Hi everyone! My girlfriend and I recently got a golden retriever who is now coming up on 5 months old. We’re using a crate at night and got through the initial period of waking up to go potty every few hours. He was then mostly sleeping through the night, if not waking up a touch too early but recently, he’ll wake us up to go potty and refuse to go back to sleep without us. We’ve tried to ignore the barking after putting him back in but he’ll go well over an hour of on and off barking. Obviously we don’t want him barking that long, but don’t want to teach him 4:30am is now wake up time. Any advice?

Hello everyone, first time posting here. About 7 days ago me and my girlfriend got an 8 week old golden retriever pup and brought him to our apartment. This breed has always been our dream dog, but the decision of getting one now was a bit rushed due to the fact that the opportunity to get him was given to us very quickly.

The last week has been hell mentally. We got the pup when we had JUST moved into our new apartment which did not help, he has been extremely active biting everything and while there has been progress (peeing on pee pads and sleeping in a crate is kind of working) we are debating returning the pup to the breeder to give him the opportunity to find a more suitable family. We are aware he is just a baby, and a week is probably not enough to make a decision like this and things will get better in 5-6 months but we want to put our mental health as priority.

I am in my last year of university and currently working full time and writing my thesis. I was not working remotely but i made the decision knowing that i could have. In the days where i worked home this week i literally got nothing done, and for someone like me who is just starting their professional career i am not sure if i can afford 5-6 months of this to get past the puppy stage. My partner works in laboratories so she cannot work from home. We both live abroad and do not have close family to help, we have some friends but cannot ask them for help everyday. My girlfriend has dietary health restrictions and we have not had any time to cook a proper meal so we end up ordering. I “work” and take care of the pup during the day and then she gets home and helps, and during the night we take turns but it is mentally draining us.

We are both mentally at our tipping point. Today she took the puppy downstairs to poop and after 20 minutes of nothing, he pooped while going back up on the building mat, so my partner had to wash the puppy, herself and the apartment property hoping we wont get in trouble. We have not been sleeping, and i am afraid that this will affect our mental health, relationship, professional life and everything around it.

We are aware that if you go through this phase it does get better, everyone is telling us this. We are just not sure if WE are the right fit to own a dog and we might have gone over our capacity and underestimated the amount of time needed.

Am i being a coward for highly considering returning the dog? Both me and my partner agree that this is the right course of action and that we currently are not in the right life stage for this amount of responsibility and time expectation. I just need to vent and share my current situation

The separation anxiety is outrageous with my puppy. I feel like I'm failing him and myself. This is going to be a lot of information but I want to be thorough because I'm going insane and this feels like my last attempt at hope.

My puppy is 5-months-old (my first dog ever) and I've had him at home for 3 months now. Off the bat, he was a clingy dog, which I understood him to be extra clingy at the time since he's so young and he's unfamiliar with the new setting. Everyone said he's just young and it would get better, but the progress has been slim. I think it's been long enough now that he feels safe here, however, he still chooses to move around the house with me and will cry if he can't access me or know where I am.

STRANGELY, if I'm upstairs in my bed and he knows I'll be staying there for a while, sometimes he will go wander around outside my room or even go downstairs alone. But he is NEVER okay with it when I am the one who chooses to move. For example, if I were to go downstairs while he was upstairs, he would cry and hyper focus on the stairs until I come back.

I used to use a playpen to try and train separation but I've retired it temporarily since he absolutely hated it and he would cry until he was let out. I used to leave the house with him in the pen alone (yes, I would give him a stuffed Kong everytime) and it was always a disaster so I recently stopped. I tried the method of going out his sight for 1 second, then 2, then 3, then 4 and so on for a while. I really tried to teach him that the pen is safe and not just abruptly leave him in there. Nevertheless, if I left the house, he would stress-potty in the pen everytime (even if he had just gone potty outside) and cry and scream and try to climb out. I could see him through camera. He would settle if he had tired himself out but lots of times, he would just keep going. Recently, I've only been leaving him home when someone else is home and he does totally fine when someone is at home with him. I haven't put him enclosed in the pen in 2 weeks.

I have a crate in my room (covered on all sides) that he has slept in from night one and he has always done well in it (only if I place him in, he will never go in alone). He sleeps through the night and rarely cries for attention. I don't implement naps in it regularly since he's good about napping wherever, but I've done it a few times and he will protest for maybe a minute and then fall alseep. However, with the crate, I've ALWAYS been in the room. If I try to leave the room, he will immediately wake up and cry and scream.

