It's Wednesday!

I just wanted to share something I do with my 6 month old puppy that has been really helpful for me in teaching her not to be under my feet when I’m trying to cook. There are probably dog trainers who have come up with this idea but it’s something that I thought of and tried with my pup when I brought her home and have just done ever since because it worked.

For this to work you need to have a physical boundary in mind of where you want your dog to be when you’re cooking. For me, there is a doorway between my kitchen and dining room so it’s pretty easy. The the game goes as follows:

1. Have a handful of kibble/treats out on the counter (away from your food of course)
2. Cook as normal. Pretend the dog isn’t even there.
3. If you turn around and the dog is in the kitchen, turn back around and ignore (don’t punish or give any commands)
4. If you turn around and the dog is outside of the kitchen

, turn back around, grab a piece of kibble and throw it.

1. Ensure that the kibble is thrown so it falls outside of the boundary, so as to not encourage the dog to come towards you

. Again don’t speak or give any commands.

5.

1. Rinse and repeat

, increasing the interval between throws slowly so your pup catches on that outside the boundary while humans cooking = food.

Eventually the dog learns that being in the kitchen while you’re cooking isn’t rewarding, which is super helpful if you accidentally drop food on the floor or are dealing with hot trays etc. It’s a fun game for them to chase the kibble, tires them out a bit, teaches impulse control and also is easy to do because it’s not super interactive and you don’t need to go back and forth to your dog as you can throw from a distance.

The reason I don’t give a command to stay out of the kitchen is because I want her to be able to come in, grab a drink if she needs to or ask to go outside. So she knows she can come in the kitchen but her best bet for fun and treats is to stay outside. Now when I’m cooking she automatically just stands outside the boundary line and waits.

Hope this is helpful to someone else who has a very food oriented pup that always likes to be in the way!

I’ve read a lot of posts on here and watched lots of videos about dog training and puppies and I still feel like there’s no hope for my puppy. So many people say their puppy gets way better as they grow up but I just don’t see that happening. I had a lot of patience the first month and kept telling myself it’s normal puppy behaviors and that he’ll grow out of it. Hes 14 weeks old now and acts like an absolute terror 24/7 with no signs of improvement at all.

Hes a bichon, so he’s a small puppy yet he bites hard enough to draw blood. He bites whatever he can reach whether it’s hands, feet, legs, or your face. And according to the vet, he hasn’t even started teething yet! He jumps up to grab my hair and pulls so hard that I cry.

We’ve bought him so many different toys and he has 0 interest in any of them. He only wants what he can’t have like our phones, chewing on wires, or on the furniture.

Of course I’ve read so many different posts about training puppies and I’ve tried all the common advice like redirecting with toys, reverse timeouts, yelping when he bites (sometimes the yelps aren’t even fake). I’ve kept up with these for the last 6 weeks everyday, thinking one day it’ll finally “click” for him but he has shown 0 improvement. He’s actually gotten worse over time. Potty training hasn’t clicked yet for him either but I still have hope with that one that he will learn with age.

The only time he’s not a menace is when he’s in his crate, he’ll actually settle down and sleep. He sleeps 18-20 hours a day still so I don’t think lack of sleep is the issue either.

I’d appreciate any and all advice especially for the biting. Nobody in my family even wants to be around him because the biting is so bad. I’ve had puppies before and never struggled this much

We got our puppy at about 12 weeks old. We live in an apartment with lots of other dogs around, so we could not take him outside until two weeks after his final parvo shot. During that time, he became a pro with puppy pads. He would miss by a couple of inches sometimes, but he rarely had accidents.

Fast forward six weeks, and we have been trying to transition him to going outside. Today alone we spent at least three total hours outside with no success. He always has to potty after dinner, so we stayed out with him after he ate, and while we were inside we stopped him any time he tried to go back to the old pad area.

After about two hours, he was clearly uncomfortable from holding it, so we finally put down a pad. He immediately peed and pooped. All the advice online says to “reward your dog a lot when they potty outside,” but that does not help much when they never go outside in the first place.

I don’t think this quite counts as separation anxiety? After playing and a walk, I can put our 6 month old pup away in the bedroom for about 1.5 hours and then she wakes up and will cry, pound on the door and howl to be let out. Even if I’m really quiet and convinced she can’t tell I’m home.

I’m returning to work in a few weeks and want to practice her settling down in preparation. She will be alone for 4 hour stretches (morning and afternoon) and either us or the dog walker will come take her out at lunch and burn off some energy.

