Category: Top Dog

My lab pup is 10 weeks old and I've had him for a week or so. In so many ways, I know I have it better than most: he sleeps all through the night, and we've only had one potty accident. He's an angel and I adore him, even with a recent advent of puppy blues that I'm pushing through.

I have a question regarding how to spend his awake time with him. I know that puppies sleep like 18-20 hours a day and need to have their naps enforced, lest they become overtired and zany. That's all fine, and although he whines when he gets sent to naptime, he actually naps great for 1-3 hours at a time, easy.

I'm just a little concerned about the waking hours. We have 4-6 blocks of 60-90 minutes where we do food, potty breaks, light training (mostly just name recognition, sit, and playing nice with his lead), and playtime/exercise/mental enrichment. And that's been going pretty well thus far.

But my concern is that we don't spend any time on being calm and nice quiet time during the day. And I know that sounds stupid… He's a puppy, he's GOING to be zany and want to play. But I just don't want it to be a situation where I was supposed to be starting him on getting used to normal routines and instead reinforce rambunctiousness during most of his waking hours in an effort to wear him out for his naps.

And, of course, conversely in worried about the opposite side, where I'm wrong to try and get him to settle during the day and am neglecting him by not playing/enriching him during our limited up-time.

So… Does anyone have calm awake time with their puppies? Is that something you're supposed to work on? Or do you just burn through the puppy energy chaos until they're old enough that they require less forced naps and you can work on calm time then?

My puppy swallowed something and stuck in his throat…he is trying to spit it out however I think it could be something small since he is still eating, drinking, moving around playing barking just have something stuck in his throat..how do I remove it

My 4 month old Newfie got on the counter & ate bone in chicken wings…. What should my next steps be??? :’((

I can find it online but things just aren't working in my favor here and I need some advice.
I have a 5 month old Aussie mix who still is having frequent accidents in the house. If anything, it's gotten worse the past few days. To give some background, we have had him since he was 3 months old. He sleeps in a crate from 11:00-7:30am without any accidents every night and has been that way since we have got him (thank god because this was something I was super worried about). Any other time he is either in his playpen in the living room or out in the living room/kitchen with us.

The playpen is large so he does have the room to decide to pee/poop in there but I'm not huge on the idea of crating my pup for 8 hours or more in a day so I keep him in there when I can't have eyes on him. I take him out every hour but sometimes he just decides he doesn't want to go out and will hold it for inside. We do not have any potty pads inside and took those away a month ago.

This is my first puppy in my life and I just genuinely don't know if he is behind on potty training or what else I can do. I give him beef liver when he goes outside and give a nice little party. I have told him a firm NO if I catch him mid act inside. What else can I do?

The only thing I can think is that we don't have a good schedule but I don't know how to create a schedule. Obviously my husband and I both work and there are 3x a week when he has to be alone for 3-4hrs. If I could create a schedule, the best would be:

7:00am Outside/ breakfast

7:30am Play/ Outside/nap in playpen with chews and toys

12:00pm Outside and play

1:00pm Outside/ nap

5:00pm Outside/ Dinner/ Play

8:00pm Nap in pen

10:00pm Outside and quiet play

11:00pm Bedtime

Right now his schedule is chaotic. He wants to go out every 30mins to 1 hr and that's if he even signals. He usually pees/poops right when he wakes up and again around 11. The rest is unscheduled and anyone's guess. Is the above schedule too much to expect out of a 5 month old? What else can I do?

I have the most beautiful and amazing dog…. besides his wake up time. I know that dogs generally wake up early in the morning, but I would love to know any tips on pushing it back a bit.

As of now his routine is:

6:30 -7:30 dinner/potty/bed

10:30-11:30pm – wake him up for final potty

6 am – wake up.

Hi all! My husband and I are picking up our puppy this week. We feel decently prepared, we did all the research, got the set up and necessities. I’ve read up on training techniques and consistencies. This is our first dog together, also first dog we’ve owned as adults. We’ve both had dogs growing up.

But the tips and tricks only get you so far.

If you’ve been a dog owner for a while. If you could go back, what is something you would change if you went back? What’s something that was totally missing from all the advice posts? What would you tell a first time dog owner?

Thanks so much!!

For the record, the pup is a small breed. Currently 10 weeks old. Male. 🙂

I’m getting my first dog soon after 7 years of training on the side and 9 of fostering/volunteering at shelters.

Here is my list of supplies for before I get the dog.

I should point out the lack of washing supplies is due to the fact we are rescuing an oodle mix of some kind so will regularly professionally groom once I’ve essentially them to the sensations, paw touching, dryer etc. There is a dog shop within talking distance so if we really need to home bathe I can get supplies in under half an hour.

It gets very hot where I live which is why I’ve included the boots.

My list:

Bed

Water and food bowl (metal)

Walking collar

Regular collar with tags

Long leash

Regular leash

Poo bag+holder

Toys (fetch, hard, soft, enriching etc)

Crate

Pee pads

High value treats

Good food both wet and dry

Food toppers tbd

Water bottle with attached bowl

Boots

Slicker brush

My dog is getting pampered and groomed in 2 weeks. Getting her nails cut, washed and dried after her grooming. This local groomer rocks. I take her there every 4 months. She'll feel so much better. She's a senior Shih Tzu terrier. It's good to get it done. Especially after winter. I'll post a picture after! ❤️

We have a 13 year old chihuahua. He always takes our shoes and puts it in his sleeping couchion. I wonder why our dog does this?

hello! we just moved into an apartment which has a lot of regulations so I’m stressed about this. my dog is a parson terrier and is very vocal and needy. When we leave and come back he bark/cries so loud it’s distressing. we have to keep him in his crate when we leave otherwise he will pee on rugs and trash things. we have tried the dont pay attention to him until he’s calm method but he can cry for hours it seems like. no amount of ignoring until hes calm works bc he will not calm. Just yesterday he was at the park/on a walk for a total of 3 hours and when we got back we left to the grocery store. As soon as the front door closed he was doing his crying/barking/howling. when I got to the car I could hear him from the parking lot and I realized I forgot my grocery bags and went back and his voice was echoing down our hallway. and now he’s doing it even when one person leaves-not even in his crate. Any ideas of what to do??