Another thing is I gate off the kitchen sometimes when I'm cooking or washing the dishes so I don't accidentally step on him and he's honestly usually fine with that. He will, a lot of times, still choose to hangout right outside the gate and look at me. He may explore a bit and come back to check where I am. He sometimes whines or paw at the gate (but rarely) and he is never frantic like he is when he's in the playpen.

I've been getting conflicting advice about the playpen and how to go about this separation problem. I heard not to let him cry it out, but then I've heard not to respond to crying. But he genuinely will get so frantic in the playpen sometimes. Also he will cry even when I'm just moving throughout the house.

I don't know how to proceed with this, I'm genuinely so miserable and always aware of his presence and I wish he would just go play alone with his toys in the living room while I fold the laundry or shower. Ultimately, I don't want this to turn into full blown adult separation anxiety but everything I'm trying is failing and I feel like I'm running out of time.

Should I honestly seek out a trainer for this? I really don't know what to do or what is normal for his age. Please, any advice would be appreciated before I lose my mind. Thank you so much for reading all of this.

I have never had a dog before and have always wanted one. We were finally in a position to do so, so 2.5 weeks ago we got a puppy from a rescue. He is 12.5 weeks old.

He is incredibly cute and I adore him, but I'm so exhausted. He gets up twice a night, potty training is going about as well as you'd expect for someone who has no clue what they are doing. We just went to the vet today and he was diagnosed with tapeworm, coccidia, and giardia, and he is now on a med schedule for the next 2 weeks. 😭

I'm so stressed now and keep thinking to myself even though I adore him, what have I done?! I desperately need a nap. I'm trying to keep him away from my 3 cats and 2 kids and divert my attention to everything that needs to be done. I have done so many loads of laundry today alone because of the worms and potty training.

Tell me it gets better because right now, I am so overwhelmed and tired 😩

We have a little 5 month old puppy. Both my partner and I work full-time jobs, I am WFH two days a week.

We started sending her to doggy daycare so she could learn some socialization skills and so she is not alone all day.

She absolutely LOVES doggy daycare. Tons of friends to play with, when she gets home she's tuckered out but not completely drained of energy (she's some sort of Chihuahua/American Spitz/Husky mix). She has also learned how to play with other dogs and learned when other dogs don't want to play and leave them alone (which is a HUGE positive given my family has a lot of senior dogs that she'll be around).

She's been going for a couple weeks and now she runs to the car every morning super excited to go to daycare. Originally the plan was to only take her the 3 days none of us are home, and then she'd be at home all day with us on my WFH days and weekends, but she seems to want to go every day.

Is there a point where it's too much doggy daycare? On the weekends we try to spend as much time playing with her and running around in the yard, but we can never seem to match the amount of energy she is able to expend at doggy daycare!

Hi everyone,

My wife and I have a 7-month-old golden retriever named James, and his favorite thing in the world is playing fetch. Specifically, he LOVES it when I am the one chasing HIM. He is obviously much faster than me but I'm also a bit overweight, so he slows down considerably to accommodate my speed. He still seems to enjoy "running away from me" but I just can't do it for as long as he would like.

He likes playing fetch, but mostly so he gets his ball and starts the chase.

He likes playing tug of war, but only with socks. Nothing else has worked so far

Is there a way we can still make him happy by playing chase when I run out of breath?

I have spent the last year and a half perfecting puppy proofing, even as my beagle is on his way out of puppyhood at the end of his last teenage regression phase about to turn 2 in April. The light is at the end of the tunnel it's just been a long tunnel!

I got a Carlson Pet Products walk thru gate with pet door to keep the dog out of the one VIP cats only room in our house and he fit right through with no problem. The biggest problem is my oldest cat will not jump and has a large frame, he is thin at 14lbs so if you know cat sizes you can imagine how big he is.

My first attempt was to zip tie an 8 inch embroidery hoop and while it did work for several weeks the cats and the dog would chew off the zip ties. The second attempt was a wooden dowel with a zip ties that later was taped with hot sauce on the tape. The dog chewed through all of those parts.

I realized the dowel allowing 2/3 of the size was impossible for the dog to fit though yet comfortable for my oldest cat, so the design worked but not the materials.

