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When I try to train my puppy and practice obedience he sees the treats and goes so bananas he can’t focus at all. Any advice? FYI, he is 6 months old.

Have a sweet small breed pup who will turn 6 months in a week. He is left from 5-7 hours 2 or 3 days a week in his pen (food, water, pee pad). He tolerates separation fine and sleeps when no one is home (less so when home and go upstairs, as he cannot go up or down stairs yet)

When i am gone more than 5 hours he gets a 20 min drop in to let him pee on balcony and run around a bit. He has not used his pee pad in about 3 weeks so the drop ins feel important to give him a potty break.

I am wondering when I should consider free roam while gone, and when I can fade drop ins, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Pup is fully free roam when I am home.

I know there are so many posts about crate training on here, but I figured I would explain my pup’s situation here in depth just to see if anyone has advice or reassurance for my exact experience.

I adopted my Australian cattle dog (mix of some sort? He’s got floppy ears lol) about 3 weeks ago from a foster based rescue. It was a very thorough process, and I knew what I was in for. Compared to others of his breed, he’s overall very mellow, which is why the rescue thought he would do perfectly fine in our townhome. For reference, he is anywhere from 5-7 months, depending on which vet you ask. We were also told he was used to being crated, which was great given we share walls with people. I knew bringing him to a new home would be an adjustment for any dog. What I didn’t know, until after reaching out for the rescue for advice with crating him, was that he had only ever been crated in a room with 3 other dogs, so he’s never truly been alone, and is really struggling with it. Barking and crying until he’s panting, biting and pulling at the crate, humping the blankets inside, pacing…It’s also been too cold to take him for a walk and get his energy out outside, which I’m sure is also affecting the crating process.

The positives:

– he’s never had an accident in or outside of his crate

– He will try to chew things occasionally, but understands the “leave it command” pretty well when we are around.

– His barking in the crate has reduced from about 90 minutes straight to about 20-40 minutes straight and then will try to rest for about an hour.

– He will sleep through the night outside of his crate.

– I’ve never really had any issues with him destroying things when he’s left in the gated room and I’m grabbing water, going to the bathroom, eating dinner.

– Direct neighbors are aware of the situation and responded nicely.

I put on calming music or white noise, I use pheromone spray, I’ve tried the tshirt with my scent on it, I’ve tried to cover the crate (both fully and leaving one side uncovered) with a blanket but he immediately just grabs the blanket and pulls it through all the holes in the crate.

I’ve heard so much to “desensitize” him by leaving in very small increments and slowly increasing, but at the rate he is going it is impossible to work up to what he needs in order to be fine for 4 hours straight while I’m at work. We don’t have any family or close friends that can watch him, and my partner is weary about a random pet sitter in our home, which I think is valid.

My direct neighbors are aware of the situation and were kind about it, however, this obviously cannot go on forever. During the day when we’re at work, he can be loud for a bit and I feel less bad about it considering other people are also gone at work in our complex. At night, barking in his crate is not really an option here if it goes on longer than a few minutes. One time I fell asleep on the couch and he didn’t move a muscle or make a peep all night. I know this probably isn’t helping his separation or confinement anxiety at all by letting him sleep on the couch with me, but the end goal is for him to sleep wherever he wants at night. I’m worried it will cause some regression about going in the crate when we leave the house, but I feel like he will get used to the routine.

Long story short – how much longer should I try this, or should I just try the puppy proofed living room? If I wasn’t leaving for four hours at a time at work I would probably just do the puppy proofed room, but I have no idea how he would be. Im thinking of on the weekend leaving him in the gated room and just sitting in my car and watching the camera to see what/how he does, but I know it will take a while to work up to trusting him for four hours and I’m not sure what to do in the meantime. My main concern is really him hurting himself, as well as disrupting our neighbors and getting in trouble with our landlord for him barking.

