Category: Top Dog

I’ve had dogs all my life, but this is the first one that I’m personally raising and training. None of our other dogs, including our current adult dog, have ever been crate trained but I am an incredibly anxious person and wonder if it would be better for my mental well being as well as my puppy’s. Our main issue is bedtime, it’s been inconsistent and I’ve only been able to sleep for one to four hours a night so far. I’m currently writing this from my living room floor at one in the morning while she sleeps on her bed down here. She was fine sleeping in my room two of the nights she’s been here, but the other two she’s insisted on being downstairs. She wants me to be near her, and I think she might want to be near our adult dog too? She’s very fond of her. I’m just not sure what to do here. She’s too young for me to leave her alone down here without being gated in or crated but the couch is horrible to sleep on and when she does choose to sleep in my room I still barely sleep because I’m paranoid about her getting into something or somehow managing to hurt herself or her going potty on my carpets. Would crate training help? Would my older dog having free rein in the house make it harder to do it? The puppy seems to want to shadow everything she does. I also think it could help when I need to shower or do something that requires me to leave her somewhere, so far I’ve been getting my mom to “puppy sit” while I get in a quick one hour nap or jump in the shower but I know that won’t work long term.

I’m sorry in advance- this is going to be long and all over the place. We’ve just had our follow up with the behaviourist trainer and she seems to think our 5.5 month old cavoodles anxiety has gotten worse. (In her words, escalated.) and that was before she even had a chance to walk in the door. We’ve had him since he was 8 weeks old and have not successfully been able to leave him alone since. He is super clingy (worse so with me) and cries and won’t eat when we walk out the door. Weve tried quite literally all the advice to teach him to be alone. Some days he’s ok left in his playpen and I leave the room for up to 45 mins or shut him out of a room to get just a little bit of peace. But most days, he’s impossible. This isn’t even the extent of it. He’s anxious around new people, new environments and situations. Sensitive to touch which has made lead training difficult to say the least. We had a small break through today after trying a new tactic shown by the trainer but that only lasted a few minutes before he was completely flipping out over the harness.

She thinks he’s a good candidate for anxiety meds. Situational to start (separation anxiety, outings, grooming, things he gets highly stressed over) and if we see positive improvement we can move to daily meds.

I’m not sure I’m prepared. I’m not sure if he is the right fit for us anymore. I’m not sure if I have the energy for his high needs. It has been constantly exhausting since he came into our home. Don’t get me wrong, the general shitty puppy behaviour has gotten better, but not being able to leave him alone even for 30 mins to duck out to the shop is not something I thought we were signing up for and I just feel so sorry for the little guy.

I guess I’m just venting. Feeling the puppy blues in a different way now. There is no way we could give him up. We will do whatever we need to do to help him. Has anyone else been through something similar and can share if there is light at the end of the tunnel? 😔

I’m going crazy. I got my puppy (10 weeks old) 4 nights ago and he’s a horrible pooper. He’s figured out peeing outside incredibly but for some reason he refuses to poop until nearly 6pm and then through the night in his crate. His crate is blocked off more than halfway, he can lay down comfortably but that is it. He eats around 7am, 12, and 5pm.

It is only 1:30 in the morning and I’ve cleaned it up and switched the bedding twice. He went outside 3 times before bed, including right before. He likes his kennel, he’ll sit in there during the day, he eats in there, he even sleeps soundly. Problem is he only sleeps for what seems to be a couple hours and then wakes up and poops. It’s not solid poop, he’s had one solid (today) since I got him. But we’re in a food transition (slowly) and adjusting to schedule so I’m chalking it up to stress for now. He also doesn’t wake me up. He’s in my room but I discover the poop. When I am woken up I take him out but he doesn’t wake me.

How do I get him to poop outside during the day? I go out after every meal, whenever he wakes from a nap, a long play session, and if I see him sniffing around and he gets praise and treats when going to the bathroom outside. I feel like I’m going crazy. He doesn’t poop in the kennel during the day, or rather, hasn’t.

We have two large dogs, and I simply dont trust the belt buckles supplied by most lead companies.

Whonhave good value, strong buckles that can connect to standard seat belts buckles?