Category: Top Dog

7.5 months, maltipoo, had her since she was 9 weeks, actively and dailyp0 working on engage/disengage, LAL, using tools to redirect also such as “find it”

More so looking to see other people’s experiences.

When I say she’s reacting it’s like full on barks and growling.

She’s reacting to a lot of different stuff right now, but ex:

1. People walking pass our house

2. Going on sniff walks and seeing people, dogs, large objects and sometimes cars but this has gotten lots better

3. Random noises throughout the house

kepler- our 4month old english springer spaniel puppy is absolutely crazy with his biting. he is starting to teethe so that is likely the cause but it is just absolutely manic and impossible to handle.

he launches, jumps and springs then just bites, harder and harder as he gets older. he is (supposed to be) recovering from surgery on his leg fracture so training, walking and stimulation is extremely limited and because of when the fracture happened he hasn’t really been out yet to begin with. he has plenty of toys including teething-specific ones, we give him carrots and a frozen cloth to chew etc and although he enjoys them it doesn’t change his behaviour or provide effective redirection. he will drop a toy in favour of going for a hand or an arm and will even sometimes try to bite both toy and arm at the same time.

we are trying everything we can do without risking re-injury. the little training we are hypothetically able to do we are unable to do because he has so much manic energy that makes him unable to focus on the instructions he is being given (for additional context the state is so extreme that he forgets to drink and needs to be prompted). we have no way for him to burn off his energy because of his leg and strict rest recovery plan but also no way to be able to train him unless he burns off his energy. even the mental enrichment games he can’t do without putting too much weight or movement on the injured leg.

i love him and we love him but we just have absolutely no idea what to do. redirection hasn’t been working, training is impossible without burning off energy first, he can’t burn off energy physical or mental because of his injury but we are also in pain from the biting and jumping. sometimes we have to give him the sedatives the vet gave us after his surgery but this isn’t a long term solution.

Hello everyone,

I have a 4.5 month old Mini American/Australian Shepherd who has been incredibly hard to potty train. I had made a post shortly after getting her for some advice and instantly started taking her outside. She gets taken out every 2-3 hours but is constantly having accidents, (we have on minimum 2 a day) she pees in her crate, on her bed, on our bed, and recently next to her water bowl normally where her food bowl goes in her playpen and right after peed a little more on her bed (for the second time). Yesterday, I had a job interview and took her potty before I left successfully and she still peed in her crate and as soon as I got home we went out again which was around 2 hours later…

We have always used an enzymatic cleaner to clean things up and right after this incident (peeing where she normally gets fed) I took her outside she peed more, and then coming in, I put her in her crate in another room to just clean up the mess that was made which took me about an hour, as soon as I placed her back in her playpen she peed while looking me dead in the eyes.. So like I am not sure what to do, it is to cold right now to stand outside with her for 30 minutes for both of us. We are also trying to work on potty bells which I totally get that’s gonna take some extensive time, but like she has no inclination to go outside despite being heavily praised and rewarded when she does. She gets very little freedom unless she’s being watched like a hawk and I am just not sure what to do.

What can I do to stop this and get her potty trained? we’ve been working on it for weeks now (like 2-3 maybe) and it seems like nothings gotten better, I am kinda losing it as well tbh like as much as my patience has increased I am getting pretty worn down and stressed… I feel like I’m probably not going to be able to return to work.

She’s also just incredibly anxious if she cannot directly look at me at all times, so she naps very infrequently bc I basically have to be a statue for her to fall asleep.. She will sleep in her crate at night no problem but if I try to put her in there during the day, all heck breaks loose and she freaks out pees in it and screams. She’s never been punished for anything and I’ve done a ton of positive reinforcement and we have a pretty strict schedule for her…

If anyone has any advice please help, I really need it. To add context as well, the home we got her from let the whole litter pee and poop all over the house.

**edit: sorry about the error in the title i am tired and stressed **

We’ve had our puppy for two weeks now. We brought him home at 9 weeks old and is 11 weeks now. He is a rescue who was brought up north at 6 weeks old, and stayed with a foster family for 3 weeks. He is thought to be a basset or spaniel mix of some kind but nobody knows. He has taken potty training reasonably well, rings his bells to go out, and knows how to sit. We got him a crate because the foster family said he liked his. They didn’t lock him in it, and we don’t.

We both work during the day but my fiance stops home on lunch for an hour to feed and take out. He isn’t home alone more than 3.5 hours during the week.

Since the night we brought him home he has relentlessly bitten everything he can that’s attached to a person and more. Biting pants and feet when walking, hands every single chance he gets, lunging at faces, stalking and attacking feet and legs. Pretty much anyway you can phrase it he has bitten us everywhere, all the time.

