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Hi everyone!

I have an intact 10 month old Bernedoodle. Great dog overall but I just need to know if this is puppy behavior that will naturally correct with time OR if it’s something we need to train with a trainer? (I’ve never had a puppy before).

1) Chews on kids stuffed animals and our pillow/blankets in the living room 2) Still mouthy… puts his mouth on my hand when we doesn’t want to do something; nips playfully at the kids clothes/hair/feet… 3) Bites at my sweatshirt sleeves, mittens, etc. 4) chases leaves and rabbits 5) Barks at strangers

Thanks!

Let me start off by saying, please don’t come here saying “maybe you just aren’t ready for a puppy” blah blah blah. This post isn’t to bash puppyhood or anything about my dog directly. It’s just cathartic to get it out sometimes and to hear and be reminded that it does get better. Keeps me motivated.

With that out of the way, we have just adopted an absolutely precious and beautiful 4 month old, male miniature Australia shepherd. We just wrapped up our 2nd week of having him in our home (feels much longer and you’ll understand why). He’s truly an incredible dog. While his limited attention span isn’t allowing him to reach his full potential right now, I can already tell how smart he is. He’s already a joy to be around. However, he’s very much still a puppy and definitely behaves like one and I am the one most responsible for him.

Our home is a nuclear family. Dad works outside the home long hours, 2 kids go to school (1 part time pre k), and I am a stay at home mom. We figured now was the best time to get a dog since I won’t be returning to work for another year or so. This would allow me to be with him and raise him up to be more independent eventually.

Currently, it feels like he is a third toddler and wow am I exhausted… it’s been years since we’ve had a puppy and I’ve forgotten how difficult it is. Our last dog was a standard Australian shepherd and he was an angel of a dog but sadly passed 3 years ago. He died at the age of 12 so it’s been 15 years since I’ve owned a puppy.

Our biggest issue right now is biting and potty training. First, he does FANTASTIC in the crate. Sleeps through the night 8+ hours no accidents (blessing I know) but throughout the day and outside of his crate is another story.

I HAVE to take him out every 30 minutes OR LESS or he WILL potty in the house. One might not realize how difficult that it with children and other household duties. He definitely will go potty outside but I can’t seem to get him to signal me OR to hold it for much longer although he’s obviously capable.

In addition to that, sometimes I will take him out, he will pee, and I will give him an extra few minutes in case there’s more and nothing happens… so we go back in and boom, within a few minutes he’s peed somewhere.

I give him a treat every time he goes potty outside. I label the action “potty”, and give lots of enthusiasm when he’s finished. I read that his breed is an eager to please type of dog but mine doesn’t seem to care. While he’s friendly, and has endearing loving moments between his huge bursts of energy, he really doesn’t seem to care about what pleases us or not.

Lately, as I’ve noticed I evidently need to keep a better eye on him when he’s in the house or he will potty I’ve felt like I have had no choice but to crate him when cooking dinner, or bathing my children, etc. Today, I probably put him in his crate 5-6 times varying in length just because I knew I couldn’t be watching him as closely as he needs and that makes me feel terrible.

To add insult to injury, he’s teething so he constantly tugging at my kids clothing, has ripped holes before, or he grabs tightly onto their limbs and won’t let go. I first try to redirect by saying no and offering him a toy or bone. This only works some of the time but most often he’s right back to it in minutes. I crate him less for this behavior but at times I’ve found myself just overwhelmed and have put him in there to keep him from underfoot.

I know he’s only been with us 2 weeks. I KNOW it gets better. I just need to HEAR other peoples sob stories so I can get over it. And I’m always open to advice too because what the heck… I read that they should be completely trained from 4-6 months but it just doesn’t seem like that is right.

When my kids are away at school, I do find time to “train” him. So far he can sit, shake, or scratch door when I say “outside” although he hasn’t associated it with potty yet or if he has, he’s not alerting me. He doesn’t really come when called although I’m doing my best to teach him.

