Category: Top Dog

In the middle of crate training and she loves it at night but in the day she is super restless (we don’t want to force her in the crate). We started out taking puppy out after naps for toilet and then a play for 5-10 mins, then some training for 3-5 mins, then a puzzle game or other sniffing play and then we try a frozen Kong or a lick mat in the crate but that just seems to hype her up some more!!

What are we doing wrong?! We originally use to do longer play but thought she was getting too over stimulated and restless what is everyone’s go to play/calm routine for a puppy?

Thanks

My aunt has a puppy about 14 weeks old. She works a full time job with a slightly irregular schedule (house cleaning, some days off, some days early). Because of this, she’s found it difficult to enforce a crate routine, or much of a routine at all when she’s gone throughout the day. Along with this, she hasn’t been able to properly potty train the puppy.

I have my own puppy, her sibling. I’ve had a very flexible schedule and because of that, have been able to crate train, potty train and maintain a routine. So I have some experience but have no idea on what kind of advice or help to offer when the puppy is frequently free roaming within an enclosed space during some hours of the day.

How should my aunt go about potty training? I assume she should stick to enforcing after she gets home from work. Honestly I don’t even remember how I taught my puppy.

Our fox terrier is 14 months old. We love her to bits and we had another fox terrier before her. Typical for the breed, she is very stubborn and independent. Sidebar: She has actually come a long way since the early puppy days. I do recall posting here about excessive puppy biting (thankfully that phase is over with) but her poor recall drives me crazy. But let me clarify, her recall is perfectly fine when there are no distractions and there’s a treat involved. But as soon as there’s some distraction, it’s as if a switch is flipped. She will not and cannot hear me. Today she was running around the backyard with a walnut shell that she had found. She was crunching it and eating it (I think). No amount of calling or demanding or begging worked. I even had a treat in my hand. Really not sure what to do at this stage, especially since she actually knows recall!

I guess my main worry is that she could get into a dangerous situation and that her stubbornness could be fatal. 🙁

My puppy (10 months now) has always been really excitable when passing other dogs. Thankfully she’s never been a big barker, but she loves to start jumping, lunging, and pulling when another dog is within 15 feet or so on walks. My partner and I have been working with her day in and day out to curb this behavior since adopting her at 3 months and no dice. Until finally. I’m not sure what clicked, but now we can reliably lure her with treats to our side when passing other dogs. No more jumping or pulling.

To anyone out there who is feeling really defeated and like you failed as a dog owner for whatever issue you may be having, stick with it. It WILL get better!