Category: Top Dog

We have a 10 week old Australian shepherd x Bernese mountain dog who got all of the Aussie energy.

We’ve been working so hard to keep her entertained, but not over tired her, allow her to heard with a ball only and not us, chew her chew toys and not our hands and everything but I’ve had a few tears and just don’t know what I’m doing wrong. She is great at the basic commands, sit, paw, go to your bed but it’s the nipping and sleep that’s killing me. She goes to bed fine but wakes up at 4am. This morning it was 3:30! She was up and wanting to play. She sleeps next to our bed we don’t lock her in a crate but even if we did she starts to bark when she’s done. I know I shouldn’t let her call the shots but we have neighbours I can’t let her cry it out at 3am. We do very quiet play and may be a frozen Kong, trying not to engage with her too much at this time so as not to reinforce it but she’s done sleeping.

When she’s excited she bites our shirts, hands, feet, socks and long pants are especially exciting. We’ve been training “drop it” when somethings in her mouth but she will listen for one second then do it again. As soon as she does lock into our hands we use leave it or redirect her with the sit command which works and will give a treat. Is she playing us and has associated bad behaviour = correction = treat? I try to praise as much as I can when she’s doing the right thing. The other thing is she will bark and try and jump up when we are sitting on the couch. Again, we do “in your bed” then treats every 30/40 seconds she’s laying there but then is back at it again.

Loosing my mind a bit with the so little sleep and my hands are in shreds. She’s good during the day, will sleep 9-11 when I work then again 1-4 again. Is she sleeping too much during the day? Do I need to push bedtime which is 9pm?

I just adopted a 4 month old German shepherd mix on Saturday and her previous foster mom let me know that she was crate trained and sleeps through the night without a problem in her crate. I wanted to keep the crate routine for bedtime (my fiancé and I doesn’t necessarily want her in the bed). I decided to put a crate in the living room and a crate in our bedroom, but for her first two nights she was scared to go upstairs (lived in an apartment, not used to stairs) so I didn’t force it and I let her sleep in the crate in the living room and I slept on the couch next to her for her first night. For her second night, again afraid to use the stairs, she slept in the living room crate but this time I slept in our room and she still did great, went right to sleep no whining or crying. Tonight is the third night and she was doing the stairs all day, so I decided to put her in the bedroom crate to sleep, but she barked and barked until I let her out. She ran right downstairs and into her living room crate and is now laying down and sleeping. My question is, is it normal/okay for her to sleep in the living room by herself? Is it because she is still getting used to the new home/me? I feel bad leaving her down there, but she seems content.

My parents and I adopted a puppy from our local shelter this January, when she was just old enough to no longer require bottle feeding and the like. We weren't entirely sure of her breed, but based on our own guesses and those of the shelter's, we worked off of the assumption that she was a 50/50 mix of English Staffy and French Bulldog (which turned out to be 100% correct upon one of her siblings being DNA tested!) We were absolutely certain and prepared for a high-energy, playful puppy, and all the potential difficulties and obstacles that would undoubtedly come our way.

Up until now, she's been great. Easy enough to train commands, though not quite as easy to enforce them (she's very easily distracted.) Potty training was a bit difficult, as we could hardly predict when she was going to pop a squat and let loose until it was too late, but we mostly got there eventually.

Now, though, she's just turned one, had her first period some months ago (early September-ish if memory serves,) and I feel as if she's regressed an unprecedented amount. Granted, we were quite suddenly given an eviction notice by our landlords, and were caught off-guard, meaning we were too busy to give her quite as much attention as she needed for a couple of months. She is also having to get used to an apartment, obviously without a back garden, at such an inopportune time.

All this, I feel, has accumulated to this period of regression, or acting out (unsure of what the proper term would be in this case.) I have tried my best to correct her behaviours, teaching her a "no bite" command, as she started to get mouthy again for the first time since early puppyhood- the problem is, she only listens when I give the command, and only for a short period, before returning to nipping at myself or my parents' ankles, toes, pants, shoelaces, etc. She also no longer gives us warnings that she needs to go potty, simply walking to the front door and doing her business there. The most draining part for my family and I has been this surge of energy that just never seems to end.

As I said, we were prepared for a very high-energy dog, ready for playfulness, for obstinance, but this is borderline concerning. I myself am in college at the moment, and so don't often have the time to take her on walks, but my parents do it in my stead, often giving her at least one good walk a day, approximately 45 minutes to an hour, around the local ponds, fields, hills, parks, etc. in an attempt to tire her out. What happens when she gets home, though? Immediate zoomies. Then, for all the remaining hours of the day, all she wants to do is play fetch. Genuinely, my parents and I will sit and throw a ball back and forth for her for literal hours, occasionally taking breaks to play with other toys, play tug-of-war, etc. to keep it stimulating, but her energy just. never. ends.