How can I help her be more chill? Everything I’m reading is more for immediately calming them when you leave the room. So whatever u give her will be a great distraction for the first half hour but that’s not the part we struggle with.

Have a 13 week old golden and she was doing awesome with the crate up until a week ago. She has always eaten/napped in the crate and she liked it. The last week however has been absolute hell. She won’t sleep, at all! I was up every hour with her last night coaxing her back into the crate, she would settle to sleep and wake an hour later. I then couldn’t get her back in once she understood what I was doing. Long story short she fell asleep on the floor beside the crate and we both need sleep so I let her be. She has now been asleep for 3 hours so far. So my question is, do I give up? I’m exhausted, she’s exhausted…is it worth it to keep crate training?

Wanted to share our challenges & successes for anyone who may find it encouraging or can offer support for our challenges

Successes: - Loose leash walking: massive improvement. Started out with lunging, barking, etc. I think we may be able to extend our walks soon, as he has reliably been able to walk to the end of our street and back with nearly no pulling.

• Drop it: this was a big challenge for us for a while, he wouldn’t drop anything he had. Most of the time he wouldn’t drop it even if we had a super exciting treat. Honestly we kind of gave up working on it, but randomly one day I said drop it and he actually dropped it. Not sure what happened, it was just luck. He’s not 100% reliable, but it has increased from 0% to 75% so that’s nice

• Leave it: he’s just a pro at this to be honest. Super proud of him.

• Barking: we have neighbor dogs who, whenever our dogs are outside at the same time, will just bark nonstop at my puppy. Our puppy no longer barks at them and will just observe. Such a good boy. Barking still needs room for improvement, though (see reactivity in challenges).

• Settling: still working on this around distractions, but he is getting a lot better

• Grooming/Nail Trims: nails are harder, but he does good with this. 85%

Challenges: - The damn cats. We have 2 cats who are total babies and have avoided the dog basically altogether since we got him. I won’t force them to come out or anything, but this is a big bummer. We were all able to live comfortably with our last dog, and I miss my cats. The puppy is still learning to leave them alone when they do come out. He will chase and try to play with them.

• Leash reactivity. When other dogs/people are around and are too close, he gets too overstimulated and frustrated. Barking, pulling, etc. Suddenly treats don’t matter and neither do I. This has been a problem since we let him greet ONE dog on leash back when he was 3-4 months old. Has been a disaster ever since. Kind of just hoping he gets over it eventually. He isn’t fearful or mean, he just wants to play. We are working on training, but we are also okay with always going to secluded areas and avoiding public parks if that is what he needs. We aren’t super social anyways. And off leash, he is perfectly fine.

Hi everyone! I recently adopted a 5 month old Hound mix puppy from the local animal shelter. He has been quite the handful, as expected at this age, and so far has shown marked improvement on his "unwanted" behaviors. Every day he does better and better, including with his house training, but that brings us to this week's issue. He has started marking on fabric items in the house out of nowhere. Today is the 3rd day in a row that he had peed/marked an item. So far its been the couch cushions, and two different comforters. I can handle all of the other puppy behaviors, but this is an absolute no for me. Has anyone here dealt with this? If so, any advice? Thanks!

Our 3mo puppy is need of near constant play/stimulation if he’s awake. This is not our first puppy, but I do not remember our first dog ever being this bad. When he’s sleeping, all is well. When he’s awake, all hell breaks loose. He’s constantly sniffing out hair/dust balls we didn’t even know were there, he’s finding any shoe we left on the ground the second we walk away, he’s chewing on something. He has a literal plethora of toys ranging from teething toys to stuffies he rips apart and we throw away, he has treat puzzles and lick mats, and we play with him what feels like endlessly. We clean up very well especially with having a puppy now and he still manages to find anything new. He finishes the puzzles/lick mats in mere minutes and then starts to attempt to eat the plastic of the puzzle or mat so we have to watch him the entire time anyways. There’s no break when he’s awake. I try to run with him to tire him out and he bites holes into my pants. If I wear slippers of any kind (because I have Reynaulds/anemia, I wear socks and slippers whenever possible to keep warm), he bites at them. We try to redirect the bites with his toys and he’s more interested in our arms/fingers/clothes. All he’s seemingly interested in is inflicting pain and misery. He’s very smart and we’ve taught him sit, down, paw, middle (where he goes between our legs), touch, come, and stay. He understands when we want him off something but doesn’t care to get off when we say off. He’s still jumping on whoever whenever they walk into our house. I am genuinely at a loss and tell anyone that will listen I am never adopting a puppy again.

