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Hello!

Probably making this because I am tired, but I need to went and maybe get some help. I have my 9 week old puppy for week now, I know it's young and it's early. But I live in apartment on 6th floor. Every suggestion for taking him out after sleep, drinking eating does not help. I am taking him out 15x times a day, but he just does not go outside. I try to watch for signs, and catch him, but even then when he is about to pee, I bring him downstairs, but that period is so long, that he forgot to pee. This morning we went for a walk and then pee trips totaling 2 hours and he still couldn't go. Then after sleep I took him out again, nothing and only when I looked away he went on floor. I even try pads, but those some times I feel we have progress, but then next day all that goes away and going on floor restarts. Sorry for vent

Hi all,

We got our 8 week old girl yesterday and are madly in love. She's taking some time to adjust, but bonding is going really well. We had a lot of fun exploring the house and her various toys, and a few oopsies aside we're even making some progress on potty already. Baby steps.

The only thing that's proving to be a major struggle is nap time. She will whine and cry like the world is ending when I zip up the crate (we're using the carry cate we picked her up in since she took to it quite well) and put a blanket on top. I staunchly ignore her when she does this, but in the afternoon there as an instance it went on and on to the point where I had to yield and let her sleep on me (it was lovely, no regrets). Sometimes also about 15 to 20 minutes into her nap she will whine for a round two.

Does this get better with time or are there some tricks to reduce whining? I know we're only a day in and part of it is probably that she just needs some time, but if there are some good habits I can pick up now, then please do tell!

Hello, we’ve got a wonderful 11 weeks old Shiba puppy. Lately, she’s been getting really overexcited, especially in the evenings—she jumps around, bites, and doesn’t listen. She also has a hard time falling asleep. The breeder, whom I actually consider very knowledgeable, says this is a sign that she’s not being challenged enough and that 18 hours of sleep a day—which is actually our goal—is way too much. She says she needs to sleep much less and be exercised much more so she doesn’t get overexcited in the evening. But I can’t quite believe that—everywhere on the internet says that puppies need a lot of sleep and that being overexcited in the evening is a sign of overtiredness. So what’s the right thing to do?

I’ve had my golden retriever puppy for a week now, and I’m feeling very overwhelmed to be honest. He gets a decent amount of sleep, probably around 16 ish hours a day. But, I struggle to train him every day as he gets super hyper over food and starts jumping at me trying to get the treats. He doesn’t calm down at all, which probably is a mistake on my part but it’s my first time having a puppy and I’m 18 so I’m still learning. He knows his name and how to sit, but now he auto sits when I call his name, and if I don’t give him a treat fast he gets impatient if he knows I have one.

Trying to get him to have enough sleep is also a problem. During the night he’s completely fine, but during the day he really doesn’t want to sleep. I give him licky mats and all his toys are in the playpen, which he can chew on whenever he likes. I’ve been advised by the breeder (she’s also a trainer with years of experience) to not do any high energy play with him, as it gets him really hyped up and he’s already a naturally very high energy puppy. He sometimes just goes straight to sleep, so it’s quite hard to know if I’m doing something right or wrong. When I want to “enforce” sleep, I move him from the playpen into his cage which are connected, and close the cage. Also not sure if that’s right but if the door is open he just chooses to lie down in the crate then just come out and whine at us or play. Sometimes, he does voluntarily go to his cage and sleep.

When outside, he bites on his nylon lead, and lies down with it and chews it or if he has more energy just pulls it and plays tug of war. When I try to distract him by putting treats on the floor, he doesn’t even notice the treats at all, and keeps eating the grass/lead. He also gets super hyper very fast, and will pull on the lead/ fight it to go where he wants to. When we get back inside, he is still super super hyper, and won’t calm down at all.

I’m all by myself on weekdays between 9-3, and I’m finding it quite overwhelming. When my parents are home it’s arguably worse to try to get him to behave/sleep, as he gets woken up by them talking or moving about constantly through the living room where the puppy stays. This means he goes to sleep but gets woken up after 5 minutes. This happens regularly, constantly.

I’m trying to teach him how to be calm, but failing horribly 😅 he gets frustrated easily as he’s very very food motivated, which is typical for a golden retriever.

He’s also very bitey, which is normal of course at his age, but also means everything is a little harder. Training, trying to calm him down, ect. Any advice would be heavily appreciated.

I’m also unsure when I should just be going and doing what I need to do, as I may be leaving him too awake, or if he’s in his playpen alone I’m scared he will have an accident, or I simply haven’t done enough with him to get him tired.i don’t want to leave him all alone.

Hi Everyone,

I recently got a vizsla puppy two weeks ago (10 weeks old today), and he's quickly become the love of me and my partner's lives. The first day we brought him home, he was pretty against the crate. He'd take 15 minutes to settle, but any movement in bed would wake him up and he'd repeat the process all over again – overall not bad, could have been way worse! Since then, I feel like he's been well adjusted to the crate, not fussing, crying, whining, or any of that, up until 2 days ago where I feel like things have relapsed big time. He refuses to be in the crate to be put down for naps after coming in from outside, playing, or even some exercise outdoors. We have a fresh patch grass pad, and he's beginning to pee on the outside of it or throughout the house. He's inpatient with me about getting his food ready and has even peed while I'm actively prepping his meal. I love him to death, but he's beginning to drive me up a wall.

Does anyone have any advice on how to make his crate a desirable place for him? He currently has a bed that came with the crate – durable, although his sharp baby teeth are beginning to penetrate the fibers. He's currently teething, and I've made the switch over to non-fibrous toys to prevent him from swallowing anything harmful. I'm also new to this but what is meant by high-value treats?

Additionally, it was noted by the breeder that his father could literally pee a river until he was properly potty-trained, so I'm thinking a lot of my struggles are genetic at this point. For the most part, he does a great job at peeing on his grass patch, but for those one-off, two-off, and sometimes three-off instances, I'm wondering how to combat this. When I first got him, I tried to get ahead of him having accidents by limiting his water intake, but I've since then left his water out so that he could self-manage his intake, while keeping me aware of when he's probably ready to use the bathroom. I currently take his water away after about 6:30 at night so that he doesn't have an accident (we go to bed at about 8:30/9 at the latest).

I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong since in the past two days he's ended his streak of not having an accident in his crate, peeing multiple times throughout the house after me even placing him on his grass patch, and getting incredibly fussy when in the crate.

Any and all advice is much appreciated!

Thanks!!