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We brought puppy home (12 weeks, male) 1 week ago and have been *solidly* consistent with potty training.

This is what we ARE doing:

1. Sticking to a strict schedule – puppy goes out after crate time, nap, play, training, meals, water intake and before nap. We also have alarms set 2-3 times per night to take him out.

2. Using a tracker to keep track of bowel movements and times.

3. Feeding schedule – feeding at same times every day.

4. Crate training – we have a divider in his crate only allowing enough room for him to turn around, have him in there for all naps. The crate is encompassed by a small xpen for supervised individual play at certain points in the day.

5. Treats after all potties – have been very generious with treats and praise after he goes potty.

6. Cue – I carry him outside to the same spot, say "go potty" and he pees almost instantly.

7. Locations – have been taking him to potty both in our back yard and front yard (he is not fully vaxxed yet).

We are NOT using pee pads.

Despite all of this…he is peeing in his crate and x-pen and is HAPPY to lay and sit in it. Today, we had a cycle of pee outside > crate > pee in crate > pee outside > crate > pee in crate within 5 mins …. five times. Yes FIVE TIMES. IDK how his bladder could even be that full. Is it possible i am letting him drink too much water? His bowl always has fresh water in it.

After the first 2 times this happened I had a thought to just spend more time out pottying in his designated potty area to allow for more chances to pee, but he will pee once and pull with all his might to NOT be in the potty area (hence, my initial decision to go back in the crate right after potty).

Thoughts on how to address this?? I am NOT expecting him to be perfect, I fully expect accidents to happen!! I also know it's only been a week, but this seems like a strange cycle/frequency especially with how consistent we've been. Is there something we should do differently?

It’s only day two and he’s already improved so much, but man the first day was horrible. He cried nonstop in his crate. The loudest, most blood curdling cry. It was awful, and the longest I had him in the crate was an hour and he cried the whole time.

He’s already down to whimpering for only 5-10 seconds, which is fantastic but that first day was brutal. I don’t know how anyone can sit through any more that that.

Hello! I currently have three foster puppies, about 8 weeks old, and when I first pulled them from the shelter I'm pretty sure they had nearly 0 human exposure in their short lives. I've been very hopeful seeing their progress, but am looking for some advice to see if I'm on the right track with them, as I've never encountered puppies who are so severely undersocialised before! I'll give some details below, but TL;DR is there a possibility for these puppies to turn out somewhat 'normal' given how feral they were? What else can I be doing for them during their time with me to help them progress?

To give some background on where they started and how far we've gotten in about a week and a half: When I first got them, they were completely shut down. They would just cower in the back of their crate and shake, would not interact at all, wouldn't eat around humans, etc. They had been abandoned in a box by the river, and truly acted as though they had never been around people before.

After a week and a half, they will now play with me, they get excited and wag their tails when they see me, will vocalize at me (in a playful manner), and two of them will ask for me to pet them and even give me kisses and sit in my lap! One puppy of the three still won't willingly let me go beyond scratching underneath her chin/chest. They will eat from my hands, and know the command 'sit', but don't respond to being called to, and don't quite naturally follow humans as puppies this age typically would. They are still a bit avoidant when I'm standing up and are much more comfortable when I'm at their level. They are still very avoidant with new people, but can exist around new people much more comfortably than before. They won't totally shut down around them, but will avoid them. They love other dogs though! They don't seem to be food or toy aggressive towards people, and will let me handle them (although they are uncomfortable and shut down of they have to be picked up etc, which I try to avoid).

What I've been doing with them: I haven't been pushing them too hard with socialization since they were so terribly shut down, so I've mostly been focused on getting them used to me and normal day to day life in a home. I spend a lot of time sitting on the floor with them, playing, talking to them, rewarding them with treats and praise etc. They've traveled in the car, been to the vet, and I've had random people over to just exist around them and toss them treats.

Is there any hope that these pups can become "normal"? If so, how can I help them along?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice!

Hi guys! So I have an amazing mixed Malinois that's about a year old. I adopted her a few months ago and she's incredible.

It seems like she's wary of being vocal, though. I want to teach her to use her voice more, not bark but whine and stuff. She barks a lot when she's at my parents yard and sometimes let's put a small bark when she hears the elevator but not much else. I want to teach her that she's allowed to make noises (but not to bark too loudly, I don't want the neighbours to complain and have issues with my landlord), and to reply to me when I talk to her.

All the YouTube tutorials I found are how to teach dogs to bark on command, or how to stop dogs from whining. Any tips?

Hi all! I took in a foster dog yesterday from a small rescue that takes in dogs on euthanasia lists. As I took her in they told me she was an anxious dog, and had actually been returned to them in the past because she panted and paced for 2 weeks at her last home.

She’s even more anxious than I expected, and seems to be terrified of strangers (so me, currently), pretty much all noise/movement, & had a full blown panic attack just getting out of the car and into my closed off living room which has been set up for her.

