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Hey everyone, my 8 (almost 9) month old toy poodle has lost most of her puppy teeth, but for some reason, her four baby canines haven't fallen out yet. The adult teeth are right there next to the baby ones and they look almost fully grown. I talked to my vet, and she said they can extract them during the spaying surgery. The thing is, my pup still hasn't had her first period, and the vet said it’d take a few months after that before the surgery. She’s not worried though and told me to just play tug of war, give her chewing sticks, and wait it out. But honestly, it's been over a month since the adult teeth showed up, and no matter what we do, those baby teeth are still hanging on tight, not even wobbling. Has anyone been through this? Did anything help? Should I get a second opinion from another vet?

I have a 6 month old male yellow lab who has been waking at 4:00-4:30 every morning for the last two weeks. For context, I’m typically up at 5:00 for work every morning. He will get up with me, go out and go potty, and then chew on a bully stick or another chew while I get ready for work. We then go back downstairs, and he relaxes on his bed in the corner or on the kitchen mat until about 5:40-6:00 AM when I put his food down in his kennel and go to work. He will then sleep until about 6:45 or 7:00 when my fiancé gets up. He hangs out with him and then goes into the kennel for the day at 7:45 or 8:00 AM. My fiancé says he’s pretty tired in the morning and doesn’t have a ton of energy. He will sleep all day in the kennel. He gets a frozen Kong in the morning and then one again when he goes back in at noon-1:00 after our dog sitter stops by to let him out, feed him, and play with him. This 4:00 AM wake up call happens even if he gets enough stimulation in the evening or throughout the day. I’ve tried letting him cry it out, but that was 45 minutes of barking and crying. I’ve tried letting him out and putting him back in, which only seems to work for about 15 minutes before he’s crying/barking again. I’ve also tried feeding him twice in the evening (half of his food around 6 and the other half around 8). Should I continue to just let him air his grievances? Any other tricks I should try?

I am a firm believer that pee pads are a horrible concept. Beyond the cost, to me it teaches your dog that it is sometimes ok to go in the house and it is the wrong message to convey and confusing. I read an alternative method before getting a new dog in 2024 and it was great. When applying it we house broke a 10 week Australian Labradoodle in two weeks, most accidents being due to a hurricane impacting our ability to take him outside frequently. Fast forward to a few weeks ago when we picked up an 8 week old shih tzu. Obviously not as smart as a doodle and we thought it may take longer, but it only took 4 days. We have been accident free for nearly 2 weeks. Of the two we had, one was within the first 24hrs here, the other b/c my son forgot to take her out immediately after opening the crate in the morning. Now she whimpers a little when she wants to go outside and will run to the back door to be let out.

Trick was….present a special treat every time they go to the bathroom outside, but present it while they are actually in the act. Poop or pee, place a treat in your hand and while praising them, present it. As soon as they finish they come and get the treat from your hand. Some people just use praise, some only give a treat when they get inside, but this helps them make the connection that the treat only comes when outside and after going to the bathroom. Pick a specific treat for this activity that is not available to them any other time. It needs to be something considered a high reward value. We have adapted this for crate training as well with a special high value reward only available for going in her crate and letting us shut the door. Her whimpering time has dropped significantly and she starts to get excited for bed time.

Nights in the crate: check ✅ Meals in the crate: check ✅

I do: ✅ Reinforcing with treats/kibbles whenever she goes in there by herself (which is rare, except at night when she's tired and puts herself to bed) ✅ Very short crate training sessions (5 to 20 minutes) while being in the same room, or the next room. As soon as I go up or down the stairs, she loses it. I ignore her and eventually come back calmly to let her out when she's stopped screaming. ✅ I do toys rotation and leave them in her crate. She just picks them up and take them out… I tried to insist and continuously bring the bully sticks/chews back in the crate, but she just takes them out, so eventually I gave up. She's stubborn as heck. ✅ I only leave her in the crate when she's eaten, went potty, did her activity/exercise.

The longest I've left her home alone in her crate in 3 months and a half was 1h, 1h30, and 2h. She was batshit crazy when I came back. Super anxious and out of it.

Why is she not liking it, but only during the day??? I have no life at this point.

When I leave for errands (40 minutes), I come back and she's completely panicked. Usually hasn't touched her super cool treat I leave her, and just takes it out with her and enjoys it only when I'm back?

I don't trust her to be alone with the cat/in the living room (baby gated), because she busted through one of the baby gates over a month ago while I dared leave her alone in the living room for 2 hours in the living room while painting my deck/patio.

I work from home, so it's hard for me to actually leave consistently every day, that's why I've been doing tiny practices with her in her crate while I'm in another room. She's not fond of it. And it's worse when I actually leave. So yeah, how do I get my life back? I just want to be able to leave for 2-3-4h occasionally without having her panic.😖 I don't want her to grow up to be unable to be alone.

Help 😵‍💫

I want to get the Febreze fade defy plug-in the one that heats up the oil in the round white canister and it plugs into the wall, but it can be placed higher up because it has a cord not the traditional plug in. If I placed it higher up would it be safe for dogs or would it still be considered not safe to have around them?

Im getting a 4 month old English springer spaniel in 9 days November 1st. I have three other dogs already and my male dog Henry loves stealing other toys. I’m worried about fights. But he’s very gentle with puppies.