Blog

When we originally got our puppy (who is now 18 weeks) our big dog didn’t want anything to do with him, at about 11-12 weeks he started playing with him a couple times a day, submitting, taking turns and now he doesn’t want to play with the puppy at all. The puppy is demand barking now and it seems soon as he starts doing that at the older dog, the older dog is over it. Our older dog even used to initiate play. It just sucks because we got the puppy also because our older dog loved other dogs and seemed to want a friend and now never plays. I had so much hope when they finally started playing when he was smaller and now it’s gone 😭

Header says it all, puppy blues are terrible for me and I seriously can’t understand why my puppy isn’t getting potty training.

Context: I have him in a 1x1m playpen, i increased it to 2x2m now it’s back to 1x1m after he had increasing amount of accidents.

Initially he was just missing the pee tray (he’s a boy so he just puts his front paws on and goes, pissing on the floor essentially) , he then used the tray as a bed so I removed it and ended up putting the pads on the floor.

Now he just pisses and shits on the floor of the playpen and I have no idea how to correct it. I have used enzymatic cleaners and even bleached all of his items including the gates, mats and trays but the same issue remains. Yes I also praise him and throw him a party and give give value treats when he goes correctly but recently this has been 10% of the time.

I have followed the advice of putting him in the crate, taking him to pee pad (rinse and repeat 10 times this morning per a lot of advice) and he chooses to go on the other areas of the play pen the second I am not looking. (It’s literally 30 seconds).

He refuses to pee/poo when I am watching him and will only go if I’m distracted, otherwise he is looking at me for entertainment or to leave the pad.

He has pissed where he sleeps multiple times so the conventional advice of he doesn’t sleep/shit in the same place doesn’t seem to hold and he even peed on a waterproof dog bed and continued playing in his own piss until I realised a few mins later. I have also since removed and bleached this bed.

He turns 4 months old today and I’ve been constantly struggling with this day in and out for the last 3 weeks and I’m at my breaking point.

I am at my wits end – for everyone who is going to say ditch puppy pads – he is not fully vaccinated and I live in a tropical climate where I will get a bug infestation in my house if I use grass pads indoors.

Also please keep your negative comments or “ditch the puppy pads” advice to yourself. I’m already on edge here and it’s not like I haven’t read a million posts and watched a thousand videos to learn and try to train him.

I’ve had dogs before but they were already grass trained and had other behavioural issues as they were rescues but this puppy has literally sucked the soul out of me.

He is very cute and actually quite smart (picks up commands in 5 mins) so I don’t know what is going wrong.

I am really growing to resent him and am thinking of giving him up for adoption. I really cannot take this shit (piss) anymore. Lol. It is extremely discouraging to see nothing is working.

Hi everyone, I’m planning to fly from Hong Kong to Paris with Air France. My dog is really small (under 3 kg), so I’d like to have him travel in cabin with me. However, I’ve heard that sometimes the airline might refuse cabin transport at the airport, even if you booked it in advance. Has anyone ever had their cabin pet request denied at check-in? Some people suggested I should book him as in hold first, and then at the time of check-in, ask to change it to in cabin. Has anyone tried doing that? Did it work? Any advice or experience would be super helpful! Thanks 🙂

Hello!

One of our many animals is a 7 months old Jack Russell Terrier, intact. Started lifting leg and marking at dog parks etc about 1-1.5 months ago.

He has been potty trained and was doing really well, no accidents in the house. We have a doggy door so all the dogs can go in and out as they need, even when we are at work. (They are not crated, puppy is not even crate trained).

Towards the end of September we went on vacation and stayed in a cabin in the woods. The night we got there and went up to the cabin, the puppy was absolutely terrified. The first night and day, he peed in the cabin multiple times. There are local bears that live around the cabins, so i wasn’t sure if it was the scent of that, and we were also at 9000 feet elevation. I got treats and started giving him treats when he went potty outside, encouraged him to go on the deck, and just tried boosting his confidence. It seemed to be working, and by the end of the trip he was doing great.

Fast forward to coming home, and he started peeing on our garbage can in the kitchen. He does it once every couple of days. Again, he was fully potty trained and was never having accidents before we went on vacation. Last night while we were watching tv in the living room, cats and dogs roaming around, he went into our bedroom and jumped on the bed and took a massive piss in the bed. Pillows, blanket, sheets, mattress. He has never done that before. Today i went to work and when I got home, he peed on the garbage can again.

I feel defeated and I don’t know how to correct this behavior or what is causing it. He was seriously so good before this trip, and now since we got home, these potty accidents are really pushing me to the edge, especially the one in bed.

I washed all my bedding, and just used an upholstery cleaner on the mattress and sprayed and soak it with vinegar and baking soda, hoping that will remove the smell.

Please let me know if anyone has any advice.

Hello,

We recently moved into a house that has a fenced in front and back yard (they're connected). We want to let our dog roam free but she barks and acts aggressive at the fence to some dogs walking by the house. Is there a way to correct this behavior?

She's a good dog, and really only acts like this way when in our new yard. When we walk her, she doesn't have this behavior. She'll sniff the dog and move on or try to play. Also, we'll tie her up in front of restaurants/coffee shops when we go in and she doesn't act aggressively when dogs walk by, we've done this since she was a puppy with no issues. Finally, it's not every dog that walks by the house..

I do want to say, the place we moved from had a really mean, big dog move in next door a few months ago (It's one of the reasons we moved). It barked nonstop when it was outside, which was usually all day and into the night, and would try to escape to get at my dog. I really think it affected my dogs mental state because she is a protector so I think she was constantly on alert ever since the dog moved in. I think this is part of her current behavior.

The house is in a city and we get a lot of foot traffic past the house so I hope we can correct this behavior because she LOVES being outside laying in the sun and ppl watching. It's her favorite!

In case you need the breed 25% Aussie 25% Cattle dog 50% Mutt (she has some German Shepherd in her)

Let me know if anyone has ideas!

I lost my sweet pup of 12 yrs ago couple weeks ago. He was 19 pounds and some mystery mix, hound/papillon/sheltie. Very smart, a guardian, intuitive, playful and extremely fast in his early years. I loved having such a “healer” dog who I could also do huge hikes with.

The trickier aspects were he was hard to train (too smart!), a big hunter (a few dead animals we had to deal with) and when younger was a bit yappy. Hated cats and not great with small children.

I’ve been considering adopting another and this cutie just popped up who has very similar face and personality to my boy, but he’s tiny 8 pounds. Terrier papillon mix I think.

I’ve yet to go meet him but interested to hear if people think he’d be a fit for me exercise/personality wise. Up and down sides of a tiny pup?