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Hi everyone! I have always wondered this(personally I use a crate at night since my puppy isn’t fully potty trained but she goes everywhere with me during the day) and my older dog sleeps wherever he wants but was fully crate trained when I rescued him. I’ve heard of lots of people that don’t support crate training. Where do they put their puppies at night or when they aren’t home? How does that work? Just super curious! Thanks for any answers!

I have a Maltese and yesterday she got her vaccines done, horrible experience for me and her both because of a lot of reasons a big one was refusing to let me go back with her but after her vaccines she's started to yelp a little when I pick her up from under her arms. Is that normal??? Should I be worried the vet did something to her?

Hi all, We collected our 11 week old golden retriever cross collie puppy last weekend and she has been amazing settling in so far. The breeder had her in a kitchen with all her litter mates and both the mum and dad were in the house, along with three adults and a 5 year old child – so a noisy and stimulating environment! She was confident and very happy to come over to us when we visited and picked her up, and she is very confident exploring our garden and all new sights and sounds. However, yesterday she seems to have changed her personality a little bit after meeting a few new people – we had a couple of guys at our garage feed her some treats, and then later she met my partners dad at which point she started to become too nervous to accept anything from him (we didn't force any interactions). We were worried that she might have had a negative experience that day that has now led to her being cautious and a bit fearful of new people. Today we took her in a sling to the local village and she seemed very subdued and wouldn't eat a treat that we gave one to someone we met to try and feed her. When we got home our neighbour (female) was there who she met the other day, but she now didn't want to interact with her and was shrinking away on the lead, not accepting any treats. Do you have any thoughts or recommendations on what to do next to try and undo this / build more confidence? We are worried we have created a negative experience for the puppy and may have ruined her socialisation! Is this sort of thing normal for a puppy, and do they recover and regain outgoing/confident personalities?

Many thanks for your input 🙏

My 11 month golden retriever pup died yesterday. She bolted out of the garden while my wife was out with her and was hit by a truck. My wife and I are struggling with it especially my wife, we're finding everything too quiet without her. We had to pack away her things because we couldn't bare the sight of them. I know tis going to get better but it's unbearable at the moment.

we are in the trenches and I don’t think this is the worst yet. Puppy is a maltipoo 15 weeks old, she is noticeably more mouthy even after she wakes up from a nap.

So we've had our Kevin, 1 year old pomeranian for almost a month now. It's been a real tricky first month, he can't self settle, hes not house trained, and in his peak adolescence stage. So my wife and I are pretty sleep deprived, and on top of that he jumped off the sofa at a funny angle and broke his leg! (It's been quiet the trail by fire) He's now in a cast for 6 weeks minimum. So we're limiting his walking time and trying to keep him off his leg by keeping him in the sofa. Problem is as we can't walk him or really leave him unattended his spend most of his time on the sofa, either sleeping or with a snuffle matt or Kong so he's not going mad with no physical activities. As he's not potty trained we've had a few accidents inside, but the funny thing is sometimes he'll really be acting up and telling us he needs to go out, and other times he'll not make a sound. We have the enzyme cleaner and always strip the sofa and machine wash with disinfectant straight away so it doesn't smell like pee. The thing is hes not neutered either. So im unsure if this is a marking thing as well. We've contacted a trainer and a behaviourist, but has anyone got any ideas or tips, maybe we keep him on the floor in a bed all day? Struggling a little and I don't want to start thinking poorly of him, as we have such good times during the day, he's so cute and we just want to crack this nut 🙏😅

Hi all,

We picked up our 11 week old collie x golden retriever puppy 5 days ago. She is so sweet and well behaved and very much locked onto my partner and I bonding-wise. The breeders kept her and the siblings in the kitchen, and in the house there were both dog parents, three adults and a 5 year old child that frequently got into the pen with the pups – as such she has been exposed to a LOT of noise and stimulus, which meant she has been a confident and social puppy from the start (came right up to anyone who came into the pen, desperate to play etc). She has been a very confident puppy at home (haven't seen tail between her legs once, loves investigating new areas and she sleeps soundly through the night). She has also been confident with the people we introduced her to at the start. To work on her socialisation we took her to the garage yesterday and asked the blokes to offer her a treat (she was in a sling), which she took but seemed quite subdued. Later on she met my partners dad who is a big bloke and she didn't want to go near him and refused to take a treat. We weren't sure at the time, but we are worried these interactions caused a 'negative experience'.

Today we took her into the village in her sling where she seemed very subdued and a bit overwhelmed from the noises and talking to a shop owner. Later on she refused to take any treats from someone who stopped to talk to us. There were no forced interactions (always let her refuse the treat). When we got home our neighbour (who she met early in the week and seemed fine) was there and the puppy was pulling away from her too, also refusing to take any treats.

This shy/subdued behaviour seems to be a change compared to how she was when we picked her up. Have we caused a problem here, and can it be fixed? We have been trying to make sure we get her socialised, which we didn't think would be a problem given her original temprement, but feels like we may have set her back? We are really hoping this is normal for a puppy at this age (the fear period) and that we just need to keep working on the socialisation (perhaps more carefully/slower now). We are taking her to puppy classes starting Monday, so want to make sure we know where we are at going into those and get it right!

Any help, advice or reassurance is really appreciated.

Thanks, Two first time puppy parents.