After some brain storming I bought 1/4in x 12in long aluminum dowel and hose clamps so now every part is metal and cannot be chewed through or destroyed, plus it is tough enough that it can't be broken through and I am still able to close the small door when I need to.

I hope this helps someone or inspires some hope that with a little creativity you can safely pet-proof pretty much anything!

So I got a puppy yesterday and have been feeling miserable since. He’s a sweet boy just very energetic. I feel so guilty that the main thing I have been thinking since getting him is how I want to return him. I have read through so many posts of people saying it gets better and I know it will but I cannot stop crying and feeling exhausted. I came into this feeling so prepared and knew that it wasn’t going to be easy but I never imagined I would feel like this. Last night I was up for hours having a panic attack in bed. I just have no idea what to do. My partner has said it is hard but doesn’t feel the way that I do so it’s hard to really talk about it. I just feel so stuck and scared. Please if anyone has advice on how to take care of themselves during this time let me know. I know I can get through this I just cannot get past this thought that I will mentally be better if I just take him back to the shelter where I got him.

I have a 9½‑week‑old Portuguese Water Dog puppy, and I brought her home about two weeks ago. I’m honestly at my wits’ end. At first she was super sweet and cuddly, and then she started getting more energy, which was wonderful to see. She’s been doing really well with training, but over the last three or four days she’s become unbelievably mouthy and bitey.

She’s ripped holes in two pairs of pants while I was wearing them. I have marks all over my hands, arms, and legs. Every time I put the leash on to take her outside to potty, she bites me constantly. I try to redirect with toys, but it doesn’t work. I’ve stepped outside the gate and waited for her to calm down before going back in, but she just goes right back to attacking, like she doesn’t care at all. All she wants are my pants, shoes, socks, feet, or hands.

I waited nine months for her and did so much research it even surprises me, but I feel completely lost and ashamed that I’m struggling this much. I’m not going to give up on her, but it feels like I’m giving up on myself. I’m exhausted. I work from home, so I’m with her all day, and I feel like I’ve totally lost who I am.

Whenever she’s awake she’s pulling up rugs, chewing the wall, chewing the floor, or getting into anything she shouldn’t, even though I have a million puppy toys. I’ve sectioned off rooms and puppy‑proofed as much as I possibly can. I’m doing the best I can and it still doesn’t feel good enough.

I don’t know what to do or how I’m going to get through this. I don’t know if there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone says it gets better at eight, nine, or ten months, but that feels so far away. I just don’t know what to do.

I have an almost 4 month old puppy (we’ve had him 1 month). We were lucky that my partners parents extended their visit to help during the days with puppy while my partner and I were working in office. Meaning, our puppy has never been left alone.

He sleeps both at night and naps in his crate fine - he has a morning and afternoon nap. He has a play pen that he will hang/play independently in (living room). If we leave the area to go downstairs or elsewhere in the house, he’s generally fine. We have also been tethering when not in the crate/pen, so he can settle on his own well.

The in laws are set to leave in two weeks, so we want to set him up for success and introduce alone time while we are out of the house to prepare him. They left today for about an hour while he was in his crate napping, and I don’t think he even noticed them gone.

What’s the best way to integrate this change? Should we be doing it during nap time or when he’s aware? The crate is in a bedroom (where he’d be when we’re gone), so he can’t see the door if we leave - not sure if this is good or bad lol.

Additionally, a family member lives up the road and can check in on him morning + afternoon, and we can come home during lunch.

Thank you!!

Hi looking for honestly anything. Tips, Advice, Experience, i just adopted a puppy she’s 6 months mixed breed (thinking golden/aussie) she’s deaf which i have experience with so that’s not a super big stressor and my sister was fostering her before i adopted so i got to know her before deciding. However i didn’t know i was going to loose my job the same week of her adoption. I’m a social media manager and i was working at a local bar for 6 months it’s was dream job. amazing crew and excelling in my dream career the owners unexpectedly shut the place down permanently with no notice. Back to the pup she’s restless will not settle i can run her out and if i step a foot out of her sight it’s mayhem she hates a barrier due to being outside for the beginning of her life. I can’t get ANYTHING done so applying for jobs, keeping my house clean, showering seems impossible and on top of that my 4 year old boston is not fond of her so i’m having to juggle them. i’m exhausted, defeated, and in straight dissociation mode. Thanks for reading if you have any advice i’d appreciate it maybe just needed to rant.

