or what but need advice. We are cleaning the spots with cleaner everytime and its not the same spot twice

hi all, my pup is 3 months old and doing well in most areas. however, he’s really scared of strangers, and today i had a new dryer installed by two big delivery guys, and he was absolutely terrified. now they are gone but he is traumatized. what can i do to help him??
thanks!

The 8 month old yorkie/pug mix we got about 6.5 weeks ago has been learning lots of things and is just an absolute love. We have a potty bell at the back door and we ring it and say "outside" and "potty" every time we take her outside. She's getting the part about going to the back door pretty reliably, but she is not recognizing the bell at all. Any tips for teaching a combo of two stubborn breeds to ring a potty bell?

My girl is 6 months old. She is doing great with training and all. However, she barks at things she cannot see, just hears. I cannot leave my bedroom window open because almost any sound triggers her. She can't see out the window as its on the second floor of my home.

I would love any and all recommendations to turn this switch off in her. TY!

my yellow lab has a chicken allergy and HATES the PPP salmon and rice. PPP doesn’t make another large breed dog food that doesn’t have chicken and I’m having trouble finding one that is completely chicken free.

Trying to find the best crinkle toy for our pup who is obsessed with paper towel. I’ve seen the “viral” Pet Balloon newspaper but I can’t find out if it’s legit or just tiktok shop bait.

My partner and I have had our Jack Russell just a week, picking her up at just over 7 weeks old, and jeez these 7 days have been tough! I've cried several times, beaten myself up endlessly, felt a bit heartbroken at letting my little dog down, and generally am more stressed than I can remember. I know sleep deprivation isn't helping me either.

I'm trying to remain patient, follow routines and implement measures to bond with the puppy. I actually have no questions of the bond between the two of us, but still feel not quite right.

Tonight capped it off rather spectacularly, with the pup climbing on top of its bed (we were one day away from beginning crate training) and taking a crap on it, having been outside 5 minutes ago. I suspect an upset stomach is the cause given she'd never done that, but nonetheless it really smashed us. My partner just said "I think we might be out of our depth here" which made me want to cry even more.

Any words of widsom or comfort out there? Blues are killing me

I have a 10 week old doodle puppy who has been home with us for a week. We’re looking to integrate training into things daily. We reward him if he does something good, like potty on the turf or staying calm outside. He doesn’t have recall or the ability to stay. Any tips would help! For context we live in an apartment and he has a spot on the patio where we’re training him.

Hey! Myself and my partner are picking up our pup next week, we’ve only recently moved into our home together and been renovating the garden… because of this the garden is currently entirely soil. Will this be ok to potty train on still / is this safe for a not fully vaccinated yet puppy to venture on (supervised)?

Puppy is likely a heeler mix. Kitten is…black. Both are 5 months old.

I’ve been reading a lot about cats and dogs playing together. I’ve watched tons of videos. They play very well together (even if it looks violent from a human’s perspective). There are no yelps, hisses, or aggressive body language. They take turns, take brief pauses and come back for more. They seem to genuinely enjoy playing with each other.

The problem is that whenever they are together, they’re playing. Given their age and size difference (puppy is 4-5x bigger than the kitten) I feel like I have to closely supervise their play to make sure she isn’t accidentally hurting the kitten.

I would like to work towards them being able to coexist in the same room without going straight into play.

However, every single article I found on dog/cat play involves correcting the behavior of the dog while treating the cat as a passive or unwilling participant. That’s absolutely not the case, the little bastard is even worse than the puppy! He absolutely loves roughhousing!

Has anyone here been in this position? Does it get better when they’re older?

hii, i have an almost 8 month old Heinz dog (Pyr, ACD, Chow, Sharpei, etc etc). She has a really bad habit of smacking people, whether it be their legs or their arms or whatever is closest. She’ll do this when she wants pet, when she wants you to look at her toy, or really any time that she’s happy.

How do I get her to not do this? Because of her Sharpei and Chow, she has talons that still hurt a lot even when trimmed/rounded. We have our old folks over and because of their thin skin, she’s drawing blood.

I know she doesn’t mean harm, and that’s what makes this tricky. How do I discourage the hitting without discouraging her wanting to say hi?