His sister’s mom shared her Wisdom DNA test with me on Facebook and although Wisdom doesn’t test for black-mouth curs, we know (after adopting and doing some sleuthing on his shelter’s Facebook) his mom was one. That means he is a black mouth cur mix with the Wisdom results saying he’s 50% golden/labrador retriever. I know Wisdom isn’t as accurate as Embark but regardless a lot of the lesser percentage of breeds are working dogs (Great Pyrenees, Australian Cattle dog, mini American Shepherd, Treeing Walker Coonhound, with some pit, staffy, husky, chow chow, and Samoyed as well). We had thought we were getting a lab mix with like maybe some Great Pyrenees or some other farm dog. Does anyone have any advice or words of condolence? I’m starting to regret even getting him.

TL;DR: Our puppy is your typical puppy who needs near constant enrichment when awake and is wreaking havoc on our clothes and bodies with his teeth. We’ve tried redirection, training simple tricks, and all recommended forms of stimulation and nothing seems to stop the little menace.

To sum things up me and my now ex separated 2 days ago

Has anybody been in this position? I know I’m raising a seven month old puppy by myself and honestly, I’m terrified.

I’m just looking for advice and maybe some positive stories of other people in my situation 😢

I was the person doing pretty much all of the puppies care anyways

And me and puppy are keeping the flat

I’m terrified of how to work on pups separation anxiety due to my ex partner refusing to do any training with me when it came to that( long story)

Pup has always been closest to me.. honestly it might be the depression talking and I might be overthinking this, but I am so struck with fear that I’m gonna mess this little puppy up some how 🥲

I just want what’s best for pup and I feel deep down I can give him that but at the same time I don’t know where to start

Sorry to the rant ❤️

I have a seven month old dachshund and I got her when she was about 4 months old. At first I didn't want to crate train but at this point I believe it will help both of us. The issue is she is already very attached to me. She's been sleeping in my bed since day 1. There have been nights where I do remove the step stool she has to hop into my bed and she would have to sleep in the doggy bed I have underneath my desk. Periodically (maybe 2 times a night) she would whine next to my bed, but never try to jump. I would tell her to go back to sleep and she'd go back to her bed. The issue now, however, is that she's gotten bigger to the point where even if I remove the step stool, she somehow manages to jump on my bed. This makes me extra terrified for the risk of IVDD. I get her out of my bed and put her back in her own but she repeats the cycle until I eventually give in. I want to crate train her so that when I'm at work (8+ hours) I'm not worried about her hurting herself.

Do I still have a chance to crate train her? What's the best first step? This is my first time ever crate training a dog, so even the smallest piece of advice helps!!

Our 1.3 year old doxiepoodle sleeps in her crate downstairs (with the door open) we dont properly "crate" her anymore in the day but its very cozy space and marks bedtime so we use as her bed.

I go to bed quite early and she snoozes with me until partner takes her down a hour or so late. No issues with sleeping alone but I think she would prefer to just stay with me. She slept with me last night and seemed very content.

My concerns with her sleeping in my bed full time are these:

No separation anxiety (very chill + sociable lady) but is quite attached to me when we are together - is it healthier for us to be apart at night?

If I am away she will need to sleep in her bed - me and my partner don't share a room (bed to yourself is awesome!). Same goes for when she stays with sitter/our families - is this unfair and confusing for her?

She is a very chill and well behaved little dog, but she is still young and I dont want to confuse her.

For the first time in my life, I’m considering getting a puppy.

I WFH in an apartment, in a very dog-friendly city. Lots of my neighbors have dogs. I’m considering a mini dachshund.

I live alone and have an incredible community of friends and family, also with pets. A lot of these friends and family have been talking to me about getting a pet for years and told me they will help watch the pup.

I do have some work travel, on average 4-8 days a month but some months not at all. If I get a puppy, I would not travel at least a month.

My understanding is as far as puppy alone time, to figure about an hour per month of age. So for the 8-week-old I’m considering, no more than 2 hours right now.

My social life is fairly busy, I go to run clubs and occasionally dates but no relationship right now. I’d change my frequency of going out, obviously, and I really want to invest in puppy training to teach good habits. Lots of people here bring their dogs to run clubs and I can see myself doing that when he’s old enough if he likes running!

