Category: Top Dog

everyday i wake up so excited to spend the day with him. i’ve wanted my own puppy for so long and i love taking care of him. i love training him, cuddling with him, seeing him grow and seeing his little personality everyday. i see a lot of posts about puppy blues which is understandable between the biting and potty training, but i know he’s so little that he can’t help it. i am very thankful that my guy was crate trained because of his foster and it’s been a tremendous help. he is really my best little friend and i love him so much. i am so obsessed with him. anyone else feel like this everyday?

My puppy is currently 16 weeks old, she goes to the vet regularly, she’s been to the groomer and I plan on taking her regularly, she goes to training classes (only 1 other dog in class currently but we are moving up soon), she’s goes on puppy play dates with another puppy, she lives with 2 other cats and 2 other dogs, she goes to the pet store with me, and pet friendly stores such as TJ MAXX but it’s winter here and most of her socializing has been done at night or indoors especially since I work a 9-5. I don’t feel like she has as much experience with the sounds and sights of everyday interactions like bikes, cars, joggers/ runners, kids playing, other dogs just being walked or seeing people outside during the day as much in general. It’s been pretty quiet because most people have deemed it too cold to go outside now. I’ve noticed at night she doesn’t even look at cars or care but during the day she’s far more likely to try to run towards them and it worries me. We are working on her leash skills and focus heavily but the excitement seems to outweigh the training sometimes. Someone once said I should sit in my trunk in a parking lot and allow her to watch the world go by but I don’t really have a trunk (coupe life lol immense and growing regret with 2 German Shepards) please any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

Hello,

If you are reading this please help me thinking clearly about the situation I am in.

First off, this is my 1st exprience of owning a dog.

I brought a 2 month old CKCS back in May and he has been with me since then (he is now 9months). When I brought him it was supposed to be a shared responsiblity, however, my bf and I broke up and I ended keeping him. I am working fulltime and he is alone at home (he sleeps all the way) and when I go back I cook, go to the gym then at 9:30 pm I am free to play, pet him( sometimes i am really exhausted for that). But I think this is not enough and he deserves better owner.

Also, since this was supposed be shared responsibility now I have to pay everything for him and if you know cavalier health issues can end you up in big expenses, so with that said, I am really stressed out, idk what I should do. I know my anxiety has been really high these past weeks and I thinking of rehoming him ( I have a friend that loves to have him) but I am afraid to regret this forever and wonder what would have happened if I kept him.

On the note side, recently he doesnt let me sleep and wakes me up around 3-4 AM every night, my body is giving up. Most of the time at my office I am really tired or somedays, I have no energy for gym.

Please dont come after and tell why did you bring if you know your schedule, I know, I loved to have him and the time I brought him in my life, my life wasnt like now.

So please help me think this through, I wanna hear people’s opinion who did rehome and how the felt afterwards. Thanks.

We adopted our rescue lurcher about 1.5 months ago now and for the most part, she has been fantastic. However in the last couple of weeks she has started new annoying behaviours and is having super bad reactions when we tell her to stop. She continually tries to chew our brick wall, for example, which is something she never used to do. I think it is attention seeking behaviour. Once I tell her “leave it” (which is a command she knows well and will do easily for treats), she sometimes stops but other times chooses to ignore. The we make an “ah ah” noise or say “no” and sometimes this works, but other times she will throw a full tantrum. She will bark, show teeth, snarl and bite. Literally her whole face changes and she looks like a little monster.

This used to happen sometimes when she was overtired, but now it seems to be more frequent and more extreme regardless of how much sleep she gets. It’s always when we try and stop her doing something she wants or when she wants attention from one of us.

I don’t think that lack of stimulation is an issue. Today I have taken her on a 45 min walk to the park, played with her 2/3 times, done some short training sessions with her, fetch and another 10 min sniff around the nearby field on the long lead. I also make sure to “wind down” from playtime by saying “all done” and giving her something to chew. And still she has barked/got bitey with me numerous times because I won’t let her eat things she shouldn’t or destroy my plants!