It's gotten to the point where, if you don't play with her for even a few seconds, she'll roll her ball under the couch or drop it behind something so it's stuck, then cry and yap at you to get it for her. Then she'll start getting mouthy. We had her trained to enjoy and relax within her crate before moving, but now when we get her to go into it for a break or a nap, she refuses because she just wants to keep playing. And if we get her into the crate, she'll just cry and yip endlessly. This only seems to be getting worse each day, and it's draining all of us.

I'm honestly concerned, now. I realise she's a puppy, and once she's had her second period, we are going to be spaying her, which hopefully means she'll calm down a bit, and might be more receptive to training and schedules then. I'm just worried- what if, even after the spaying procedure, she can't relax? What if she keeps trying to play, to run, and rips open her stitches? What if she never moves on from this phase of overactivity, reactivity, and disobedience? I feel like we've tried everything, short of hiring a professional trainer, which is simply not something we can afford as all the ones in our area charge €500+ per session (understandable, but oof.)

So, please, any advice would be a lifesaver. I love this dog, and when she's calm, she's the sweetest, funniest, goofiest little hippo you ever did see, with the warmest belly and the widest smile. Even when she's playful and a bit wild, she's the cutest, and makes us all laugh on a daily basis. But it gets to a point. I feel like I'm failing her, and I don't know how to fix it.

I feel like almost every one of us has struggled at some point with our puppies in different ways. Mine was excellent from the beginning with everything inside the house including never having a potty accident!! The only thing he started doing at around 6 months old is barking at noises in the hallway outside my apartment but is now 99% resolve except for the occasional silent bark.

The biggest struggle was loose lead waking which has been almost perfect for the last week, fingers crossed it continues this way. This has been very stressful as he is getting big and strong!! I still have to guide him how to walk but getting there.

The mainly struggle now is that when I let people pet him he goes ballistic and out of control with excitement(I couldn’t control him last time) I can avoid this by not letting people get close and then he acts neutral(thankfully).

He still gets excited when he sees other dogs but still follows my commands although I have to repeat myself a few times. He does ignore me in the potty area of my apartment building though, he goes crazy there I think due to proximity to many dogs. The last thing is that he barks for about a minute every time I leave but then settles down nicely.

I’m still very happy with where we are but he is still very young so I know I’m not in the clear.

How do you think we are doing? This is my first dog ever.

And how are you doing with your training? What are your struggles and wins right now and how old is your puppy?

I feel like is all about patience, consistency and love for our beautiful little monsters 🙂

I’m getting a 9-week old Dachshund puppy at the end of the month and I’m SO excited, however I feel like every post on here is about how incredibly difficult and horrible the training process is.

I know it won’t be easy, but does anyone have any positive experiences training their puppy? I’m wanting to crate train mine and specifically have seen just how awful that was for most people.

I’m also SO scared about getting puppy blues which seams to be inevitable….

Hello. I am in a pickle. Many years ago, my wife decided to add people food on top of my dogs’ dry food. Since then, they will never eat dry food alone. Now, my dogs are getting a bit older, but still picky. However, I believe the people food isn’t sitting well any longer…is there any hope to my dogs eating dry food alone??? And is there any reason to add wet food toppers in lieu of the people food?? Help! My wife is a little blinded by the dogs puppy eyes!

Hi! We have an 11 week old cavapoo, she’s mostly gotten potty training down but has been having quite a few accidents still. My husband works from home and takes her out every hour or so, we have also incorporated treats hoping it’ll encourage her more (now she just fake pee’s to get a treat, lol) does anyone have any advice on speeding up the potty training? She only is in her crate at night, and during the day when she’s not playing with us she’s in a play pen. Thanks!

Hi all! My partner and I recently brought home a 5-month-old American Cocker Spaniel puppy. She is super sweet, adorable, and loving, but we noticed that she is scared of a lot of things! She will bark at objects (TV, book, remote, box), and when we have had someone over to visit, she would not stop barking at them. We tried a slow introduction to the person with her kibble (which she prefers to treats), but it wasn't very effective. She is overall a very cautious and fearful puppy.

I can tell she has separation anxiety already, as she whines when we leave her in the playpen. Just this morning I watched her jump out of her playpen when I left our place. Before, she was ok with being alone and sleeping in her playpen when we were gone, but since Saturday, when we visited my parents, she has been extra clingy. Not sure if she was just very scared and is now worried about being alone.

We were told she got socialization when she was younger, but now we aren't too sure because of her anxiety/fearfulness. We don't know how to approach her training from here besides continuing to practice short periods of alone time and slow introductions. Is this part of her fear stage? Any recommendations?

What are some different types of edible chews you’d recommend for a 3 month old puppy. Our mini Aussie is a major land shark and giving him a chew to settle down after playtime seems to have helped a ton (at least kept us from getting bitten as much lol). Bully sticks worked for while but he seems to have lost interest in them after a week or so. I also got “yak chews” but he doesn’t seem very interested in them and they seem too hard.

Any other types of chews you all would recommend or have had success with?

Thanks!!!