Category: Top Dog

Does anyone have suggestions for large adaptable pens for climbers? I have most of my living room inside an adjustable dog pen for my 4 month old havenese mix so she can play but also spend time with us. Unfortunately she’s learned how to scale the sides to climb out.

Hello everybody!

About a week and a half ago I've gotten my first puppy. A Bernese mountain puppy who is gonna be 11 weeks on Wednesday. He is a really fluffy lovely ball but I feel like I'm doing something wrong and I'm guessing it has to do with his schedule or rather lack there off.

I tried to be rather flexible and accommodate him, play when he wants to play, go outside often for potty, sniffing, exploring etc. Except for food, he has food at 8AM, 2PM and 8PM. Most of the time he doesn't eat it all but since he is still getting used to me and most importantly still consistently putting on weight I'm not that worried.

Anyway, here is our "schedule" as of right now:

We normally will wake up at 7, go in the yard for potty break, have breakfast and then try to have a sleeping phase after some light play or chewing. He then sleeps, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for 3. Again, go potty, some light play and trying to capture calmness around the apartment (I watched a Kikopup video on this since he was always so overstimulated and started biting my legs, started humping me etc. But again, pretty sure this was mostly due to over tiredness, that has gotten better. Although it still is a bit of a problem.) Then try to sleep again or have him calm down, sometimes works sometimes doesn't. Gets food around 2PM, try to nap after food. A lot of times I will take a nap with him in the afternoon for about 2h again.
It's just the same process all over again, rinse and repeat. I think he is not getting enough training, although Kikopup has said the calmness should be trained first, if needed, for around 5 days but I feel like a proper schedule is what he needs especially comparing him to other puppies around his age. He doesn't really know any tricks, no sit, not down, no recall. Pretty sure he doesn't really know his name either, I really have just been focusing on redirecting play to appropriate stuff, trying to teach him not to jump on people and obviously socializing.

I was hoping to get a few other opinions on my schedule that I have planned for the future:
FYI: Training means, short sessions 2-3 Minutes, working on a sit, the Name Game (Kikopup) and a touch and play means all sorts of things, something to chew, playing together, him playing alone, lick mats, kongs and what not
7AM Wake up, Potty, Training, Play
730AM Short rest
8AM Breakfast, Potty
830AM Nap
10AM Potty, Training, Play
1030AM Nap
1200PM (I'm not sure whether AM or PM is right, i always mix this up lol) Potty, Training, Play
1230PM Nap
2PM Lunch, Potty
230PM Nap
4PM Potty, Training, Play
430PM Nap
7PM Potty, Training, Play
730PM Short rest
8PM Dinner, Potty
830 PM Short rest
9PM Potty, Training, Play
930PM Sleep

It comes around at ~4,5h awake which I've read is suited for him, obviously this schedule is also just a dream schedule, sometimes he will sleep longer or play longer, I will keep being flexible but this is what I'm aiming for at least.

What's your guys opinion on this? Sorry for the long post, its my first post ever on reddit lol.

I have a 9–10 week-old male Cavapoo and I’m honestly at my breaking point with the biting. I’m trying so hard and I feel like nothing is working.

I’m not someone who buys a puppy and ignores their needs — he has LOTS of teething and enrichment items: – frozen carrots – frozen Kong stuffed with peanut butter – rubber toys – balls – a “bone-like” treat he can chew for a long time – frozen wet cloth (he refuses it) – treats and puppy chews etc..

He STILL prefers to bite me over anything else.

When he’s in his crate, he looks sweet, calm, and whines like he wants cuddles. But as soon as I take him out, he immediately starts biting my hands, my legs, my feet — even when he comes close to “kiss” me, he follows it with a bite. His teeth are razor sharp and it really hurts.

I can’t even play with him because he bites too hard. If he’s on the couch, he bites my hands. If he’s on the floor, he goes after my feet.

I got this puppy partly because I struggle with mental health and depression, and I wanted a companion. But right now I feel overwhelmed, guilty, and honestly hopeless.

