Category: Top Dog

We adopted our puppy back in October at 12 weeks. He is now 7 months old and this is the basic account of how things have been going for other people to use however they please, lol. (Additional context, I work from home)

Potty Training: I would say he was successfully potty trained by end of December (~2 months of training). The first night we got him, we took him out every hour in our backyard to go to the bathroom. He did such a good job with minimal accidents inside. That was the basic idea in general, was to take him out every hour with increased space in between potty breaks as he got older. There was lots of praise when he went with tying the word “pee” and “poop” when he went so we could encourage him when walks started.

When he did have an accident, we never punished. We might accidentally yell “No” but it was hard to stop when you see that squat happen lol he would be taken out immediately to finish pottying. His last accident indoors was back in December and that was because he was sick. I’m sure we might have a couple more before he hits a year, but he can hold through the night and up to 4 hours during the day! He also signals to go out and we say “want to go outside?” before opening the door so he associates the phrase with it.

Socialization: We started with treats and a sling bag. We took him on walks before he was fully vaccinated and worked on acclimating him to different sights, sounds, and people and encouraging him with praise and treats when reacting the way we wanted. After full vaccination, he goes to a puppy daycare 1-2x per week (more on that later), we also introduced him to friends dogs who we trust. He is a happy rambunctious pup!

Training: We signed him up for a two week puppy training course at a local place, same place as the daycare. This was the best thing we invested money in. It was two weeks of intense training for him that covered sit, stay, climb, down, heel, and crate training. Just the basics. It gave us the foundation to work on everything else. He now knows sit, drop it, shake, spin, touch, down and wait, and we’re working on others. It’s been a struggle to find a treat he likes the most, but he is very very toy motivated! He has to work for us to throw the toy by going through his tricks.

Because he is so toy motivated, we worked a lot on drop it. He gets snappy sometimes with my partner (because I’m the main trainer), but for the most part we continue to make progress every month.

Crate Training/Enforced Naps: The training camp was the best thing that ever happened to us. Crate training was a game changer for him and us. From month 3-6, we did 1 hour up, 2-hours asleep. After the 6 month mark, I began to keep him out all day while I work (with the occasional nap during the day). I encourage calmness while I’m in meetings by feeding treats when he lays at my feet. He only goes into his crate at night and even takes himself (which I never thought would happen to us).

I’m working currently on leaving him out while we leave the house. Longest trip away has been 10 minutes lol otherwise he goes in his crate to wait for us to get home.

Challenges: He got sick with a respiratory infection right before Christmas which was terrifying and resulted in an ER visit, that was tough and set back a lot of our training and was tough to work from home while he needed help.

He then got sick with Giardia a month later, lol, it made me wish for the respiratory infection. So far we seem to have beat that. That resulted in a week-long deep cleaning regimen and the addition of probiotics and food topper (Bernie’s Perfect Poops). Fun note for that, to trick him into taking liquid medications I would give him water that the chicken was boiled in in the syringe throughout the day, so by the time he needed the meds, I would just switch it out and he took it easily!

(Also really recommend pet insurance because those ER visits are expense 😅)

Overall: The first three months were the most challenging. I really recommend working with a trainer or training class of some kind and having the budget already set-aside to do that before adopting a puppy, you just never know what might pop up or what you’ll struggle with because each puppy is different. We feel very lucky that he’s developed a calmer personality and does well with dogs and cats. It’s constant work, but we love our boy! (Now if he could just stop getting sick lol)

Happy to go into more detail on any section for anyone who needs it!

My dog (1.4year old Pomeranian) has been doing very good with potty training so far. We have a regular schedule of walks and he will consistently go outside on those walks. However he is prone to going inside if he isn’t within my sight, like for example, he will wander upstairs and relieve himself while I’m trying to work, often soon after a walk. I work from home and I’m able to give him a lot of attention but I do need to focus on work sometimes. I noticed I will find an accident after seeing him pacing and panting, which I could consider a potty cue, however, everything seems to stress him out so he is often panting and pacing for various reasons ( for example I am on the couch and he is not lol/ I’m eating food and he is not/ someone is outside) .

