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I have a new chihuahua/italian greyhound mix puppy that is 7 months old. We have only had her a few days but so far she really doesn’t like my cat. She has lunged at her a few times when the cat was walking by the puppy’s food which is understandable but she just tried to go after the cat 2 more times in other parts of the house. Can someone please tell me how to break this behavior so it doesn’t become permanent? I can’t leave them alone to even shower because I’m afraid something will happen so I have to wait until my fiance gets home everyday at midnight.

hi!

we recently adopted a male frenchie puppy at 6 weeks, he is now 9 weeks. (early, i know but he came from a friend who was emergently moving and needed to home the babies)

we live in a mostly carpeted apartment, save for the kitchen tiles & bathrooms. at the advice of our vet, puppy is on “house arrest” while he completes his vaccines schedule (18 weeks— so 9 more weeks to go…) as all the grass areas in our complex are high dog traffic areas.

i work from home and am home with him all day long save for the hour or so while i go to a workout class (he stays gated in the kitchen tiled area)

at first he was doing well with puppy pads in the kitchen, but within the last week or so his 80% accuracy on the pad has fallen to basically only one time a day. we immediately praise and reward with treats when he goes on the pad, but within the last week he’s taken to going anywhere except the pee pad; carpet, tile, the kitchen mat we stand on at the sink.

if i catch him squatting, i interrupt and immediately bring him to the pee pad, but he will just sit or lay there (for upwards of 15-20 minutes) until he can run off to play again and eventually try to potty elsewhere.

any tips or tricks to get him back on the pee pad?

i did order one of those faux grass pee pads which should be here tomorrow, to put on our patio to make the eventual transition to outside easier.

Hi, I am currently reading Ian Dunbar's book 'before and after getting your puppy'. I know some if this book is a little outdated and I am taking certain things with a grain of salt. However most of the book seems to give pretty good advice. One of concepts in the book is how you should not shower your new puppy with attention and affections all of the time as it will create a situation where the dog is completely dependent on your presence. This is definitely one of my biggest concerns and I want to try and prevent this from happening as I will need to leave him alone for certain periods of time when he is older.

However I also feel like I will find it hard to not completely shower him with attention…especially in those first few weeks. So I am wondering if there is a "healthy balance" of how much time you should be spending interacting with your puppy versus allowing them to spend time by themselves in their crate or playpen playing with their chewtoys or sleeping. I would love to hear how others have managed to navigate this period to set themselves up for success.

Thanks!!

My 10 week old puppy wakes up everyday at 5 am. He barks non stop in his crate and I can’t ignore it for too long since I have neighbors right on the other side of wall. I take him downstairs to the living room and he will calm down and sleep 1 more hour after all the fuss until 6:30. I’m exhausted😭 I don’t have issues with naps or other potty breaks during the night. He good back to the crate right away. It’s the 5 am one only. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

I have a pup that I adopted three months ago. He is a large breed mutt, estimated a year old, who I absolutely love. I am sending him to a board and train in four weeks from now (which will last 3 weeks) while i am attending an important family event overseas.

I really love the woman who runs the board and train in my community. She is absolutely wonderful, and people around here call her the dog angel because she is so amazing and gentle with dogs.

She said she recommends that I crate train my dog before she takes him. So for the last three weeks, as per her advice I have been feeding him in his crate twice a day. Despite it being three weeks that I’ve been doing this, he is still very nervous to walk in….he gobbles his food while his back legs are extended out of the crate, and then dashes away right after he finishes eating.

Overall, let’s just say he is not aloof toward the crate.

I am anxious that it’s only four weeks until I have to leave him, so today I pushed his butt into the crate during breakfast and dinner today. And quickly closed it up. I only left him in the crate for maybe five minutes, and both times he started to pant and whimper which was stressful for me. Once he somewhat stopped, I let him out.

Is what I’m doing correct?

All the YouTube videos I watch seem to suggest that at some point the dog will just walk in and you casually close up the crate, not the case for me.

Any advice in crate training a large almost adults dog? I am so nervous he won’t warm up to it.

Hi everyone, we brought home our sweet and playful Beagle puppy when he was 2 months old. He took to training very quickly learning all of his basic commands and learning to love his crate. He hasn’t had an indoor accident since maybe the first week he was home.

