Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice because I’m feeling pretty stuck.

I have a 7-year-old dog, and a couple months ago we brought home a puppy who is now almost 6 months old. Unfortunately, they don’t get along very well, and I’m worried things might escalate.

From the beginning, my older dog has been a total pushover. Even as a puppy, he never really growled or set strong boundaries, and he’s always let people (and other dogs) do whatever to him, even if he clearly doesn’t like it. Because of that, I’m not worried about him hurting the puppy — I’m much more worried that the puppy could hurt him.

The puppy constantly tries to play by nipping at my older dog’s tail and jumping on him. My older dog does not want to play like that. He growls and sometimes shows his teeth as a warning, but the puppy completely ignores these cues. We always step in to advocate for my older dog by separating them and intervening as soon as my older dog shows discomfort. Now that the puppy is almost the same size, it’s getting harder to manage.

They do have moments where they get along. The puppy follows my older dog everywhere — he won’t even go into the backyard without him. My older dog is always nosy about what the puppy is doing, and the puppy frequently licks my older dog, and sometimes they lick each other on the lips. Occasionally my older dog will try to interact when the puppy is running around, but they don’t really wrestle or play equally. It still feels very one-sided.

On top of that, the puppy has started showing some concerning behavior in other situations. He growls and tries to bite when we have to do things he doesn’t like, such as putting in ear-cleaning solution after a bath. He also growls over high-value treats (like pig ears). This doesn’t happen with regular food — I can touch his bowl or take it away with no problem — but if he has something high value and you put your hand near his mouth, he growls.

There have also been situations where both dogs go after high-value treats and it turns into a fight that we’ve had to break up. To manage this, we make sure my older dog always gets food first and separate them when treats are involved, but I’m not sure what the right long-term solution is.

For context: my 7-year-old dog is already neutered. The puppy is scheduled to be neutered in about a month, at 6 months old.

So I’m wondering:

• Is this something puppies typically grow out of as they mature?
• Would neutering help with any of this?
• Or does this sound like something we need to address with training, if so what training can we do or do you think we need a professional?

I really want them to get along and be able to live together safely. Any advice, personal experiences, or training recommendations would be really appreciated.

My Dalmation has a great off switch inside, I’ll start with that. Outside he’s so rough I genuinely worry he’ll hurt someone. For gloves/toys or anything in our hands he will jump lunge and bite for it (often biting my hands). I had a behaviourist confirm that it’s not resource guarding and she gave some tips (still not seeing the results, I reached out for more guidance)

In the meantime I’d love any advice/encouragement! I just wanna play fetch and tug – it makes him so happy but I end up fretting (we’re working on drop it/leave it – this behaviour/arousal level is to fast for a command atm). For the longest time I wouldn’t even play with him, hoping he’d outgrow it – he stayed the same.

Looking for advice on potty training regression. My pup is about 10 months old (give or take, I adopted her from the shelter I work at when she was 6 months old, but she was a stray so it’s not given that she’s exactly 10 months old now).

I have experience potty training since I have a 5 year old Aussie, but this never happened before. My new pup is having accidents overnight often or early in the morning suddenly. She basically came potty trained and didn’t need much direction on holding it or when the right time was to go. She always went outside with minimal accidents inside. We didn’t have to use puppy pads at all. I just crate her when I’m at work during the day and I come home on the longer days so she can get a potty break during my lunch.

Crate training has been great since I’ve only had to do it during the day, but lately it seems like my pup has had an extremely sensitive stomach and can’t hold anything overnight. I keep waking up to accidents in our kitchen and it’s so frustrating. She doesn’t potty in her crate at all so I’m considering putting her in there at nights to encourage her to hold it again. My main concern is if it is bad that I crate her at night when I have to crate her during the workday too?

Side note- there hasn’t been many changes to her diet or schedule to prompt her to have more accidents. I did read that potty training regression can happen and it’s normal around the 7-9 month mark. I’m accepting that maybe my pup just needs to be reminded on what’s acceptable and restrict her freedom a bit at night..

Unfortunately, due to shitty pet policies in our destination (home) country, we can't travel with our 15-month-old, unneutered Bichon pup, Cloudy. We will be leaving with a Dog sitter/boarder for around 20 days. It's our first pet, so really any advice and criticism is welcome.

TLDR: leaving puppy for 20 days. Pet sitter now has a day job; will leave pup with her dog at 8, and her son will come back by 03:30. Neighbour will arrive at 12 to let him out for pee-poo. Is it fine to be left alone for such long periods?

We were planning to take Cloudy with us to India in March, but the pet policies are not as straightforward as we anticipated. Hence, we contacted a dog boarder, our neighbour's daughter, who is a dog trainer and also does dog boarding. Now she has a full-time day job, and she has informed that she will be leaving Cloudy with her dog after walking by 08:00 AM. Someone will come at 12:00 PM to check on the dog and let them out for a toilet break. Her son will come back at 03:30 and then will take them out for a walk again.

We usually leave Cloudy alone for 5-6 hours, and he doesn't whine or howl like he used to; nowadays, he usually goes into the room and sleeps. Will he be alright with the dog boarder leaving them for extended periods?

We will be leaving him for 2 days this weekend to see how he behaves in a new home, and probably a few days in February to introduce him to the new house, dog, and people.

Is there anything I should be looking out for? Is it okay to leave him with the dog boarder, or should I start looking for an alternative?

Any suggestions are welcome.

I feel like we’re almost done with potty training, but this week it got worse. It’s not the end of the world but my 5 month old probably does 1 of her 3-D poo a day inside.

My theory is to why she does it is she never seems to wee and poo outside in one trip she always wheeze and then tries to run past us to get in the door. She never wheeze and then stays out and poo so it’s always two separate trips.

Does anyone have any tips to:

– Get them to ask to go out themselves.

– Get every single poo outside not just 2/3

– The correct thing to do if she does poop inside. Do I say “no”.

For context it’s never the same one I.e, the morning or so we can just keep outside as we never know.

We do have her crate trained but this doesn’t matter as she’ll go outside after crate time, wee, come inside then poo.

Thanks.

Just had one of those walks, where you either come home crying or burst into tears as soon as you get in.

My 9 month old boxer teenager is relentless biting the lead on walks. He growls when he does it, but he isn’t trying to get at me (anymore) and I don’t think it’s aggression. I just feel like he’s so frustrated about something and I have no idea what.

It’s getting worse and more frequent – pretty much the entire walk he’s on and off lead biting or pulling like crazy.

I can’t figure it out and I’m at my wits end. Treats, his name, commands – nothing seems to snap him out of it other than standing on the lead for long enough that he gets bored and chooses to look at something else. Then as soon as we start walking again he’s pretty much back to lead biting. It’s embarrassing, sure, but I’m more so worried that I’m doing something horribly wrong to make him like this. I know he’s a high energy breed and he’s plenty of off lead exercise to run out and expend energy. But those walks around the block, or the walks to the field to let him off lead, are an absolute nightmare.

HELP

Edit: he gets plenty of rest, sleeps through the night in his crate no issues and naps for 2 hours or so at a time on and off throughout the day. We play tug in the house and the garden with rules (I.e. drop, wait, ‘ok’), we play a waited retrieve, we play ‘find it’ where he seeks out his kibble in the garden. He has licky mats, gets fed 3 x a day and recently upped his food to help him gain a little weight.

I came home from work and she was so happy to see me.

Tail wagging, jumping, making those happy sounds.

Then she just sat and looked at me with the biggest smile.

I've had her for 3 months and this is the first time she seemed truly happy.

Best feeling ever.