Category: Top Dog

Heya ladies and gents,

I got my mutt Kaia from the shelter back in September. She is now 6 months old but still has issues with hyperactivity (due to lack of stimulation which I'm actively working on) and still pees inside randomly.

After long considerations, I accepted the fact that a crate might be my best option in solving the potty issues and enforcing calm times/naps.

Now, the goal is for her to be able fo be left alone from time to time while I'm out, and have the crate as a chill place while I'm working (in the same room).

I've researched and I'll speak to our trainer once he's back from holiday, but in the meantime if anyone has any advice on how to get her used to the crate, bop it my way.

Cheers

It's been 6 weeks since we have brought our Labrador puppy home and we have went through a series of ups and downs. The good stuff: he sleeps through the night (usually 10pm-6am). Potty training is going well and we only have 1 accident a week, usually when we get a bit too confident about his abilities to hold. He's 15 weeks and at this point we are really struggling with the biting. I am trying to engage my empathy as much as I can. I assume this is all due to teething. I understand that labradors are very mouthy. He hasn't lost a single tooth yet, but he's been extremely mouthy. He bites. Hard. My hands and legs are covered in scratches and scabs.

When he bites, we redirect to a chew (puppy safe antler, rubber toys, soft toys, you name it). But it doesn't always work. He often bites our legs, grabs our trouser legs and tries to tug it. He's hurting us in the process. He growls when he does it. I know it's not aggression. We had a trainer come round and she said that he's showing a normal puppy behaviour. The trainer showed us how to react to his mouthing – redirect to an appropriate chew remove attention, stand up, turn around, leave the room. We have to leave the room a lot and in the process he attacks our legs. It feels like right now he communicates all his needs through biting our legs. This week, I left the room 3 times to do a reversed time out and by the third time he started peeing on the floor.

We crate him for naps, which are going ok during the day, but he still requires one of us to sit next to the crate in order for him to settle. But he usually naps for about an hour each time. Sadly, he's unable to switch off and chill outside of the crate. We do not have a playpen for him as we do not have space for it.

He gets those unexplained bursts of energy. Sometimes I'm walking him and everything is great and suddenly he starts attacking my leg. I try to distract him to a sniffing behaviour with a "find it" but that doesn't always work. I also tend to take a chew toy for walks so I can put something in his mouth – again, doesn't always work. Today when I got home from a walk with him he got those crazy zoomies, bit my hand really badly. Yelping doesn't work. It just riles him up. I had to hide in the toilet for a bit before I felt I can leave. It's so disheartening.

I keep wondering if I am making mistakes. Am I enabling this behaviour? Or is he just a standard labrador puppy with big emotions?

My puppy treats mats and beds like toys 😅 I started her with a soft puppy bed, but she tore into it and they’re expensive so I instead bought a couple of the cheap mats she has in her crate to put in the kitchen I have her penned in (for some reason she doesn’t really get into the mat in there, maybe because the divider keeps it pretty pushed down). She’s now figured out how to tear into those and pull out the fluff so I’ve thrown them both out.

I feel bad because she really does like to lay on a soft surface and always opted to lay on those as opposed to the hard floor, but I can’t keep throwing away money. Anyone have any recs that won’t break the bank for puppy mats? I’ve seen people recommend orvis as indestructible but those are sadly out of price range for me

i dont really know how this happened. i did not oversocialize him and didn't let him interact with other dogs at all until we started puppy classes a couple weeks ago, but my pup (4 month old amstaff) has started trying to greet every single dog we see on walks. it's not terrible, he doesn't throw a tantrum or even whine, just pulls a bit and refuses to focus on me at all, but this is still something i want to nip in the bud before it gets any worse.

so, any tips?

So we had a dog get accidentally get pregnant. Our first time with a litter. She’s a full blood frenchie with a corgi. There are 3 of them now. 2 didn’t make it. Question is. They are like almost 6 weeks old. Have them inside. What do you all do with the smell? Constantly change puppy pads and blankets. And in a big caged kennel. But they just go to the bathroom all over. lol. We’ve always had just 1 puppy at a time when we would get one. . But they were always older when we got them and then house trained them. Being somewhat newborn. We are at a loss of how to keep the smell down. Thanks for any help.