Category: Top Dog

Hoping for some tips/advice from folks who work from home full time with a puppy!

I left my job in October and adopted my now 6 month old guy at 10 weeks in December. It’s been great to spend so much quality time with him every day since he’s so young, and I had nothing else to do, but now I’m going back to work next week. The job is remote with in office days once a week. My boyfriend works from his office 3x a week.

We are planning to put our dog in daycare at least two days a week, but I’m still nervous about the days he’s home. I need to give 100% to this new role, but I already feel guilty that quality 1:1 time with my boy is going to decrease quite a bit.

Need advice for this transition period! 🐶 ♥️

Got a six month old lab pup who suddenly wants to wake us up barking at four am. It’s been like this for a few days now. She was totally fine before so I assume it’s her testing us/hitting that rebellious phase. We’ve had her for a month now. Any advice would be great!

i've had my working cocker female for just over a year now, and she's been coming into work with me for a little less than that.
overall she's pretty good and happy to see my coworkers when they stop by to pet her, but one coworker in particular has just always set her off for no reason? he had wcs growing up, is from a farming family, and is overall pretty good with animals (including our other office dog, an older bulldog), but for some reason when he walks in she just growls and barks at him. sometimes from her bed, other times getting up and walking to him to bark.
we've tried him giving her treats (she happily accepts them and does tricks, but only focuses on the food and once she finishes she goes right back to avoiding him), we've tried him telling her to go to bed (she does, but will bark when he comes back into eyeline), even both a direct confident approach and a softer, less direct approach. nothing seems to get her to trust him or let her guard down.
does anyone have any tips for how to help with this? she's chill with people that come and give her lots of attention, and with others that seem to just leave her be.

14 weeks old, had her for 4 weeks, and she's a mixed small breed (maltese, mini poodle, chihuahua, maybe terrier. Hard to say.) She's really good already at holding her poop for outside, she hasn't had an indoor poop in 2 weeks. The only thing is I'm not entirely sure how to potty train for pee. I work 7.5 hour shifts close to home (one half hour unpaid break and two fifteen paid) so I work for about 3.5 hours, walk home for my hour break and take her out for a short 20 minute walk to go potty and give her some attention, and then go back to work for 3.5 hours. Both times I leave I give her a small kong with some kong filling. It's worked really well so far, I'm not crate training but instead playpen training, and she's very good at self soothing, there's a soft sided dog house which is her cozy den. I have a camera so I can check on her at work and she's always either sleeping or happily chewing on one of her toys. She has a pee-pad in her pen and she's been good at using it as well. When I let her out into my living room she's also good at peeing on the pad I put out. I feel like I've kind of hit the jackpot with her.

The only thing I'm uncertain about is she rarely pees outside. Sometimes it feels like she goes for a poop outside and like 5 minutes after we come in from our short walk she does a little pee on her pad. She's still very young so I don't expect her to not use it due to bladder size, I'm just unsure if there's something more I should be doing to encourage her to pee outside so eventually she wont need the pee pads.

So as the post says my 5 month old Alaskan malamute puppy doesn’t like to run around. I let him off leash every other day in a very big field and he would rather sniff around or dig to chew on mud. I’ll throw the ball around and he’ll chase it a few times but that’s it. The vet says his weight is fine but I’m just worried he’s not getting exercise at all. I’ve stayed away from any pulling activities since he’s a puppy but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this situation I have

To be honest, I didn't know until after getting a puppy that they can't be outside or exercising for more than 5 minutes per month of age. Thankfully I found this out quickly, so no joint damage for my pup. Okay, so we get 15 minutes of exercise per day. No problem. I don't want hip dysplasia or parvo in my pup.

But the thing is, outside is the only thing that really holds her attention. ANY activity I try to establish – tasty chews, searching for treats games, I made a dig box with blankets and layer treats in the blankets, we do obedience training, etc – but it can't hold her attention for more than 5 minutes before she's sitting around the house depressed.

I feel like she starts getting depressed unless I am not constantly engaging her, and I know that puppies require constant engagement, but it feels like nothing I try works. One minute she wants to play, then she wants to solo play, and 5 minutes later she is bored and looking sad. Okay, start a new activity. 5 minutes later she is bored and sad. This might be a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea. If I give her too much attention she starts acting like she wants to be left alone, but when I leave her alone she starts acting bored and sad.

