Category: Top Dog

I have a three month old male border collie/kelpie cross puppy, and sometimes he’ll bark in his crate, but he doesn’t want anything? I open the crate and offer food, toys, outside time, a potty break, etc. but he just stays in his crate, then when I try to close it and walk away he starts to bark again?

I don’t know what the cause could be. Judging by his behaviour, he’s not hungry or bored or lonely or in need of the bathroom. What could it be? Might it be a breed trait? I know that kelpies are very very barky dogs, and that’s good for me, I like a dog that barks and can let me know when it needs something, but it’s been confusing lately since my boy has started randomly barking and seemingly not wanting anything.

Any of you had this problem? If so, did you figure out what it was?

Puppy is 8 weeks, just come home with us. Tried crate training the first few nights and she has just screamed her head off- she’s waking us all up (including my toddler) – I’m writing this at 5.45am and we are all awake because she was screaming so much.

I work until 11pm so get home about 11.30pm. She woke up when I got home, so I took her outside and then tried putting her back in her crate so I could go to bed and she went ballistic, and woke everyone up. I have a crate upstairs too next to the bed so we tried her in there but it was worse – even with my hand on her and shushing her, she just screamed.

Anyway, long story short, as I am sure you know where this is going, I let her into the bed. She slept through till 5.30am and then my husband took her out when he was getting ready for work. She was just burrowed into me but was a bit excited when she got up..

With working nights, a toddler being woken up – I don’t want to mess this up but I can’t be awake all night with her howling 🫠😩 but have I messed this all up?

Since my last post and the helpful advice we got on here there's been a big momentum shift around bedtime. It's still not perfect but between the advice and getting a larger crate bedtime has been becoming easier so we're back for some more guidance.

Our puppy has just crested the 6 month mark and we're struggling with biting. For much of the day she's decently good but in three scenarios she turns into a little shark. 1) When coming back from a walk upon removing her harness. 2) While playing fetch in the backyard for more than a handful of throws. 3) Around dinner time both before or after eating typically after having been relaxed for a while.

Her biting doesn't seem to be particularly aggressively motivated, and more a reaction to being excited or seemingly coming out of nowhere, but there seems to be little we can do to get her to stop. We've tried: redirecting by scattering treats (even with our highest value treats this doesn't get her to stop as she's not food motivated at all), yelping/yelling/making a loud noise (seems to make her more excited to bite), reverse time outs (upon returning she'll typically go straight back to biting), and redirecting with common commands she knows very well like Sit/Down/Place (she may listen but then immediately goes back to biting)

Sometime we can get her to calm down by enforcing a crate nap (which works well when we know she's tired or has been awake for a while prior to biting) but other times she'll have woken up from a long nap maybe 30 minutes prior to a biting spell. Throughout the day she gets an abundance of things to keep her stimulated (Puzzles, Kongs, Pupsicles, frozen washcloths, plush toys, squeaky toys, single protein chews) but after 6pm they may as well not exist. She gets 3 walks a day ranging between 15 and 45 minutes in length (typically one short one in the morning, a long/medium one in the afternoon, and then a long/medium one in the evening) and we sprinkle in training throughout the day in 10~15 minute chunks to make sure she gets both mental and physical stimulation.

Hello all, I am asking for any information/advice/tips anyone has to offer as I am ready to make the next step and get a dog I am 22m, work 7p-7a 3x a week, previous cat ownership experience. My heart is set on a golden retriever puppy. I know it will be a difficult journey but I believe it will be rewarding. As someone once told me “there will never be a perfect time” I’m really welcoming any and all input anyone has to offer

I have a 1 year old boxer and live in an apartment so I typically take my dog out to use the bathroom in the front yard. He’s leashed and I always watch for people/dogs because sometimes he can be dog reactive.

While I watch my surroundings I’ve noticed people tend to stare at him a lot. I don’t know if this is because people like dogs and think he’s cute. But it’s starting to make me uncomfortable. Today I had a car circle my house twice watching him both times.

Does this happen to other dog owners?

I wanted to wait for my dog to mature. It’s time. He’s never had to stay at the vet long or without us, but they’re keeping him from 7am through 3pm. Is there anything I can do to help him prepare or will he just have to endure?

He is crate trained at our house and likes going to the vet, but he doesn’t like being without us at the vet and is not the most cooperative with them (so they never take him to the back without us and do everything on the table with us present and facilitating). I’m not sure how he’d take to their crates.

We’ll have him on some trazodone – 50mg the night before and 50mg the morning of.

My now 13 week old puppy came home to me a little over a month ago crate trained and sleeping through the night at 8ish weeks! Unfortunately last week we had an upset tummy and were up a bunch during the night, and now that we’re feeling better bedtime is a little bit more of a challenge.

Before the upset belly she would start to wind down around 8 or so, snuggle with me for a couple hours, do some light play around 10 (mostly just sniffing around the kitchen she’s penned in or some nylabone chewing), out to potty one last time, snuggle for a minute or two, then crate at 11 with a white noise machine and 3 sides covered. She has a snuggle puppy and two blankets in her crate (her mother one sent from the breeder and another one that smells like me).

Now, we start the night off the same – but when we come in from the last potty all bets are off 😅 she comes in from last potty wiggly and excited, pulls snuggle puppy out of her crate to play, pulls one or both blankets out of her crate to play, sprints around listening to the noise of other people in my house walking around upstairs, barks at her reflection in the window. After about a half hour of this (and me not engaging/just sitting by the crate) she’ll finally come and start to settle in my lap, and then by 11:45 or so she’s calm enough to be put in her crate without fuss.

Luckily once she goes down she sleeps through the night (crossing my fingers as I type this that I don’t jinx myself for tonight 🤞) – but my thoughts are: – I know she’s probably overtired and people might say just put her straight in the crate, but she’s been so good in there I hate to put her in and close the door when she’s THAT wild and cause a negative association. But maybe I should? – Has she outgrown the snuggle puppy and does she not want it in her crate? It’s tough because she always eventually snuggles up against it and uses it as a pillow, but anytime she comes out of the crate and it’s been in there with her she immediately pulls it out to play. I mostly hide it during the day because it’s expensive and she has plenty of other cheaper toys 😅

Anyone else experience this or have any ideas to get bedtime back to a more peaceful routine? I worry that the more this happens the more she’ll associate last potty with wild play 😅

Help… my six month old micro bernedoodle is regressing. She was doing so well. I removed the rugs in the house, really focused on potty training and she’s rarely had accidents at all for a month. We also traveled for the holidays and she didn’t have any accidents in the home where we were staying for a week. And they have rugs.

We got home and I decided to bring back the living room rug (after it’s been thoroughly washed / natures miracle was used after accidents) she decided to start peeing on it again. She also started peeing on the couch cover. I don’t know what to do… I need to have a rug in this room. How do I get her to understand that this rug is not her potty spot without getting rid of it? Same wit the couch cover… what do I do?