Category: Top Dog

Hi fellow fur parents! My husband and I recently adopted an 8 week old Morkie. She is our first pet together. She’s been with us for 3 days now. She mostly stays in the play pen and has a crate that she sleeps in. She’s currently unvaccinated (she has appointments for her vaccinations scheduled already)

Her feeding schedule is 7a, 12p, 4p and 6p

She potties once she wakes up and after she eats

She plays after she potties

She naps in her crate in between activities

Our dilemma are the following :

– Whenever she’s in her play pen in the day and my husband and I are doing chores, cooking, etc. she tends to whine and crying like she’s going to die. Even when we try to calm her down and call her name, she continues doing so. We can barely get anything done in the living room. Our whole apartment is carpeted and she’s currently on potty training.

– When she is in her play pen, she still cries even if we are in sight

– When she’s out of her play pen, she keeps following us and if we don’t mind her (while washing dishes for instance) she cries

– At night she cries when she’s in her crate. Night 1 she cried 3x, night 2 1x

My husband and I are truly happy to have our dear Morkie with us. But right now we are feeling burnt out, it seems like we can’t get anything done and we are always so anxious leaving her in her play pen because she keeps crying. We are so stressed out right now, we feel like we’re not enough for her and that she may need a family who can take care of her better.

Please be gentle with us as we are first time fur parents. Do you have any tips, suggestions or recommendations that can help us?

Hi,

A few details: The new puppy is a 9 week old female German Shepard/Irish Terrier cross. I already have 3 cats, we live in a 1 bedroom rancher style house with large yard. 2 of the cats are very close in age 3 and 4 and they are both male. Then we have 1 older cat who is 13 and female.

TL/DR: Puppy wants to play with my cats, cats are younger boys who aren't really scared but definitely not down with puppy level interactions with the sniffing and jumping, how far do I let things go? Do I just let them sort it out? Do I intervene at every interaction? Do I keep the puppy on leash at all times in the house?

Long version:

The first night I brought the puppy in things were actually very smooth, even my older cat who is VERY skittish wasn't even hiding in the bedroom like I thought. She was out and about and the puppy was just kind of looking around at everything. I did slowly introduce each cat 1 at a time. I think the older cat who has major difficulties with change could sense the puppy was pretty low risk. This puppy in general is pretty calm, especially compared to the littermates.

As an aside I have babysat my sister's dog in the past and that dog is a beagle/bulldog cross would is pretty aggressive towards cats (guessing it has a major prey drive due to the breed) and would dash towards any cat movement AT ALL, which resulted in my older cat just completely hiding in the bedroom the entire time that dog was there.

Back to the puppy sitch, that first night things were going way smoother than I had predicted. The 2 younger boy cats were walking around and the puppy would just sit and watch them from a distance, no confrontations at ALL, I was shocked. Even at one point I had the puppy sleeping on my lap and the older cat came ONTO THE COUCH and was laying beside us which surprised me a lot. The next day things changed and I realized the puppy was actually probably just scared of the new environment resulting in a very calm demeanor. The next day she got MUCH more confident and was starting to look at the cats to try and play with them. So the older cat is obviously not happening, they had a couple run ins and the cat will use STRONG body language to get TF away from her, she has even swiped the puppy twice now resulting in big whining reaction. So I'm pretty sure they will just need to avoid each other but I am happy that the cat is not hiding while the puppy is around. But my question here is more about the younger boy cats. Once the puppy got her confidence back she was going much more direct at the boys cats whenever they moved around the house, she would run up to them, the cat would stop, they'd sniff each other, then the puppy goes in for the big sniff and the cat is like no way and runs away, now with the cat running the puppy is like okay chase time and gallops towards them, cat finds a chair or table and turns towards the puppy and they face off, a moment passes and this is where the puppy goes into play mode and starts lifting her front paws off the ground and stomping down trying to get the cat to play, cat doesn't react and puppy starts to bark. This is the moment I usually step in and call the puppy away with a toy or something. The puppy is easily distracted with the right toy. I started putting a short leash on the puppy when she's inside with the cats and holding it back when she got too close to the cats but the puppy HATES this, she starts whining and freaking out when she realizes she is being restrained.

So the question here is do I allow these interaction to continue? Should I even step in at all if the cat is not obviously scared? The cats just seem to be annoyed but the puppy is definitely breaking their bubble of comfort by getting too close and once the puppy starts doing the paw stomping and barking they do get a bit more concerned. We have a big yard and lots of time on our hands, we play with the puppy ourselves with toys and bring her outside so the cats get a lot of time without her bothering them. And FWIW it does seem like the boy cats are somewhat interested in her just not to the level of letting her ponce on them or bark at them. If anyone has some similar experiences please let me know any strategies that worked for you. Cheers.