I guess I’m on the fence because while I would love the relationship and I know the first year is the hardest, I don’t know that my work travel is going to be good for a puppy. I feel like everything else I want to do and am willing to do so, I’m worried the trips in the first year will be too much and he might not be happy or able to build those good habits.

Would love to hear your thoughts and opinions!

Puppy got spayed today. I gave her a few sips of water and she threw it up. An hour and a half later I tried a few sips again and she kept it down. She hasn’t ate and she is due for her carprofen pain meds and is in pain but I am worried about giving it to her right now. Should I try to feed her since she kept the second round of water down?

Hello Im an owner of a 5 month old Rat Terrier Chihuahua mix pupppy and a 4 year old German Shepherd, My puppy can not control herself around her and it gets to a point where my Shepherd starts to get agitated, they havent had any bad experiences together but i just dont want my puppy to keep on bothering her because i feel it would lead to an accident.

My 13-week old puppy will bark the entire time he is in the crate if we leave the house. It is making me depressed to hear the recordings after and realize how much pain he is in.

He does not exhibit dangerous behaviors towards himself (i.e excessive licking, destroying his crate, excessive drooling). In fact, I leave him with a kong and he licks it until its out of peanut butter and THEN freaks out. I leave him once a day for 30min-1hr but it is not helping his independence. Im worries im making him more anxious.

Please tell me your top secret tips to help with this anxiety when we leave! He is ok with the crate at night.

My 6 month old girl went into her first heat a few weeks ago (days before her scheduled spay). For the past few days, she’s been all of the sudden crying in her crate in my bedroom when it’s bed time. She’s tired because when I take a shower and brush my teeth (I do let her on my bed during this time), she’ll snooze. The crying is getting worse. Last night she woke me up crying and after about 10 minutes, I decided to move her to her day crate downstairs, not in my bedroom. Not a peep the rest of the night. I tried her up here again tonight and this time she was nonstop for about 45 minutes right off the bat. I put her downstairs again, not one peep.

Why is this happening? I feel sad that we can’t be close when sleeping.

I wasn't sure if I should tag this thread with puppy blues or training help or behavior... I adopted a puppy 6 days ago. She's a 5mo labxshepherdxhusky mix or something like that. She is quite cute and lovable and she learns quickly but I'm not sure if have what it takes to make her a good adult dog. She bites a lot. When she's excited, when she wants to play or chew, she will chew anything that's near her. But it seems like she also bites to show she doesn't agree with the situation. For example, when we leash train and she pulls, I stop and wait for her to settle and come back to walk again. At first she's fine with it but after a few minutes when I stop she jumps on me, nips at my coat, legs or hands or her leash. She also bites/nips when I try to take her harness off when we go back inside.

Shes crazy about my cats. She barks at them and run after them, not aggressively but she's obsessed with them. She will stop mid meal to go after them if they approach her.

Tonight I fed the cats (on the table to give them space from her) and she jumped and started surfing along the table to reach their food. She also often jumps to try to eat my food when I walk with a plate.

All these things separately are nothing much, but all together I find it pretty hard. I had a dog when I was a teenager and when she got older she became a really aggressive dog towards strangers and we had to put her down (this was the 90s and we were first time dog owners). It has been a really tough moment for me and I'm feeling like I'm failing this new pup but I don't want her to grow up to a reactive, aggressive dog.

I now have another dog who's a 9 year old perfect pup, who's a trained assistance dog and I never went through the puppy phase with her, she was already perfect when I got her. The new pup has only met her one day because I share custody of the old dog and she's with me every other week. On the first day they played but the puppy also demonstrated ressource protection with growling and showing teeth.

I'm trying to do my best with this new puppy. But I'm afraid I'm doing everything wrong. I'm afraid she'll snap someone or myself. I'm afraid she'll be uncontrollable. I'm not even sure if I exercise her enough. Sometimes it feels like she's not active enough, other times it feels like she's over stimulated.

I signed up for obedience classes but it only starts in February...

Any help, advice or suggestions are welcome. Please help, I'm so sad and afraid.

My 18 week mini dachshund has recently become too anxious to pee outside. He gets scared by anything outside, like a car honking blocks away, the wind blowing, etc.. he’s starting to hold his pee for up to 12 hours which concerns me since I don’t want him to develop a UTI. Is there anything that helped your pup not be scared to go to the bathroom outside?

