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So, my boyfriend and I just got a 6 months old Pomerania puppy a week ago. He is very adorable. He has being adjusting to some rules for now. For example, we took him out on a walk to the beach yesterday and he ended up peeing outside for the first time, which we praised him a lot because we want him to stop doing his things at home! (I do understand he's still young, so if he has an urgency we have the peeing mats ready for him). We used to have a problem the first two nights, and that he will bark at random times, and constantly try to get on bed when we don't want to (because he has peed on it, and there is barely space). The dog breeder (which we maintain contact just in case), suggested he might be scared of the dark since it's a new environment, so we hang some soft, christmas lights I had lying around (they're tiny), we put them above his bed. The barking stopped.

Now, where's the problem? Well, while he poops and pees on the peeing mat and we do praise him for it, he still poops and pees OUT of it also, and scold him and take him to the mat to learn he has to do his things there. I can't understand yet why, when we praise and scold, still does his things outside. We put a peeing mat next to his bed when we go to sleep because we close our room door. First night great, he did all his things there. Second night the mat was dry and there was poop and pee everywhere in the room (looked like a mine floor at that point). Also, another problem. We just can't get enough rest. He is way to hyped and needy. The moment we even BREATHE, or just TWITCH a bit on place, he inmedately reacts, and looks for constant attention. He won't stop following, whining, shivering, getting in the middle of our way, won't stay in bed when we ask to at night and constantly tries to get on ours (specially in the morning, at night it takes a bit before he gets tired and goes to bed). He tries to get in the sofa and like, wiggle his paws in front of me for attention, constantly. I try to ignore this unwanted behaviour or push him away by saying "tsk, hey. No". But he keeps going, and the more he goes, the more he thinks I'm trying to play with him.

It's mostly the potty training (we are trying to get him used to do his things outside and stop doing his regular things indoors, except accidents), the neediness and the fact he just won't stay still and won't let us rest no more in the early morning. Also, he just won't stop whining when not given his attention or when we scold him)? Which we just say "tsk, hey!". Even give him a little touch on the back or butt, or just ignore him when he's seeking attention constantly.

We ordered a crate. My boyfriend has read that it is best not only to get him used to it, and because the crate is a small place to do his things, so he won't have to poop that much and have so many goddamm accidents in a moment, and see if he can learn to not be around us 24/7. (Mind you, we take him out twice per day, 1 hour or 2 max, with a lot of breaks. He munches on his toys, and when he's all relaxed we do praise him a lot). Problem is, we do have another pet… A bunny. The thing is that our bunny is used to roaming free around, and we love to see that! But we are afraid the puppy will hurt him somehow (he has tried to bit him once, and tried to play with him, but got his paws all over and scared him away, he now ignores him, but still we are concerned). It's obvious the bunny is tense and a bit scared, and we hate to see that because we had him for longer. We thought the crate was great to make him use to see the bunny without doing anything. I also thought of moving the crate in the living room at night again, covered with a blanket, but leave a bit of space just so he can see the lights, and close the door so we can rest and he can get used to being alone.

Just, I don't know what to do, and how to crate train the puppy (I am looking up on the internet for some info, but I want to hear personal stories). I just want my puppy to be a bit more calm, but I don't want him to be afraid or something.

Hey! So i have a 4 month old toy poodle that i had for almost 2 months , I’m trying to crate train her because she refuses to poo on the potty mat, so my trainer told me to crate her for 3 weeks all day long in a crate and get her out every 4 hours for potty time, put in mind that for two month i had her with me all over the house and only put her in her play area with toys and bed during bed time at night. Should i really crate her strictly like this???

So my puppy is a 7mo herding breed. He got bowled over by a blind border collie in a dog park and has been limping for over a month. So now he limps on his front leg.

I would leave him in the back yard alone since 4mo and have someone come by to play with him. But I’ve started a new job that needs me in the office 5 days a week for a while before wfh.