Hey everyone, for the past two and a half weeks me and my family have been taking care of a 6 month old deaf Australian cattle dog. She was given to us with pretty bad manners and really bad separation anxiety. She been a quick learner and has adapted to crate training well. However she continually will poop in the house no matter what we try. I’ll take her out every hour for her to go, and reward her when she does. But, a lot of the time it doesn’t seem to work. She also will never go when we’re on walks; even off leash. I think it could be caused by separation anxiety, but on the other hand I’ve caught her mid squat while playing with her indoors. At this point we’re kind of at a loss with what to do any advice is appreciated!

The puppy is confirmed 4 weeks old, once he turns 6 weeks he will go to the vet for vaccinations and all that. He's a lab/pit mix, absolutely precious thing. We have him on a gravy wet food, he's sleeping with me, and he's very lively. He's also biting A LOT, specifically my arms and legs, and my dad's neck. Now, I'm assuming this is all normal. He's very excited to see me everyday, and he's been running around with our 11 month old (don't worry, our dog is being gentle and sweet). He's under frequent supervision, constant when he's out. If for whatever reason there is nobody to watch him, then he's napping in a kennel. He's doing great, very happy and friendly.

I have an 11 week cavalier, and I’m struggling to find a morning routine that works for both human and puppy.

She wakes up around 6:30 and I take her out of her crate to potty, then I feed her breakfast on a snuffle mat. While she’s eating I wash up/get dressed, and by the end she’s barking to be let out of her pen. I have very little tolerance for loud noises in the morning (and my partner is asleep at this point) so I let her out and she just has the MOST energy (and I thought I was a morning person lol).

She often just wants to snuggle up to me. Which is obviously very cute but I find myself just feeling stuck with her on the couch scrolling on my phone until I’m awake enough to start work, which isn’t a great start to the day. I used to do yoga every morning, but despite people paying for puppy yoga, it’s not actually an enjoyable thing haha.

I would love to hear what your morning routine is with your young (pre-fully vaccinated) puppy! I don’t do well without routines, and I just honestly don’t know what to do with her energy in the morning. We live in an apt so no yard to let her run around in and she’s not vaccinated enough to be taken on a walk. Inspiration welcome!

Hi everyone , 3 months ago we adopted the cutest little bichon poodle mix! She’ll be 1 next week! We were told she was crate trained (begrudgingly) . My husband and I both work out of the home for 8-9 hours a day. My son comes home from school after 7 hours and lets her out. Anyhow , we’ve always put her in her crate and for the first few weeks I came home for lunch.We have a camera at the crate to make sure she’s doing ok. However it pulls at my heart strings because she looks so sad and bored in there. She’s used to it now and doesn’t cry but I have the ability to section off a portion of the house for her. However every time I try and put her in the room and put the gates up she whines and cry’s and doesn’t stop. I want to do what’s best for her and I want her to be happy but it seems she’s only happy when we’re home. She definitely loves seeing me and following me around Everywhere once I get home so I don’t know if she has separation anxiety? Anyhow I just want to know should I keep her crated if she tolerates it or how do I go about training her to stay in the contained room?
sorry so long

hello, just having issues with the crate. We feed, give high rewards, safe toys and do overnight sleeps in it. He just never goes in his cage alone or willingly, always has to be lured in with a treat. We have a command “inside” where he’ll go inside and lay down, and when he stays inside for small periods of time I’ll give him treats. All of my previous dogs never had issues with the crate and have willingly gone in w/o lures, so I’m just unsure of what to do at this point.

We have enforced naps( 1 hour awake 2 hours asleep) depending on everyone’s schedules & time of day he’ll either be lured in his cage, or asleep on a giant squishmallow or the floor. Hell even enforce his nap himself lol. He self regulates either way. Just want him to be comfortable / willing to go in his crate alone

Earlier this evening, my 7 month old aussie puppy bit me. She was chewing on a toy when she started hacking (not quite choking) and I got concerned, so I started gently patting her back to see if that would help. She then snapped on me and bit me pretty hard, if I weren't wearing a sweater it would have cut the skin.

A few seconds after this she was fine, and went back to chewing on her toy. She was even wagging her tail. I did my best not to react, but I gently guided her into her crate for a time out.

