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Hello everyone!

I am a first time dog owner and I need to leave my 9 week old pit bull puppy alone for roughly 4 hours once per week. I have class from 10:30am – 2pm and there’s no one else home to stay with him. I’ve had him for a week so he hasn’t had to be alone yet and I know that ideally you slowly get them used to be alone. I need some advice please! I don’t want him to hate his crate due to this and I also don’t want him to freak out all on his own. Is there anything I can try to do to make him feel as comfortable as possible and give me some peace of mind?

Thanks for any suggestions.

My 1 year old lab/husky/terrier mix won't come when I call her in the yard. It's a game of keeping her distance so I can't grab her. Treats do not work. When my husband calls she comes immediately, 100% of the time. Its become a "me" thing. I have been so proactive about training and things are going so well otherwise. She always comes for me indoors.

I can try to find a higher value treat but I already use beef liver which she goes crazy for otherwise. I am going to try using a long line also but we have mountains of snow still (we live quite far north) and lots of trees for her to wrap around.

Does anyone have any other advice? Its so bizarre because she is doing so well and is so obedient otherwise, it is just this trap we accidentally fell into.

i have a 5 month old dachshund puppy, who i’ve had for 3.5 months now. i am a single puppy parent who lives with a roommate. i wfh 5 days a week and i am the primary caretaker of my puppy with a bit of help here and there from my roommate. i also have parents that live within an hour who can help (to some extent) if i need to go into office or have something important.

i struggled with puppy blue terribly at first – i wasn’t eating, wasn’t sleeping (obviously with 8 week old puppy), and was unable to get any personal or job work done. i am a first time puppy owner and understood what the puppy blues were, but what i was feeling felt extreme. i felt i owed it to myself and puppy to push through and work on a schedule. it has taken quite a while for us to get on a good schedule. she is an overall good puppy with the usual biting, whining/barking, not yet great on leash. all things to be expected. she is very smart and has been taking to command training well, with the typical dachshund stubbornness.

the one and only issue we are having is that i cannot leave my apartment without her. she freaks and panics and can’t calm herself down. i have been trying separation anxiety training, give her high value treats when i leave, in safe closed off area not in crate (she doesn’t like), and nothing is working. i am feeling trapped and like i’ve lost control of my life. i don’t feel like i have the resources to fix this and i am still struggling with my own mental health issues that were brought on from the puppy blues. i am still feeling the puppy blues and now feeling trapped due to her separation anxiety and i don’t know if this is sustainable anymore. i have a lifelong history of mental health issues, but was in a really good place prior to getting my puppy. but it feels like having a puppy has exasperated them to the extreme. i feel out of control of my life and don’t know what to do at this point. i have contacted the breeder and she said she would take her back. but that is heartbreaking. but i don’t know that it is healthy or safe for me to feel like this for much longer.

i am looking for guidance and other people’s experience with puppy blues and separation anxiety. did the puppy blues go away eventually? has anyone found anything that worked for separation anxiety? has anyone had to rehome their pet due to their own mental health issues?