Category: Top Dog

HELP 😩 I had a puppy blues breakdown today and thought Reddit might be the best place to turn.

Our new puppy just turned 12 weeks old and came from a litter of 12. The first three weeks he was here he was doing great in the crate. We started out very slow 30 minutes and moved up to an hour and finally were able to run errands and leave the house with him in the crate.

The last two weeks has been a complete 180. As soon as I close the crate door, he cries. I think maybe me working from home could’ve contributed to attachment? I feel like I’ve tried everything and he refuses to settle, but as soon as I take him out he passes out and will sleep 6-7 hours through the night. He will go in the crate during the day and nap on his own, but again as soon as I close the door, he panics. I have a lot of anxiety trying to let him cry it out at night because we live in a townhouse and I’m worried about the neighbors.

Should I just start over from the beginning? Should I move his crate into my room? Is it a lost cause?

Any tips, tricks, or words of encouragement are appreciated ⭐️

Todays been a rough morning. I have a 3 month old English cream golden retriever. He’s been doing pretty good with house training with 0-1 accidents per day over the last few days, then this morning…bam! 3 accidents in a half hour (1 poop and 2 pee). I was starting to feel better about the puppy blues but this morning has me right back where I was. Is this normal to have a puppy regress so bad? Any advice?

Help me!

I have a 7-week-old Sheltie puppy, and we’ve been trying to practice getting her used to a collar and a harness. I first tried introducing the collar with treats, but she doesn’t like ANYTHING I’ve bought. She isn’t food-motivated at all. She always starts struggling and backing away, and putting the collar on is impossible. The last time I attached the leash, she backed up, fell over, and yelped. After that, she hasn’t come to me anymore when I call her. Before, she always came and followed me everywhere, but now she doesn’t.

Does my dog hate me? Do you have any tips on how to help a puppy who isn’t motivated by food or toys tolerate having a collar put on, etc.?

We have an 11 week old puppy that we have had for around a week and a half – he is the best boy (but we have struggled big time with the puppy blues). He now sleeps through the night in his crate and sleeps for 1.5/2 hour stretches throughout the day. I had to leave for an hour yesterday and he didn’t make a sounds – I am writing this as I’m working from the next room.

I am WFH for the whole of January with the plan to do half days with a dog walker in Feb 2 days a week (i.e 1.5hours in crate, walk, 1.5 hours) and build up to office days two days a week in March (3 hours, walk, 3 hours).

We spoke to a dog trainer and she recommend we get a play pen as well as a crate for the 3 hour stretches. the issue is he hates the Pen and refuses to settle. If we put him in his crate asleep to doesn’t whine and if he’s awake he whines for a minute max then settles but in the pen even if he’s sleepy he freaks out. we’ve tried kongs and lick matts but they seem to make him hyper. when we leave the room for the toilet if he’s loose in the living room he doesn’t cry but if he’s in his pen he freaks out.

Does anyone have any playpen advice? or think we should just ditch the pen?

About 7 weeks ago, we adopted a puppy from Battersea who was nervous at first meeting. He is now 4 months old and has gone from doing really well on walks to taking a sudden step back. We really tried hard to socialise him by taking him to parks, shops, cafes etc before he could walk and he did really well, and continued to do well in that first week of walking. However, something seems to have changed. He now refuses to walk with just one person and drags me back to the house until another person can join us. He has also been barking non stop on these walks. I took him to our local pets at home yesterday and instead of being his usual quiet self he was non stop barking at people, dogs and displays! We then took him to training where he was certainly the loudest one there. I tried to distract him with treats and he eventually calmed down but it took a very long while and I’m not sure if distraction is defo the way to go. If anyone had any suggestions on how to help I would be really grateful! Thanks.

As the title says, Milo (3 months) is fine most of the time in his crate, usually play and cool down/ training etc for about 1 hour then will sleep for an hour.

Sometimes however he will start howling, if hears me say ‘Milo go to sleep’ he’ll settle. Am I enforcing the wrong behaviour by doing that or should I let him try self soothe in these situations.

I think it mainly happens when he thinks we’ve left the house. E.g hears keys moving. Trying to desensitise the door and keys at the moment to make it really random. We haven’t really left him yet.

Just trying to understand if we’re enforcing bad habits as it’s not every time!

Hi everyone,
my girlfriend and I got a German Shorthaired Pointer puppy on December 20th. He turned 2 months old on December 31st. Despite some nighttime crying (he sleeps in a crate in our bedroom), mostly because he needs to go potty and occasionally because he wants to play at very inconvenient hours, he’s actually doing really well — especially considering he was separated from his mother quite early.

He adapted very quickly to using puppy pads for peeing, and for pooping he usually goes to the door to let us know he needs to go outside. He’s very smart.

However, in the last couple of days, despite all this, he has peed on the living room rug twice in a row. If we’re not immediately ready with shoes and jacket and don’t catch the exact moment he needs to go out, he just goes wherever is easiest for him.

How can we prevent this? He seems to understand that he should pee on the puppy pad, but sometimes he just does whatever he wants.

Thanks in advance!

I have a 6 month old English cocker spaniel that was on diamond naturals puppy and now is on purina one true instinct. The true instinct has shreds of chicken in it and he absolutely loves it. Could be because he’s older now that he’s not staring at me wondering where his canned food is. Anyway he loves it but the calorie/cup is way lower than other puppy foods. It’s around 370cal/cup but the diamond naturals small breed is around 450cal. So do I just feed him more? Sometimes I mix a can of wet food with it so I guess it’s a moot point but wondering if I should switch him back to the diamond naturals. The Diamond also has probiotics. The vitamin E is lower at 150 vs 400 but still seems reasonable.

I have a 65 lb golden retirever. He is on the skinny side.

I am looking for a harness that is non restrictive, especially around the shoulders. It seems like the best way to walk bigger dogs is by a collar, but my dog still sometimes pulls really hard when he sees another dog or person. I have tried walking him on only his collar and its fine until we see a trigger, and then he ends up choking himself, and I am worried about causing damage.

Right now I am using the canada pooch everything mesh harnesses. It seems to work well except when his head is down sniffing and walking it seems to restrict the back part of his shoulder blades from the back strap.

Just wondering what you all would recommend.

Thanks

Hej alle.

Jeg får en gravhundehvalp i foråret og har fået anbefalet at lave “crate training” om bl.a natten. 🐾

Jeg er dog i tvivl om, hvorvidt dette potentielt skaber øget angst for hvalpen, eller om nogen har erfaring med, at det er en god måde at skabe tryghed, ro og tilvænning hos hvalpen i den første tid? 🐶