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Our 12-week-old Shepherd/Chihuahua/Everything mix, Betsy, is terrific: smart, cuddly, playful, house- and crate-trained, etc. But if she needs at least 18 hours of sleep each day, she's not getting it. When our day starts around 7am, she has a 90-minutes-on, 90-minutes-off cycle all day, give or take. That means she's used up her six hours of awake time by 7pm, but then she's typically up one more time after that – and predictably overtired and hyper and bitey.

What's a good strategy for addressing this? And how will her sleep needs change as she grows? Many thanks in advance for any advice.

The puppy is like 2months old and i just got him and trained him to wait for this food and now i think when he sees treats he just waits. Like when i want to teach him to follow me but he doesn’t and just sit and waits.

Mostly just wanted to write this down somewhere so I can get my thoughts out on a bit of an anonymous forum, but any help / advice would be really appreciated.

My partner and I rescued a 4.5 month old puppy from Cyprus at the weekend and I fell in love at first sight, he's such a sweet boy and very affectionate already. Since then, the reality of owning a pup has hit me hard and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by conflicting advice and the sudden change that's affected everything in my life.

I work from home while my girlfriend is a primary school teacher, so I am doing the majority of care during the day, but I have never owned a dog before, let alone a puppy, while she has a bit more experience with her family owning dogs but hasn't had one of her own.

I realise it was probably naive to think that I would somehow crack it on my first try, but I'm feeling deflated about how things are going. When I am at home, he is completely dependent on me and will follow me everywhere, but then also seems uninterested in play when I try to initiate that. We are using a crate and have managed to get him to use this to sleep in our room overnight, but during the day he will only nap very lightly and only when I am in the same room. If I move even slightly, he will wake up and then cries if I leave the room for more than 5 seconds.

His toilet training started well, and after an accident on the first night which I totally expected, for the first couple of days he was toileting outside consistently. However today, he has only gone inside despite me keeping the same schedule and taking him out multiple times.

It all feels really disheartening and I am blaming myself for not knowing what to do or reacting too emotionally. I find myself going into a spiral and Googling which doesn't help because it feels like I am getting different, conflicting advice from varying sources or even worse, opinions that make me feel like I've done a terrible thing by even taking on a puppy at all.

I know it's still very early days and I am hopeful that it will get better over time, but at the same time I worry that the first couple of weeks of having a puppy are so important to set a routine and good behaviour traits, and I'm scared that I'm completely failing at it.

Would be great to hear from anyone who has been where I am or a similar place. My fiancée is being very understanding and reassuring but I don't think she knows exactly how it feels.

I adopted a doodle type dog over a month ago and generally it’s been going great. Shes about 8 months & is technically potty trained. At first she wouldn’t go potty inside at all but then about a week in she started peeing inside. From then, I stopped leaving her unattended & really focused on spending time outside & rewarding her when she goes to the bathroom. It was working for about two weeks. Now, I leave for work and she poops inside. I had seen her poop, treated her & taken her out before I left for work. My husband takes her out and he could do something simple like shower or run & get the mail right after and she has an accident. Am I not spending enough time outside even though she goes? Is it a separation issue even when there’s a person home? I just don’t know why it seems to go away & then come back?

Hello fellow dinosaur parents. I’ve had my Keeshond girl for 4 weeks now and there are a lot of things we’re working through, but I can’t seem to figure out her limit on chewing yet. She will chew everything and anything and succeed in destroying it. One time I used her slow feeder as a substitute lick mat while the real one was getting delivered—three hours later I see that the bottom lining is missing with very visible teeth marks left behind. Her Pupsicle toy looked like it’d been used for a good few months literally the same day it was given to her for the first time.

Unfortunately, I’m still a student and there are a few days in the week when she needs to be in her crate for a prolonged time while I attend classes. She is comfortable in her crate and there are soft squeaky toys in there, but I heard licking and chewing can help ease boredom (ofc the teething is starting too).

Her teeth are still fine after all of the destruction she leaves behind, so I’d really appreciate any recommendations for appropriate pup chews that are safe and durable!

TLDR: my people-loving puppy has suddenly become reactive

hi all, it’s me again. my girl is currently almost a year old now and we have come leaps and bounds with her training and up until recently i thought that she was very well-socialized. i was very cautious about who i brought around her when she was younger and what experiences i provided for her as i have seen what can come out of both under and over-socialized dogs. i thought that we were doing great, as my girl absolutely loved all people and would greet everyone the same no matter what environment we were meeting them in. she has always been good with other dogs as well- no resource guarding and friendly with other dogs, if anything she would just be a bit fearful initially.

it feels like in the span of a few weeks my puppy has done a bit of a 180 and has become more people reactive, but only with specific people. it started with one of my partner’s friends, who she had met when she was younger but a few months later decided that he was the most terrible person to exist and will lose her shit every time he comes over. i also just started bringing her to work with me again this past week, and she has decided that coworkers she has met previously are now scary and will bark and growl until they are out of the room. she will usually back off and become comfortable once the person in question has been in the area for a while and will then deem them as a safe person. however, this morning my girl would not back down from one specific male coworker and lunged at him, which she has never done and is raising alarm bells for me.

this is a long post, but i am just wondering how to proceed or what i can do to try to train the reactivity out of her before it gets worse or is cemented in her. i have heard that the ages of 9-12 months are formative in a dog’s life so it is important to try to work on unwanted behaviours, and i am just struggling a bit because this is a new thing for my puppy and i have also never owned a reactive dog. i am also wondering if living with my roommate’s people-reactive dog plays a role as well; some people have told me that dogs cannot teach each other reactivity but i have also been told that they can. i am just feeling a bit lost- i have been fortunate to have people that are completely okay and understanding with her fear and will work with her until she feels safe. but after what happened today i am becoming very worried and confused about where this is coming from and what i can do to correct it. i don’t want to ever punish her for having a reaction to a person but i am hoping for advice or insight from someone on how to proceed with working on this behaviour. thank you in advance!