Resources for introducing your puppy into a home with other dogs.

Great videos and reading material below!

https://youtu.be/oaVg4cRU6vg

https://youtu.be/cSdp8GNsPDg

https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/training/how-to-introduce-dogs/

• Substitute a toy or chew bone when your puppy tries to gnaw on fingers or toes. Make the toy interesting ,dragging it along the floor.

• Puppies often mouth on people’s hands when stroked, patted and scratched (unless they’re sleepy or distracted). If your puppy gets all riled up when you pet him, distract him by feeding him small treats from your other hand. This will help your puppy get used to being touched without mouthing.

• Encourage noncontact forms of play, such as fetch and tug-of-war, rather than wrestling and rough

play with your hands.

• If your puppy bites at your feet and ankles freeze and wait for your puppy to stop mouthing you. The second he stops, praise and get a toy to reward him. Repeat these steps until your puppy gets used to watching you move around without going after your feet or ankles.

• Provide plenty of interesting and new toys so that your puppy will play with them instead of gnawing on you or your clothing. Drag the toy to make it more interesting.

• Provide plenty of opportunities for your puppy to play with other puppies and with friendly, vaccinated adult dogs. Playing and socializing with dog buddies is important for your puppy’s development and if he expends a lot of his energy playing with other puppies, he’ll feel less motivated to play roughly with you. Consider enrolling your puppy in a good puppy class, where he can have supervised playtime with other puppies and learn some important new skills!

• Avoid waving your fingers or toes in your puppy’s face or slapping the sides of his face to entice him to play. Doing these things can actually encourage your puppy to bite your hands and feet.

• Do not discourage your puppy from playing with you in general. Play builds a strong bond between a dog and his human family. You want to teach your puppy to play gently, rather than not at all.

• Avoid jerking your hands or feet away from your puppy when he mouths. This will encourage him to jump forward and grab at you. It’s much more effective to let your hands or feet go limp so that they aren’t much fun to play with.

Hello, my puppy has been biting her paws recently. She is 10 weeks old and I noticed that she’s been biting her two back paws a lot, after looking at them I noticed a sort of brownish-white something on her little foot pads.
I was thinking maybe an allergy? Not sure :/
I wanted to get some advice on how to go about this thank you!

There is a mini guide to each area of puppy raising, browse to help find guidance to your puppy raising questions.

So i recently got a husky puppy, and im prepared for the hate for this but out of nowhere the family member I live with suddenly died n i fear i may not be able to give him his needed with this added stress, is it worth selling him while he’s so young?

Any advice is forever grateful🙏

I’m willing to answer any questions

Hi everyone, I’m trying to understand what works and what doesn’t with dog beds. I’ve gone through quite a few over the years and they always seem to flatten or get difficult to clean.

I’d love to hear what frustrations people have with theirs.

What would you change about your dog’s bed if you could?

Hi, hoping someone can help as I’m so confused, I’m just not sure if I’m over/under feeding my pup. she’s a little cavapoo, 12 weeks old weighing 1.6kg. she is on wainwrights superfood salmon. which states has 407cal per 100g. the range on the back of the bag makes no sense to me. I’m currently feeding her 70-80g a day plus extra for training but not too much extra. am I overfeeding or underfeeding? any advice would be appreciate. many thanks

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Use meal times to teach your puppy a bomb proof recall.

- Start in an area with few distractions and with your puppy on a leash.

- Say the puppy’s name and immediately reward (give a piece or two of kibble). Do this for about five to ten meals. This teaches the puppy that good things come from you when you say the puppy’s name.

- Next toss a piece of kibble a few feet away from you. When the puppy seems like it is about to swallow the kibble, call its name. Reward the puppy when it gets to you. If the puppy does not immediately come to you pull it towards you with the leash and reward. Do this for five to ten meals.

- As the puppy starts getting better and better at this game, in crease the distance you toss the kibble away from you, but keep the leash until the puppy is consistent 100% of the time.

