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  • Weird behavior w/ 8 month old puppy

    Hi everyone. My parents adopted a standard poodle puppy in May. She's now 8 months old and the city we live in just got a big dump of snow. It's her first time seeing snow and my dad told me that she seemed a little unsure of it, not sure where to do her business.

    I've walked her a bunch of times since I visit my parents often, and I was on dog walking duty for the first 4 months of her life with us because my dad had knee surgery and he is usually the one to walk the dog. She rarely pulls when I walk her, and we train during walks with treats.

    This time, just a few hours though, I take her for a walk and while it's not actively snowing, the snow has stuck to the ground so I notice she's a bit more active with her sniffing than usual. But I also noticed that she's spitting out treats or straight up rejecting them whenever I praised her for walking well, and not as attentive with her "look" command when we passed other dogs. She was also a LOT more skittish on this walk. We live in a big city, and she's been used to loud noises like busses, cars, car horns, etc. and hasn't flinched. On our walk tonight, a car horn beeped and she freaked out. I got her to calm down and when I praised her and went to reward her, she rejected the treat and wasn't interested. When we were almost home, she started going haywire running back and forth on the grass so I thought she had to poop. Her tail wasn't tucked between her legs but her backside was kind of hunched to be in that position. She lunged at a guy walking past, which she has never done while on a walk with me, though my dad said she's done it before on walks with him.

    When I get home from the walk, I let my dad know and I ask if anything bad or scary happened to her on a walk recently that might make her more afraid of walking. He said nothing has happened and that she seems to just be adjusting to the snow/doesn't like it. He did mention that she hasn't been finishing her food. We adjusted her food intake with advice from a vet since she's growing. This just started a morning ago, and my dad's theory is that her growth is slowing down so she's not as hungry. She tends to finish her food later on in the day if there's food left over. Do puppies transition to open feeding/grazing? We had a dog who would graze, only eating when we ate our meals (like during breakfast and dinner).

    I'm not sure if I'm overthinking or overreacting or what. My parents seem pretty nonchalant about it, so maybe I'm just being overbearing. My parents are on the older side so I also worry about her enrichment during the day. They aren't incapable, I just think I worry more than they do.

    TL;DR: took my parents' 8mo old dog for a walk tonight and she was behaving differently than normal, rejecting treats, and not finishing her food for the past day. My dad thinks she's just adjusting to the cold weather and snow, which is a totally new experience for her.

    submitted by /u/gquex
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  • Is having multiple locations for “place” confusing to puppy?

    Basically the title. I want my puppy to have a “place” in at least three rooms in my home. Should I use “place” for all of these? Or different words for each?

    The most solid “place” command is my puppy’s crate but we only use it at bedtime. He has a play pen with a bed in it for during the day when I can’t directly supervise him or when he needs naps. We’ve tried “bed” as another command and he sort of knows it but will only go to it for treats. But it’d be nice to have somewhere to redirect him to in another room or two as well.

    submitted by /u/AbilityKey1485
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  • Gift for a family giving us their dog

    hi everyone! I'm looking for a cute gift to give someone as a thank you for their dog?? they don't want a fee or anything and the doggie will come with everything (leash and harness, crate, food, crate, etc). for context: I was in the process of adopting a different dog but that didn't pan out. I was sad and started scrolling through socials and saw someone needed to rehome their dog. circumstances changed and they genuinely love her but they just can't give her what she needs. I'm picking her up tomorrow and I don't wanna show up empty handed.

    submitted by /u/Far_Display8216
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  • Stuff, stuff and more stuff!

    Owning a dog requires so much stuff!! And I guess I wasn’t thinking about that tbh. Im talking leads, long leads, flexi leads, collars, rain-jackets, medications and creams, muzzles, GOD! What are your tips to deal with this? Tbh I just have a cube on a kallax for it and throw it in there… but I’d like to have things more tidy and organized. Help?

    submitted by /u/just_alive_here
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  • How can we help our 4-month-old whippet puppy get used to wearing clothes?

    Our 4-month-old whippet don’t enjoy wearing clothes. We’ve tried different types (two sweaters, a custom jacket, and a custom onesie, with and without sleeves/leg holes). He’s fine sniffing and touching them, but once we put them on, he freezes up and looks miserable. He’ll move around a bit, but not much. He just runs to his bed or the sofa and lays there quietly.

    Our trainer advised us to go slow and pair the clothes with treats (we’re using sliced ham), but progress has been really slow.

    Right now, we take him for short pee walks without anything on, and longer walks with a sleeveless jacket. On walks with the jacket, he’s low energy and seems unhappy. Without clothes, he’s full of energy (almost too much).

    We live in Denmark and it’s getting cold, so we’d really like him to get comfortable wearing clothes. Any tips from other puppy owners who’ve been through this?

    submitted by /u/nicotinecocktail
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  • Potty Training advice needed pls

    I have a 22 week old pup, I’ve had her since she was 13 weeks old. Potty training hasn’t been terrible, compared to my last dog she’s catching on slower but only a few accidents here and there. I trained her how to use a bell and so she tells me when she needs to go out. Here’s my problem. She’s so good with the bell, I can sit in the living room or bedroom with her all day and she will have 0 accidents and will go ring the bell. Problem is the MINUTE I start being productive she pees somewhere. I don’t understand this at all. The first couple of times I thought it was because she rung the bell faintly and I didn’t hear it. But I’m still attentive even when busy and she doesn’t do that, doesn’t even go near the door. She just…pees. Today, the straw that broke the camels back, I took her outside, she peed. I brought her back inside she played for about 10 minutes, and then I got up to get ready and she just peed on my bed. No UTI, I’ve had her urine screened by vet in case of that because she’s been doing this every now and then for a few weeks. Is this a behavior thing? Do I have to go back to tethering? She holds her pee for 8 hours at night so I don’t understand why during the day she pees on the floor or in today’s case my BED always less than 2 hours after having peed outside. Any advice would be great, I just don’t know how to get her to not do this.

    submitted by /u/Ok-Debt-1324
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