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Got my 16 week old puppy a month ago. He is a LOT (as I’m sure most of you experience) but we love him just as much!

He comes from a litter of two, and his brother has not been adopted yet. I just feel guilt that I picked one over another based on…what? Vibes?

His brother is not in a shelter; he lives with a foster so its not like he is suffering. However, everytime I see the rescue post about him my heart breaks a little that we chose ours instead of him purely out of chance. Im at the point that I check his adoption page every day to see if he has his forever home.

Has anyone ever felt guilt over choosing a puppy over another, especially when its a rescue? 😔

If you made it here, thank you for reading❤️

hi everyone! we are looking around to adopt a puppy within the next 2 months. we will DEFINITELY be adopting and not shopping just since shelters are so overcrowded. we are not super specific about the breed we are wanting , other than not wanting a HUGE dog. we currently have an 18 month old little boy, so with every puppy we come across we are doing lots of research regarding their temperaments, what they need regarding exercise and any other special needs or accommodations. I’ve only ever had 2 dogs in my life that I had gotten as puppies and both were German Shepherd’s. I was a kid at the time and it’s been a while since both of my angels passed and I truthfully don’t remember much about the early years. I am aware of the potty training aspect, the chewing on everything and not sleeping through the night stuff. however, I’d like to be as prepared as possible for whatever fur baby we bring home.

a few questions I have for the more experienced…

-what should I expect within the first month?

-what gets easier and harder over time?

-what are the top 3 most difficult things with a puppy?

-what’s something you wish you knew prior to getting one?

-any tips/ tricks to help overall quality of life and comfort?

we are looking for a companion to grow up with our son and we are always home or going for walks or to the park so we have plenty of time to meet any/ all needs. I just want to go into this the right away and make this a positive experience and do right by our puppy!

EDIT: please be blunt!!!! please be honest!!! don’t sugarcoat things because im not in this to be a half ass shitty dog owner.

I know dogs voice boxes don’t physically allow them to speak human languages I also know Pavlov’s dog which is repetition, every time the dog rang the bell he would get food. But that still doesn’t answer my question. For instance my dog knows the word cage and if I tell him ‘’go cage’’ he listens and goes right in. If I say ‘’treat’’ he’s instantly excited and runs right to the treat container before I’m even there. So he obviously has comprehension of what and where things are. So he knows what I’m saying so why doesn’t he have the capability to talk to me other than being prohibited by his vocal features. Plus I know ya’ll have seen that dog on tik tok that literally starts its own conversations by pressing a multitude of sound buttons. I know this is a dumbass question but here we are.

Just something I was thinking about. I recently got a poodle mix puppy last month. She bonded very quickly to me like within that first contact with her. She’s been glued to me since unless someone has food lol. Now when we go in public though she acts super shy. She won’t go up to anyone for pets and stares me down if anyone else is holding her (does this at home too). It’s like she doesn’t want anyone else but my family touching her. And she got scared when someone came to the house but was totally fine when I took her to a friends house. Don’t worry yall, we are working on socialization and she will be attending daycare more often and I try to take her out a lot but I was just thinking about why she and some other dogs tend to do this!

I used to do these posts more frequently but with the holidays I was busy.

Evie is almost 9 months old. Today I took a chance and brought her outside while I snow blew the driveway and sidewalk. Not only did she have a blast, she stayed in our yard the whole time, even when the neighbor came home she stopped herself from saying hi and stayed in the yard. I'm so proud of her pawgress.

She is also been doing much better with loose leash walking.

I grew up in a family with many pets: cats, birds, rabbits, etc. However, we never really had dogs except for an adult Maltese who wasn't really mine. I'd love to get a puppy one day (or dog if I find it wouldn't be a good fit) but have a few questions.

How the hell do people live with puppies? I'm so confused as to how things work. If the puppy is sleeping in another room, how do you prevent it from peeing in its room/crate? And how do you know when they have to pee? And do people really wake up at like 2 am to let their puppy pee? And how long until that's over?? And how do you even teach them to know to only pee on the grass? Also, do people have the dog pee in the grass or on a potty pad?

I might get hate for this, but honestly, I'd rather live with embarrassment for stupid questions than end up in a situation I wasn't ready for.

My puppy is 10 months old and has been peeing in his crate basically every day. We stop his water intake 2 hours before bedtime and take him out right before bedtime. He pees in the middle of the night or really early in the morning. I usually put him in around 7:30-8pm to 8:30-9am and he used to sleep through the entire night until recently. Not sure what to do because he was doing really well before!

She learns that I’m giving out treats and waits patiently for another, but refuses to engage with the toy we’re practicing with (it’s a high value toy). When I don’t give her one she just wanders off to go do something else.

It’s not a big deal, because I can resume practice with her later on, but is it normal to have such short training sessions at this age? Her sessions for other commands lasted much longer, usually around 10 or 15 minutes.

I actually don’t know what I’m supposed to do here. She’s 50lbs and the snow is up to her waste covering the entire yard. I dug a path but that’s still not a lot of space. She has always been picky about her poop spots and this isn’t helping. So legit, what do people do when the snow is this bad?

I will also take advice on walking/exercise/stimulation when she doesn’t have space to run around in the yard and trails are a mess.

I just adopted a dog from the shelter this week. He was hit by a car about a year ago but they told me he had fully recovered from it. However it’s very clear that his back left leg is much weaker than the rest. when we asked the vet they said it’s likely because his past owner didn’t get him the rehab he needed. he has a hard time jumping onto the couch and needs to be lifted in and out of the car. he also drags that leg while walks. The snow is clearly bothering his leg and if we’re out for more than 5 minuets he starts hopping on the other three legs. We got him some boots to try and keep his paws warmer and help with the dragging but he hates them. if we even manage to get them on he runs off and immediately pulls them off. is there anything i can do to help strengthen the leg at least a little? the vet said because it happens so long ago therapy would likely be a waste but i’m afraid it’s hurting him and want to do anything i can to help him.