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Is this normal?! My puppy pants lots after metal stimulation such as training or “find it” games! I’ve read mental stimulation is equivalent to more than physical exercise, so it makes sense.. just wanted to see if your puppies do this too?

My pup is an (almost) 6 month old BC mix.

Hi,

I bought my puppy at the beginning of February, a blue Staffy girl. I’ve brought her home 3 days ago.

However, my mother was convinced she needed a puppy too and so 3 weeks after I bought mine, she bought her own English Bulldog puppy girl. She’s 1 month older than mine.

I am incredibly frustrated by this because I’ve heard really bad things about Littermate Syndrome, I’ve wanted a dog for years and I have my chance and now it’s potentially ruined.

We keep them fairly separated. Mine sleeps in my room, they eat in different rooms, I also train mine separately. I let them play together at random times throughout the day and that’s the only interaction they really have but even that, it seems quite aggressive playing. Biting each others faces, pining each other and sometimes it escalates into snarling and barking. It’s always supervised and we seperate them when we think it’s too much.

Is there anything else I can do to avoid littermate syndrome?

Looking for recommendations for the best travel/collapsible/durable crate for my large breed puppy.

Context: My 4 month old puppy is going to be staying at my parents (her grandparents lol) house for 5 days while I travel for work.

Puppy is already about 25-26 lbs and is going to be a big dog, so we have an XL crate at home with a divider that we use through the night right now. This crate DOES NOT fit in my car. I drive a mid-size SUV and there's no way to get it in my car unless we fully take it apart and then reassemble which I don't want to do every time we take her to stay somewhere.

Instead, I'm looking for a durable and comfortable travel crate that I can have in my car and bring to my parents for short trips like this. She does pretty well in the crate, especially overnight, but I need something that's decent sized and not just going to fall over if she puts any weight into it.

Also, if you have any recommendations for helping her keep her routine while at grandparents house I welcome them! They have an older pup that she can play with, but I want to make sure she's still sleeping and has time to decompress.

Thanks in advance!!

Hi, first of all please by kind and don’t judge me too fast. I am a big dog lover and always have been, I grew up with one and always knew I would want one on my own when I’ll be an adult. I met my partner 3.5 years ago and he’s allergic so I kind of gave up on this, until I found out about poodle that are hypoallergenic and could fit into our lifestyle.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, my boyfriend and I decided to visit a breeder that had puppies, just to see if he’s allergic or not. We go there and both fall in love with one of the puppy, she’s very cute and friendly and we love her both. The breeder is very pushy with us taking here right now, even if we mention that we want to think about it. The excitation there made us make a not very well-thought decision and we went home with the puppy. The first 3 days were all about excitement, but now I am miserable and crying ever since.

I know it’s a phase and that puppy blues is real. But I have a severe anxiety, I can’t sleep or eat and feel like I am about to throw up.

The timing was really not ideal, I am in a very urgent situation where I need to find a job and this situation was already making me a bit depressed. My boyfriend thought that the puppy would make me feel better but it actually makes me feel terrible. It’s just so much stress and anxiety adding up I don’t know if I can keep up.

I’m considering rehoming her but I don’t know if I will regret it later…

I KNOW how hard raising a puppy can be but I’m just not in the right mental state right now.

Any advice from someone who went through a similar situation ?

I have a 10 month old pup who overall is doing well HOWEVER he still looks at me several times a day with a "I'm bored, please play with me". We have a lick mat, snuffle mat, pupsicle and chew sticks, however I feel as though I can't always give him edible entertainment. Does anyone have any thoughts for non-food independent play? Thanks!

Hi all! I have a large 30+ kg, 8 month silly puppy (Epirus heard-dog) and we both live in a kind of desolate farm. He is very social and loving but we didn’t have the time yet to socialise in the city, on a leash, etc.

The problem is his last obsession with going under the fence and wondering all over the place. When i catch him leaving, since last week, he never comes when i call and runs frantically the other way. Whenever a hiker passes by he join, car come to a nearby monastery he hangs there all day, he has visited all nearby farms 1-3 km away and even once the village.. 5km away. At first he was roaming when he stayed alone, (max for a day) but now he wants to roam even with us being here and on the outside. And for all i know none feeds him where he goes.

How can i convince him to stay and guard the place.. He kinda does it ( barking at the dear, boar and wolf at night), but also disappears for a day or half at a time with all the dangers that come with it?

Any suggestions?

Our 5 month old pyrador (Pyrenees lab) is showing signs of regression in his training. About two weeks ago he was fantastic with all of his commands, sometimes a little stubborn but he would get there. Recently he has not been listening no matter what we do, I'm talking treats of high and low value, luring him with toys, spending more time getting his energy out, none of it works. He still remembers his commands as he can do them when I am holding a bowl full of his breakfast/dinner but will not do them under any other condition.

Does anybody have any advice on how to handle this?

Since we see lots of “puppy blues” in this group, I wanted to share my experience of no puppy blues!!

My puppy is just about 6 months old, we got him at the beginning of January. He’s a rescue border collie mix (with German shepherd & Norwegian elkhound).

Let’s start by saying my fiancé and I are very lucky and have great family support to help us get through puppyhood!! So I absolutely feel this is a contributing factor to our relatively stress free puppy phase.

