Blog

I've noticed my puppy will always go for the "new" thing, even if the choice is between something he really likes like boiled chicken or liver and a new vegetable or treat that he has never seen before.

This becomes problematic when I'm trying to get him to leave things/food/garbage he finds out during walks. He resource guards these things (but only outside on walks) and growls/snaps when I try to take them away. If I try to trade up with chicken or liver or pretty much anything else, he just ignores it and keeps trying to go for the garbage.

Today I finally managed to get him to leave some garbage alone during a walk by offering him a cookie he had never eaten before. But it's not really practical for me to figure out and carry entirely new treats to trade up with him for every walk.

I'm not sure if it's signs of separation anxiety or just a normal puppy phase. Basically I work from home and I'm away in the study door closed and my just turned 10 month old boy is perfectly fine with settling and minding his own and I can be in the study without a beep from him (unless he sees something outside) for a good hour or 2. But the second you leave the front door he barks like mad. I set up a camera the other day when I dropped someone off at the train station I was gone for about 15 minutes total and the full 15 minutes he was barking.

I'm assuming the difference is the fact he knows I'm still in the house when I'm working?

I've been doing the opening the door stepping out and immediately coming back in, ignoring him when we come back until we're settled in.

I was very conscious about him developing anxiety because I work from home which is why i set the boundary of him not being allowed in the study.

does anyone have any advice on how to get him to settle. I tried giving him a chew the other day and set up the camera and for the 3 minutes he was chewing he was fine then the barking started. I"m thinking of getting him a freeze ball which would last a lot longer than a few minutes. We've also got him a lavender teddy but he's not really interested in it.

My work contract ends on the 5th December so I'll have a few good week/ month or so to properly work on it with him before I start work again(which could potential not be fully WFH). leaving, coming back, building up the duration etc so just trying to gather as much advice as I can

The dog in question is a German shepherd/shiloh shepherd mix.

The 2 I’m contemplating is on that is 120x60cm and the other is 107×68 cm. I know that they are almost the same size, but which is the best choice – a longer crate or a wider crate?

I feel like I’m overthinking it.

My wife and I adopted an 8 yr old Westie mix about a year and a half ago. She’s definitely hard of hearing with not the best eyesight.

She’s a bit of a barker-which we attribute to her not hearing or seeing well. She likes to sit in one spot in the yard and just bark and enjoy the sun and the vocal musings of her people. Now the question.

Whenever we have visitors, she goes nuts-she barks non-stop and goes after feet and legs. Not really a danger, so much, as we had to have multiple of her teeth removed. She might gum someone to death though. We generally place her behind a dog gate. Once calm she can come out.

But she only does this if my wife is present. If it’s just me, she fine and happy with company, including no barking or lunging. Including people of both genders entering our home. We are both women, FWIW

Thoughts? Any ideas on how to correct?

We have an adopted dog who is approximately 5-6 months old (it is not known exactly, but almost all of her baby teeth have already fallen out). Recently there have started to be changes in his behavior, he has become much more vocal and has started barking at friends who come home or at people he sees coming into the doorway at night (she didn't do any of this before). We live on the ground floor of an apartment building, so we hear a lot of noises but until now she hasn’t reacted to them. He challenges us much more, and unless she is very hungry or there are treats in sight, he has a hard time obeying. Yesterday she started kicking the feeder with the feed, and until he threw it all on the ground and made me see it 😂,she didn't eat it.

We are first-time parents, we have lived with adult dogs a lot but we had never raised a puppy. Is what I see the beginning of adolescence? I just want to know if this change in behavior is more or less normal and I should just be patient, or if I should be worried. He eats and goes to the bathroom normally, he has energy, he doesn't seem to feel bad. Thank you very much in advance.

Okay sorry in advance for the long post, I just wanted to share my puppy blues experience in hopes it’ll help others. For some backstory, I got my longhaired miniature dachshund puppy at 10 weeks and we’ve (my boyfriend and I) have had her for a little over a month now. We had been discussing getting a puppy for about a year and doing tons of research and finally decided we were in a good spot for it (financially and schedule wise).

My boyfriend has a 9-5 and I’m currently between jobs taking a break to focus on the puppy, which leaves me with 90% of puppy duties (which is expected and what we talked about, but it is way more exhausting than I anticipated) those first few weeks were a roller coaster. We discovered she had a severe hookworm infection a week into having her after she pooped blood and I panic rushed her to our vet, then a week later at her follow up appointment discovered she also had a pretty gnarly ear infection. She’s had 2 rounds of dewormer and is doing a lot better (we’re anticipating her needing a 3rd round) and we are currently treating her ear infection. Obviously, we did not plan for any of that to happen and it really did add another level of stress to everything.

Personality wise, she is veeeery energetic and very stubborn. she is like a little ball of chaos 24/7. She hasn’t cuddled with us yet because she’s just all over the place and will not sit still. She’s constantly trying to get into things we didn’t even know she could get into and she did NOT like being in her playpen for the first few weeks and definitely let us know about it which left me with basically no moments of decompression. My sleep schedule was jacked, and I felt like I wasn’t doing enough and was getting pretty deep into the puppy blues. I did more research and started trying whatever tips/tricks I could find. I started using her meals as training and bonding opportunities (she can now sit, lay down, and even goes into her crate on command) and I feel like our bond has grown so much just from this alone. I’ve also really tried to get to know her, like what toys she likes and doesn’t like, when she gets tired and needs a nap, when she gets overestimated, ect. I also began prioritizing myself a little more. My boyfriend helped me realize It’s totally okay to put her in her playpen and take some time to take care of myself. (Or trust him to take care of her) This was something I needed to get used to and basically force myself to do.

Fast forward to today and the reason I’m posting this, we’ve been letting her free roam in the living room with us (kitchen and staircase is blocked off with baby gates because I’m psycho and ocd) and I figured it would help her get her energy out and get more familiar with the space independently. I swear she is like the energizer bunny, she literally does not get tired… UNTIL Tonight. we were letting her run around and play while we were on the couch and after about 45 mins it got super quiet. I didn’t love that, so I went to go find her and she was in her playpen (by her own choice!!!) laying in her bed, sleeping. We admired her for a minute like creeps, then silently jumped around like morons in celebration. I felt like she was finally comfortable enough with us, with her playpen, and with her environment to just rest on her own. It felt like a huge win (even though it may seem dumb lol)

I just wanted to make this post to let people know the puppy blues are very real (even if you think you’re 100% prepared) but it does NOT mean you are messing up or being a bad owner. There will be times of ‘regret’ and you shouldn’t feel guilty for it. Puppies are exhausting, but It does get better and even the small wins are so worth it. Just keep going and stay persistent and it will pay off!