Category: Top Dog

We are doing around 2 hrs up, and 2 hrs nap. It’s pretty close to a routine with some changes just bc of everyday life. We always make sure he is potties and watered before nap. We nap him usually at set periods following the 2 on and 2 off or when he starts going haywire and biking ankles and not sitting still. We have an adult dog that he plays with almost all of his waking time, besides with us when we are playing with him or training him. We have entered week 4 and now he is not napping in his crate, protests for 10-30 mins when we put him in. Today he barely napped while we had him in his crate to which his behavior suffered greatly. Our 14 week old is teething and becomes very nippy when he does not nap. Apart from the all day play his older adult dog brother, at the end of the day, he started biting us very hard and not chewing on his toys. We give him frozen kongs and frozen carrots, but he continues to ignore all chew toys and go straight for our hands. He bites really hard. When he naps, he is very good puppy and does not bite and will let us train him and will independently chew on his own toys and play by himself. Is this normal sleep regression, teething discomfort?

Hi, I have a 4 month old mutt potentially a German shepherd, husky and standard poodle mix. He’s very sweet and smart, we had him for a month and he’s doing really good. He goes to the door to go outside for peeing and pooping. We put him in his crate at night and when we go to work these are both around 7 hours. He never pees or poops in his crate so we know he can hold it however when he’s not in his crate and we’re home he wants to go outside to pee very frequently sometimes every 10-15 minutes. What should we do? We know he can hold longer if he could and it’s great he’s going to the door and not peeing inside (he does if we don’t take him out when he goes to the door every 10 minutes 🤦🏻‍♀️) but how can we teach him how to hold it longer when he’s not in his crate too?

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.

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?