Category: Top Dog

My lab pup was sleeping through the night perfectly right up till around 7 months old. Last toilet break is around 10:30/11:00 and morning time is 7:15/7:30. She sleeps in a 4×4 pen with a fuzzy blanket and a dog bed and has legal chew toys for in flight entertainment.

From the time she was around 4 months old till 7 months, she slept all the way through the night.

I remove access to water at 8:30 and she doesn't have any more to eat after around 7:30. I use her kibble for training and food toys so she never gets any big meal in a bowl. Her biggest 'meal' is in the morning.

She gets plenty of exercise (1.5-2 hours minimum a day off leash meadow exploring), enrichment (cardboard mayhem, hunting for hidden kibble around the house, toy swapping, play with humans) and brain enrichment (training). My trainers say she is not lacking for anything.

I give her plenty of time to fully eliminate before bed and she will often give me both a pee and a poop.

Yet… she is waking me up in the middle of the night around 50% of all nights for toilet breaks. 😵‍💫

Going out in the middle of the night is a very boring ordeal for her. I don't say a word, just putting my dressing down on, leash her up and quietly go to her toilet spot and then back to bed again. She goes straight back to sleep without a peep afterwards. She really does need to go.

The vet thinks this is adolescent shenanigans, ie. she's experimenting with what happens when she tries different things (turns out it's the same thing as when you were 8 weeks old, babes).

Has anyone else had this happen? We're going into week three of this and as a chronic insomniac to begin with, I'm coming undone. If you came out the other side of this kind of sleep change in an adolescent, how long did it take? Did you have to do anything to stop the nighttime toilet breaks?

I have a 13 week old lab puppy. Right now she gets lots of trips to our yard throughout the day and I meet her exercise needs by playing with balls and the flirt pole in the yard, but I’m looking forward to when I can actually walk her in a few weeks (after all her shots).

That being said, most of what I’ve seen online is the “5 minutes per month of age 2x a day rule”. I’m worried I can’t logistically do 2 walks a day. Me and my husband have a 6 month old baby and my husband already wakes up around 6am to leave for work- he told me point blank he’s not waking up earlier to walk a puppy and we can just all go on a walk when he gets home / one of us can stay home with baby while the other walks her. Obviously I can’t leave the baby at home alone to walk her (I usually take her out to the yard when baby’s napping and always take the baby monitor). I’m not really confident in my ability to control my large breed puppy while babywearing/pushing a stroller.

Can I realistically meet her exercise needs with one longer walk and plenty of yard play? Eventually I’d like to put her in daycare once or twice a week. I know dog walkers are an option but since we’re on a single five digit income funds are kind of tight.

What harnesses are you all using, I seem to be having trouble with my puppy and finding a good fit. She pulls a lot so I don’t like walking her with the collar, but I’ve had no luck with harnesses because she seems to be in between sizes.

I have a 9 month old rescue (unknown mix of working breeds, we think JRT pointer mix)

Our current schedule is about this

6-8: walk (maybe twice), play in yard, meal time in puzzle, rest of meal is used for training time, play with toys

8-12: she is crated while I wfh

12-2:30(ish): walk (maybe twice), toy time, small training session, kong

2:30-5: she is crated while I finish my work day

5-8: walk (maybe twice), play in yard, meal time in puzzle, rest of meal is used for training time, play with toys [she is crated for 30ish minutes while my family eats dinner during this time]

8/8:30: sleep through the night in crate

I know this sounds like a lot of crate time, but she can’t be trusted elsewhere while I work from home yet. My mom comes home at noon and helps watch her then, but once she becomes overbearing we send her for her second nap.

Our walks are a bit short right now, which is why they’re so frequent. We typically just go down the street or around the block, which is maybe 1/2 mile if we go around the block. I’d guess we’re barely walking a mile total. I’d like to work up to 2-4 miles, but she’s not fully leash trained yet and she lunges at cars. The short, frequent walks also help her paws tolerate the cold.

Important to add that she does not sleep outside of her crate. When I put her in she rarely cries. If she’s been in there for a bit and she hears me go to the bathroom, she’ll whine for a couple of minutes but that’s about all.

Is it normal for her to still be overtired when her bedtime comes around 8/8:30?

Raised 4 pups/dogs in my life, none of them under 4-5 months old so this is new to me.

Don't walk the pup, don't go to any park, keep it from other dogs until it has had it's parvo 12 week booster? Vet appointment in 2.5 weeks for 3rd vax fwiw.

Surprised consensus seems isolate from parvovirus risk is more important than early socialization.

Is my googling research weak or is keeping pup away from public until 12 weeks the way?

I’m starting to feel like the people who tell you not to tell your dogs NO, are the people who never tell their toddlers and young kids NO, I’ve been trying to do positive reinforcement and switch to a toy for chewing and my pup thinks it’s a game, I started telling him no when chewing on things and he backs up now immediately!! So what now? From now on I’m not listening to the sensitive new age people, I won’t discipline my puppy, but I am going to tell him no from now on!

My puppy is 3 months old. Almost every time he goes to sleep he has nightmares. When he’s awake he’s good. He’s only scared of the dark. I have him in a crate in my bedroom at night and I leave a little night light on because I can’t sleep in the dark. My question is how long does this normally last. Should I be waking him up? I feel so bad for him.

Took my 4 month old puppy out to pee tonight (live in an apartment) and some women had their dog unleashed in the balcony and their dog ESCAPED AND RAN TOWARDS MY DOG. My dog started screaming so I picked him up because I freaked out didnt know what to do and my dog was still leashed. My dog whined and barked really bad he got super scared.

We are inside the apartment now and he keeps barking at every single noise because he is so scared. This dumb woman and her dog may have ruined my dogs first experience meeting other dogs. Im so frustrated I could cry. Is this going to ruin his entire experience with other dogs now? Is there anyway to fix it? 😭😭

I need advice on how to handle my pomsky. he’s 2 1/2 and I’ve had him for 2 years. I’ve been hoping he would calm down a little with age but he’s still so rambunctious. He’s the sweetest thing but he’s so wild. I have to keep him in his crate when I’m not with him which I don’t like doing but if I leave him out of it he will destroy everything.

he never gets tired, I have a large yard that he runs in, but it is always a battle to get him back inside. and he doesn’t even like treats that much. sometimes I can get him back inside with one but usually he will show he wants the treat but realizes he’s gonna have to go inside to get it and doesn’t care about it anymore.

I knew I was signing up for an energetic dog, but he’s dominantly husky and he’s a lottt bigger than what I was expecting when I got him. not that I wouldnt have taken him, but the person I got him from said he wasn’t supposed to grow any more and that just wasn’t true at all.

I’ve recently gotten him on medication prescribed by the vet and the first day it worked TOO well, he barely wanted to get up. but since that first day it has not worked AT ALL.

literally any advice is welcome

Hi everyone! I’ve been researching Gunner Kennels and really struggling to justify the price. I have a 3 year old chocolate lab who goes with me almost everywhere, and I want to keep him safe in the car. I’d love to hear your real experiences with them, what you love, what you don’t, and whether you think they’re worth the cost.

If you’re willing to share, I’m all ears!