Category: Top Dog

I’m getting a 12 week old puppy soon and the breeder said she’s sleeping mostly through the night, from 11pm to 4am. I’m seeing that the crate should best be kept not in the bedroom, but I’m also a deep sleeper so I’m worried I won’t be able to hear the puppy whining if she needs to pee. Is it really that detrimental to keep the crate in the bedroom?

Please help me. My puppy, Ginger, is 4 month old and the sweetest munchkin. The only problem is that absolutely destroys puppy pads if they are left in the crate with her. She will eat the pad tear it to pieces so I now give her old bed sheets to go potty on in the crate and she doesn’t tear those up. The only issue is that over night, ends up laying in her filth.

Is there a fix for this or do I just have to get used to her smelling like pee?

Mine is bored with a few that she has and would rather chew on cords and shoes😭

TLDR: Aggressive puppy toward other dogs and husband and don’t know what to do.

We have a new 6 month old Jack Russel mix. We’ve had him for almost a month. First two weeks were fine. Most recent two weeks he has started being extremely aggressive/reactive towards other dogs both on and off leash. He is also showing aggression to my husband and has tried to bite him twice when my husband tries to handle him. He has also growled at me once. Also – he is not a small Jack Russel. He is 30 pounds so when he is really worked up it is a lot to handle. I am very worried and do not trust him around anyone except for me and my husband. I don’t want to introduce him to anyone or even let maintenance men into my house as I fear he will bite.

We are both regretting getting him ): the shelter said he was super friendly so we were so excited. We would not have adopted a reactive dog since we have nieces and nephews and wanted a family dog.

I’m looking at trainers around my area but am struggling with the right route to take. Lots of trainers use ecollars and swear by them. Then I see other trainers completely disavow the use of them. I feel stuck but I just want to help our pup live his best life. Anyone deal with something similar or have any tips to share?

Thank you!

This is a vent but at the same time a vent with questions. We gave our 9 week old puppy back to the breeder after I realized I wasn’t ready in the ways I thought. We had her for a week, not long at all. My husband made the executive decision as he knew I wasn’t able to. I’m not angry with him, but I almost wish I stopped him. I connected to her fast and so did my youngest son. I’m a mom to two boys, and a student myself in college, but I thought for sure I could make it all work. I had very unexpected trauma come back in from my first childhood puppy.

The pup from my childhood was a black lab, energetic and strong. My mother received him as a gift and tried her best to make it work… training, patience, all of what you can guess my mother tried and I tried with her. One evening, he broke off the leash (again he was very strong), was hit by a vehicle and died in front of me in our home. That trauma is old. I’m in my 30s and that happened when I was about 10 years old. But I learned through this experience that, that trauma was not handled as I thought it was.

In the course of 2 days that trauma that came as a flashback when my son accidentally dropped the puppies leash absolutely destroyed me. I tried to rationalize and cope but it just wasn’t working. I stopped functioning… full stop, stopped functioning. I’m still struggling to function. I feel awful, I lost 6 pounds in two days from not eating, I’m still struggling to eat. It’s not just because of the trauma but because I really saw myself and my children growing up with this pup and the most unexpected trauma from over two decades ago came through and hit me like a brick. I was terrified that if I kept the puppy that she would have the same fate as my childhood dog did. Her personality wasn’t the same. What was the same was the proximity to my mothers home, my sons age, and where he goes to school… all were the same. I feel as though I’ve failed, and maybe I should feel that way? I’m not even sure. What I do know is that, I am putting myself into therapy to revisit this trauma to ensure it is taken care of. Sure, puppy blues played a part no doubt, but the biggest thing is the trauma. I can’t help but ask myself if we did the right thing by giving her back? I’m also asking myself am I just not meant to have a dog? I know this all will pass. It’s just hard in the now because less than 24 hours ago I had a puppy in my home, and now, I don’t. I loved the dog, I just couldn’t see beyond the unexpected dark cloud that came in.

