Category: Top Dog

I have an 11 week old terrier pup who I got a few weeks ago while I have been living at my parents home in a rural area with our own yard, so he’s had a yard to explore (no dogs have been in the yard besides my late dog, who had never been sick, vet approved this!), and he’s practically fully potty trained at this point.

I’ve been at my parents for the last year and a half, and finally got a job offer back in the city I had been in for years before, the same week I got my puppy (what bizarre timing?). My puppy is up to date on shots for an 11 weeker, but won’t be fully vaxxed until mid april at 16 weeks, by that point, I’ll be moved back up with him in the city.

how might I handle that switch, to those of you in cities? How do you take your puppy out in a city before they’re fully vaxxed? I’m lucky that the apartment I’m moving to is dog friendly and has a fairly large grass pad on the roof, but I have no idea about the dogs that have been there previously. The city is also pretty dog friendly with a ton of dog parks, as well as massive regular parks that are dog friendly but again, can’t bring him there until fully vaxxed. I know people have those small fake grass pads, but he’s so used to a big yard, I worry he won’t know what to do with it.

I feel bad about confusing him but the goal was always to transition back the city at some point. Beyond the potty training and outside time, has anyone done this and how did your puppy deal with it? He’s so young I hope he’s able to adjust quickly but I want to make it as smooth as possible. I didn’t think moving would be happen this soon.

Any ideas and thoughts are so appreciated!!

My bf and I recently got a 12 week old German Sheppard Bernese mountain dog mix. We got him a week ago and he’s driving me crazyy! Today I got a taste of him being overtired and it is a nightmare I desperately need help making a schedule. Right now we wake up whenever he wakes up

~6:30am: wake up, quick potty, back in crate

8:30am: wake up, potty/10 minute walk

9:00am: breakfast/training (1/2 cup kibble)

9:45am: ~10 min after breakfast we potty again or he’ll pee in our apartment

This is where we have no structure and just go with the vibes. If he wants to play, we play or nap or whatever we try to just listen to his cues and go with his mood. he gets lunch at some point in the afternoon, a full cup, and then potty 10 minutes after eating/chugging water. throughout the day he has ~2-3 big outings (park or long walk) and we always immediately potty after every nap. that being said it’s on average every 2-3 hours he goes potty.

7:00pm is dinner time and potty time (1/2 cup kibble) his water gets cut off after this for the night

7:15pm potty time

7:30pm nap time at this hour most nights. in the crate

~9:00pm: whenever he wakes up we go potty and back in crate with a toy.

11:00pm: boyfriend comes home from work and goes for potty break

11:30pm: crate for the night

One potty break in the middle of the night usually between 3:30-5:00am. This is entirely decided upon by the dog we let him wake us up, then it’s back in the crate till morning.

Issues we are having:

1 – he keeps making potty in the house same spot if we don’t take him out religiously every 2 hours. Barely any warning he just pees. How can we teach him to inform us when he wants to potty or hold his bladder until potty time. Yes I clean with enzymatic cleaner

2- i have puppy blues he’s driving me crazy in the evenings, hes so high energy and he wont listen to me

3 – we try to leave him alone in the crate for ~2 hrs Everytime we’re both at work, which always varies everyday and he’s starting to see it as a prison even though we feed all his meals in there and he has no problem sleeping at night

4- we only give him water during meals to prevent accidents since he doesn’t seem to hold his bladder he just pees in the apartment

Any and all advice is appreciated

Let’s start with me. I can get anxious. Anxiety doesn’t surface in all stressful situations, but when it does, it comes HARD. My partner and I just had the brilliant idea to adopt a puppy from our favorite local rescue. And you guessed it, I’ve been anxiety riddled ever since.

Everything I do, I feel like I’m going to break her. It’s not the same feeling I see lots of people here sharing. I don’t feel guilty that I may not be able to satisfy her needs. I do however feel afraid that I might inadvertently reinforce the wrong behaviors and turn her into an antisocial and potentially aggressive dog.

She’s very shy. She typically starts walks with her tail down and sometimes barks at people (mostly men) passing by. It’s weird that she’s not scared of me…. So of course my first thought was to seek help. All advice on the internet pulls me in different directions. I feel like it’s researching how to raise a child as if it’s a one size fits all answer. News break: it’s not.

It’s not that throwing money at problems always fixes them, but damn, I’m hoping that spending money on a good trainer might help me learn how to read her better and help her grow to be a confident dog. The caveat: the trainer isn’t available for another month!

So. Here I am. Anxiety riddled and thinking of any excuse to give her back to the rescue. Hell, Id do anything to get rid of this feeling. Unfortunately puppies don’t take Apple Pay. She’s also not crazy about treats, toys, or anything else I can offer. So what do I do? I have almost a month until I can speak with a good and reliable trainer, and I feel the worst anxiety I’ve felt in ages. I can’t help but reminisce about the peace I took for granted before making this decision.

So let it rip. I’m open to criticism, tough love, and advice. Someone please tell me everything’s going to be fine.

My almost 10-month old has done such a wonderful job tonight of entertaining himself! He’s alternated between his toys and his chews. Over the past month or so in particular he’s gotten better at this (fewer and less intense witching hours) but the last few days it feels like a switch has flipped and tonight it’s really noticeable.

