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My wife and I have had a 16 week old Samoyed puppy for a week now. We've been diligent about crate and potty training, and at this point he's pretty good about not peeing or pooping inside. However, for the last two nights after we've taken him out to pee and poop before bed, we bring him back into our bedroom and put him in his crate to sleep for the night, and he pees or poops again in his crate.

– We reward him heavily right as he pees or poops outside

– We take him out every hour, plus after every activity (nap, play, meal, etc)

– We always take him out right after he pees or poops inside with neutral emotions, interrupting if possible

– He's generally pretty good at settling in the crate during the day, but when this event happens he tends to be more whiney and agitated like he doesn't want to go to bed yet.

– The crate is just big enough for him to turn around, but not so big he can poop in one corner and not lay in it after.

What are we doing wrong, and what can we do to make this stop? It feels like he just doesn't want to go to bed, so he's peeing so we'll take him back outside again.

We love our dog more than anything, but he is absolutely determined to eat things he shouldn’t. In the past 12 months alone, we’ve made five vet trips for foreign object ingestion, and we’re at our wit’s end both emotionally and financially.

How do we actually fix this behavior? He’s 18 months old and we believe it’s a combination of boredom and compulsive behavior. We do our best to dog-proof the house but he’s creative. We’re wondering:

∙ Has anyone worked with a veterinary behaviorist for this? Was it worth it? ∙ Are there medications that help with compulsive behavior in dogs? ∙ What enrichment strategies have actually worked for heavy chewers/scavengers? ∙ Any specific training approaches? 

We’re not looking for “just supervise him more” — we’re past that. We want real, hard-won advice from people who’ve dealt with something similar, especially fellow doodle owners who know how relentless this breed can be. Thanks in advance.

If I take her to a store it almost always ends with me carrying her and her trying to make herself unseen. What can I do to help her be more confident with people?