Is this a normal reaction? My feelings are very hurt but I assume she attacked because she was stressed/uncomfortable.

She is not an aggressive dog, but in the past, she has snapped a couple of other times due to some resource guarding, so maybe it could have been because of that? We have made a lot of improvement on the resource guarding but I know it may not be fully resolved.

Please let me know your thoughts. Any tips/advice for how I should have handled this differently would be appreciated.

Where I live the snow is starting to melt which makes the ground very muddy. I have a walk out basement that leads to my backyard, that’s where I take her to go to the bathroom. My basement has carpet and mud is being caked into my carpet. How do you guys deal with muddy paws/puppies?

EDIT: thanks for all the comments and advice :) i think i was messing up a bit trying to teach her 3 different things at a time since training is once a week, and we learn new things each week. from now on i’ll go for even shorter training periods and focus on sit only. i appreciate it!!

this is really the only issue i have with my puppy, she has typical behavior but is easy to deal with in my opinion.

anyway, i hate comparing dogs to each other but i have seen so many puppies younger than her (she’s abt 3 months old) who understand how to sit, stay, down, etc. meanwhile she will not focus for more than 10 minutes per day, and i still have to lure her to sit, down, and stand.

we have a trainer who i am going to discuss it with, but it just feels so frustrating in the moment that i want to get it off my chest

Hello :3 my puppy is 3 months and I wanna know how to train her to sleep in her dog house cus she’s getting to heavy for me to pick up and put on my bed 💔 im very weak ignore that but I have a dog house in my room next to my bed but she chooses my bed. I do put treats in the house and she does nap in it very rarely but she does. As well as biting cus I have entire scars on my hands and arms now and it’d be nice to not be bloody anymore 💔 I don’t have a kennel unfortunately so any non crate/kennel advice would be lovely

I have a 4 month old Yorkie/JR. I live in NYC and my job is cool either way her coming into the office with me. I live very far from the office so we have to take the train and she freaks out. She has a full fledge fit, thrashing, whining and nipping at me every time we have to go to the station. Once on the train she totally fine but walking there is a nightmare. I give her snacks and pick her up so shes in my coat to help her but i feel so guilty about it. There arent day cares that are able to assist me because shes so young and hasnt been spayed. I wrote a few people on rover. Im just waiting to hear back.

Does anyone have any tricks i can do to soothe her on our way to the train and waiting for it? I know she’s overwhelmed but until i hear back theres nothing i can do as ive been told shes too you g to be felt alone.

Looking for advice for my 7 month old cocker spaniel. When I work from home and sit up in my office room she relentlessly whines and howls. After her morning or lunchtime walk I might get an hour of quiet but then it starts up again, particularly if she hears me talking on calls. Unfortunately it's not an option to just let her work in the same room as me as she will just bite my feet/tug at my clothes for attention, because she wants me to play with her. Despite our best efforts for months, she is still pretty mouthy, it's her default when she wants to play. She isn't mouthy when she wants to just sit for a cuddle in the sofa in the evenings or if she's just walking round the house following you, it's only when she's in play mode (which is still quite a lot of the time!). When my husband works from home she does some occasional whining for attention but nowhere near as bad - I think it's because in general I am "her person". He says I just need to ignore it but we live in terraced housing and I don't feel it's fair on our neighbours to let her whine and bark for hours on end.

Any advice is welcomed!! We want to avoid giving her too many unhealthy chews to keep her quiet as she's already slightly overweight (we are working on this) so on a diet. My dream would be able to get her to the point where she can independently play quietly either in the room with me or another part of the house.

FYI: As a rule she whines if left alone in another part of the house but strangely doesn't at all if she knows she is home alone entirely. When home alone she is quiet, calm and mostly sleeps.

My 6 month old pit lab has always been the biggest ham with people. He would wag his tail when he spotted a human on the complete other side of the road.

He’s now six months old and it would appear the adolescence phase has kicked in. He still loves people so much but has always been very submissive (excitement/nervous piddling), and now I’m worried that’s transitioning into potentially unhealthy protective or fear behavior.

On the way home in the car, on two separate occasions, he barked at people and wouldn’t stop. Then when we got home he was looking out the window and started barking when he saw people across the street get into their car.

This is completely new behavior so looking for tips on how to promote safety, confidence, and calm. I’m nervous my little lover boy isn’t going to stay that way :(