Category: Top Dog

Hi! My partner and I are bringing home our very first puppy in about a month! Her name is Maple, and she will be 9 weeks old when we pick her up. I knew I wanted a puppy about a year ago; since then I have consumed SO. MUCH. information about puppies' development and training, and a lot of it conflicts! In particular, every dog trainer on the planet seems to have a slightly different crate training philosophy.

I've heard that you need to build up to confining your puppy on the crate over several days, but I've also heard that you should start crating on day 1.

I've heard that you shouldn't put anything soft in the crate because they could chew it, ruin it, or it could prolong potty training, but I've also heard that you should make their crate a comfy, safe space.

I've heard that you should ignore your puppy when they bark or whine in the crate, but also that you should comfort them.

I've heard that you should put your puppy's crate in a different room than where you sleep, but also that you should have it right next to you.

Because of all the research I've done, I'm feeling confident about training in a lot of ways, but crate training is something I really don't want to mess up. In mine and my partner's opinions, it's so important and it is something our household is really going to need. I would really love to have some experienced dog owner's opinions on the things I've listed above. I want my puppy to feel safe in the crate and I don't want to do anything that can damage our bond, but I also will NEED her to be in the crate over night and for naps during the day from the get-go to keep her safe and well rested. I want her to feel comfortable, but I don't want the crate to be optional. How did YOU balance these things? Any advice is welcome.

Thank you!

You guys, I don’t know what to do. My husband and I had been looking for a dog for some time. We even fostered a big lab who we loved, but due to my connective tissue disease, we ended up not keeping him because of how much he pulled on the leash. Then, one of our friends ends up with this 8 week old “pit/lab mix” and we met him and fell in love. Here’s the big issue – he’s not a pit/lab mix. He’s pretty much all Jack Russel Terrier, and that is not a dog we had planned on having. He’s a super high energy working dog, and we just don’t seem to be the right environment for him. He does a lot of normal puppy stuff, but he also does some things that are just not okay.

He gets so distracted when he’s outside (usually chasing cats or eating deer poop) that when I bring him in, he’ll realize he has to poop and just do it wherever (he’s poop on the couch, on our bed, on our 3-year-olds toys). I started putting him in the fenced back yard, but we have chickens and I caught him today, mounting and humping one of the chickens. He’s much bigger than they are and I’m concerned for their safety. We only have one fenced area, so I can’t split them up. He digs, chases, chews, and doe pretty much everything we don’t want him to do. He’ll go into my daughter’s toys and take some out to eat. He chewed a hole in the netting of his kennel. He eats the cat food, chases the cats and ducks, steals food of the end tables, takes my hair ties out of their bin and eats them. My husband and I have started raising our voice because it’s so often that he’s being naughty, and now our daughter has started doing the same thing.

I feel awful. Our daughter loves him (though she does get very frustrated because he WILL NOT leave her alone), but suddenly our household has yelling, and to avoid that, he’s being crated more than he should be. He needs 100% supervision when he’s out of the crate, and I guess we weren’t as ready for that as we thought. We will not be getting another dog, as it’s breaking my heart to consider rehoming him, but it feels like it’s best for his happiness and for ours. I know we’re right in the thick of it with him being 5 months, but we haven’t even really gotten to bond with him because he’s literally always doing something he’s not supposed to. I know he’s a puppy, but I’ve never had a dog that’s constantly pooped inside despite large amounts of time outdoors. I’m afraid he’s permanently altering the health of our household (we never raised voices or yelled before), and that because of that, we aren’t treating him how he deserves to be treated.

I just don’t know what to do. I don’t want this to hurt my daughter, but I also don’t want her to think that yelling or crating a dog for extended periods of time is okay. We never would’ve adopted him if we had known he was a Jack Russel, we know we aren’t people who can handle a high energy working breed, but now I just feel so confused.

My little 3 pound poodle (Luna) has been a real doll, she is so tine and cute. We have been able to easily manager her, because we just pick her up and move her whenever needed. The baby bladder has been a little struggle, but she is getting better.

We have another poodle mix, 5 years old (Bella) that when I come home for lunch, we play ball in the back yard, and the little one has become her little shadow. She keeps up run for run with the older dog and is soooo fast. But now that she has discovered full on speed running, I can't get her back in the home. When I say time to go in, the older comes inside, baby is out chasing dandelions. As I approach her to pick her up and bring her in…boom she is off like lightening, zigging and zagging. I ended up taking 15 minutes of my lunch hour trying to wrangle her back into the house.

She is too young for formal train (not fully vaccinated) -< she is not ones for treats yet either. How can I encourage her to stay in place so I can scoop her up when it's time to come inside. I don't feel it is safe to leave in the backyard unsupervised. How do we encourage, train her to stay in place or come and that it is not a game?

Hello! I found a (estimated) 10 month old puppy in the streets about five weeks ago. I ended up fostering her through a rescue. I’m having issues with her potty training. When I first brought her home, she peed a lot and I thought maybe she had a UTI. I took her to the vet and brought a urine sample. The vet said that she didn’t have a UTI but some infection so she went on antibiotics. She wasn’t having accidents anymore but i think it’s because I constantly made sure she went outside. She recently got spayed and she’s been peeing in my house so much. I take her outside a lot but she still randomly pees on my bed, on my carpet, etc. (She is crate trained) Is this a common thing for a puppy? I wanted some advice/know if this something I can fix or if I should message the rescue and let them know? Any advice is appreciated! Thank you!!

