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I have a 5 month old ACD/pit mix. She is a sweetheart, but she’s intense, mouthy but getting a lot better at redirecting to toys, high energy, and smart as heck. Things are going well now. We have a solid routine, we’re working with a trainer, and seeing improvements daily both in behavior and in her bonding with us – we’ve had her for 1 month now.

I have two young kids though and I’m nervous about adolescence and a potential regression, especially since she’ll be larger and stronger. She weighs 20 lbs now, so I’m guessing she’ll be somewhere around 40 lbs full grown.

I’m curious to hear from others who have high energy, medium to large sized working dog breeds and small children and how it went or how it’s going in adolescence.

As the title says! I got a mini dachsund (4m) 2 weeks ago and we have him trained to go outside but he doesnt go on the fake grass we put out there. If anything he goes everywhere but the grass lol. I wouldnt mind but i'm going through a lot of paper towels cleaning up his pee on my wood patio, is there a way to train them to go in one spot? We tried using the scent markers on the pads and enzyme removal sprays on the patio, but he bypasses all of that.

More info: I want to take him on walks to go potty but the vet says to wait to get all his vaccines. He just needs his last bordetella and rabies shot before he can go on his first walk. He should be getting both end of this month/early next month. For now its the fake grass in the patio.

Hi,

I've posted on this subreddit once for some help with getting my puppy (now turning 15 weeks soon) to be okay with us brushing him which was extremely helpful and thought I'd try again. For some context, he's a cavoodle, and the family dog. My mum and brother (15) have always wanted a dog. After some discussion, research and consideration we bought home our puppy (who was 8 weeks at the time).

Since we've bought him home, we started crate training right away. He's quite a nervous and shy puppy so it naturally took him longer to grow accustomed to his crate. At first it took him 10-15 minutes to settle, sometimes longer. We sit next to his crate, play white noise, and would reach into the crate and rest our hand to help him settle. At puppy school the trainer suggested we introduce the world 'calm', we has helped noticeably. We have also incorporate play around his plate, only give him lick mats and kongs when he's in his crate to create positive associations. He now settles much quicker, but will cry and whine sometimes if we get up and leave him while he's falling asleep.

We've been trying to train him to spend time alone without being unsettled and anxious. We crate him, leave for a couple seconds, mark and reward. We've worked up to 30-40 seconds on average and just shy of 50 seconds on a good day.

During the day, I (20F) often have work (9-3) and my brother has school. My mum is able to come home for an hour or two everyday after his nap to take him out, play with him, feed him etc. So far that has been working well as he sleeps for quite some time in the mornings in his crate. My main concern is that because he's been around us for most of his waking moments, he will be anxious and remain clingy as he grows. We don't give him constant attention when he's awake. We usually do a short training session, play/walk, have some downtime for him where he plays with toys alone or is just there while we do other things, and then a small training session before he's back in his crate. When we first bought him home he would drop whatever he was doing if we moved away from him. This has improved, although he will follow us if we're out of his sight for too long. I'm also afraid that as he gets older he won't want/need to nap as long, and that will make it difficult on the days I have uni classes (1-3 hours + 30 minute commute). I don't want him to be anxious, whining and just distressed while we are gone.

I'm very open to any advice anyone has, and just for some reassurance overall. Was your pup also like this? Am I doing the right thing? I'm so afraid I'm doing something wrong. I've consulted with his puppy school trainer, offered through our local vet, who said he should become more confident and okay with time as we saw a significant improvement over the 4 weeks he had puppy school. I'm just afraid that if he wakes up while we're gone, and my mum is still making her way home, he will become distressed and we will lose all progress we've made with him. Sorry this reads a bit like a vent. It's been a stressful month :,) but I love him dearly and want to do whatever is best for him.

hi! long one here…

so we have a 16 week old golden retriever. he hasn’t been an easy puppy so far, but between 8-12 weeks he responded really well to training; he picked up sit, down, up, middle, and heel training was going really well too! he also (after lots of work!) is fully crate trained and settles fine in there, sleeps through the night etc.

BUT

he has me tearing my hair out the last few weeks. his food drive has plummeted, so i’m finding it near on impossible to keep up with his training and it’s resulted in lots of unwanted behaviours…

– he is truly terrible at walks. even though i was training heel very early on, he will not respond to treats at all when we’re outside and just constantly pulls on the lead / jumps everywhere. i think the issue is that he has zero engagement with me. we’ve really struggled with name training as he just doesn’t respond to it at all despite daily training with lots of high value treats.

