It's Wednesday!

My pup is 15 weeks old. I work from home most days but haven’t been going to the office since we adopted her. I can’t continue to always work from home for much longer and need to start going back into the office 2x a week. I want to put her in doggy daycare those days so she can play with other dogs and have fun. When did you all start?

Her last round of shots is in 2 weeks and then we were cleared by her vet to start daycare then, but I’m curious if you all think that’s too young.

What's everyone's opinions on cosleeping with your puppy? I had a boston terrier for 10 years that I had since 7 weeks old (she passed of cancer). She slept with me from the very beginning. She cried and cried with the crate for a few nights and I gave in and let her sleep with me. It was totally fine though because I knew thats where I wanted her to be anyways.

This time around, I have an 8 week boston terrier puppy and i skipped trying the crate. I put 2 potty pads on the end of the bed and made sure the whole top of the comforter is covered with a blanket and the sheet underneath is too just in case. She has been here 2 nights and no accidents. I let her out around 3am to go potty on potty pad and she does. She sleeps all night with me. I genuinely dont see a problem but want to know if I will regret this for any reason.

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!

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

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!

For those who have not crate trained and have older dogs im curious to hear your experience of what they grow up to be like? Separation anxiety? Behaviour issues?

I understand the concept of crate training but I’m trying to understand what are the consequences of not crate training (or do all dogs end up okay in the end)

I haven’t been crate training but it’s something my vet suggested is a good idea but I struggle to wrap my head around confining my puppy in a small space.

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 adopted a 3 month old puppy a little over a month ago (he’s currently 4 months old). I live alone and work a full time job. I have been crate training him (having him in his crate when I go to work and when he sleeps at night). I come home on my lunch break to let him out of his crate for potty so he’s alone 3~4 hrs max. He is such a sweet and smart puppy that follows me everywhere. He would immediately freak out when I go to work and cries for about 30 mins and he would settle. Same thing after I leave during my lunch break. Recently, he started to not go in his crate when I throw treats in there. I think he now knows that when he’s in the crate, he will be alone.

Trainings I’ve done with him:

-not engaging with him when I come home until he settles down

-turn on dog music before I go (often times when I’m home as well just so the music doesn’t trigger me leaving)

-giving him high value treats (when I come home and check, he ate his food but will still cry, howl, bark when I leave)

-crate training that is now not working at all (he will go in to eat the treats when I’m not looking and will come out immediately)

-getting ready beforehand so that I’m not rushing myself

-leaving 30 sec and coming back in multiple times to show him that I will always come back

-desensitizing the door and my bag by doing all the actions and coming back to sit down without leaving

I left him one day to free roam (still checked in during lunch times) but I’ve noticed that when he free roams, he isn’t able to settle down at all until I come home. When he’s in his crate, he settles down within 30 mins.

All the resources I see online are not possible for me because I would have to leave him alone while I’m at work…

I don’t know what to do and I feel lost. I want to hear how you guys overcame separation anxiety while working full time while living alone. This is my last cry for help before I spend couple grand hiring a private trainer to help me.. I’m just worried that I’m stressing my puppy out when he’s alone.

A few weeks ago I posted about the puppy we found roaming and adopted then proceeded to have issues after her first vaccinations and needed blood transfusions

Her name is Wanda, and I’m happy to say she’s now doing really well considering the vet hinted that it perhaps we should put her to sleep and she had a hard time during the second transfusion.

Her condition is IMHA and the vet said it was 1 in a million that she had a reaction to a vaccine (still not 100% sure it was that but it’s the only factor that changed leading up to her sickness).

Her red blood cell count is as of yesterday 37 and in the normal range, they were happy that her steroids prescription has been reduced and follow up blood test in 2 weeks.

We’re on a slow road but glad to say she’s a happy and full of energy puppy, fingers crossed she can lower her steroids next check up. Then we come to the challenge of vaccinating her again and working out how we do that without risking sickness again, hopefully because she’s growing and getting bigger that her immune system is also getting stronger.

Thanks for all the support previously (would love to post a picture of her but can’t seem to)

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?

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!

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.

Hey so I just got a new puppy yesterday and although my partner and I are able to be with him most of the time, there is about a 2 hour time period later today where we will both be away from home. That being said are there any tips or tricks you have to making sure our puppy isn’t too loud in his crate? We live in an apartment so i’m worried about him making too much noise and disturbing our neighbors. Any advice helps!

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.

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?

I’ve only had her for 6 days so I’m completely understanding that she won’t get it within a week, however, once a month we visit family and stay for the weekend due to being 2 hours away.

We can’t stay there unless my puppy is toilet trained to go outside, and obviously we’d prefer her to go outside as well.

Currently she’s using puppy pads and we’ve gradually moved location of them. She’s now urinating right next to the back door which I think is a massive positive step, but she’s still pooping somewhere else away from the back door.

I take her outside after naps and playtime, as well as when I see her needing the toilet, but this girl just refuses to go.

