Category: Top Dog

My 18 week mini dachshund has recently become too anxious to pee outside. He gets scared by anything outside, like a car honking blocks away, the wind blowing, etc.. he’s starting to hold his pee for up to 12 hours which concerns me since I don’t want him to develop a UTI. Is there anything that helped your pup not be scared to go to the bathroom outside?

I wasn't sure if I should tag this thread with puppy blues or training help or behavior… I adopted a puppy 6 days ago. She's a 5mo labxshepherdxhusky mix or something like that. She is quite cute and lovable and she learns quickly but I'm not sure if have what it takes to make her a good adult dog. She bites a lot. When she's excited, when she wants to play or chew, she will chew anything that's near her. But it seems like she also bites to show she doesn't agree with the situation. For example, when we leash train and she pulls, I stop and wait for her to settle and come back to walk again. At first she's fine with it but after a few minutes when I stop she jumps on me, nips at my coat, legs or hands or her leash. She also bites/nips when I try to take her harness off when we go back inside.

Shes crazy about my cats. She barks at them and run after them, not aggressively but she's obsessed with them. She will stop mid meal to go after them if they approach her.

Tonight I fed the cats (on the table to give them space from her) and she jumped and started surfing along the table to reach their food. She also often jumps to try to eat my food when I walk with a plate.

All these things separately are nothing much, but all together I find it pretty hard. I had a dog when I was a teenager and when she got older she became a really aggressive dog towards strangers and we had to put her down (this was the 90s and we were first time dog owners). It has been a really tough moment for me and I'm feeling like I'm failing this new pup but I don't want her to grow up to a reactive, aggressive dog.

I now have another dog who's a 9 year old perfect pup, who's a trained assistance dog and I never went through the puppy phase with her, she was already perfect when I got her. The new pup has only met her one day because I share custody of the old dog and she's with me every other week. On the first day they played but the puppy also demonstrated ressource protection with growling and showing teeth.

I'm trying to do my best with this new puppy. But I'm afraid I'm doing everything wrong. I'm afraid she'll snap someone or myself. I'm afraid she'll be uncontrollable. I'm not even sure if I exercise her enough. Sometimes it feels like she's not active enough, other times it feels like she's over stimulated.

I signed up for obedience classes but it only starts in February…

Any help, advice or suggestions are welcome. Please help, I'm so sad and afraid.

I’ve read a lot of posts on here and watched lots of videos about dog training and puppies and I still feel like there’s no hope for my puppy. So many people say their puppy gets way better as they grow up but I just don’t see that happening. I had a lot of patience the first month and kept telling myself it’s normal puppy behaviors and that he’ll grow out of it. Hes 14 weeks old now and acts like an absolute terror 24/7 with no signs of improvement at all.

Hes a bichon, so he’s a small puppy yet he bites hard enough to draw blood. He bites whatever he can reach whether it’s hands, feet, legs, or your face. And according to the vet, he hasn’t even started teething yet! He jumps up to grab my hair and pulls so hard that I cry.

We’ve bought him so many different toys and he has 0 interest in any of them. He only wants what he can’t have like our phones, chewing on wires, or on the furniture.

Of course I’ve read so many different posts about training puppies and I’ve tried all the common advice like redirecting with toys, reverse timeouts, yelping when he bites (sometimes the yelps aren’t even fake). I’ve kept up with these for the last 6 weeks everyday, thinking one day it’ll finally “click” for him but he has shown 0 improvement. He’s actually gotten worse over time. Potty training hasn’t clicked yet for him either but I still have hope with that one that he will learn with age.

The only time he’s not a menace is when he’s in his crate, he’ll actually settle down and sleep. He sleeps 18-20 hours a day still so I don’t think lack of sleep is the issue either.

I’d appreciate any and all advice especially for the biting. Nobody in my family even wants to be around him because the biting is so bad. I’ve had puppies before and never struggled this much

We got our puppy at about 12 weeks old. We live in an apartment with lots of other dogs around, so we could not take him outside until two weeks after his final parvo shot. During that time, he became a pro with puppy pads. He would miss by a couple of inches sometimes, but he rarely had accidents.

Fast forward six weeks, and we have been trying to transition him to going outside. Today alone we spent at least three total hours outside with no success. He always has to potty after dinner, so we stayed out with him after he ate, and while we were inside we stopped him any time he tried to go back to the old pad area.

After about two hours, he was clearly uncomfortable from holding it, so we finally put down a pad. He immediately peed and pooped. All the advice online says to “reward your dog a lot when they potty outside,” but that does not help much when they never go outside in the first place.

Our 1.3 year old doxiepoodle sleeps in her crate downstairs (with the door open) we dont properly "crate" her anymore in the day but its very cozy space and marks bedtime so we use as her bed.

I go to bed quite early and she snoozes with me until partner takes her down a hour or so late. No issues with sleeping alone but I think she would prefer to just stay with me. She slept with me last night and seemed very content.

My concerns with her sleeping in my bed full time are these:

No separation anxiety (very chill + sociable lady) but is quite attached to me when we are together – is it healthier for us to be apart at night?

If I am away she will need to sleep in her bed – me and my partner don't share a room (bed to yourself is awesome!). Same goes for when she stays with sitter/our families – is this unfair and confusing for her?

She is a very chill and well behaved little dog, but she is still young and I dont want to confuse her.

For the first time in my life, I’m considering getting a puppy.

I WFH in an apartment, in a very dog-friendly city. Lots of my neighbors have dogs. I’m considering a mini dachshund.

I live alone and have an incredible community of friends and family, also with pets. A lot of these friends and family have been talking to me about getting a pet for years and told me they will help watch the pup.

I do have some work travel, on average 4-8 days a month but some months not at all. If I get a puppy, I would not travel at least a month.

My understanding is as far as puppy alone time, to figure about an hour per month of age. So for the 8-week-old I’m considering, no more than 2 hours right now.

My social life is fairly busy, I go to run clubs and occasionally dates but no relationship right now. I’d change my frequency of going out, obviously, and I really want to invest in puppy training to teach good habits. Lots of people here bring their dogs to run clubs and I can see myself doing that when he’s old enough if he likes running!

I guess I’m on the fence because while I would love the relationship and I know the first year is the hardest, I don’t know that my work travel is going to be good for a puppy. I feel like everything else I want to do and am willing to do so, I’m worried the trips in the first year will be too much and he might not be happy or able to build those good habits.

Would love to hear your thoughts and opinions!

Puppy got spayed today. I gave her a few sips of water and she threw it up. An hour and a half later I tried a few sips again and she kept it down. She hasn’t ate and she is due for her carprofen pain meds and is in pain but I am worried about giving it to her right now. Should I try to feed her since she kept the second round of water down?

Hello Im an owner of a 5 month old Rat Terrier Chihuahua mix pupppy and a 4 year old German Shepherd, My puppy can not control herself around her and it gets to a point where my Shepherd starts to get agitated, they havent had any bad experiences together but i just dont want my puppy to keep on bothering her because i feel it would lead to an accident.