My anxiety is THROUGH THE ROOF. It’s affecting my relationship with all the distress im causing my partner. Before I was anxious about having someone look after him, sure, but now it’s keeping him in a playpen, finding someone to come twice a day to play with him with all these restrictions. And it’s so frustrating bc stuff happens and the person ends up not coming. Before, I was already thinking about him all the time in a “fur momma” kind of way, but now I feel so obsessed about getting back to him and making sure he’s being gentle on his leg or worried if he’s been mentally stimulated enough.

I already did the weeks of strictly crate only, and GABA/traz but he would jump once and reinjure himself all over again.

I don’t know what I’m hoping for out of this post. Advice? Reassurance? Whether or not I (not him) should start going on anti anxiety meds again?

I posted a week ago about my puppy getting aggresive when he was picked up. I want to thank the comments because even if I didnt answer, my family and I used all the ideas you gave us.

Even though its only been a few days we've gotten a massive change, and I thought it would be good to let others know in case they find themselves with the same situation.

One comment mentioned that maybe he was too young to understand that he wasn't supposed to do that. That is true, he was a about a month old when he was rescued by my dad during a bad storm, we never really found the mom or siblings. It was just our boy floating around. He's now 2 months.

Anyways, in the first 2 days we started giving him treats pre-pickup to make him understand that it was a good thing. This partially worked because he started coming around people to be carried but he still got snippy. We also decided to end playtime every time things got too rough or when we noticed the pup got too tired.

Now, the thing that really made a change was that apparently he hated being carried the way my family was doing it. They usually just put one hand on his upper chest and the other on his lower stomach, this is how we carried our girl, she never had any problems. BUT, this boy doesnt like having his hind legs dangling. He wants to have support for them. So now we carry him by putting a hand on his chest and the other under his legs, kind of like how we used to carry our heavy elder dog when he couldn't move anymore.

It wasn't really that it was people specific, the only reason he wasn't snippy with me was because I would carry him facing towards me with a hand on his back and on his butt, so my body was technically supporting his legs

My dad was over the moon when he found this out, he did several experiments to confirm it. My pup has a new favorite human, and my place was taken but I guess its a small price to pay to see him happier.

I’ve read that most puppies aren’t fully accident free until after 6-9 months, but when did potty training start getting easier for you guys? When do you start seeing progress, and how fast is the progress? This sounds like I’m trying to rush it, which is not at all the case. I completely understand that it will take time and patience, I’m simply curious since I haven’t heard anyone talk about it. Like when can you start going two hours between potty breaks instead of one? This is my first time having a dog, so I’m just trying to learn as much as possible. We’ve had the puppy for a few days and she is an 8 week old shih tzu.

I of course know that the timeline depends a lot on both the owner and the dog. I’m not looking for a conclusive answer, simply curious about your experiences 🙂

I am thinking of buying a sweater for our puppy that we got recently because now when we go out in the mornings its a little chilly, I know that the puppy has a layer of fur but I have noticed it is sniffling and I think it may get sick.

We live in a warm place, Houston, but I take him out super early for a walk, around 6am and I just feel that with the winter coming it is important to keep him warm. I am a first time dog owner so please give your two cents, as I may be over thinking this and I am not sure how much their own fur keep them warm. Would the sweater make it uncomfortable for him to walk, they can't talk so its kind of hard to ask teh puppy if it feels too warm or if it will start sweating if its walking with me.

Its a gold retriever just for clarification, not sure if that helps when it comes to how much fur it has. I really want to make sure the puppy stays healthy because I have read that once they catch a cold its difficult to get them back to normal and healthy. I am just confused about what kind of fabric should I buy for the sweater so that the dog can breathe since it is warm in Houston, I intend to take it off when I get back from the walk so he's not in it all day.

I came across a variety of different kinds of sweaters online and researched large website like Amazon and Alibaba to get an idea of what kind of pet clothes are available. I found that there are a lot that are made from acrylic and wool, and not sure if synthetic fabrics are good for animals? Which brings me to the other point of how easy is it to take it on and off?