I recently got a rescue puppy from a dogs home. She was, we think a Doberman cross. When we first got her the rescue said she was teething which is to be expected at this age (we’ve had puppies before). She was between 10-12 weeks old. We took her home and had her for two weeks. Did the crate training, did enforced naps, had a house line on her, did some training, taught her to sit, lie down, wait and she let us know when she wanted the toilet in this time. She was teething heavily, at least that’s what we thought it was. We redirected her to her toys, sometimes she would go and get her toys.

During the teething she would lunge at one of us when standing up or sat down and bite. My wife’s father was sat on the couch drinking his coffee and she ran over and bit him, he needed up spilling the coffee on the couch it hurt him that much. The bite she gripped on and then she applied pressures once hooked, on one occasion my skin bled, a few other times it left dints on my skin and my wife’s skin. She would randomly do this sometimes out of nowhere. My wife whilst she was in her playpen with her toys looked under the couch for something, she then climbed on her body, walked upto her head and began biting her hair and ears. We kept telling her no and yelping but she didn’t ever let go. I told my wife this is just teething as that’s what I thought. My wife messaged me one day whilst at work and said it’s been terrible the teething and all day. When on the house line she was lunging towards her trying to bite her most of the time. Even stroking her she would try and bite you and cuddleing she would bite your head and ears. On another occasion my brother looked after her whilst at work and he said bit him a lot and it hurt but I just said she is teething. There was one place outside on a box she would go and sit, she then would lick our faces then walk off but sometimes after the licking she would begin to bite. So I always thought it was just teething because she was showing some good behaviour. And when you picked her up and did a kissing sound she would lick your lips. So I thought there was some good behaviour there.

The other day we took her to the vets as her eye was a bit droopy and wanted to get it checked out. We took her and whilst there, someone said can I say hi to the puppy we said of course. She bit his beard straight away and then bit his arm. We said she is teething at the moment. We were then called in to see the vet. She said what can I do you for. So we told her about the eye and shown a picture. So she started a check on her eye but before that she wanted the puppy to smell her and get to know her to make it comfortable. She bit her hand straight away, locked on and applied pressure. The vet said ouch and took the puppies mouth off. She tried to cuddle her and she straight away began to bite her hair and face. We said oh she is just teething at the moment. Then after a few more bites the vet said, this is more than teething, it appears to be a behaviour issue. She said I have been a vet for 21 years and haven’t seen a puppy this bad before. She said this puppy in a few months will be 40+KG and this problem needs to be fixed now, this would need to be with a behaviourist, potential medication and complete firmness from ourselves. She also said I would not let this dog near children. We told her what she has been like at home with regards to the teething and that she is a rescue. She said I’m being honest with you, if it was me I would of returned the puppy yesterday and I’m sorry to tell you that. She said I’d heavily advise you to take the puppy back to the dog home. She brought a nurse in for a second opinion and they agreed. There a big brand Vet company aswell so quite reputable.

Obviously we were distraught from hearing the news and we have family members who come round with children and babies so we said we can’t risk it. We had a rescue last year for 2 years and we had to put him down to heart problems at 3 years old. He was the best dog anyone could ever ask for. After a year we thought we are ready now and then find this news out after two weeks honestly nearly broke me.

We rang the dogs home after the vets very upset and told them what the vet said. The guy on the phone said it’s just puppy behaviour and they need a lot of training but we said we can’t risk it and have to take the advice from the vets. We took the puppy back yesterday and the guy on the front desk was awful, told us a vet shouldn’t be saying that, she’s a puppy and she is teething. He Asked what vets it was and said we should look at other vets in the future. On the form it says did the dog bite you? My wife said well with the information we have been given I believe I have yes. The guy said well it was teething so that would be a no wouldn’t it. My wife was filling out the paper work crying and I was consoling her and I told the guy we have to take the vets advice as we have children coming to the address and can’t take the risk.

Today I’ve just been up and down all day about it. I seen Reddit posts like this and most if not all saying teething. They have put her back up for adoption on the website and in the write up it stated gets mouthy when playing. So I don’t know what to think anymore. We really wanted another dog but this bad experience has really hit us hard now, whereby we just don’t think we could do it ever again. I took a whole week of work to train her and my wife worked from home a few days into the second week to really build on it but we found out all this.

I dont know what to think. A vet is a professional and you should trust what these people say. If there are any issues with your pets, you go there for them to save them. We’ve had dogs go there before and they have been great. So I can’t discredit there opinion on this but at the same time I just can’t think a puppy can be this bad and I know they do teeth a lot. We also told some family and friends and some people with aggressive dogs who had to give them up said we made the right call which I’m sure they would do because of the trauma they have faced in the past, some had children also.

Has anyone been in a situation like this before?

Hello! We recently adopted a puppy. He and my 4 year old dog get along well for the most part but toys and food are still an issue. Does anyone have any advice on how to get them to be able to play with toys in the same room?

Thank you