We just got a border collie puppy who’s currently 13 weeks. We’ve had him for a little over a week now. I knew that we wanted to crate train as I believe it’s the best method for nighttime and naps and them having a safe spot. We crated first night and he did get up a few times we took him out to potty and he went back to bed. Now he sleeps from 9:30pm and wakes up around 6am. Which is good for our sanity and sleep. He has a cover over his crate and a loud sound machine and he’s been doing naps in his crate. For naps I usually make sure that he’s had some mind stimulation beforehand to wear him out and has been out to potty. Sometimes he naps fine but will only sleep for about 45 mins to an hour. Most often though he will be up barking and barking (what he’s currently doing now and has been the past hour) and really doesn’t stop until I relent and let him out and it’s just a cycle. He also DOES NOT just lay down somewhere and sleep and can never settle I know he must be exhausted through the day because of how much sleep a puppy needs. I guess my question would be how do I get him to settle easier I feel like we’ve done everything. We’ve done training in the crate too and I whatever I try I can’t command him to go into the crate on his own. He also recently had giardia found in his stool sample and he’s getting treatment for that currently. He seems to be asymptomatic for it but I don’t know if it’s affecting his daytime naps at all. I’m losing some patience for sure as I feel like I can’t ever get anything done anything helps!

Hey everyone, I am currently fostering a shepherd mix, he is about 4 months old, been over a week and I feel like Im going insane😭 Been trying to potty training outside (treats, every couple minutes, after eating etc.) no type of interest at all, So I put puppy pads, did good first days and now the last 3 days hes been peeing all over my kitchen , carpet everywhere. At night he stays in my room, (my floor is carpet and pooped 😭) and my kids left their door open and pooped 😭 , taking him outside eats anything he can find, today was eating poop he found,I'm aware its been a week but I've cried 3 times, i stepped on his pee this morning, i put my baby in his bouncer (he was jumping on pee until I noticed) I live in a apartment so it's extremely hard to cut of areas, Cant put him in any rooms, i put him yesterday in the restroom while I cried he was crying twice as loud. I feel like im going insane. I have one more week to choose to adopt him, I wanted a friend for my cat and that's been successful, but Im a new dog mom. In my mind everyday I just say how cats are better than dogs. Im going to talk to a trainer today but please give me insight, im going back to school Monday-friday, morning till 4pm, my mom will be at my home but she definitely doesnt like this and im at my wits end. Please any advice.

She does well in her play pen and crate, usually whines for a minute or two before settling. The last week or so, she has been waking up around 5am to potty, but when we put her back in her crate (in our room) or in her play pen (living room), she won’t settle for a long time, and just whines and paces.

She goes to sleep around 9:30/10p each night, so I’m wondering if maybe she just doesn’t want to sleep anymore? Otherwise a very wonderful pup! So this is a minor issue, just wanted to see if we can help her better sleep through the night further.

I’m suspecting she just misses us and wants to cuddle/play, but we make the potty routine purposefully very boring apart from rewarding her for using the pee pad. We entertain her a lot in the late evening to tire her out, both physically and mentally.

Any tips for settling in the morning/sleeping longer at night are appreciated!

I got a puppy from a shelter almost 2 years ago. I just recently got a DNA test done. 50% apbt 30% boxer, 20% malinois. She's a wonderful dog but that mix seems intentional. Why would someone use those breeds in a dog? That's a pretty intense and intriguing line up.

This may be a dumb question, but what do dogs do during daycare for a FULL day? I know that play with each other and chase each other around, but assume they don’t do that for 8 hours straight, do they? Do they lay and rest?

So my boy and I are going through a tough time and by the grace of god I’m starting to see progress in his health. I’m still taking it day by day and I hate saying we are making progress because I know it could change in one second, the same way it started.

We have been dealing with intense pain in the neck when moving head left to right which would result in the most intense cries and screams I have ever heard. It has been a literal nightmare but like I said, through medication, limited activity and a lot a lot of patience we are slowly getting back to what I would call normal (knock on wood)… it’s been a very long two months and a lot money has been spent trying to get my boy back to himself..

So that’s why I’m here today— I can tell he is so bored now, he is being weened off the drugs one by one and is much more aware and he is trying to play way more now and get active, which just isn’t in the cards for the next couple weeks still as we are still recovering. My question is what toys or things I can get him to play with that DO NOT put tooooo much strain on the neck. I know basically everything will have him moving his neck around but I’m really looking for something to help him his mind busy while I try to work on my 5-9 after my 9-5 so we can escape poverty. I just want stuff I can get him where he can stay occupied for a little and mentally stimulate himself without going too crazy moving that neck.. he gets so many pets and loving and I know that’s most important but I would like to start to try to slowly work him back into toys starting with ones that don’t strain his neck too intensely..

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you guys so much!

Hey all,

Does anyone have good experience with a reputable Poodle breeder in Southwestern Ontario?

Hoping to start a dialogue with real world owners and do my research.

Thanks for your time.