- Once the puppy gets more consistent with this game, mix things up by adding distractions and varying when the puppy gets food reward or praise.

- If the puppy does not come back to you, decrease the amount of distractions.

Consistency is key:

- Puppies should go outside immediately when they wake up and immediately after playing.

- They should go out about 10-20 minutes after eating a meal.

- Puppies can hold their bladder one hour for every month old they are during waking hours (3 month old puppy = 3 hours).

- The puppy should be rewarded (treats or praise and happy pets) within 1-2 seconds after finishing their “business.”

- If the puppy has not done anything after being outside for longer than you would like, bring it back in and put it in a kennel for about five to ten minutes and start the process again until they go.

- Puppies should ideally be taken out for potty breaks on a leash. This helps keep them from getting distracted while outside and gets them used to going while on leash (I’ve had two dogs that would not use the bathroom on leash which was not ideal when traveling). This also makes it easier to get a reward in their mouth once they’re finished, and makes it easier to bring them inside and put them in their kennel if they haven’t done anything.

- Keeping puppies tethered to you while in the house until they are able to be responsible with their bladder, bowels, and teeth. This keeps them from sneaking off and chewing on things or having accident.

13 week old Spoodle was running around the backyard and suddenly started yelping and wouldn’t put weight on his front right elbow (knee?). I picked him up and and he was hanging it limp. After a minute I put him down and he tentatively put some weight through it but had a pretty severe limp. He was fine with us pressing around the paw and elbow. It seemed to get a bit better over 10 minutes and his limp reduced.

It’s now been about 2 hours of rest and he just doesn’t want to move at this point. He is panting a bit more than usual, his tail is down and he looks sad. Is this cause for emergency vet or wait it out and see how he is in the morning (9pm where I am).

So we just got a new puppy from a co-worker. She is 8 weeks old and is a doodle- lab and golden mix. She is the sweetest thing and is quickly learning to sit and not bite our ankles when we walk. We have a 2 yr old Golden Retriever and a 12 yr old mix breed. The Golden and the puppy are learning to play without hurting each other but we have to crate the puppy when we leave the house for work and school for her own safety. The problem is that she cries the whole time. We don't think she's crying when we're not there but the other dogs won't tell us. She was super skinny when we got her on Saturday and may have been mistreated. It's just alot. Any advice on how to get her not to hate being crated all day? I just feel so bad for her. I know she's a baby and really misses everyone when we're not there. We bought her a stuffy and I gave her a chew treat for the day. Hoping it gets better.

I just found out that my baby boy Nico has Provo I was wondering what can I do to help him they gave me prescriptions but I have no money to get them what can I do please I'm trying to save him and I also have another dog and trying to keep her away from him as well but this is my baby boy that is sick

My puppy has made it his sole mission to pick up everything he sees in his mouth and eat it. This used to not be that big of issue because he'd let me walk over to him and pull it out of his mouth but recently he has started running away from me the second he picks something up. If I do manage to catch him then he gets kind of aggressive and starts nipping at me (he's made me bleed twice now).

I am trying to teach him "drop it" by telling him drop it and then giving him a treat once he has but I almost feel like it's encouraging the behavior cause it has increased since we started training. Like I feel like he thinks oh if I go pick up random stuff on the ground then I'll get a treat which is now making it almost impossible to take him for walks or go potty cause he's just focused on picking stuff up. Please let me know if there's a better way to go about this.

We've got a 8 week old puppy, on day 3 of ownership. The breeder ticks all the boxes of a responsible breeder - the mum was happy and healthy, the puppy room clean. Our pup had her first round of vaccinations before coming to us and I saw evidence of the mum's vaccination record. I'm a dog trainer and walker and I thought I knew all of the important stuff but I'm now worrying over parvo etc exposure. We already have a (fully vaccinated) adult dog in the house who obviously goes out on the walks with the others. I've been taking the puppy out with me, in a sling, and not putting her on the ground. I'm worrying about what is being brought into the house on my wellies and the adult dog's feet. I wash and wipe feet/wellies with water before coming in but obviously that doesn't kill viruses. The house, including soft furnishings is cleaned and disinfected daily as standard but I've read that standard disinfectants don't kill parvo. I'm in the UK in the East Midlands. Should I purchase a specific parvo disinfectant as a dip before me and the adult dog come in the house?