I am in desperate need of some help. Me and my boyfriend just got a new puppy, she is about 2 months old. From the start when we got her, two days ago, she struggled with being alone even if it’s for seconds. We both work hybrid but she will be by herself for 2 full days of the week. Unfortunately, we got her on Saturday and we started work today so there was not much time to adjust her to being away from us. Even during the nighttime, when she is put in the crate, she starts crying immediately when we step away even with the crate covered to make it seem like a den. We know she has just been ripped away from her family but we are feeling frustrated and don’t know what to do. Any advice?

hi everyone ,
I posted a few weeks ago and I’m still struggling a lot . I’m worried that it will not work out long term . I am introverted and miss my personal space but I have a 17 week old cavoodle (have had her for 5 weeks)

I work as a teacher so I have someone stop by twice a day and I also stop by once a day. So she is never alone for more than 2-3 hours at a time usually . She is also at doggy daycare twice a week

however, despite these breaks I find it very hard to be around her . my psychologist says it’s because I‘m in a state of overwhelm and almost flight or fight- I find it smothering to have her near me when I was so excited to bring her home and cuddle her . I don’t look forward to bringing her home from doggy daycare as I know it will be work. I’m not enjoying it much at the moment , but I don’t want to give her up

the weekends seem especially hard . I do 2 up, 1 down, but I really just missy independence and personal space . When I think ‘ should I give her up?’ My head screams NO!

but I feel like I’m not normal to need this much time away from her – I only have her out of the playpen maybe 4-5 hours a day. I get relief when she is in the playpen. I feel overwhelmed , flat, anxious and not looking forward to things

I do suffer from anxiety too, so I am constantly second guessing whether we are a good match. I am worried that being a cavoodle she will always need to be right beside me and I do need some breathing room. I live alone with no partner , and I like my space to decompress as being a teacher is hard work . I feel like it’s also not normal to get no joy out of it and to not want to be around her

she is chewing and jumping and has a lot of energy , which is another reason it is all hard. I’m just so anxious. I was so excited to get her and train her but now it all feels like a chore

I’m worried that this is not normal and not puppy blues

What commands do you believe are essential to teach your pup? I’m kinda lost of what else to teach my boy. He knows sit, down, paw, come (which is kinda like leave it/ pay attention to me/ walk beside me). I’m not sure what else I should teach him so any insight would be helpful!

Do any of yall have pet insurance? If so, which is it and do you recommend it. My breeder gave me a 30 day trial to trupanion and I’m not sure if I like it. So I would like any opinions on pet insurance!

Hi I really need some advice about dealing with my puppy at the moment. She's a 7 month old Springer Spaniel, and it just feels like her behaviour is getting worse everyday and I'm so exhausted.

Up until about a month ago, she was doing so well, all training was going amazingly, she was a happy loving girl. But recently it's just been so hard.

I've gone back to basics with training, and kept to our original routine. Tried more and less exercise, training etc. I was beginning her with some gundog style work when she was about 5 months, and it was going great but she just won't interact or listen to me outside anymore.

She's bitey, seems to be when she thinks I'm leaving her. She won't settle alone or outside of the crate, she no longer sleep through the night (wakes me up whining even if she doesn't need the toilet).

She also now barks at noises like people walking outside the house, the doorbell etc. She barks like mad when any unfamiliar voices are nearby.

She suddenly hates me putting a lead on her (never used to mind as I trained positive associations with things like that).

It just feels like she hates everything, she doesn't seem interested in walks or outdoor games anymore, she seems to get easily overstimulated but then she gets destructive if bored.

I'm so exhausted, and I feel like I've done something wrong for her to behave like this. I love her to death but every day feels like a struggle and I can't help but wish I had never adopted her.

I've actually already signed up for the training so this is more about managing my expectations. My Cardigan corgi will be right around 4 months old when he starts professional 1:1 lessons. He is signed up for 12 x 3hour sessions spread out over about 2.5 months. It isn't all just obedience drills the entire time they take him to parks, patios, dog/human socialization and do calming exercises as well – in addition to naps. This is also the place we did his puppy classes and will be doing other group classes and we're totally aligned with the trainer's process. The goal is to hopefully have him calm, obedient and non-reactive enough to take him to work with me at least for a half day a few times a week by 1 year.

However I find with him I can walk him about maybe 10 minutes until his brain gasses out and he goes full gremlin mode. He does focus on training when we're doing it but again I can do about 10 minutes until his mind starts to wonder. So I question how much he'll be able to really pick up with professional training and it may feel more like glorified day care. Has anyone had experience taking their young puppy to professional training? Was it worth it? Did you see behavioral improvements beyond just obedience? I'm hoping they can kick start the behaviors we want and give me homework since I've unfortunately forgotten more about training (my previous Cardi I took up to good citizen) than I remember.

Whenever my senior dog is walking around the house or outside the puppy with run into her on purpose and cause her to fall over. She sometimes jumps on her back and the older dog hates it. The puppy understands “stop” and “no” and “get down” but I have to keep telling her this everyday. She is a two month Pitt lab mix. The older dog is an 8 year old Puggle.

My wife and I are empty-nesters in our fifties, and have recently taken early retirement. We both absolutely love dogs, and after quite a lot of research we're going to be visiting a breeder to view a puppy this week. We haven't yet made a firm commitment.

However, we're also keen travellers who finally have the means and time to travel. As the reality of potential puppy ownership grows closer, we're starting to consider whether we may be making a mistake in terms of the impact that dog ownership would have on our ability to live the kind of life that we want right now.

We're very conscious of both the long-term commitment and responsibility that comes with owning a dog, and the amount of time and effort that's required from us, especially in the first ~18 months. We're under no illusions that it would sharply curtail our ability to travel overseas, especially during the puppy/adolescent phase, but also over the next 13+ years.

As I see it, the choice is not between getting a dog or never getting a dog; it's about whether now is the right time to get one. Obviously when it comes to the crunch we're absolutely not going to commit to getting a puppy unless we're absolutely certain that it's what we want right now – so realistically I think I already know where we're going to land with this for now.

I'm not exactly looking for advice, as it's a decision that only we can make, but I'd be really interested to hear from others who've wrestled with this dilemma and how you figured out what was the right thing for you.