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Hiya. I've got a 5 month old Whippet boy who is doing great at staying home alone in his crate for 2 hours max. He mostly sleeps, sometimes licks his lickymat if he has one with him, or chews his bully-stick, or just lies there, looking around. But I would say he sleeps 80% of the time. We have a cam on him.

After the 2 hours mark, he starts getting anxious.

I go to work at 8, come home at 10 (earlier if he shows anxious symptoms, but most of the times I come home before he shows any signs.) and stay with him for 30 minutes, play, potty, training, relax time, then back into the crate until 11:50. At noon we walk for 15-20 min, sniff everything, play, train, and relax. Then again crate at 12:40 to 14 or 14:30.

Our ideal home-alone time would be 8-11:50 – then again at 12:40 – 15:50.

So my question is: How do I increase his home alone time without letting him be anxious around his max time?

I feel like he's a little more anxious now, but I think that's because he's losing his puppy teeth A LOT lately. He just wants to chew and chew, and eat ice, and frozen leafs, but he can't chew through anything… So I think he's in pain in his gums. So I'm not saying I want to extend his alone-time now, just after teething is complete.

Hi everyone! I have an 8-week-old Pomeranian puppy, and I’m wondering if you recommend giving any supplements at this age.

If yes, which ones do you personally use or trust? Examples I’ve seen people mention include: • Salmon oil • Probiotics • Multivitamins • Coat/skin supplements • Calcium

I’m feeding him Royal Canin Mini Indoor Kibble.

Hi all!

I’m a new dog mum to a 9-week-old cocker spaniel and could really use some advice.

It’s just me in a one-bedroom apartment, I WFH (with one office day), and the last few days have been non-stop puppy. I can’t even cook or go to the bathroom properly. I really want to build some healthy independence from the start so she doesn’t end up with separation anxiety, but we’re struggling.

I’m trying to follow the “1 hour up / 2 hours down” thing. In that hour we do potty, training, sniffing games, play, food + water. But she now stays awake 2+ hours and hits overtired meltdown mode. From the 1-hour mark I’m already trying to settle her.

Daytime crate/playpen is the hardest part for the past 3 days). She cries the second I close the door (which I do rarely as I don’t want to traumatise her or make the crate seem a unsafe space or punishment) leaving treats aren’t motivating her at all. If the crate on the other hand is open, she walks straight out. She’ll only nap if she’s right next to me while I work or literally on top of me on the couch. She may stay in her crate but only if I’m next to it. When she’s overtired the chewing/biting goes wild.

What’s confusing is that at night, she sleeps perfectly fine in her crate with the door closed — as long as it’s right next to me.

I’ve started giving a bully stick or frozen carrot at the end of the wake window to help her wind down, but she still won’t settle alone.

Also some silly potty questions because I’m a complete newbie and literally questioning everything I’m doing. – If she pees immediately outside, do we go in? Or wait for a possible poop? – And how long should we stay out for a potty break in general? I feel like I go outside now with her 3 times nearly during her wake up period – Do I engage/play while waiting, or make it a super boring, non-event time?

She’s also a super fussy eater and nowhere near the recommended amount which may be contributing to all the regression, so I’m slowly switching foods to help.

We do have a lovely trainer (first session was Monday!), but I’m still feeling pretty lost and already a shitty dog mum. Is all this normal for 9 weeks? Any advice would be amazing.

Anyone got any good tips for potty training a puppy without using a crate?

So far we’re taking her out regularly or whenever she starts circling.

At night time shes sleeping in bed with us and mostly holds it through the night but sometimes jumps off the bed and uses a puppy pad, then wakes us up to put her back into bed with us.

So far the main accidents we’re having is when she starts circling and sniffing and we physically just dont get to her in time or if our attention is taken up by cooking or something. When we catch her having the accidents we just say “no” and then take her straight outside.

When having to go out we initially took her round to a family members to have them watch her but they totally ignored all our instructions for training and encouraged play biting and fed her adult dog food instead of the puppy food i provided which upset her stomach. She also returned with fleas despite having her flea treatment 3 weeks ago so i have decided to simply leave her in a puppy safe room with toys, bedding and puppy pads when we’re out (i’m able to pop back every couple of hours to check on her for 10 minutes or so, so she isnt alone for too long)

I think so far we’re doing things quite right so far but was wondering if anyone had any other tips that dont involve crates?

We’ve also just entered the puppy biting phase so we definitely have our hands full

Hi!! I recently adopted an 8 month old puppy! We've had him for 3 months now and I was struggling in the beginning but he has become the best boy, he is so so smart, does incredibly well when I train him, he has learned so many tricks, does good on lead, everything! But I can not for the life of me fully potty train him…

I've done all the tips and tricks, we take him outside as soon as he wakes up. We go on a walk, eat/training session, then another quick pee and then he will usually sleep through the morning, wake up at lunch time, another pee, then I have lunch, he has some play then he has lunch and another training session, another pee and he will sleep or be settled most of the afternoon, then comes the bad part, he will wake up all excited at about 5pm, but we usually wait for my dad to come back home, which is usually at about 8pm, for his last walk of the day. In these few hours, he will ask to go potty like 10 to 15 times (he goes over to the backdoor), I try redirecting him or ignoring him, sometimes I feel like he just wants to go to the backyard, but as soon as he is out of sight from me he will pee, and if I take him outside he does in fact pee, even if it's for 2 seconds, he does a pee. But obviously he doesn't have to pee, I kid you not there have been times where we come back inside from a pee and he will ask to go back out 1 minute later!!

Some people have told me that this is just cause he is a tiny guy and can't hold his bladder still, but he holds it well through the night and if we crate him through the day, so I don't understand where this behaviour comes from, it feels like when he's bored and doesn't know what to do, he pees.

I try to keep him on a schedule and give him lots of praise whenever he pees outside and in the timings I want (less praise when he pees outside of that timing), when I take him to the backyard I have a designated spot where he goes, I wait for 2 minutes, and if nothing gets done we come back in, and whenever we go to potty I don't play or even speak much outside of saying "go potty". I don't know what I might be doing wrong or if maybe he really can't control his bladder still and I'm worrying over nothing.

If you have any tips or anyhting please let me know!! this is so frustrating, I feel like if I could fully rely on him to not pee inside I'd be so much calmer and looser with him, not constantly needing to check on him or have him be around him, I feel like it's taking over my everyday constantly looking at this pup to check his not peeing…

We are bringing our dorgi pup home on Sunday and I’m getting nervous! We have had dogs before but they were rescues and older when we got them, so never done the puppy trenches before.

Main questions / worries are:

We co-sleep most nights with our toddler. We plan to have pup in a crate in the bedroom but our toddler wakes quite a bit and I’m worried he’ll wake her a lot or she’ll wake him etc – ?

How do I make sure pup gets enough sleep if toddler is around making noise and playing etc? Should I put pup in a different room to give her a break? Thanks!

For some reason between the hours of 7-9am after my puppy has had his breakfast he refuses to nap even after he’s peed and pooped. Usually in the morning I would let him nap for an hour (because he only naps for an hour in the morning) and then we would go on a walk. I can’t do that now without him being overtired and biting me on our walks. I’ve tried using sniffing enrichment like finding his kibble for his breakfast but he just cries a lot in his crate so after 10-15min I let him out into his playpen but he still won’t nap. Should I just allow him to be awake for 2hrs then he’ll nap later?