Things we’ve been consistently trying since day 1:

– Ignoring him (rarely possible, he just bites more)

– Rewarding when good for any amount of time (treats, words, petting)

-Replacing with a toy when he’s biting (works for 10sec max)

-all types of chew toys for teething

-Short timeouts, behind a closed door or in his gated area

-burning energy w calm walks around the yard

-limited play time (he bites so we stop when he does)

-yelping like a litter mate (he couldn’t care less)

We didn’t expect him to make drastic changes in this time but also didn’t expect it to be this difficult. We made the teeny tiniest progress in week one. It was hour by hour if he was good or not.

We deep dived and read a lot. Learned to try and identify WHY he’s biting. Overstimulated, attention- seeking, frustration, teething, too much energy. Along with this we started implementing new strategies.

Week 2 we’ve tried:

-scheduled naps (helped a lot…when we can get him to nap which is rarely)

-interrupt his behavior, ignore briefly, reward when good

-giving command he knows (sit) to redirect

-dimming lights with calm music in a calm area

-overall being more consistent with how we handle biting

And here we are at the end of week 2 with not much to show for results. He is the tiniest bit more controllable, but once he starts biting we just can’t stop him no matter what we try.

It’s been incredibly defeating. My fiancee and I are drained within a few hours of getting home from work. He bites and bites and bites. Some nights have been way better than others, but it only lasts for so long.

We very much understand that this is going to be a long road ahead. We’re as patient as we can be, but something needs to change. We don’t expect anything to be immediate either.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read and help.

I rescued a 6 month old husky / lab / Sheppard mix 5 months ago. He turns 1 year next month, is fixed and used to be mostly a really good dog. I have a 6 year old husky who is an angel and is also fixed (female).

I’ve read a lot about the adolescence phase, but I don’t know if that’s what this is. When we first got our pup, he was resource guarding food and toys. We immediately started working with a trainer, and do our best to ensure no food or toys are out with them together.

He has become aggressive to other dogs by humping and just going crazy growling, so we can’t take him to the park anymore whereas before he was so good with every single dog. He snaps at my older dog all the time, he doesn’t play gently anymore and just is reverting in all aspects with the training we’ve done.

The trainer we hired is supposed to be one of the best, but she only provides us “preventative” training, but it isn’t working and we need help on what to actually do when our pup starts trying to play with the older dog but gets too rough, or why he is snapping through his crate now where he never did that before. We’ve tried so much but I don’t know what to do anymore. It’s as if every single day, some new bad behaviour comes up. We can’t even take him to public places to continue getting socialization as he is just so reactive and hyper and crazy around everything now.

I don’t want him to keep these bad habits and I know this age is imperative to ensure we train these things out of him but I feel like we’ve tried so many things but he just keeps getting worse. He’s such a sweet dog and has never been aggressive to me, but he’s torturing my older dog and we just want them to get along like how they used to.

Please help, I’m so exhausted and the trainer I paid for isn’t helping and we don’t know what to do anymore.

It sounds like she’s making a thumping noise from her chest ? She’s 11 weeks

I got a 3 month old Dalmatian puppy from a farm and the only place she will sleep is her crate. I work 8 hours a day so I was planning on crate training her, but my roomate works from home so she can take her out to pee. The thing is, my roomate wants to keep her out of the crate while at home(which I love and I hope will be reality some day!!!), but she ends up being to naughty/nippy and distracting her while she’s working. I feel like she ends up being in her crate (on and off) for almost the entire day… she sleeps but I just don’t want this to be developmentally detrimental since she is such a high energy breed. I am just feeling like I need some honest help and advice for our situation.

I adopted my 10 month old 2 months ago, and she really only settles in her crate. When she gets tired at night she’ll run upstairs and practically bounce into her crate.

We did successfully have a couch nap on Sunday, finally!! I was sooo happy. She even started to fall asleep on the couch while I was getting ready for work yesterday.

But the nighttime demon has yet to understand that it’s okay to settle and nap on the couch before the big bedtime!

I just want to hangout with her. 😭❤️

I’m hoping for more daytime naps —> she gets more comfy sleeping outside of the crate —> she can take a small nap before bedtime —> eventually she can sleep outside of her crate at night

Kia ora from New Zealand. I’ve been doing some preliminary searches of articles or peer-reviewed studies that show the benefit of puppy (or adult dog) basic obedience classes. Looking for any kind of benefit, potentially for the community (decrease in attacks?) or even just the bond between dog and human.

It’s been taking awhile skimming through various results and most are not super helpful. Just thought I’d put some feelers out there to see if anyone knows of a good paper/study/article. It would help me with my volunteer work with the needs analysis of creating online modules to support in-person classes (if anyone has done a similar project would be great to hear about that as well!). Thanks team.

I am training a puppy, his name government name is Diogenes, we call him Dio, and sometimes I call him DD (Diamond dog/Dio Dog).

We have another puppy named Moo, who we also have various names for, my favorite is Moopert.

I don't really want to confuse them, but these names often just slip out. Am I worried over nothing? Will they learn these names apply to them the same as their given names?