Category: Top Dog

I have a 3mo puppy who has discovered demand barking. Is looking at the puppy considered reinforcing? (We click and treat when quiet, we anticipate behavior, and have patterns, it's just that the treatsdisappear so quickly that we don't yet have an alternative behavior that will last through a meal)

I’m getting a puppy and I have to get a small breed ( under 20 pounds) because we travel from Boston to Florida a lot now. I’ve owned Golden Retrievers in the past and I’m afraid a small breed will be “barky” or hyper. I’m looking for a breed that is relatively calm and doesn’t bark too much. Easily trainable would be great too! Any suggestions?

The first month was insanely hard.

(Golden puppy) We had multiple talks of bringing him back to the breeder. He peed and pood everywhere. Nipped my son. Chewed up the cord to my favourite lamp.

I realized this morning that Today was the first time I said “I love you” to him. Not sure when it happened but at some point between 2am pees outside, fantasies of texting the breeder expressing this dog was impacting my mental health, and hating my life, I started to grow fond of him and not regret my decision.

He’s definitely ours now, and with crate training and consistency he’s already signalling to us when he needs to go outside (we thought it would never happen).

It gets better. It’s still hard sometimes, but it gets better.

Our chocolate labrador puppy is now 11 months old.

We've had some difficulty with trying to get him to settle in the past and have now started training with Canine behaviourists.

One of the things they've got us doing is capturing calm and rewarding when he pops his head down and relaxes.

He will offer this without prompting which is great! But he can only manage maybe a couple minutes before getting restless. He'll then get up, maybe lie down a few more times but eventually get frustrated and start chewing furniture.

If we pop him in his pen when we are in the room, he'll flop down and sleep. So he is tired, but he just cannot seem to settle outside of his crate or pen.

Any ideas? I feel awful having to put him in a pen or crate constantly. I'd love to have him settle in the same room while we watch TV but he is just so restless.

We can't use a bed or towel etc to mark a "place" to settle as he gets far too excited and chews all of them up which is another problem we haven't yet tackled. He is quite the handful!

Is this normal adolescence behaviour?

He gets two decent (~50m) walks every day morning and evening, as well as training and play. We're also trying to fulfill his breed specific needs by doing retrieves, scavenger hunts, letting him run around in secure dog parks etc.

Does anyone know how to reassure your dog in the new house? We're moving on November 15th, and I think my dog ​​will definitely be restless for a week. What helps to reassure a dog? I'm asking now just to be sure

Looking for recommendations for very warm gloves/mittens. It's gotten very cold here in PA and yesterday's morning walk was miserable for me, my fingers were so cold they were painful. Our walks take the better part of an hour since he loves to sniff. What do you wear ?

Hey everyone! I’m getting my male Pomeranian puppy next month (he’ll be about 2 months and 15 days old) and I’ve been reading up on puppy care, training routines, and crate setup. Still, I’d love to hear what actually works from experienced puppy owners.

What should I focus on first when it comes to training? How do you balance early obedience with socialization at that age? And for small breeds like Poms, any tips on preventing separation anxiety or barking habits early on?

I’m planning to use positive reinforcement, a playpen + crate setup, and a consistent feeding schedule.

Would love to hear your best first-week advice or what you wish you did differently when your puppy first came home!

Hey! So i have a 4 month old toy poodle that i had for almost 2 months , I’m trying to crate train her because she refuses to poo on the potty mat, so my trainer told me to crate her for 3 weeks all day long in a crate and get her out every 4 hours for potty time, put in mind that for two month i had her with me all over the house and only put her in her play area with toys and bed during bed time at night. Should i really crate her strictly like this???