However, now he is nearly 5 months old and nervous to see some signs of regression. In the past 2 weeks alone, he has peed inside of his crate 4 times, which he had never done before. 3/4 times we got absolutely no warning – no whining, growling or barking. One time he barked but we thought it was demand barking which he’s also recently picked up.

Any advice on how to manage this? He was leaning into his crate so well and still does otherwise for all of his naps and bedtime. What other signs of regression did you see in your pup at this age?

14 week old puppy peeing CONSTANTLY

hi there,

I am in the puppy trenches and going mad. I got a golden retriever puppy about 3 weeks ago.. I’ve had a Goldendoodle in the past and I think I got super lucky the first time around, or super unlucky this time around.

To preface this, I THINK that my now puppy was an outside litter. I believe they were mostly left outside while developing, or in an indoor area to just roam and use the bathroom anywhere they pleased. I am dealing with potty training issues and I’m stuck! When I brought her home she immediately would have to pee every 5-10 minutes. As soon as I saw her sniffing, I would rush to take her outside and she would pee just a tad everytime. She had accidents in her crate and in the house often, and I did downsize her crate with the divider giving her just room to be able to turn completely and to lay. Well- that didn’t stop her. She would

Still soil her crate and lay in it, I took bedding out – still would pee in the crate. I took her to the vet to rule out a UTI- everything was normal. Now I’m three weeks in and she sleeps through the night with no accidents / wakes me when she needs to pee. But during the day sometimes she will pee in the crate with NO WARNING. I know she’s a pup, but I do take her out every 30-45 minutes throughout the day with some exceptions of being out and about. I could take her out to pee- she will get distracted and after 30 minutes I come back inside and BAM pees in her crate. Or I will take her out to pee, give her some play time and 5 minutes later she is squatting in the house to pee. My first pup was potty trained in a week or so but I also got him at 6 weeks I believe – this pup is obviously coming into my house older and was just roaming freely outside. I don’t want to give her up and I won’t but I’m sad my house is getting destroyed with pee and poo accidents and I feel like a bad dog owner not being able to understand her. Any help is appreciated. Please tell me I’m not alone in this. Is there hope?

The dog I sat for damaged a baseboard and I did not notice.

I dog sat for a family who I have worked with for years but it was only my second time dog sitting for them. The dog is young ( under 6 months ) but the family assured me that they could be left crated for up to 6 hours. I only had to do that once which was the day they had left. I had work and let them know this ahead of time, and they told me they had no problem with that. Now, after they got home I got a text asking if I knew when the baseboard had been chewed. Dog was crated anytime I wasn’t watching/ or home with her. I did notice that a small piece of the baseboard behind the kennel had chipped paint but I didn’t get a closer look to investigate and honestly didn’t think anything of it. I assume that is where they are referring too and so I asked but have not heard back. I also have not received payment. I feel that I took very good care of the pup and followed all of their instructions. They asked no toys or bones be left in the kennel so, what I’m assuming happened is the puppy got understandably bored that first day and ended up chewing on the baseboard. Family also asked if the puppy had been sick and I let them know that she had been completely healthy the entire time. I feel like this wasn’t my fault but not hearing from them and not having been paid yet has me overthinking. What do you guys think?

I’m wondering if anyone can give me advice on what I could do/buy/make etc for my dog that would give her the most joy? She’s recently undergone a tough procedure and I know the concept of gifts is probably lost on dogs but it breaks my heart to see her like this. Once she’s better I’d like to do anything to give her the most joy and show her how much she’s loved. I know probably just making her every day life happy and loving is enough but I just feel so helpless and would love to give her something like a toy, a bed, something for enrichment, a new food, anything like that. Especially because I’ve been advised she’ll no longer be able to do the things she loves like long walks and swimming. Any ideas are appreciated!!!

My dog likes to run up and down the fence and bark at cars when he is outside.

Its not a safety concern. I built a tall fence. The concern for me is if this is unhealthy or not. He will run back and forth repeatedly and even has made a trail of dead grass in my yard lol

He seems happy while doing it … but things online say it may not be good.

Should I try to stop this behavior?

Also.. he doesnt chase cars unless he is inside our fence. For instance while on the leash its not a concern that he would try to get loose and chase a car