How should I go about redoing his potty training and how can I better get him to signal to me he needs to go? And do you have any recommendations for helping him feel more relaxed??

We went through Small dogs of RI website and they were fantastic! We picked up the dog three saturdays ago and he immediately became part of the family. My Wife is his Person and I am a close second with my Daughter at college in third. I am retired and my wife goes to work at 6 am, she feeds him and takes him out to poop while i am still in bed. With a treat he automatically goes in his crate and she leaves. he may whine a bit but usually not long. I get up at 7 and let him out of crate. So through out the course of the day he is constantly looking and waiting for her. He seems restless but sometimes sleeps. We are currently at the end of a deep freeze and 20" of snow remain on the ground. I have made some paths in the back yard obviously to go to the bathroom. I am totally not used to having a baby again and it hampers anything i want to do. I need to go out and snowblow more paths but im afraid to leave him in the house alone. I guess it will get better when the weather warms up but that will be awhile. I was a bit reluctant to get another dog because of the attention they need and now i am finding out, maybe im just housebound, but im waiting for wife to get home to take over so i can get a few things done outside now that its 35 degrees and not -10.

Just recently went through a separation so me and my 13 year old dog had to relocate to an apartment. At our old house he always stayed home and really never left and there was no problems leaving him at home, he didn’t care at all.

Now in our new apartment since it’s just us two and I already work 9 hours a day I’ve been taking him with me everywhere I go other than work. For the first week I didn’t leave him at home during the day, I’d take him to my ex to stay during the day and pick him up after work. Now he’s with me full time and he’s struggling when I leave in the AM. I’m wondering if me taking him along with me is doing more harm than good but I don’t want him alone all day and night obviously. Today I left him with treats and a chew that he likes. I also gave him some calming treats. He was laying down fine when I got home yesterday but leaving this morning he was bothered.

Any suggestions on making this easier on both of us? I’m really stressing out over this, there’s people living below us so I can’t be having him barking excessively.

Edit for added details.

I also have been taking him on morning and evening walks, something I really haven’t done much of before because we had a fenced yard. He’s actually doing shockingly good on the walks, he’s not pulling at all and most of the time there’s slack in his leash, something he’s never been great at.

Hey there community!

I have a senior schnauzer shell be 13 YO this April and she’s in good health go on walks twice a day, eats well, and have never had any issues besides growths in her chest, recently took her to the vet and she was like I have seen dogs in perfect health going downhill really quick and so that really stocked up on me and I want to know if you have had a schnauzer how long did your baby live? I know that there is not an actual answer to predict this but I just want to be prepared or understand what signs I should be aware of. TIA.

Any recs that are challenging enough to keep a puppy occupied for awhile?

our dog max, a rat terrier and almost 9 has been having confusing behavior. he's been refusing to get to the living room or dining room or kitchen through the entryway…it's been 2-3 days now, and if we pick him up he's fine, we checked nail problems, we even tried showing him nothing's wrong, what's wrong 😭

The prices are pretty good for slatmills on Temu. I’m trying to see if anyone has ever bought one from there and if it’s worth it.

We adopted a dog towards the beginning of January. She is very well-behaved, cute, and sweet and we are lucky to not have had any issues so far! However, it still kind of feels like we are keeping someone else's dog. I logically know it will take time for us all to really settle in, but I feel like a monster for not being completely in love with her yet. We lost our dog that we had for 13 years in 2025, and I'm trying not to unfairly compare that bond with the new pup.

This is probably just some adoption blues and the answer is more time, but if anyone out there has some encouragement, tips, or stories about building a bond with a new dog over time I think it could help assuage some of this guilt!

Hi all. Pretty basic question but for people who work full time, does your dog do better with daycare about twice a week or with a daily dog walker? I’m currently doing daycare twice a week and honestly I don’t know if it’s for her. I’m wondering if she’d be calmer and happier with a daily mid day walk.