What I have tried: training games, interactive and treat dispensing toys, puzzle feeders, hiding treats in areas she can chew or dig, etc.

I unfortunately do not have a yard. I did not mind at ALL going outside a lot (I already do) to make up for this, but it seems that isn't actually a viable thing with a puppy. I WILL have a yard when I move in July, thankfully, so this will resolve.

She'll have her final round of shots soon, but it still seems like it's going to be a while before the outside can be a major source of enrichment.

At the end of the day I'm signed up for this and she has been a very good pup, so I don't want to complain. I just feel like when I need to get anything else done, I feel like I'm neglecting my pup because nothing entertains her without me, or sometimes even with me.

Any advice would be helpful. I have a 3.5 month ACD puppy. I was well aware of the enrichment needs of the breed and feel I have tried so much (confidence games, obedience training, puzzle feeders, dig box, flavored and real animal chews, frozen chews, toys that dispense treats with interaction, dual play, and more) and still feel I am not doing a good job. I would like to try scent games next, but part of the problem I am having is any time I spend trying to prepare the next activity, is time I am not engaging her in an activity.

I want to ultimately train her to perform simple jobs around the house (fetch my keys, clean up toys, etc) since she is a breed that needs a lot of mental stimulation, and I am hoping scent training will help me start putting her to work. She is VERY good with obedience training (learns commands in a day or less) but we have yet to move beyond simple commands. I have had her for less than 3 weeks and I feel like she needs something more complicated, but I also have people telling me not to try anything complicated before she has the obedience basics 100% down.

So no advanced training, no outside adventures, nothing I try seems to be a huge hit, so what do I have her do?

Of course I know she needs lots of sleep but in this time I am also busy with addressing my own needs and my job (I work from home so thankfully this does not detract much of my presence, but it needs to be done)

14 week old labradoodle who we got at 12 weeks. We are fortunate to have a spare bedroom and initially kept him in a small playpen with an open crate. Well within 5 days he was climbing over the gate so now we’ve transitioned him to be free in the room but still leave the crate open.

He sleeps mostly through the night for about 6-7hrs before waking up to need to pee (thinking about waking him again around 4hr mark to avoid him waking US up).

Anyways, this was all working out pretty well. We were able to take him into the room after being out for 1-2hr then he’d sleep for 1-3hr. Lately though he’s been immediately starting to whine then BANGING on the door. The only way to get this to stop is to sit in there with him for 15min until he lays down in his cage and gets more sleepy.

Am I teaching him to have separation anxiety by doing this?

Should I start closing the cage?

Should I leave his cage open still but find a physical barrier to block the door?

I’m thinking of getting him a slightly bigger cage so he feels a bit more freedom in there but this banging on the door is driving me insane. To make matters more complicated we have a cat that we’re slowly trying to introduce them to each other so we NEED to put him away often for the cat to be able to walk around the house.

What does everyone use to freshen up your house? I’ve read posts to avoid candles, essential oils, wax melts, etc as they are bad for Dogs and cats… I clean my place weekly and have it professionally cleaned when I can. I’m looking for something that just lightly enhances my space outside of opening up the windows for fresh air or the smell of clean laundry.

Which pet insurance is best for you? Are there any that may cover your dog's current treatment? Did your dog get injured during the waiting period and want to know if you're covered?

Here's the place to ask.

Do know we cannot help you here with medical concerns, and lying or not disclosing things to the insurance company is illegal so we don't allow that either.

Our girl is almost 4 years old. We got her when she was 1.5 and she is a rescue. When we first got her, she didn’t know how to play with anything, so we put in effort to teach her how to play with a ball outside, which is now her favourite activity when we go out.

But, to this day, she doesn’t care about playing with anything at home. We tried soft toys, kong toys, toys with snacks, puzzles, balls, you name it. She does not care about any of them. There was a brief period when she used to destroy our socks (which we happily let her), but it turned out that she was nesting as part of her period, and soon gave up.

She does not seem to be bored at home. She gets a lot of walks, goes to a daycare, and has window access so she can “guard” (not a behaviour issue, she just watches people and deer).

Despite this, we can’t stop thinking that maybe we missed something and there is a way to get her to want to play with toys at home? Does anyone else have a dog that is content with just sleeping and cuddling at home?