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I'm getting my first pup in a few weeks. The hope is to eventually train it up to do bike trails, agility, flyball, mantrailing, that sort of high intensity working stuff with it. I've only ever had adult dogs but I've heard you should wait at least a year before actually doing all that stuff, to protect their joints. So I was wondering what would you recommend working on that a puppy is able to do during that first year, to help set us up for success?

Hurraw Dog Food

Has anyone heard of hurraw dog food? It is a dehydrated raw dog food, I’m considering giving to our puppy. I heard from a trainer that it is better for the dog and more nutritious but I do not know much about it and could not find much online. Has anyone else heard of it and have any thoughts?

Also, any alternatives recommended? This is for a German shepherd puppy

I’ve wanted a dog for so long. A golden specifically! Every time I come close to doing it I chicken out. I’ve found a breeder about 6 hours away where I was able to get on their waitlist for first pick male without having to put $$ down (I think that’s weird when puppies haven’t even been conceived yet) and then deposit is taken once puppies are born. That’s kind of the exact scenario I was hoping for. Why do I keep getting nervous? I have other personal life things that are up in the air and I don’t think it’s the dog specifically that freaks me out but the guilt of feeling like is this right right now? I have a stable job, a house I’ll be moving into with fenced backyard, all of that is good. I think I start feeling guilty about how, once I have a pup, life won’t look the same. And then I start to feel guilty about driving 6 hours for a dog. People do things like this every day. Crazier even. What is wrong with me 😂

Our 2mo old Bernese mountain dog puppy loves playing with our kitten (he’s getting to be about a year or so, not too sure 100% when he was born) and she doesn’t realize how big she is. He can’t fight back because he’s simply just not strong enough no matter the bite or claw he may try as she’s very fluffy and can’t set that boundary. Usually they just run around and it’s fine, but he can’t keep up with her energy and she (the puppy) will pin him down and bite on him (not hard enough to deem it violent or anything, but enough to hurt him and not realize she’s hurting him)

Any advice on training or is it best to try and keep them separate or? Anything helps 😅

Hi everyone, I’m hoping someone might have some advice because I’m starting to lose sleep over this.

I have a one-year-old retriever. From what I know, they’re usually not a very barky breed, which is why I was really surprised when my dog suddenly started barking at every single sound coming from outside our apartment door.

It doesn’t matter what the noise is. Someone leaving their apartment, using the elevator, talking in the hallway, walking their dog on the staircase my dog immediately jumps up, his fur goes up, and he starts barking like crazy.

The funny thing is, it’s definitely not real guarding behavior. If someone actually came into the apartment, he’d probably run up to them with a wagging tail and his tongue out, happy to greet them.

During the day it’s still manageable, but at night it’s becoming really exhausting. Every time he starts barking, it wakes me up. Some nights I wake up even 10 times because of it. Now that it’s getting warmer outside, I tried sleeping with the window open last night and I honestly thought I was going to lose my mind. Because he could hear even more outside noises, he stayed on high alert the entire time.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? Is there anything I can actually do to help him stop reacting to every sound, or is this just something I have to wait out as he matures?

Hello so recently i got am puppy he is 8 weeks old and he is unbearable with his biting and i want to ask should i just not care for now cause he is too young or if not then how do i teach him to not do it ? He has many toys but he still prefers my arms.

Posted a couple times about urinary issues my pup was having, I had severe puppy blues (actual depression) because of it.

I struggled to find other experiences of this and want to share for anyone else going through it.

We got out working cocker spaniel at 8 weeks old. As puppies do, she was peeing alot and having accidents which was expected during potty training.

At 3 months old she had a UTI. Asking to pee every 10 minutes, trying to pee 5+ times in one go. It cleared up on its own and there was barely a trace of it left by the time we got a sample to the vet.

We continued potty training but still weren’t even lasting an hour, frequent accidents and just no improvement as she turned 4 months old. I thought she was maybe a late bloomer but then we got hit with another UTI. We tried to get her to drink as much as possible to flush it out, which did work. But only brought her back to barely holding an hour & still having accidents everyday.

But this point she was about to be 5 months. I was exhausted, depressed, sleep deprived, no social life and my relationship took a huge tole. I was at the point of giving up.

We switched her onto wet fresh food instead of kibble as I heard it kept them better hydrated. But it didn’t change anything.

I knew there should be more development at this age and it wasn’t typical puppy behaviour. I advocated for my dog at the vet, and despite there not being obvious evidence of a UTI on a urine test, the vet did notice ‘sparkles’ in her pee with the human eye. This was the presence of Struvite Crystals. Usually seen in abnormally high ph urine, her urine was a perfect low ph. This was enough for the vet to prescribe a week of antibiotics.

3 days in, and she’s holding her pee for 3 hours!!! She’s calmed slightly too as im sure she was constantly uncomfortable before.

This is a huge weight off my chest. It’s been a tremendously tough few months between this and training, but we made it.

TLTR -Puppy had unsuspecting underlying UTI causing lots of accidents. Vet didn’t want to give antibiotics but I advocated for my dog and more tests indicated an infection. Antibiotics helped tremendously and she can now hold as expected for her age.

Hey all,

I'm looking some advice for my 11 weeks Cavapoo X puppy. She's a great wee thing now we've got her used to her crate, and we're slowly working on the biting with toys and a baseball style strike system (first strike redirect to toy, second redirect again and make a bit of a scene to show you didn't like it and third put her in her play pen and ignore until she calms a bit) which is going well but we're struggling on how to get the potty training done.

We've set up a few puppy pads in her crates play pen and at the back door for any emergencies. If she's in her pen she'll know to use them and occasionally use the back door if in the kitchen with us. When she's running wild in the house though she will go on any hard floor from bedrooms, kitchen, living room or bathroom. No rhyme or reason. We've tried not to punish this and guide her to the pad and associating it with the word potty, she doesn't go outside no matter how long we play, stand still etc. but I think that will start to come next weekend when we can start taking her out walks now she's just had her 2nd vac.

Just in and around the house, how do we start redirecting her to the pad. When I notice she's about to go I do lift her onto it but she gets excited and follows me off it again wanting to play etc.

We just got a puppy, 3 mo Otto, two weeks ago (hound – setter/mastiff mix). He had always been with his brother and sister (my brother and parents adopted them!) but now he has to be left alone at home sometimes, we have normal lives, have to work, go to the gym and run errands… so we can’t stay home with the puppy 24/7. He can’t go out yet cause he’s not fully vaccinated so we can’t go for a long walk before leaving him alone. The thing is he starts crying and howling and goes on for around an hour… when we come back everything seems fine, he doesn’t chew on furniture or anything like that, he just shits and pees everywhere but the pads. We need help we’re going crazy! (Also we don’t want him to be anxious ofc)