Thanks for listening to my tangent

My partner’s friend had a litter of puppies and they immediately wanted to jump in and get one..despite me asking for a puppy for what feels like forever.

But I stay at home, so I wanted to do research and choose the puppy myself since I would be the one doing all the majority of the work and staying with them practically 24/7 (like with our other 2 dogs – trained them myself) I have told that to my partner many times even when there was talk of getting one of those puppies from his friend’s litter. I told them NO.

They didn’t hear back from their friend for a bit, so we moved on and but his friend gave him the puppy as a surprise.

Now, I’m the one at home with him and have really bad puppy blues. I feel awful for having the puppy blues, because it’s not the puppy’s fault at all.. My partner wanted this breed since it’s rare, but I’m the one dealing with the majority of the care and training. This breed is also notorious for being stubborn and it’s unbelievably true, so that’s adding to the blues.

I told my partner this and they are just zoning on it just being my seasonal depression and it just seems like he wants to keep the puppy because of its breed..since that’s mostly what they talk about.

I just don’t know what to do anymore.

Sit, stay, door manners & potty on command

He's getting there! I've only had him for a week, but he is learning very fast. Only thing he's struggling with right now is being alone during parts of the day, but we're working on it!

Anyone have advice on how to encourage less anxiety/ stress when he's alone, without a crate?

TL;DR: 3-month-old Pom won’t use pee pads even when placed where he usually goes; barks to be let out instead. Not sure if I’m training this right or confusing him.

My Pom is 3 months old, and I take him out every 1–2 hours. When he’s roaming around the house, he’ll go to the door but ends up pottying on the floor without making any noise to alert me.

I put a pee pad next to the door since that’s where he tends to go, but he refuses to use it. I’m trying to get him used to pads because I’ll be moving into an apartment with a balcony, and I want him to have that option while still keeping his regular outdoor potty routine.

If I notice he’s about to go, I’ll put him in a pen where the pad is on one side and the other side is open. But instead of using the pad, he just barks to be let out. I’m not sure if I’m training this correctly.

Extra note: Yesterday he held it for so long that I moved the pen outside onto the deck, and he finally went—so I gave him a lot of praise and treats.

What is the best way to transition my dog from the crate to free roaming? At the moment he is in his crate throughout the day (while I’m working) and has a dog walker take him out for a while during the day. I feel that as he is getting older I need to start giving him some more freedom but not sure how to start the process as I don’t want to overwhelm him. I’m worried that if I let him free roam and he knows I’ve left the house he will bark/cry/scratch doors as he initially did this the first week he was crated (now super good in his crate and loves to settle there).

Any advice on how to start this transition?

We are fostering two 12 week old littermate puppies, however I’m going to foster fail with one and the other has a meet and greet on Saturday. I just don’t know how to make it to Saturday or even later if it doesn’t work with this family. I’m more than ready to go down to one puppy, and even then I have serious moments of doubt if this is even the right call, I think I’m just tired.

After reading more posts on this sub I think my main issue is they are over stimulated and tired. The little girl I want to keep is much more calm than her brother and she’ll lie down after playing to rest/nap but he just can’t settle and then it’s an endless cycle of over tired playing. Separating them leads to crying and howling from the little boy.

Crate training is surprisingly going well, they’re sharing one large crate which I know isn’t ideal but is hopefully temporary until little brother finds a home. They go in and out of the crate throughout the day and I’ve been trying to do scheduled naps in the crate but I haven’t quite gotten our routine down yet.

Potty training is ok… but with two it’s easy for one to distract the other when they’re outside. When that happens I bring them in to reset but that just means we have to go back out in 5-10mins. Taking one out at a time is difficult because again, little boy gets anxious when separated from sister and he cries/howls and sometimes nervous pees.

I just keep thinking about how much easier this would be if I only had one puppy to worry about and train, but I signed up for this and want to see this commitment through.

I think I’m just looking for support, and maybe some general tips.