Thanks for listening to me ramble. Not really sure what to say from here other than it felt nice just spilling it. Our sweet puppy is a part of our family and we truly do love him. I just needed to put some words down. Appreciate your feedback.

my puppy who is turning 1 tomorrow broke his leg this morning. i was lifting him up when he squirmed out of my arms and landed very badly. i can’t forget how he was crying after and i immediately rushed him to the er vet. the xray showed that he had completely snapped his lower leg bone. we rushed to the nearest orthopedic surgeon which was 2 hrs away. his surgery went well but i just feel so much guilt for what i put him through.

if anyone could share their similar experience and how they dealt with the recovery process that would be much appreciated!

My pup is getting close to a year old and barks at other dogs and sometimes other people for attention not out of fear or aggression. We did a kinda workshop at our training facility which kinda helped me grasp things in my approach and it went down quite a bit after initially becoming a problem around 51/2-6 months.

At 11 months it seemed to return in full force though I’m revisiting and using the tools the trainer gave me which was redirection, practicing leave it, and me adding distance when it comes to dogs in the yard that I know will bark at her.

During her puppy socializing/desensitization I was sure to not let her meet dogs on leash nor was she pet by every stranger. I can count on my hand on the amount of strangers she met before 6 months and it’s less than a handful. I think I might have messed up and not did a good middle ground. As in a little under socialized to where she’s an “eager greeter” now. So my next approach is pretty much go to a different outdoor shopping center everyday with a little foot traffic and practice commands.

We go to a training facility and when talking to them about this specific issue they just said to keep having her come in to the group classes and that they won’t put a barrier up unless needed and see how she does. So far, she can do every thing even a “wait” command for the 20sec might react to a dog right after. Other dogs jumping movement seem to excite her the most. In a class with barriers she preforms everything just fine.

They do offer one on one training but don’t think she’d really benefit from because shes pretty biddable and confident willing try just about all equipment (agility, balancing boards, skateboard, a-frame, inflatable peanut,with her only struggling a little bit with the tunnel) and comfortable enough to be lured into a lot positions that would make teaching her tricks a breeze. But we haven’t focused too much on those because obviously want to get her manners (barking) under control. Because owner consistency and persistence is important they do encourage me to go to beginning agility and enrichment classes where she thrives as long as dogs are out of sight.

I think I’ve only posted before where I was venting about how when your pup barks when excited it denys a lot of people from seeing how great they are. Also the struggle with anxiety when it comes to trying to improve in that area while also feeling anxiety and just wanting to avoid the situations.

She’s a small dog so when I got her my goals where “no separation anxiety” something I failed my previous dog with and “no yappy little ankle biter” which is something he excelled at being nonchalant around other dogs, cat, even if they were barking their head off a foot a way. But I genuinely struggle to remember his early years, we went to a similar facility I think when he was a year or so and recall him needing barriers to. I can’t recall if it was over time but I think he just really took to the “leave it” command really well then I never had to tell him it about regarding dogs and he was highly food motivated with no pickiness. My current pup I still don’t have a treat she’ll ignore something completely for she has to get off at least a few barks.

She has a lot of energy, the type where I needed to enforce naps when watching another family members puppy. I don’t expect any sort of calm for a few years lol. And besides when leaving her a lone for a bit the idea of “tiring” her out doesn’t exists. Like I tire her a bit with the flirt pole, nice walk, and makes her we’ve done a little training, and a puzzle before putting her in crate when leaving for a few hours but in other situations it just means she might pause a little more and still want to play. I haven’t considered any calming medication and would only want to use it as a last resort after she reach full maturity because I enjoy her energy otherwise.

