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Hi!

We have had our rescue Irish Doodle (poodle x Irish setter) since 3 months old.

He’s now nearly 8 months & he is really in the thick of his teenage craziness.

Do we have a serious issue, or are these all common issues that he will work through with consistency from us?

1. Sudden intense lead pulling – constantly pulling on lead, knows to come to heel if we stop- but goes straight to pulling

2. Ignoring us when outside! No treat is good enough anymore, outside is way too exciting and overwhelming (even short ‘boring’ walks)

3. Demand barking – will occasionally start demand barking, whether it’s to play or just for attention

4. A new one this evening – toilet training regression! He has been perfect with going outside to toilet since about 4/5 months, no accidents inside, consistently signals- however this evening he has peed twice inside with no signal!! Fully emptied his bladder.

I’m constantly stressed that he’s going to be a naughty dog. He learns so quickly but we’re really struggling with these elements and seems like nothing we do will click.

Any reassurance / advice would help so much.

We've been having a few undesired behaviors from our 7 month old boy such as ripping up furniture and biting people's clothes and hands. Two trainers have told us to try putting him in timeout in another room for 10-15 seconds when he does one of these behaviors (one suggested using his playpen for timeout, but I'm pretty firmly against building up a negative association with it.) It has been kind of working, and I'm trying to be consistent with it, but it makes me feel kind of mean. Should I keep at it or am I just scaring the poor dog?

I have a nearly 12 week old staffy pup, and he has been sleeping in his pen for the last nearly 4 weeks no problems. Now if i leave him in the pen and go to a different room he is uncontrollably barking and yapping, where before he would settle. Could this be because of teething? Or what else could it be? It's testing me 🥲