Category: Top Dog

My pup is 12.5 weeks, and we are not making any progress with house training. This is mostly because she pees (a LOT!!! No dribbles-large puddles) every 2-5 minutes when she’s awake. I just needed to take a 5 minute phone call and found 3 new fresh large puddles after even though I was coming in with her, while she successfully peed, as I answered the phone.

We do treats and praise for all successes, which is about 50x/dat (we go through a lot of bags of treats per week). We don’t punish for accidents, but we do interrupt her mid pee every time. We watch her like a hawk and have her on a strict potty schedule. She pees about 250 times per day but can hold it for several hours at night (on a “good” she pees about 20-30 times per hour for about 12-14 hours per day. In a “bad” day it can be about 60-70 times per hour). She’s healthy and the vet insists it’s completely normal. We hired a trainer who says the same and tells us to just “shorten the interval” between times outside, but I must be doing it wrong since a 1-minute interval is often “too long.”

There are 7 of us in the house, so we set a timer for 5 minutes after she has success outside and take turns going out with her, but she can rarely wait the 5 minutes in between without at least 3 accidents. So we went down to 3 minutes, and she still has an accident every time because she can’t wait that long. Any less, though (1-2 minutes) and we are out so much that she can’t tell the difference between in and out. So we went back to 15 minutes in between but then she will have 5-20 accidents in that increment. The internet and the vet tell me this is completely normal, but is it?

We can’t stay outside 24/7 because it’s too cold for her, but how in the heck do you train with a 1 minute or less bladder? Since it’s completely normal, tell me how you all did it. Just move outside? Go out for 5 minutes, in for 1, clean up the pee on the floor and go back out? I can’t do this anymore and want to give up! I realllllllly don’t want to give up on her, though, but I feel hopeless!!! She seems pretty smart, but she can’t figure this out! I’m the most patient person in the world, but I’m going to lose it soon. My husband took her out 4 times while I typed this. She peed every time and had 3 more accidents on the floor in this time.

Go ahead, tell me it’s totally normal…but then please tell me how to deal with it. I’d rejoice if we could go 5 minutes in the house without 1-4 accidents in that increment. I’ve been told it’s normal so many times, yet no books or articles talk about it at all. We’ve had other puppies, but I guess they e been abnormal because they could go an hour or so after working on it for 4 weeks. She usually can’t go 100 seconds.

I've got an 8 week old golden retriever pup that has been with me for 5 days. She's already so smart with basic commands when not super distracted and we've bonded well so far. Crating at night is going really smooth and she seems to settle fairly quickly when crating during the day. I was able to leave her for an hour today while doing a grocery haul. Of course I was worried about her the whole time as that is the first time I've left the house without her.

Something that is causing be big anxiety is during potty training. I'm not doing doggy pads in the house, but training her to go outside. The actual act of pottying there has been pretty well.

Something that is causing me pretty huge anxiety though is that after she does her business I've been seeing if she wants to walk around the yard or back to the door to the house. During the small walk either around the yard or to the door she tries to eat EVERYTHING – leaves, grass, dirt, sticks, twigs, pebbles, you name it.

I've been pretty good about catching her in time, but she's so low to the ground and sometimes faster to act right now. I've already pulled one small stick out of her mouth that I didn't catch and it scared the crap out of me.

It's to the point where I just carry her to her potty spot, and then when she is done, carry her to the steps of my door and let her walk back inside.

I've been slowly working on the leave it command, but that seems to be slower to catch on than anything else I've taught her so far…of course I've not had her long.

I kinda just wanted to vent my anxiety and see if there are any stop gap recommendations between now and when she get's the leave it and/or drop it command down. I care about her so much already and don't want to let her hurt herself.

Our 1 year old pup is always on leash when we go out. How do you all deal with situations when you’re walking in an area where there are lots of off-leash dogs around?

We’ve had situations where a few will come up and want to play, and so does ours, but it kinda feels unfair (?) when our pup is on leash and they’re not. Also feels potentially dangerous with our leash potentially getting caught on one of the other dogs when they all get a bit excited.

One thought would just be to scoop her up (she’s only 7kg) but wondering if others had any suggestions. Thanks!

Seeking advice again, our 3.5 month old lab and 10 year old aussie/collie mix play just fine, no aggression and they tire each other out. With the aussie being an elder, she tires out way faster than he does. But that doesn't stop him from trying to get at her face, even when they aren't playing and they're just chilling in a room together, the lab automatically thinks "play time!"

We've tried everything from distractions to time outs to rewarding his chill behavior, but nothing seems to work for him. Is there any advice out there to not stop them from playing, but from stopping him from harassing the elder dog all the time?

Hey y’all,

First time pup owner. I have a 3 month fox red Labrador retriever, her name is Artemis and I love her dearly! She is currently a nightmare when out of her crate when it comes to teething though and I’m seeking advice! I’ve been told to say “ouch!” And/or yelp like a puppy when she bites, and not to move, and when she does move to walk away and ignore her for about a minute. This does not work for me because when I do this, she always just goes and finds something else to chew on. Is the solution to always have her in the ex-pen during this phase, except for crate time and outside time? It happens when we’re outside as well, which makes it much harder because I can’t just walk away, or she can just find a stick or a leaf to chew on. Please be kind to me, I’m new to all of this! Thank you!

Hi there, I was just wandering if anyone had any advice or has been through anything similar.

My puppy is doing really well with potty training and very rarely has accidents in the house now. However, he will only potty in the garden and never on any walks/outings. He has been going on walks and adventures into the local town for around 6 weeks now and not one time will he go no1 or no2 while we are out. It does not matter how long we are out for, he will hold it and often times cry if we’re out too long, which surely means he needs to go but just won’t.

Whenever he goes potty in the garden we give him a code word and give him a treat afterwards but anytime I instruct him to go potty on outings he will sniff but not go.

Does anyone have any advice or has gone through anything similar and know how to get around this?

A little background – I have always struggled with depression. In the past year, it has really improved through running and medication, but I have gone into a worse depressive period recently due to my partner being deployed.

We got a wonderful mini dachshund puppy at 10 weeks old who is now 7 months. I absolutely adore him, feel I’ve trained him well, and have made a safe and loving home for him. However, as my energy and mood have gotten worse recently, I’m worried that I’ve become a worse dog parent due to having less energy for play and going on less adventures together. I still always walk him as much as he needs, but mostly just nearby (occasional trips to the park) and I just don’t have the energy to teach him tricks and play tug of war all evening like I used to.

I’m really scared that my own problems might make him sad, lessen our bond, or make him think that I don’t care about him as much! Sometimes I worry I’m not the right person to take care of him, but I also know how much I love him and can’t imagine my life without him.

Any advice on how to manage these feelings or make sure I give him enough fulfilment would be really helpful.

Hi all! Just looking to see how others bring their pups on car rides.

My late boy was an extremely good car rider and would just chill in the front seat and fall asleep. But my current gal is very very different and a lot crazier in the car, lol. I'm trying to figure out the best way to safely travel with her, especially on longer trips.

My car unfortunately isn't large enough to put a crate in it and travel with her that way. So what are our other options?

My 11 month old dachshund was neutered today. Any tips on making him as comfortable as possible for the next 10 days

I have a 4 year old chug (chihuahua/pug) I was wondering if anyone knows why she would already have grey coming in on her chin if she’s only 4.