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Would love to figure out a schedule for my 4 month old golden retriever mix we just adopted in the evenings when we come home from work and are getting the kids dinner and ready for bed. I am home for a couple of hours everyday around lunch which is when puppy gets a long walk and lots of play time, and she is crated a few hours before and a few hours after while I am working.

Right now when I get home in the early evening puppy gets let out and gets more play time in the yard and then fed dinner and hangs with us the rest of the evening. This is when I don’t know what to do with her. She’s only been with us a few weeks and is so so crazy in the evenings, and I can’t seem to tire her out no matter how many walks or how much outside time she gets. I’ve read about tether time and would like to incorporate it so she learns how to play/chill independently, but I don’t know when is a good time for her to do it because I don’t want it to seem like a punishment. And I also feel bad doing it because she’s been in her crate so much all day. Lastly, I want to add some sort of chew items/enrichment activities for her but don’t know when the best time is for this either, and if it’s supposed to be part of tether time? (right now it’s just when we need a break from her lol).

Curious what peoples schedules look like with their pups when they get home from work if their dog has been crated for much of the day?

My wife and I adopted a now 16 week old mini Australian Shepherd 4 weeks ago. She had spent a month with a foster before we got her where she learned to spend the night in the crate (8-9 hours), mostly potty trained, and a couple simple commands. We usually keep her out of the crate for 1-3 hours at a time with naps in between of 1-3 hours. She overall has done well in the crate with some exception… but she is young. Also, she did break a canine a week ago that exposed the pulp where the vet recommended extraction only if she is showing signs of pain, infection, or decrease in eating, which fortunately, she is not showing at this time. Just today, I did allow her to simply be in her play pen for an hour with minimal interaction with me allowing her to bark and eventually mostly relaxing while being bored. She is also getting very aggressively snarly and bitey with our hands and leash the past week plus but giving her something else to chew on does help part of the time.

The problem we are currently having the past 2-3 days is that she has been getting very barky and whiny in her crate during the afternoon pawing at the door and sides as well as biting and licking the cage when we put her in. We make sure she is fed, watered, and pooped/peed yet she still is barking and whining.

So, what should we do? Take her on a car ride (calms her right down), let her bark it out (which makes my wife feel like a bad dog mom), spend more time with play, or something else?

Hi all, I have a 4 month old cavoodle who has some pretty bad separation anxiety.

I haven’t gone to my regular sports (usually 3/4 times per week in the evenings) since I’ve gotten him a month ago,

He can handle being in his crate if I am in the room, but if I leave he starts crying.

I sometimes leave him outside for 20-30 minutes, but he will usually just whine / cry or sit by the door. He won’t eat any food or treats if I try leave this out for him in this time.

I want to get back into training (usually will be gone for 2-3 hours), but is this something I will have to put on pause until I am able to address and manage his separation anxiety?

Any advice is appreciated

Hello. My puppy seems to have just gone into heat (i say “seems” because once before i thought she had gone into heat but i took her to the vet and the vet said it was ambiguous but probably not — so I don’t trust my own judgement now). She is licking her vulva a lot and I did pick up some blood twice when I pressed a tissue against it (something the vet suggested). I know most of the basics as I have been preparing a lot but I am wondering:

1) did you take your puppy to the vet when she went into heat?

2) we live in an apartment so not taking her outside isn’t really an option. obviously I’ll try to keep her away from risky places like parks and schedule walks for quieter times, but if there are other dogs around but they are girls/desexed is it still best to avoid them? (I presume yes but the time I thought she was in heat I noticed people would say “oh, don’t worry, she’s a girl” etc about their dogs when I told them we had to stay away) (obviously in any case we wouldn’t deliberately socialize but living in the city it can be hard to completely avoid other dogs, esp when they’re with owners who are used to briefly saying hi)

3) similarly, she’s meant to be being dogsat next week but the dogsitter has an older desexed female dog. Is it okay for them to be together or is there a risk the scent will create issues? Should I cancel my plans to stay home with her instead?

4) at what point in the heat cycle does the frequent urination begin?

5) if the dog is fastidious about grooming herself, how can you tell how far through the cycle she is?

Thank you! and also just in case people are wondering I do plan to get her desexed — the vet advised to wait until she’d been through a heat cycle.

My puppy is a 13 week old female pitbull mix that me and my girlfriend have had for almost a week.

She started to chew on my pants button on the floor and when my girlfriend tried to take it away she growled at her and then nipped at her hand. My girlfriend brought her over to show me and we saw she would do the same thing with her toys but only if you touched her paws or get close to her face.

She just started this today and we want to prevent it from becoming a problem in the future.

She was rescued from a hoarding house by an adoption place a couple weeks before we got her if that has anything to do with this