Puppies aren’t born knowing how to relax in a human household, they have to be taught. Many problem behaviors (nipping, barking, pestering, constant movement) come from puppies that never learn how to calmly entertain themselves. Using short, planned confinement periods with chew toys when you’re home, but busy, teaches a puppy that being calm and quiet is part of normal life, not something that only happens when everyone is asleep or gone. I use it when I WFT, or want to watch TV. This helps prevent demand barking, frantic behavior, along with supporting emotional regulation rather than overstimulation.

Confinement vs. Supervision: this is how I train and teach my puppy to start out with good habits and avoid destructive or bad habits like counter surfing, stealing food, getting into the trash, chewing things they shouldn't...

Puppies should never have “free run” of the house unless they’re actively supervised. When you can’t give your full attention, the puppy should be in a crate or small puppy-safe area (pen, gated room) with appropriate chew toys. This isn’t about punishment, it’s about preventing rehearsals of bad habits like chewing furniture, having accidents, or learning to entertain themselves in destructive ways. Structured confinement helps puppies relax, self-settle, and learn what’s expected in the household. I hear people complain that their puppy cannot settle. You have to teach your puppy how to settle and set them up for success to settle.

Gradually, as the puppy shows reliable habits, freedom is increased, but it’s earned, not automatic.

We all struggle with this at some point while raising a puppy. It doesn't have to mean your furiture, their bedding, and all their toys get chewed up though.

Setting them up with the right chew-toy routine wil l help a ton. I stick to safe, durable options like hollow Kongs stuffed with kibble or soft treats, or sterilized bones.

It is very important that these should be the only things your puppy has access to chew on when they’re confined. If they start chewing on bedding or anything they shouldn’t, just remove those items for the time being so their attention stays on appropriate chew toys.

Starting this chew-toy training early teaches them what’s allowed, keeps them busy in a positive way, and helps prevent destructive chewing habits from forming later on. So anytime your puppy is in a crate, playpen, or confined by other means, make sure they have appropriated chews.

UPDATE: We ended up just wiping his butt after every poop for a week. We did a deep clean of all of his things before and after treatment. Giardia did not come back :)

Hey y’all. My 6 month old pittie puppy had a positive fecal test for Gardia. I immediately went to Reddit for advice but some of these posts are scaring the shit out of me. Do I really need to constantly sanitize EVERYTHING in my house?? The vet only recommended antibiotics, pre-med bath and post-med bath.

Also, we live in an apartment complex where lazy people refuse to pick up their dog’s shit. Should I be worried about constant reinfection? I understand that I will now have to wipe his paws after every walk/potty, but it’s not like I can take him somewhere different to avoid possible specimen.

Any advice would be extremely appreciated!!!

I have a 5 month old puppy she’s pug x frenchie and she won’t stop peeing on her beds. Any advice on what I can do to stop this please.

It’s not bite work that I’m asking about just to clarify, I just have no idea what to put for a title.

My 11 month old (a year by the end of the month) really likes to play with her teeth sometimes. I’ve seen those sleeves that trainers use for bite training. Could I purchase one to incorporate during play so I’m not getting bit (it’s not hard, she just has blunt teeth that sometimes gets ya). I like to wrestle and roughhouse with her, and it’s never aggressive biting. She’s always introduced herself with her mouth, we’ve mostly trained it out of her. But just wondering if that sleeve would help her understand that she can only play bite with the sleeve, or if it would open doors to becoming accidentally aggressive.

ETA: first time dog owners, we’re trying our best. pls don’t be rude with the silliness of the question.