I’m sure he’ll still have days where he struggles but it’s so rewarding to see this progress! Didn’t seem possible a few months ago.

Hi everyone could really use some reassurance.

I’ve got a 10 week old miniature schnauzer whose biting just feels out of control. I know she is teething, but I feel like we didn’t immediately get on top of the whole biting ≠ play thing and now when she’s even a little bit tired/excited/hyped she will bite us and bite HARD. It’s also accompanied by a lot of growling and I don’t know if this is just a part of play or if it’s indicative of some other behaviour problem.

I try doing the whole redirect, put a toy in her mouth, stop walking/playing if she bites and put her in ‘time out’ if she doesn’t chill out but I feel like it’s just not working. I can’t see a single instance where she associates us stopping playing with her being a consequence of her biting, so I just don’t know how it’s ever going to click for her that she shouldn’t bite us. It just feels like in all the chaos of her biting us, us pulling our hand away and exciting her more, then us putting her in her puppy pen isn’t working in making her see that biting ≠ okay.

I’ve been told that she’ll hopefully chill out when she stops teething, but a lot of this doesn’t seem like teething behaviour which makes me scared that I’m going to end up with an adult dog that growls and bites and can actually do some damage.

Please any advice welcome I’m feeling the puppy blues.

I live in an apartment with my husband and five year old lab/golden mix. My first dog is an absolute dream. She pretty much never has bad behaviors (except leash walking she occasionally pulls), and I’m able to take her everywhere with me. I really value our bond.

She loves playing with other dogs and she gets bored at home (I take her for an hour walk a day and several sessions of fetch), but she’s always wanting to play or do something. I thought a puppy might help with that and I’m not in school and I’m not working full time, so I figured it was a good time. My husband was okay with it as long as it was my responsibility. I got a 10 week old black Labrador.

Now I’m wondering what I got myself into. I know the puppy blues are real, but how do you know if you really did make the wrong choice? This puppy is way more high strung than my first dog as a puppy. Shes constantly barking at me in that high pitched bark to get attention and crate training in an apartment has been a nightmare. My first dog has been avoiding the puppy and has become withdrawn and I’m worried I’ve damaged our bond. On top of that, I’ve suddenly become worried about walking with two dogs or taking both dogs on outings (something I was confident I could handle before).

It’s my third day and I’m wondering if I should bring her back to the breeder. Am I in way over my head?

I got my pup 11 months ago from a breeder when he when he was 4 months old, I have no clue what kind of training if any he had while he was with her. Since he's been house trained, I would let him free roam while I was at work and at night, until the about a month or so ago I came home one day to find a softball sized hole in the armrest of my couch. That wasn't the beginning of the behavior, the chewing became more of a problem a couple months ago, although he's kind of had somewhat destruction behavior since I got him. But now, nothing feels safe, he's chewed up clothes, his bed, blankets, my couch pillows, my rug, little plastic things of unknown origins, pretty much anything and everything.

I work full time and started part time school recently, despite this I still try to walk him daily, occasionally missing 2-3 days in a week, he usually gets about 40mins to an hour of walk time, and even then he still wants to play after. I do not have a fenced in backyard where I live so trying to get his energy out is difficult, my apartment is 500sqft so there's also not a lot of room to play.

It just feels as though the only option is to crate him all day while I work and all night, but to me that seems to be the issue because he's not able to get any energy out while I'm gone, and the free time I have to give him attention isn't enough to exhaust him. I genuinely don't know what to do, I question whether I should keep him or not because I feel I am failing him and I'm not able to give him the time he deserves. I feel this has strained our bond and I sometimes feel I don't even like him. I've tried puzzle toys but he finishes them very quickly and still seems antsy after. I don't want to give him up but I'm at my whits end with this. I would love some suggestions

Had introduced my dog (puppy, beagle cross, 8 months, 23kg) to my dog sitter and even had a test sleep over. It was all fine. I left on my trip yesterday evening, and this afternoon I get a text from the dog sitter saying that my dog is full on, that she has pulled her down to the floor twice and that she has a sore back. Any advice on what to do? When my dog is with me she can be hard work but she’s gotten better and better with age. Any advice would be helpful thanks!

I love having a nice lawn, but it's impossible without using Chemicals… Since it's a definite NO on the chems, we need to re-think our small Chicago Lawn. For those of you having a nice lawn AND dogs, what are you doing? The wife wants to change our lawn to a Pet Safe Tall Fescue & Clover Lawn. I love my grass, but maybe it's time to let go. Thoughts?? Advice?? TY!

I live with my mum and uncle, both of which have dogs. One small and one big. When it comes to walking time, I like to take them down the backstreet of my neighbourhood. So when we're walking the little one (quite timid) will just stop and refuse to move, pulling to stay in one place, almost squirming out of the harness. I don't know why she does this or what sets her off and causes her to stop moving whether it be loud cars, or tall buildings. It's extra hard because I've only owned 1 dog before, so I only walked one, so now I have to walk two at once (they've become attached and cry if I don't). What should I do?