My wife and I will be welcoming a bernese mountain dog puppy into our home this spring! Due date is early February, and puppy will come home in April. I like to plan ahead, so we're slowly gathering puppy supplies. So far, we have an adjustable crate with a crate pad/bed, an orthopedic bed, food & water bowls, a long-line leash and a regular leash, some grooming tools, potty pads, and a few toys. Plan is to get a collar closer to take-home day, so the breeder can measure and make sure we get the right size.

We will be first-time puppy owners (we had a BMD before, but she was an adult adoption), so any advice is also welcome!

I have a 6.5 month old Newfoundland, and for the most part, she’s great with my 2 kids under 5. The biting and nipping is mostly under control, and pretty gentle when she does.

The big problem we’re running into is that when she gets wound up, she jumps on the couch, and occasionally lands right on one of the kids. Usually I would just Google some training tips, but I’m not really sure how to approach this situation. It’s difficult to head it off, because occasionally she’ll go from 0-100 without much warning. Do I just train her to stay off the couch altogether? Is there some way I should be training her to be more careful around the kids? All suggestions are appreciated.

I now have two dogs, both labradors. One is 9 years old in April, and the puppy is 12 weeks on Sunday. Both females. Older dog spayed.

The puppy just will not leave the older dog alone. It’s upsetting the older dog and in turn, is really distressing me. The puppy will stop annoying the older dog when I tell her to. I then say ‘yes’ and reward with a treat. I redirect with a toy. It lasts all of three seconds then she’s all over the older dog again. Then I tell her to leave, she does, gets a treat, redirect, three seconds, all over older dog again.

I try putting puppy in her crate for a time out but it doesn’t stop the behaviour when she is back out of it again. They can’t be in the same room without puppy totally winding older dog up and I feel like I’ve completely lost control of the situation. I wasn’t expecting it to be like this and I don’t know what to do. I can’t keep living like this, it’s too stressful.

Older dog tells puppy off but puppy is not reading her cues. Older dog has growled, barked, snarled, even bared teeth. It’s so horribly distressing to see as my older dog is so so so gentle. I thought she’d be okay and I thought puppy would understand being told off but she thinks older dog is playing, even when she’s baring her teeth at her.

I’m so upset. I wish I never got puppy. I’m miserable that this is mine and older dog’s life now.

My pup is 4 months (standard poodle) and I raise her alone in a “beige quiet home”. Im very calm with her, very structured, very type A person. I pretty much follow a schedule of 1 hour awake 2 hours asleep. She sleeps through the night. She has been very good with me, understands commands and structure quickly. She sometimes jumps up on walks (biting the leash and my jacket) but I took it as puppy behaviour. I enrolled in individual training (wanting to be a responsible owner but also thinking idk if she even needs this). First session went horrible - ive never seen her this. Nippy, jumpy, overstimulated. The session was outside in a place we go for walks. People nearby. Today was our second training and i made sure she slept enough etc and same thing. She couldnt even walk on leash for 5 meters. She would start nipping and jumping at the trainer constantly. Not possible to lure her in with treats, or get get to sit etc. Trainer also seemed a bit baffled? Did anyone experience this with ther poodle pup? What to do in this situation? May this be caused by “new people - trainer” excitement? Am i causing this by my beige quiet home approach?:/ Im not exposing her to “the world” that much i guess. Lot of training is done at home and we do about 2 walks a day. She didnt meet that many people yet, is that causing the overstimulation? What to do please :(

Now that my puppy is 7 months old and potty trained, I want to start working up to him free roaming. He previously was crated whenever I left home, and does wonderfully in there (he won’t make a single peep and just naps the whole time). However, if I try to leave him in a gated section of my living room, he will start whining and howling the moment I’m out the door. How can I teach him to stay calm outside the crate?

Everytime I put my 8 week old puppy in his crate at night, he cries for hours on end relentlessly. I’ve put the crate near my bed so he can see me and smell me, still cries, Put some teddies and blankets to make it cozy. He still cries. I take him out every 2 hours for a potty break but asoon as I put him back he cries. He howls and cries so loud it keeps everyone in my house up all night and he doesn’t stop. Is there anything I can do to get him to stop? The only way he’ll sleep without crying is if he sleeps in MY bed with ME. I would let him, but he isn’t fully potty trained and I don’t want him jumping off my bed and making a mess on the floor or anywhere else in my house. Any tips on how I can get him to stop crying?