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Hey y’all, single dog parent here. I feel silly even asking this question, but I find myself struggling to find a great solution for my situation so I thought I’d check in here. I’m trying to balance work, puppy, and life; after dropping everything to care for my pup, I find myself really needing to get back into a solid workout routine for my physical and mental health. I want to do right by my puppy and also need to meet my own needs. If you have a routine that works for you, would you mind sharing?

ETA:

I normally commute to work by bike but have started driving so I can easily get home to let the pup out midday. The pup and I have been together for about 3 months now. Puppy is a 6-month-old Chihuahua-Dachshund-Pitt mix, currently about 12 lbs.

I have a 16w old puppy and a 12yo dog. My puppy is CONSTANTLY licking my older dog’s mouth. Inside his mouth, his cheeks, lips. All of it. She cannot be near my older dog without licking his mouth.

Is this normal? My older dog doesn’t correct her much, takes a lot for him to correct the pup. I do correct her myself and if she doesn’t stop she goes in her playpen to separate them. But I’m not sure if I’m handling that correctly, as I’m not sure if it’s normal or excessive.

We got a Maltese puppy. We set her up with a playpen, water and food bowls, diapers, a bed, and toys. We put her in the playpen, and on the first day after she arrived, she sat quietly until the evening. In the evening, she started barking. She started barking a lot this evening, despite us playing together. She can't calm down for a long time; twice during the night she went crazy and played in the playpen. She sits in the playpen and barks, looking at me (I'm sitting literally a couple of meters away from her). I can't figure out if this is normal for a puppy, or if maybe we're not paying enough attention to her?
I try to play with her at least twice a day, teach her commands, try to calm her down, but if I let her out into the playpen, she either starts asking for attention, or starts playing and destroying everything in the playpen, digging the bowl, biting the walls, pulling the bed, diaper or blanket from place to place. She is 3 months old and we got her a week ago.
We also understand that in her previous home, she shared a pen with her siblings and parents. She ate (possibly) from the same bowl. And she ate without a set schedule. We're currently trying to establish a feeding schedule for her, but she can still leave her bowl almost full (we've started removing her bowl 20 minutes after putting it down for her). Can you give any advice? I don't know if I can give her puppy blues; it's more of a behavioral question. But I feel really sad and depressed because of her whining, and I'm afraid I might not be giving her enough attention. I'm literally crying because of her whining

For context I have 5 animals, I have 3 cats and now 2 dogs, my fiance works 5-6 days a week and I work 3-4 days a week. My fiance and I just got our wonderful chocolate lab 2 weeks ago and she is so smart and listens better than my pitty mix who is a year and half old LOL. The only problem I feel like I’m having is just the loss of time and how much more energy it takes to handle a puppy, I did a ton of research before choosing a breed and a ton of research on how to train and handle a puppy but I severely underestimated how much time of my day it would take and truly how much energy she would have, I feel like there’s just never enough time in the day, I was so used to having my pitty who is very lazy, sweet and calm and would probably run away if I tried to make her go on a walk every day to now having a puppy that requires such constant attention unless she is in her crate napping, I’m feeling sad over the loss of free time and also all of the freaking biting… 😭 I know the teething stage is hard but it is so relentless and I know it’s only going to get worse (she is just about to be 10 weeks), I’m also missing a lot of the time I used to be able to spend with my other animals, when the puppy is out I can’t give them nearly as much attention as they or I am used to which makes me feel SO guilty. Idk if this is really puppy blues because I don’t necessarily regret getting her but I just needed to vent to a group that might understand the life change struggles and see if anyone had some advice or could even just relate because I am feeling so guilty all around for all of my animals.

I recently got a JRT/Boston/Chihuahua mix, rehomed from a single mom who was overwhelmed with having a puppy. He's 17 weeks, I've had him for 3 weeks now.

I live with my sister and we both work from home. We're on the top floor of a 3 floor/3 unit apartment, so we have a couple neighbors below us. I'm concerned that his barking while we're out is/will become a problem. He doesnt love when we're behind closed doors but he's more able to entertain himself now. Crate training is going OK-he sleeps in it thru the night and will go down for naps with minimal whining. The problem is when he's left alone.

He's been alone for some 30-45 minute periods with middling success–when its evening he settles a little better. I checked my camera during our last grocery run and he whined a little maybe 10-15minutes into our absence, but was quiet when I checked later. But that same week I was out for maybe 30 minutes and when my sister got home he was barking.

Today we were out for 1.5 hours. He went for an hour long walk and played some before going in his crate. He was quiet for 5 minutes while I left, then started nonstop barking. I would check and check, still barking. At one point I checked on the camera at maybe 45 mins and it was quiet, but then when I checked back a few minutes later he was back to freaking out.

I've been trying lots of suggestions: – frozen Kong, distracts for 5-10 minutes but then right back to barking – practicing door is a bore every day – sometimes I can get to the bottom of the stairs and he's chill, but nothing that lasts long and i think he knows when he's not truly left alone (my sister is often still home working in her room). Its tricky to find time where we can both be out to practice this – making no big deal of comings/goings – covering crate etc

I know its early and he's young–if I wasnt in an apartment I'd be less concerned. But I think the general mental stress, sleep deprevation etc has contributed to major puppy blues and im just like, will I ever be able to leave him alone?

hello!

a bit of a weird question, i made an instagram account for my dog and got contacted by matchy mutts for a collab. i cant find much online abt brand ambassadors for them, and if its a scam. anyone have experience being a brand ambassador for them?

im very sceptical because his account is new and small, one post with 12 followers, and they dont ask for any payment to promote his page with their products. the product is free (just pay shipping), and i would get a small % of sales made using a code they give me.

anyone done this before with this company? would appreciate advice or shared experiences? thanks!

I'm boutta be adopting a puppy however I need some uniqe and even weird female names that start with L (my family has a tradition to name dogs this way). I'm looking for craziest ideas, like plant names, old human names, specialized vocab like nails' models and stuff.
The dog is black btw

I'm looking for a light-up leash for my dog. She already has a light up collar and we love it, but we now want a leash to match.

Anyone have recs? Ideally I'd want at least two handles and the length to be 8ft or longer.