Obviously this is still very new, and I’m aware of the 3-3-3 rule and have went through the fear section of the linked Wiki. But I’m getting a bit nervous about the fact that she hasn’t eaten at all since I brought her back (kibble, wet, or hot dog/chicken treats). I tried to take her out on a walk to use the bathroom and it seems that leaving the living room is currently a no-go for her as well. And most concerning, I can’t tell if it’s normal for her anxiety to cause her to still have rapid breathing even while laying down.

At this point I’m wondering if I should be attempting to set up a large pee mat for her and allow her to stay inside the living room until she feels ready to at least be coaxed outside by treats, and if I should be spending more/less time in the room for her peace of mind. Currently I’ve just been walking inside every couple hours and sitting/laying on my back on the opposite side of the room from her w/o making eye contact, but even that seems to spur her into panting and stressing.

If anyone has any advice, it’s welcomed!

https://imgur.com/a/AC4avrc

My dog is a 6 year old female shorkie. She is potty trained and hasn’t had accidents in our own home since she was a puppy. I take her back and forth with me when I have to travel and we stay with my in-laws and are there for months at a time so she is very familiar with their home.

In the last few weeks, she’s been peeing on the carpets in my in-laws’ living room where we all hang around and spend time together. At first, we thought they were just accidents and so we began taking her out more often to prevent more incidents. But despite taking her outside to potty, she for some reason will still pee inside even after a short amount of time. Keep in mind, these pee spots have been treated with an enzyme cleaner and then sprayed with Skout’s Honor Stop Marking spray.

We are ruling out that it’s a UTI because the frequency is inconsistent, her urine is clear and does not smell foul.

Our current theory is that it’s behavioural and related to her frustration and desire for attention in relation to food. She’s incredibly smart and food driven to the point where it has gotten herself sent to the emergency vet before. Sometimes the family will be eating and she will find ways to grab our attention by doing mischievous things. I know dogs aren’t known to do these type of things defiantly or out of spite but it definitely feels like she’s doing it on purpose.

We used to be able to trust her to run around the house unsupervised but now it’s like we have to watch her super closely all the time. When we look away and are distracted for even a few minutes she will somehow have peed on the carpet. It’s hard to address her behaviour because we don’t always catch her in the act.

At this point, she has probably peed inside around 10 times and I think she’s just normalizing peeing indoors now..

We are at our wits end and don’t really know how to stop this behaviour. Would love to hear any suggestions!

I would like to start this with both these dogs are very sweet and loving they don’t get along. They are ALWAYS separated. This was freak accident. They are not bad dogs.

My bfs parents have five dogs three like each others and the other two don’t like the other three. I was getting ready for work and his parents asked for me to let their dogs out so I went and let out one (second biggest ) when I go downstairs to let him out I walk past the basement and my bfs dog was half way out of the door I stopped saw him and yelled for the big down to go outside and yelled my bfs dogs name. That did nothing they ran at each other and got into this fight. My bfs dog is smaller than the other. I thought he was going to die so I put myself in the middle pulling them apart when I did I had no where to separate them but I got bit in three different spots during this. The big dog hit my vain and I was leaking blood everywhere to the point my hands were slipping off the dog. I noticed my bfs dog started getting pissed off when the other dog bit me. I got light headed went to find my phone when I did I called 911 because my bf and his parents were an hour away. I thought they would stop the fight which they didn’t. I was screaming in the phone they were going to kill each other. A ambulance got called and 3 officers came. My friend was on the phone when this happened so she rushed over. If it wasn’t for her then both dogs would be dead because police tried entering the house without permission. She was Abel to put the dogs in safe areas.My bf got called and rushed back home gave the big dog a bath and he told me the dog was covered in blood his white spots were red and the bath was red. That was my blood not my bfs dog. I now have scars that will be on me forever. The worst part is I never got an apology for how their dogs acted they never asked if I was ok (other than my bf ofc) now there’s all this legal stuff and his mom got pissed when they got the letter for court. cops said I told them the dogs names. I didn’t do that. Thankfully the EMT lady was very nice apparently my BP was extremely low and I lost a lot of blood(I’m 100lbs) this all happened in 5 minutes. The dogs stopped fighting on their own. My boyfriend’s dog is ok the big dog got the most injuries. I’m thankful that was the outcome.

We’re getting muzzles on both of them and his parents will take them for walks far apart from each other. Is there anything else we can do?

I refuse to take their dogs out now only my bfs dogs.

In July of 2024 I rescued a black GSD. Age estimated around 2-3. From the start, he has been a handful. Extreme fear, separation anxiety, house training, crate training. It was all a hurdle. Things have gotten so much better with training, patience and consistency. He is not my first GSD. He is my first rescue. As of about a week ago, he’s started peeing in the house at night. He is only crated when we leave the home and has always been fine on his own at night. Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this?

He’s now will be crated while we sleep, but the mom in me feels bad for him. This is not like him, he’s overcome so much fear and so many behavioral issues and I’m so confused. He’s a wonderful boy. I’m also extremely angry and disappointed, I could go on and on about how much I’ve done to give this dog an amazing life. We work every single day. We are so active. He is so loved. Words of encouragement welcome 🙁