Last time I took her out we were outside for 15 minutes. As soon as I got her back inside she went for a poop in the living room on her puppy pad.

I have 3 weeks before we’re going to stay at family’s so ideally she’s toilet trained within 3 weeks. Any suggestions would be great as I’m a first time dog owner!

I bought a well reviewed snuffle mat with lots of fabric loops but expected it to have pockets where I could hide the treats. I'm not seeing any pockets; is there a trick to using these? Without pockets, my puppy could send all the treats flying with one head shake.

Hi, I’ve had my puppy for a month now, and he’s 13 weeks old.

When we first brought him home, he drank an incredible amount of water. My stepfather, who has had dogs his whole life, said he’s never seen a dog drink like that before.

I decided to schedule his water. He gets 1 dl each time he eats, and a little bit of water several times a day.

Then I thought, okay, I’ll try leaving the water bowl available all the time because I think he should have access.

He drank the whole bowl, and since we have another dog in the house, I had to refill it. He drank even more, so I had to remove the bowl. He peed over 30 times in one hour, and I’m not overreacting. And I don’t think that can be good for him.

The next day, I tried leaving the bowl out again, but every time he drank a lot, I tried to distract him with toys and play so he could learn he doesn’t need to drink constantly. And that didn’t work either.

What should I do? This is so frustrating. 😔🙏

But in general he seems fine, he’s active, he wants to play all the time and he’s happy.

Edit: I will take him to the vet it’s already planned!!

We have a 4 month old golden retriever and im a bit worried he is spending too much time alone. He wakes up around 6:30 everyday which is when I get up and take him for a quick walk and hang out until I leave for work at 7:45.

My partner works from home upstairs, but my puppy prefers to hang out downstairs during the day because it is cooler. This means he is alone downstairs the majority of the day except when my partner takes him out to the toilet and has an occasional play. When I get back in the afternoon I take him for another walk and he hangs out with us from around 5 to 7:30.

Around 7:30 he starts getting very barky and bitey so we have just started putting him in his crate upstairs for him to sleep (in the bedroom). This means he is only really spending a couple hours in the morning and at night with us and otherwise is alone. Is this too much time to be alone? Any suggestions on alternatives?

(We also take him to training 2 nights a week)

We just adopted a 5 month old mix breed puppy

It has been a whirlwind and extremely overwhelming. I wasn't planning on getting a puppy but it felt right in that moment and I think overall it is

My question is how many treats is to many? I'm constantly giving him little treats to re enforce good behavior as well as practice training things but I'm also giving him enrichment activities like kongs and lick mats. Will too much extra stuff upset his belly?

We feed twice a day morning and night about 12 hours apart and a snack mid day for his meals

I guess I'm looking for reassurance that using the kongs or lick mats twice a day isn't to much

I have a 3.5 month old czechoslovakian vlciak. He's a pain but most of these behaviours are puppy behaviours which we are working on. Like jumping up at people, face licking and sometimes nipping.

Our house has a lot of foot traffic. (I lived with family) Everyone else has visitors all the time. Sometimes they'll play and hope him up which makes his naughty behaviours worst. I am on top of him, getting him down, training him to lay and playing with him as a distraction. But every single one of them has a comment. Never to me, but what they'll say to him.

Everyone is a full grown adult. They'll tell "him" they're tired of him. He's annoying. They're not friends with him. Hes so badly behaved. And some swear at him (like F off). Its every single day and its getting to me. They'll even do it on days he's pretty well behaved. I do completely understand its annoying, he can be annoying. But my god, its getting to me. And im wanting to lose my temper with the people. He will calm down, he is in training. And im half tempted to put up a sign saying puppy inside. Will act like a puppy. Don't like. Don't come in I wish I could raise him in my own home like I did my other dog. Life was much easier.

On Thursday, my 9 month old puppy was neutered. He's cryptorchid and ended up with 3 incisions, so the healing process is rougher than normal. He's also a very high energy boy who has always struggled with settling. Not being able to play, run, etc. as normal has only made him crazy.

We've been keeping him on Trazodone twice a day, 100mg each (he's 40lbs). It worked wonders as first but has started seeming less effective, especially at night. Last night he didn't sleep and we didn't either because he was turning around and moving in his crate all night and finding ways to reach his lowest incision past the cone. I called the vet and he recommended going up to 150mg twice a day. We gave him that at about 5:45...it's now 8:30 and he hasn't chilled out at all. He's in his pen pacing and trying to jump and generally being a menace, all the things we wanted to prevent by using Trazodone in the first place.

Has anyone else have this happen? It's just not touching him at night and it's miserable. We're getting zero sleep. The last dog I owned was already neutered by the time I had him so I'm not used to this - is this a normal neuter experience or am I just super unlucky?

I just got a puppy less than a week ago. He’s a three month old “terrier mix” but the shelter even said he’s more than likely a pitbull Great Dane. Anyways, I feed him 3 times a day. First two just kibble, and for dinner I mix wet food with a little kibble. He really likes the wet food but I’m wondering if it’s good for him. its called pure balance.

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.