Crate Training + Sleep

We started this immediately. We took a solid day introducing him to his crate, and after night two he was golden. No pee breaks or whining through the night. Since then, he sleeps ~9 hours in the crate at night. We were lucky enough to somehow get MORE sleep with a puppy as we go to bed earlier to ensure he gets his rest.

Enforced naps: We did enforced naps, and we still put him in his crate for naps as most times, as he won’t go nap on his own most times (he will nap on the floor or couch but it’s not quality sleep). For the first time last night, he went into his crate on his own🥹.

Biting/Destroying Things:

We utilized a lead inside the house and outside. This has been a HUGE help to prevent him from not getting into things he shouldn’t. We never gave him the opportunity. We still use the lead but majority of times he is off it, and thus far, he hasn’t attempted to chew anything he shouldn’t. He had a short phase of testing his boundaries with me and nipping (also right before he started losing bay teeth).

Potty Training:

He’s done really well with this. With the lead indoors, he couldn’t go off without our supervision to have an accident. We were watching for potty cues like a hawk (still call him back when he wanders off for too long). He still had some accidents of course, but minimal & hasn’t in a long time. He goes to the door and will bark when he needs to potty.

For the first while, using a lead outside was very helpful. We also didn’t play in the backyard at first, as this was solely potty time until he understood.

Lead/Tethering Indoors:

-Settles great now and I really think this contributed a lot to it. He can also play independently.

-We have a cat, and they’ve become best pals & play all the time. Lead/tethering was helpful by creating a safe space for our cat to engage, without the risk of chasing, lunging, etc.

-Same as above, was been a game changer for potty training & not getting into things.

9-5 Job:

We both work in office (😢). We have family living up the road, and they come check on our pup in the morning & afternoon currently.

Command Training/Manners:

He’s such a smart boy! He knows: paw, lay down, spin, centre, place, paw, crate, leave it, stay, sit. In progress: “drop it” and “meal time” (so he’s away from our table when eating or out of the kitchen when cooking).

Doing great with loose leash walking 80% of time (which honestly is fine with me, I let him sniff and when I use our recall word, he’ll continue on most times).

Areas we are working on:

-Recall: Still a work in progress. Especially when he gets wound up with our cat.

-Not jumping when excited (ex. Visitors).

-Not eating sticks outdoors 😂.

-Barking when he sees people/dogs from our living to window: he doesn’t always do this, but it’s a solid 50/50 chance.

Sanity

My fiancé and I made sure we still made time for “me time”. For me, that’s going to my spin studio 3-4x per week or having a bath & reading. For him, it’s gaming with his friends. We ensure to give each other our down time.

After our Golden passed away last April, our pup has brought so much joy to us and our cat! We adopted our Golden at 1.5 years old, so this is our first puppy. It is a lot of work yes, but for us, so worth it! 🤎.

If you have a puppy, hang in there! If you’re thinking of getting a puppy, don’t let the puppy blues scare you! Just do lots of research and preparation before puppy comes to set yourself up for success.

Hi! We have a 5-month old Havanese puppy (we've had her for 3 months). She's lovely, cuddly, likes training, she's playful and does puppy stuff of course (going through teething, needing constant naps & shorter bouts of exercise).

The one thing that's been a challenge (probably even more than potty training as she's been doing so much better in the last month) is her meals.

We feed her 3 times a day, 8am, 2pm, 8pm approx. because sometimes she'll be sleeping or we'll be having a walk before her meal.

The breeder gave us Royal Canin Small Breed Puppy Chicken. We bought the same and she had it for a couple of days and then she started rejecting it. We tried to wet the food, etc. but nothing.

We wanted to stick to WSAVA-approved brands and went for Pro Plan Small Puppy Chicken. We mixed it with RC for a while, but we had to wet it, hand feed, sprinkle treats and all sorts to get her to eat. Then, about a month later she started rejecting it completely.

Then, we ordered samples from Platinum and she liked it, it was the first time she had a bowl of kibble without any decorations. We ordered a bigger bag and in less than a week we had the same pattern. Having to wet it or similar.

Every time we did follow the typical advice: no treats or just the few ones needed for training and given at least 2 hrs before her meal. Leaving the bowl for 15 mins and removing it. Also not upgrading the food immediately after a rejection. The assumption is that puppies won't starve themselves, but turns out ours did and we had to take her to the vet because she was lethargic and they had to give her calcium (luckily the investigation showed no other underlying health issues).

After that we had to make sure she ate no matter what. So we started mixing with toppers (salmon, trout mousse from Fish4Dogs, and puppy complete wet food to keep it healthier). And that went well for about 3 weeks, until she started rejecting everything.

We know she loves fish, we can tell she's hungry… but we cannot make her eat her meals. I think she could be developing some anxiety with food but are not sure. The vet said that it could just be her personality and that we'll have to offer different foods over time, emphasising that she has to eat.

Any advice, recommendations or support words are welcome.

My ususally calm dog who has never bitten anyone (even when playing) suddenly bites my roomate’s arm twice in the same area in the span of 3 days.

My dog loves my roomate and even loves her more than me. We always pet him and touch him and he is never bothered by it, but he suddenly bit her when she touched him. Should I be worried about my dog or does my dog sense something wrong with my roomate’s arm?

If anyone knows more on this, would love your advice!