Sorry this got much longer than I meant so TLDR:

Anyways to get back to the question on topic I’ll say that I’m kinda torn in that part of me wants to solely focus on this problem, another want to see how well she’ll do in the training facility tiny agility program, or if she’d like FastCat, or learn tricks. I spend a lot at the training facility and enjoy it a lot. But pretty sure they don’t offer one on one training where a trainer come to my house or the trainer accompanies me somewhere like outside of a dog park or where a lot of dog traffic is that she’d react to so that’s be a separate cost and wouldn’t even know if it something you can expect results in like a month or something that will slowly progress as she mature and I might as well keep with the other activities.

Hello! I’m a new puppy parent to a now 7 month old Cavapoo.

I’m seeing a lot on contradicting information on bones (whether to offer, what types).

Seems there is a risk of eating a shard or breaking a tooth? But dogs love bones and it seems ancestral.

What is the consensus on which ones are safe/worth the risk? (Obviously no cooked chicken bones but which are SAFE). Unrestricted access or only while I’m home? Only as an activity or for hours a day?

She deserves a way to self soothe IMO but I want her safe and healthy.

Our 10-week-old golden retriever pup won't stop gnawing at the bars on her playpen. I don't really want her to be chewing on metal, and also in general I want to reinforce the idea that chewing her toys is okay, but other things are not.

I'm unsure how to communicate this to her, though. Every time she chews the playpen I say "No thank you!" kind of loud and move her away from the bars/edges. Usually I try to redirect her to another toy or chew (she has a ton of fun stuff in her playpen) but it's like no matter what I do she just keeps going back to the bars. It's kind of driving me nuts honestly.

Generally she really likes her toys and chews and is pretty good about playing with them on her own, but sometimes she just gets in these moods where she won't do anything other than go for the playpen bars. I feel like I'm spending my entire day going "No thank you!" and moving her away, ineffectively. I'm also a little worried she's starting to sense my annoyance and, as dumb as it sounds, I feel like we're both getting stressed over this back and forth all day long. And I don't even know if I'm communicating to her in a way she understands. A few times today I've resorted to giving her a timeout in her crate if she keeps doing it, but I'm guessing that's probably not the right thing to do either.

So how do I tell her "no" effectively? What do I do if redirecting doesn't work?

Obviously a yummy food treat or lick mat would trump the bars, but there comes a point where I can't give her any more food for the day.

Also just to note, she does get lots of exercise and supervised play during the day where she's out of her playpen, so it's not like she's cooped up in there all day. I'd just love to know how to get her to stick to appropriate chewing/playing during downtime after we're pretty much done with playtime for the day.

Thanks in advance 🙂

Our Cavapoo who we have had 2 weeks is really hesitant about going for a walk. We live in a quiet neighborhood and I can encourage him with treats to walk. With no treats he doesn’t want to move or explore. I keep it really short, just past my neighbors house and the second we turn back he makes a run for home. Once a neighbor dog barked and this scared him to want to run back home. Are there any tips to help him enjoy going for a walk? The breeder described him as shy and although he doesn’t seem anxious he isn’t brave or bold.

I love Do More With Your Dog, they have over 100 tricks for free. I’ve bonded with my dog so much. It’s super motivating. You can learn tricks, circus stunt dog, dog acting, dog photoshoots, and canine fitness. You pay to get your badges which build on one another.

My favourite tricks so far, (4 month old border collie puppy)

• flamingo (jump through arm and leg In a circle) -skateboard -“reading” cue cards with tricks -balance beam -whisper (little woof) -off leash heeling -various tricks with hula hoops -retrieve toys by name “pinkie” “cowie” “croc” etc

Practical tasks – go to bed (go in crate) – wiping paws on doormat – get your leash – go here (point) – stay (walks out of sight for 30 seconds)

It starts super easy with sit/down/stay etc. if this looks complicated, it snowballs. The more your dog learns and understands the training process, the more words the dog understands to train new tasks.

This is super good for intelligent breeds, my puppy is tired after about an hour of this whereas walking it normally takes many hours to tire him even at a young age. He doesn’t demand bark anymore because he is getting his needs met. I know not all dogs are as people pleasing as my puppy is, but I think all dogs could get to a novice level at least