We have a little 5 month old puppy. Both my partner and I work full-time jobs, I am WFH two days a week.

We started sending her to doggy daycare so she could learn some socialization skills and so she is not alone all day.

She absolutely LOVES doggy daycare. Tons of friends to play with, when she gets home she's tuckered out but not completely drained of energy (she's some sort of Chihuahua/American Spitz/Husky mix). She has also learned how to play with other dogs and learned when other dogs don't want to play and leave them alone (which is a HUGE positive given my family has a lot of senior dogs that she'll be around).

She's been going for a couple weeks and now she runs to the car every morning super excited to go to daycare. Originally the plan was to only take her the 3 days none of us are home, and then she'd be at home all day with us on my WFH days and weekends, but she seems to want to go every day.

Is there a point where it's too much doggy daycare? On the weekends we try to spend as much time playing with her and running around in the yard, but we can never seem to match the amount of energy she is able to expend at doggy daycare!

I bought a well reviewed snuffle mat with lots of fabric loops but expected it to have pockets where I could hide the treats. I'm not seeing any pockets; is there a trick to using these? Without pockets, my puppy could send all the treats flying with one head shake.

Looking for advice for my 7 month old cocker spaniel. When I work from home and sit up in my office room she relentlessly whines and howls. After her morning or lunchtime walk I might get an hour of quiet but then it starts up again, particularly if she hears me talking on calls. Unfortunately it's not an option to just let her work in the same room as me as she will just bite my feet/tug at my clothes for attention, because she wants me to play with her. Despite our best efforts for months, she is still pretty mouthy, it's her default when she wants to play. She isn't mouthy when she wants to just sit for a cuddle in the sofa in the evenings or if she's just walking round the house following you, it's only when she's in play mode (which is still quite a lot of the time!). When my husband works from home she does some occasional whining for attention but nowhere near as bad – I think it's because in general I am "her person". He says I just need to ignore it but we live in terraced housing and I don't feel it's fair on our neighbours to let her whine and bark for hours on end.

Any advice is welcomed!! We want to avoid giving her too many unhealthy chews to keep her quiet as she's already slightly overweight (we are working on this) so on a diet. My dream would be able to get her to the point where she can independently play quietly either in the room with me or another part of the house.

FYI: As a rule she whines if left alone in another part of the house but strangely doesn't at all if she knows she is home alone entirely. When home alone she is quiet, calm and mostly sleeps.

It's Wednesday!

Welcome to our new Wednesday Wins post. Someone mentioned wanting a day where we can focus on the positive aspects of puppyhood. So let's get it done!

Share a win that you and your puppy had this past week! Learned a new skill? Overcame a challenge?

If you're new and just starting, set a goal!