Category: Top Dog

we have a 15 week cocker who we have had for nearly 5 weeks. we haven’t made much progress with daytime crate training. he has meals in there and will potter in and out but will protest if we close the door on him.

at night we started with crate in our room, then outside room, then end of landing etc, he is now downstairs in the kitchen. this was ok for a few nights and he just woke up 2 times for toilet trips (he wakes us by barking but we previously didn’t mind as he clearly needed the toilet)

but the last 4 nights he has got into a habit of:

10-10.30 put him to bed, he goes quite willingly and settles quickly

11.30 wake up barking, take him out but no toilet needed

12.30/1.30 ish wake up barking, generally does go for a wee on this trip

3.30 wake up barking, usually does go for a wee or poo

4.30 wake up barking, doesnt need toilet, won’t settle easily, lots of whining and barking, very hyperactive

5.30 same as 4.30 so we generally stay up with him at this point

because we have neighbours and because he does sometimes need the toilet we do go downstairs to him when we hear the barking. We don’t open the crate until there is a moment of calm sitting and silence

are we reinforcing the barking when he doesnt need the toilet by going down to him everytime? The problem is if we don’t go down i worry it will descend into panic barking and not stop, then we will wake our neighbours

What are your top dog/puppy life hacks.

For us, Slow Feeding Bowl was HUGE and the pet app to keeping track of our pets.

I'm curious what other hacks for toys/training/tips have changed how you handle your puppy/dog or saved you tons of time or money.

Side note; we just changed our puppy Bella's small mat into her big mat in her kennel. (she's a 4 month old Golden Retriever). I thought I was going to cry last night!

Hello,

My now 13 week old labradoodle is doing pretty well with crate training (goes in when I point towards the crate, happily licks his kong, finishes it and then wails for 2 minutes and goes to bed). He spends almost every nap in the crate (with crate covers) except for the afternoon where he sometimes sleeps on the cold tiles. We have left him periodically with the crate covered for 1 -2 hours (after a pee and poop and food and toys etc) – but need to slowly transition to leaving him home alone for up to 4 to 5 hours when I start work in feb (he will be approximately 5 months) for 3 days of the week (every other day someone is home).

He has a puppy proofed room that has space enough for crate, pee pads/grass pad (I know this holds back on out door potty training, but id rather him do it in a designated spot then on the floor) + enrichment (approx 2 x 1m space not including crate). He is super attached to me and follows me everywhere and I do not want this to eventually lead to separation anxiety lol. In terms of his training, he toilets outside AS LONG AS we take him straight after every crate nap and after some intense activity (if not he just finds himself a nice carpet). He sleeps through the night most of the time, can do basic commands and we are working on more important ones like leave it/drop it etc. He likes to run away with shoes and socks and honestly anything that ISNT his toy he grabs and runs and chews:).

Any tips on how to progress from here to more independence (and get him to not whine and bark in his crate 10 minutes after the kong) would be very much appreciated!

Also: I have tried the whole give him an enrichment toy and leave for 10 seconds and slowly progress. My boi is up to maybe 20 to 30 seconds but often comes to stand at the door, waits for me to return then goes back to his enrichment activity. We have a set of baby gates that we are planning to install over the weekend so he can learn to sit behind the gates and watch life outside but not necessarily always be involved (let me know if this is a bad idea). First puppy so I'll take all the tips I can get!

Any advice or recommendations for a puppy (10m old female mix) who really loves to shred and destroy toys, which I have no problem with, but she unfortunately starts to ingest the materials. She’ll eat the stuffing from toys, or strings/fibers from stuff too. Idk how to get her to stop and basically I can’t leave her unsupervised with toys. Things that are hard like kongs/rubber chews she has and occasionally chews but they are not nearly as fun as destroyable stuff. We also have coffee wood which she doesn’t seem to eat as much of and she loves to chew. Should I maybe just accept that destroying toys is not gonna be one of her hobbies lmao?

Hey all! Just got a working line GSD. She’s 5 months old and has been in good kennels abroad since weaning. She’s perfect overnight in the crate and lasts 8hrs without a bother. Has her baby teeth in. Main issues we’re having is lead biting, bowl biting, evening zoomies and barking incessantly in the crate if she can see/hear us. We’ve resorted to going upstairs when we crate her during the day otherwise she WILL.NOT.STOP. Have made the crate the best place ever, covered it, has a multitude of chew toys which we try to distract her with from the bowl, ignore her when she barks but drop treats in if she’s quiet. Take her out for a pee break and straight back in….. Any advice? I grew up with Shepherds but this girl is breaking me.

…one of them cries nonstop any time it's just her and her sister in the puppy pen. She gets REALLY worked up. It isn't anxiety, either, it's fussiness at wanting to be anywherebutthepen. If I let her out, she stops crying immediately, regardless if the mom is there or not, but obviously 1. That just reinforces her behavior and 2. There's no way I'm leaving a 4 week old puppy unsupervised overnight while I sleep.

I live in an apartment and am so worried I'm gonna piss my neighbors off. How do I handle this awkward ~4 week transition period between weaning and trainability??

By the time we get out of work, it’s dark.

What we’ve been doing is walking around the neighborhood at night on weekdays & then using weekends to go to parks and stuff.

What can we do on weekdays? The reason I haven’t been going to stores and stuff is because he is not at the point where he can be that close to people/dogs and staying calm. Should we go anyways? I am worried he will be above threshold and it would do more harm than good.

We had puppy classes on Mondays but that ended. We learned a lot doing those classes, but he was above threshold during that too. He’s just a very very alert dog & he focuses very hard on his surroundings.

For context, my beloved rescue dog passed away 2 years ago. He was my soul mate, and I had him for a decade.

We’ve just got a new rescue dog on Sunday, and I feel complete regret. I don’t love her at all, I don’t want her near me, and I feel like I’ve made a huge mistake.

I usually love all dogs, but I just don’t like her. I’m not sure if it’s because I feel trapped. I really want to love her – it’s taken us ages to find a dog, and finally we have one, and I don’t like her!

My partner has really bonded with her, too.

Please someone help – how can I fall in love with her? I don’t want to give her away. I feel desperate, sad, and alone.

Hello everyone!

My 8 month old whippet has started to act out recently and I am worried it’s because separation anxiety. We have crate trained her since the beginning and we had no problems before. However recently she has DESTROYED her bed, chewed and pulled down curtains from the hangers (through the crate) and she even managed to dent her own crate by pulling it with her teeth. Some days when I come home, she is sleeping peacefully but other times it’s a nightmare.

Has anyone had the same experience with a puppy? What should I do?

For further context: our puppy is usually alone during the morning from one to four hours max. She is super cute and chill when we are home. She is regularly walked and played with.

I’m thinking of leasing a Tiguan for a few years as I have a baby on the way and 2 Labradors, my current car (Mini Cooper) has just completely died.

Has anyone leased a car with dogs that shed and ran into any trouble on returning the car?

I’m thinking a boot liner and a dog guard should help?

I was also going to get a car hammock for the back seat just incase they even need to go on the seats

Any other suggestions please let me know, I’m going to get leather seats as I feel like they don’t hold dog smell, I am not sure what else?