I have read that the best thing to do is ignore and walk out the room. I have been doing this consistently and try and not give her a huge reaction when she is behaving like this. If she does 2 or 3 tantrums in a row at me after the reverse time-outs I put her in the crate for a few minutes to calm down. It seems to work but I don’t want to constantly be putting her in there and give her a negative association with it.

I’m wondering if anyone has any advice. Is this the beginnings of adolescence and totally normal or is there something wrong? And if it is adolescence please please tell me it gets better lol

Looking for some fun games I can have my puppy work on. I read online that mind/stiffing games are important to not over excerise them but also make sure they aren’t bored. Preferably inside but outside too. I live in an area with pretty intense winters so I’d prefer inside.

For context, she’s a 15 week old American cocker spaniel puppy. She has a frozen Kong I’ll whip up on occasion. And only recently she was given a bully stick as an aid for her crate training. Any other good chewables? Someone told me beef kneecap?

Our apartment is moderately sized with a large partially fenced yard.

Thanks in advance!

I'm reaching my breaking point and need tips to reclaim some of my time! We've had our 4.5 month old dachshund for about 7 weeks now. I work from home and have not had a productive work day since bringing the puppy home and it's getting to become an issue. I get 1-2 hrs in at a time while he naps but otherwise when he's awake he is fully hands on which means I'm taking several 1-1.5hr breaks during the work day. How does anyone do this??

Our current set up: crate in my office for naps, hallway gated off for more controlled playing, only gets free roam down stairs when just peed and fully supervised, wire pen in living room that he pushes around all over the house.

If I try to let him chill freely in my office he is only interested in eating things he can't. The only things I could occupy him with would be a kong or chew which feel like would be too much to be giving him multiple times a day (plus are good for maybe 20 min). If I left him in the hallway outside my office (assuming he doesnt just cry and scratch at the door) he doesn't do much except eat the wooden gate. When I've brought the pen into my office he just pushes it around and barks actively trying to get out the whole time.

Any suggestions??? Trying to be sure I provide him all the things he needs to be a good dog (training, playing, exercise, enrichment) but really need more time to dedicate to my work. Is it just hopeless to assume I'd get any time to work while he's still a puppy?

Hello! I have an 6 to 7 month old puppy who is really smart, and, as he grew older I he became more and more needdy when we're outside with him. It becomes harder and harder to do stuff outside because all he wants is attention, and when we're not playing with him, he starts to bite our pants or t-shirts, he ripped my BF's bag today and once it even hurted me when he accidentally missed the t-shirt and bit my skin. We give him some fetch time and sometimes tug of war in the afternoon, he has some chew toys (distroyed 3 noisy ones, had a cow femour, and is having a hull), his favorite toy was a plastic plant pot. I do think we're doing well with his mental excercise with training but I admit I'm not happy about how he's fisically excercising, he's still not fully vaccinated so we don't walk him yet, and our yard is big enouth but is concrete, so during the day he mostly lay down (multiple people say he only sleeps) and we're working to move to a place with grass and more shadowy spaces for him. (When we moved to here it was winter -no snow- so the concrete wasn't hot at all, I didnt think about how it would change in summer -it is Summer here) I wanna know tips to make him happy during sunny time and also more stuff that could make him entretained when he's alone or some perspective about him becoming so needdy (if it happened with your puppy and it was bad enrichment or something eles)

Please help me 😭

We have a 12 week old sprocker (I think) and for the first few weeks we had him, he was an absolute dream. Occasional wees in his sleep, or if we missed them – but that is very much our fault.

THIS WEEK!? I don’t know what’s got into him! He’s being crate trained and is in his crate over night, for forced naps, and just generally if we leave for a short while. He has his blankets and bed, and below this is puppy pads (has been the same since the day we picked him up)

TELL ME WHY he’s started ripping the puppy pads APART.

But the real issue? He won’t poo outside anymore? Literally just woke up the other day refusing, runs around the garden as he normally would, might even squat, but then no, refusal. He then proceeds to shit, in the cage, then rip up the puppy pad that he’s pood on.

I’m losing my mind – pls help