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So I’ve been crate training my 3 month old Labrador and he goes down for his naps no problem and sleeps for around 2 hours when downstairs where he isn’t bothered, however when it’s night time I’ll move the crate to my room he’ll sleep for a while but around 4 am he starts barking and won’t stop no matter what I do even if he goes to the toilet, has food and water, we don’t play because I don’t want to reinforce the idea that 4am is play time, he won’t calm back down if he hears the slightest noise from me, should I move the crate downstairs full time? I’m just scared if I do he’ll start barking in the middle of the night and panicking and I won’t hear him as I’m a heavy sleeper usually and I don’t want to ruin crate training

What should I do?

hello! my puppy is turning 11 months old next week and I'm starting to run low on his purina proplan. I *could* buy another bag of it but the small bags are pretty pricey, so would there be any detriment to just moving onto adult food once he runs out of his puppy kibble? he's a medium breed (40lbs) and I know it's usually reccomended to wait until a year old, but surely switching a little under a month early won't cause too much harm?

So I recently bought a townhouse at the end of last year and now that I am no longer in an apartment I am looking into getting a puppy, likely a standard poodle. I've been in the house since mid November, the previous owner had a golden retriever and a cat. Is it safe for me to take a new puppy out in the yard to potty before he is fully vaccinated? If not what is the best way to navigate this?

Ivory is my 5 month old Doberman puppy a she used to be potty trained perfectly. I taught her to scratch my door and wait for me the moment she needed to pee or anything and she was doing absolutely wonderful but now she pees inside. She still poops outside but she completely reverted and doesn’t pee outside. I know why tho but I wonder why she stopped asking for my help. She’s to big for our doggy door which is why I never taught her to go though the doggy door and to grab me. She would anyways but now she is too big cus it was made for our small dogs. I don’t understand why she stopped scratching or telling me that she needs to go pee tho? I know she’s terrified of my grandma but she is 100% safe with me so I’m guessing she’s scared? Cus my grandma will sometimes leave her outside until my grandma decides she wants her back so I definitely think it’s fear related but I always go outside with her. Idk I need help and advice. Do I retrain her completely again?

We got a 6 week old male (pit/lab mix) from the shelter who was abandoned there (very young, we know). He was an absolute menace to my 3 year old girl (also pit/lab mix) for the first month.

He’s 3 1/2 months now and has chilled out a LOT. They play together without issue 90% of the time but there’s still times where they’re playing and out of nowhere he bites her face or neck area. And we always immediately intervene or separate.

My question is: is this still normal puppy behavior or is he being too aggressive considering they’ve known each other for 2 months now? He’s still very young so if this is a real issue we want to look into a training specialist for him. We do A LOT of training with him already (and they are never alone together, he’s crate trained)

I'm on my second puppy, and I was really dreading crate training because it was a major stressor while raising my first one. I tried a completely different approach with my second pup than my first and I'm happy to report it worked amazingly.

(Important to note, I work from home so I basically never have to leave her alone.)

I got my 10 month old puppy roughly 2 months ago.

Tried leaving her twice near the end of the first week and she was really upset – pacing, howling and peeing on the floor. In or out of crate, did not matter. Her response was a lot more severe than my first puppy, so I just accepted giving up on dog-free outings for the time being. Didn't leave her alone even once for two months – always had someone watching over her if I couldn't.

Week 1:

I fed her meals in the crate, but didn't close the door on it for more than a minute.

Weeks 2~4:

She was alright with the crate door closed as long as I was immediately next to her. I took naps and did work directly next to it and let her out anytime I had to leave, even for short breaks like the bathroom.

In the following weeks I experimented with having the crate further away from me but still in the same room. Then bit by bit I incorporated leaving for the bathroom with her still crated. Around the same time I started experimenting with leaving her unattended while I was showering.

Weeks 5~7:

I started crating her even outside naptimes. She'd just be chilling in there while I went about my home life.

Week 8:

I started working on actual separation and she went from 2 minutes to 2 hours in a single week. Two whole hours of no howling, no destruction, no accidents. She still has a hard time staying asleep while I'm out so there's more work to be done, but it's unreal how easy this is.

I figured I'd share this since there is a lot of fear among puppy owners that being with your dog all the time will ruin their ability to spend time alone. Building trust with their owner and getting fully accustomed to home seem to be very big factors in their ability to tolerate being alone. Not insisting on separation too early will also keep their stress levels low and make them easier to get along with.

The less you rush, the sooner you'll get your freedom back.