– i feel like i get no engagement from him at all most of the time. he doesn’t respond to his name or come to me when i call, even if i have the best treats. the only time he seems to be engaged with me is when i have him in my lap feeding him a frozen carrot or scratching his belly 🥺

– he gets overstimulated very easily and will start biting / nipping non stop. i know this is somewhat normal for a pup but it just seems to be all the time! he is getting enough sleep (18 hours on a good day) so it’s not always down to overtiredness

– he won’t ever let me put his harness or collar on without going nuts at my hands and biting and growling

– he doesn’t ever settle outside the crate/pen. we use kongs, long chews etc but whenever we try to chill with him he just gets too excited and wants to bite / chew everything.

any advice would be so helpful. i’m really struggling with the puppy blues this week, i love him to bits but i find i’m mostly just frustrated with him at the moment 🙁

is this all just normal puppy behaviour or are there things i could do to help?

I’m getting a dog (golden retriever, 8 weeks) and I’m having a hard time swallowing the $20-30 price tag for a single westpaw toppl.

Competitors are freezball and honeypot, which can be less than half the price.

I see comments from people that they stick with toppl because it has a hole in the side, so their dog won’t accidentally get stuck and suffocate. But those people ALSO say the pay for accessories to *plug the hole*.

So…I’m trying to figure out if I really need to buy toppls for safety of mind that my dog is safe, or if the risk of suffocation is the same in both toys since people plug the hole in the toppl.

Input appreciated!

Hi all, I am looking for a bit of advice/reassurance please!

We have a 6-month old puppy (Maple, yorkie x jack russell) who’s hardly ever been left alone. Between me and my partner working from home and taking her out with us most weekends, she’s almost always had company. We’re really lucky to be able to spend so much time with her, but we’re starting to worry we may have set her up for separation anxiety. At the moment we don’t need to leave her, but we’d like her to be comfortable being alone for an hour or two if needed, as things do come up and we sometimes have to scramble to adjust plans.

We’ve recently started leaving her alone for 15-20 minutes and plan to build it up gradually (we started with just a few minutes at first), but she cries and barks a lot when we leave. We’ve even heard her barking from outside when coming home, so I’m worried she might be doing it the whole time. Is that normal at this stage?

We leave her with things like a snuffle mat, puzzle toys, or a frozen Kong, but she doesn’t always seem interested when we’re gone (sometimes treats are left). When we’re working from home she’s quite independent – she’ll sleep, play on her own, and is fine going into other rooms or when doors are closed. She’s also stayed overnight at my mum’s house with no issues, so she is happy being with people other than the two of us.

She isn’t crate trained which I know can be a bit of a mixed topic but she just did not take to the crate at all even after a long time of trying. She loves her bed and happily spends time in it. When we leave her alone, we leave her in the living room which is where her bed and all of her toys are.

Have we left this too late at 6 months? Will the barking settle with practice, or is there something else we should be doing to make this easier for her? I just don’t want her to be so stressed out 🙁

Thanks so much in advance!

I know I live in a tick prone area (northern Illinois), and already this year, I have found several ticks on my dog… Now, I frequently take my dog on hikes and walks in spots with some tall grass, so finding ticks is really no surprise… Since he was a puppy, my dog has been constantly on Simparica Trio… So I am not super worried about him… but recently I found a tick crawling off him into my bed. I caught it, but I REALLY DO NOT want any ticks crawling on me in my sleep.

So I am really just looking to see if anybody had success bug sprays on a dog… I know people often spray bug sprays on themselves to ward ticks off, so I figured something similar could help with a dog. I know nothing will work 100%, but if I could prevent at least a few ticks from crawling on him in the first place, it would be a success.

Thanks for the tips!

My dog has recently stopped eating his regular meals, and I’m starting to get a bit concerned. There haven’t been any major changes to his food or daily routine, but he just doesn’t seem interested in his usual dog food anymore.

What’s confusing is that he’ll still eat treats or anything I’m holding, just not the food in his bowl. Other than that, his behavior seems pretty normal — he’s still active, playful, and doesn’t look sick.

I’m not sure if this is just picky eating or something I should take more seriously. Has anyone experienced something similar with their dog? At what point would you recommend going to the vet?

Appreciate any advice or insight, thanks in advance.

My dog gets super excited about puzzle toys for the first few days, then completely ignores them. I’m not sure if he’s getting bored or just figuring them out too fast. Do you rotate yours, or have any that actually hold attention longer? Curious what’s worked for others.

Hi so I actually have owned a dog – she was a pug – and though I had a really great experience with her, training her was an absolute nightmare because that was when I was a first time dog owner, my ex was a germaphobe (puppies get messy!), and she is naturally a rather stubborn breed.

I am owning a puppy for the first time in 6 years, and I am scared shitless that: One, he won't get along well with my existing cats, Two, but I'll do it very poor job of training him, and Three that we never really end up bonding. Your advice, opinions, solicited comments, would all be welcome. Help a fellow out.