Category: Top Dog

We’ve put the deposit down on a female lab puppy and I’m getting nervous reading all the posts. For context, we have 40 acres (80 combined with family next door). We have 3 small children (5, 3, 1) and plan to have more kids. A dog seems necessary to us to help with deer/coyotes/snakes – it’s partially a safety issue. We also know our kids will love a dog. We lost our last dog in an accident and our oldest still talks about him 2 years later. We live about 30 minutes out of the closest town, which means when we need to go into town it’s NEVER less than 2 hours. Usually around 4 hours. I’ve been doing a ton of reading on training and feel confident in my knowledge of what it takes – I’m just nervous it’s actually really unrealistic for me to spend so much time with a puppy while I have 3 small children who also need my supervision. I’m very hesitant to adopt an older dog because of our children and other animals – as well as not wanting to have to undo poor training. Hype me up or tear me down!

My velcro puppy with separation anxiety is now a 90 lbs, 6 month old big boy puppy. And, I can't even believe I'm writing this, but he stayed home alone for 1h18m tonight and was fine!

Sure, he was waiting at the door for me when I got home, so he may have waited there the whole time, but he didn't destroy anything or whine & bark the whole time. And, last night, he stayed home for 23m while I went to the grocery store.

He is a dream puppy — sweet temperament, loves everyone, easy to potty train, totally self sufficient and confident at home — but the separation anxiety was severe. Honestly, I've been stuck at home for so long that I thought I'd never get my life back. He's so grown up and such a good boy!

If your dog is overly attached, stick with it. Keep trying. We gave up on the crate and the pen. He hates being contained except at night. He would cry and bark and rage after just 5 mins of being left in the pen with the gate closed during the day. Turns out, he's OK being alone as long as he can roam.

I can't wait to go back to the gym!

So I got a puppy! Hooray! I love him and he’s so lovely but I’m struggling with training. It’s not that he’s not smart, I think I’m just doing something wrong?

I got a hands free leash and he’s now great on the leash, he’s crate trained except he whines if I get out of bed while he’s in the crate (plus I’ve been putting him in there instead of teaching him to go in which I know isn’t great), and he’s done really well with potty training. But it’s just the beginning . I want him to be a very neutral dog in public, I want to teach him to have great recall and not jump. He’s only a little guy but I don’t even know where to start. I’ve spent this last week just kinda trying my best

Any help??

I’m just looking for tips on preparing for my puppy to sleepover at my parent’s/sister’s house.

He will be 1 year next month so he isn’t a little puppy but still learning all the time and growing up.

He knows and LOVES his grandparents/my sister and has been to their house with me lots.

We have been away from him before, with and without my sister hanging out with him at our house , but have always come home.

He has been left with my parent’s once before for about 4ish hours in the evening.

We are doing good with a bedtime routine.

He sleeps separate from us in a kennel in another room so isn’t trained to need to sleep with us.