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Hello reddit, I am hoping to get some advice. My wife and I rescued a pitbull mix, at the time she was 5.5 months and about 27 lbs, she is now 8.5 months and about 45 lbs. She's a healthy pup, and we have a trainer who has helped us with her behavior. We usually crate her for the evening between 8 and 9pm, and she's up at 6am during the work week, and on weekends we get up around 7 or 8 am. She sleeps through the night with no issue. Perhaps this is why I'm perplexed about her daytime crating. She isn't trained to enter the crate on command, but she will allow us to place her in the crate, or she'll follow a treat into the crate. Once inside she will settle, and not come out until we call her out. The issue lies in the length of time she'll stay in crate – I've tried keeping her out in the morning until 8am, 9am, and even 930am – this means she'll have as much as 3.5 hours out of the crate in the morning. This was our 3rd round of attempts to daytime crate her, and each attempt has resulted in a reduction of time in the crate from 3 hours, to 2 hours, to at times less than one hour. Each attempt is usually 5 or 6 days in a row and then one or days off. She paws at the door of the crate and/or barks and cries. I usually cave in after about 10 minutes. She doesn't hurt herself or try to escape. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could extend this daytime crate season to 4 or 5 hours, I will need to be able to go back to the office soon, and my wife is a teacher and has to be at work. Our trainer does have a program that we're technically on step 2 of 3, but the issue isn't getting her in the crate, it's the amount of time. I haven't yet left the house with her in the crate. It's been 90 days. Send help lol. Am I giving in too quickly? The crate is in our bedroom. Apologies for the scattered thoughts, just wanted to include all info.

Hi everyone! My partner and I are thinking about adopting a dog. We each have had our own family dog but never one of our own. We live in a big city in a third-floor apartment with no elevator. I’m curious how others have navigated similar situations. If you’ve gotten a puppy for the first time, especially in an apartment or a city setting, what was that experience like for you? I know one of the biggest adjustments for us will be the daily routine. How often were you taking your puppy out during the early stages, and how did you manage that without an elevator? How did your puppy handle potty training in that type of setup, and did the city environment (noises, traffic, crowds) affect their behavior or confidence?

Also, curious what was the most rewarding part of those early days for you And what was unexpectedly difficult? If you went through this with a partner, I’d love to hear how you navigated it together. How did you split responsibilities like nighttime potty breaks, training sessions, or handling those extra challenging moments? Did it bring you closer or test your patience a bit?

Any tips, relatable stories, or "wish I had known this sooner" advice would be super appreciated. Thank you!

We recently adopted a 2 and a half month old golden retriever and aside from the playtime biting she is wonderful. Like the title says I’ve noticed that sometimes during the day she takes a nap and when she gets up there is a small-ish amount of urine on the floor and her rear legs and tail is wet with it as well. For example I was just eating and she was sleeping at my feet under the table for around 30mins and it happened. For context this only happens during the day, the crate where she sleeps is bone dry in the morning. She gets plenty of exercise (2 times 30min-1h walks per day, plenty of playing sessions) and we take her out every 1h-1h30 during the day to do the business and we have no issues regarding her doing it outside. We also have zero issues with her peeing indoors while awake. From what I know and the research that I did, she drinks a Normal amount of water.I just need a little advice since none of our previous dogs have had this problem, thanks in advance!

We picked up our gorgeous new baby girl puppy Bowie 2 days ago.

Shes 11 weeks old and a Show cocker spaniel from a reputable breeder…totally gorgeous in every way.

My husband and I have both had family dogs but never had to train a puppy…and if I’m honest – we’re a bit green about what we’re supposed to do now!

She’s sleeping in her crate at night which is great. Whines a tiny bit, sleeps for a good 5 hours, wakes up and whines and she’ll have pooped in her crate. Then sleeps again till 7am.

Her first vaccinations are on Thursday so we can’t take her out just yet…and we have fox cubs living in our neighbours garden so we have been exclusively using puppy pads until she’s vaccinated properly to be safe.

So far she’s done a couple of wees on the puppy pads but also a lot not on them. We’re yet to have a poop outside of the crate in the night or today just randomly on the floor…help here would be great!

Main things I think we need help with are: • crate training (she cries if she’s in it in the day) • how long should we ignore her for in the crate outside of bedtime? • how can we socialise her or keep her happy before fully vaccinated? • any tips on toilet training!! • recall with her name • bath advice (for those times when she’s walked through her wee or poop) • anything else I’ve missed!!!

She’s super cuddly and just wants to be with us all the time. Happily plays with her toys and already doing sit and paw (sometimes). Our ragdoll cats are happily sitting near her and not hissing etc so that’s really good…and she’s great with eating her food and having water etc.

Anything that anyone can give in terms of advice would be amazing. We’re total novices and doing as much research as we can to become the best doggy parents that we can.

Thanks in advance!

Ok so currently my spouse is working from home around 4 days a week and I am working from home the one day he is in the office, so our 10 week old puppy is never alone (unless there’s a meeting that needs to happen on another floor.

Now, there may be a change and my spouse may have to go in the office more frequently…or maybe we have to go out on the weekend…how do you manage?

I know there’s dog walkers…but we aren’t keen on letting strangers having access to our home.

Puppy daycare adds up really darn quick too.

Growing up with I had dogs we just..left the house. It just happened. We never crate or pen trained…dogs always had access to the house….so I feel like I’m over thinking things?

I just feel like it’s impossible…or it will be a year or two before we can just leave him home alone for long periods of time…how do people manage?

Hello,

Looking for advice regarding the 4-5mo teething stage for our Golden Aussie aggressive chewer.

He has Nylabones and Benebones for puppies and he does fine with those for about 10-15 minutes before he gets bored. We were giving him cow ears but he can finish an entire cow ear in less than an hour, so I started limiting him to half a cow ear when we feed them to mitigate stomach upset. He likes his Toppl but it uninterested in filled Kongs. Now he has started destroying his crate mats and beds. He gets three walks a day + training and I try to keep him entertained but sometimes I just want a moment 😮‍💨

Anyone have advice on: A. Safe chews for large breed aggressive chewers that he can’t finish in one sitting B. Crate mats/beds that he can’t easily rip apart

TIA

We have a five month old Vizsla puppy who is very affectionate and has not shown any aggression before. The other day, she was chewing on a bully stick and I went to scratch her behind the ears like I have done hundreds of times prior, and she produced a very unexpected low growl. She has never done that before when taking toys, playing or when eating so it caught me off guard. Today while she was chewing on another bully stick, our daughter walked up to her and she produced another unexpected low growl and “snapped” at her. There was no contact but I was alarmed just the same. Any advice on how to nip this behavior before it gets any worse? We’ve made it a point since day one working on hand feeding, “take it/leave it”, drop it etc. Do we stop giving her these high value treats? Shes also enjoyed chewing on benebones and nylabones but I keep reading that those aren’t good for her teeth so we stopped giving those to her recently.

Appreciate any advice!