I’m asking for advice from people who have gone through this. Is this normal? Will it get better? Is there something I’m doing wrong even though I’m giving him toys, enrichment, play, naps, and crate time?

I want to do things right, but it feels impossible right now.

We have a 3 year old bernadoodle who we crated when he was a puppy. Can I re use that or should I get a new one? I've heard about the puppy potentially smelling the other dog and becoming restless. Would I be safer to just get a new one?

my puppy (toy maltipoo) has always been pretty picky with his food, but once i started adding a bit of wet food to his kibble he would eat it. recently, he’s been either skipping breakfast or lunch and i’m wondering if it’s time for him to switch to 2 meals a day? i know it says usually around 6 months but he’s really not eating the 3 meals. thanks

Edit: first time puppy owner, I had another dog but she was very low energy

Hi Reddit, this is about my families new dog Sadie who is a shepherd mix. She’s almost six months. She loves to nip and play tug of war with my pants and has ripped holes in quite a few already. I’m just wondering how you people curve biting with puppies. This is what she does:

• when excited she’ll run up to me with a toy, drop it once or twice, then bite and grab my pant-leg with like NO time for me to react and pick up her toy to throw it. When I try to push her away from me (gently) she gets more excited and bites/pulls on me harder.
• I will be playing tug-of-war with her, or holding her toy while she bites it and sometimes she’ll stop biting it and redirect on my pant-leg. She’s not trying to bite my skin but she still does cuz she’s got sharp little piranha teeth!
• When I try to pet her she sometimes mouths my hand or my arm. I’m guessing she does this because she doesn’t want me to pet her but how do I specifically get her to not mouth me to show that?
• If I try to kiss her face, or have my face close to hers she’ll lunge forward and half nip half lick my face. I DO NOT want her to make contact or cause facial injuries. Do I just not put my face near hers or is there anyway I can curve this behaviour, my family likes getting face licks lol.
• Sometimes she’ll come up and grab my pant leg or shirt or coat and pull it while growling. I end up just grabbing the item right where it goes into her mouth and pulling/sternly telling her to stop until she lets go. I don’t want to encourage her to tug of war with my pants, and I worry that me just pulling my clothes out of her mouth is giving that engagement and encouragement to her.
• she’ll mouth my hands while I put on her harness, or if I try and grab her collar to lead her somewhere. Idk if there’s anything I can do about this, it’s just a bit frustrating lol.

We sometimes crate her if she’s biting my leg too much or trying to get our dinner, but otherwise I don’t want to rely on crating as a punishment because that is her safe-place and where she sleeps.

So far I try to redirect her with toys(she has multiple teething toys, and bones and stuffies), loudly say “no”, say “ow”(tbh it gets her crazier), push her away, or just walk away and ignore her then re-engage in a minute. Sometimes walking away works but other times she’ll chase me and grab my pant-leg anyways. How do I stop her from continuing once I disengage?

I want to play with her, but I don’t want to encourage her biting me, playing tug of war with my clothes, or jumping up. I’m not sure how to play with her without encouraging that but also without ending play prematurely when she gets too excited.

My family has one of those horns that just makes a hissing air noise. I don’t really want to use that on Sadie but it got my cousins dog to stop some of his antics so idk. I don’t wanna scare her.

I also recognize that 99% if not all of this is normal puppy behaviour. I just really don’t want her doing this as an adult so I wanna curve it now when she’s young.

I have a 10 week old toy poodle who I just bought home. She won’t potty or eat. When I hold her up to my chest, she calms down and stops shaking. I can tell she’s overwhelmed and anxious.

I tried to get her to potty/eat for almost an hour then I put her in her crate. She’s falling asleep now and has been quiet for almost 10 minutes lol (longest so far).

Should I let her sleep and when wakes up, try to get her to potty again?

She couldn’t care less about treats too. I tried using that but it doesn’t work.

HELLPPPP

I rescued my girl at 8 weeks but her and her littermates were found in a box on the side of the road at just 2 weeks old. It has me wondering if and what long term effects it could have on my girl. She’s 4 months old now. She’s very confident but non aggressively possessive of water and food and anything she reaaaallly likes (including me).