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Hey everyone! 👋

So we’re finally getting our Havanese puppy on December 29th — he’ll be 12 weeks old by then! We actually arranged this date with the breeder because we were going on holidays before that, and it just would’ve been too complicated to bring him home earlier.

The upside is that when we do bring him home, we’ll have three full weeks off to focus 100% on him — training, bonding, and just getting him settled in.

But lately I’ve been getting a bit nervous… he’s been growing up in a really rural, countryside environment, and we live right in the city center of Paris. I’m worried that the sudden change at 12 weeks — new people, new noises, new smells, traffic, etc. — might be overwhelming or affect his socialization window.

Has anyone else brought a puppy home around that age from the countryside to a busy city Did your pup adapt okay? Any tips on helping him adjust smoothly without too much stress? Should I be doing anything special to make sure he gets enough socialization in that first week or two?

I just want to make sure we’re setting him up for success — we’re so excited to welcome him, I just don’t want the big change to be too much for the little guy.

Hi everyone,

Our mini schnauzer (male) has suddenly become disinterested in his lunch right after he turned 5 months old. He still eats his breakfast and dinner.

We had initially planned to stop feeding him lunch at around 6 months old but this may be a natural point to stop (especially if he’s disinterested and not eating it). We don’t want to keep wasting food either!

When did you all stop feeding your dogs lunch/the third meal?

TYIA!

Brought my 8 week old puppy home almost 2 weeks ago. She’s been an absolute angel so far. She came pretty much crate trained from the breeder. She hasn’t woken up once at night. Potty training is going very well with minimal accidents. She learned “sit” “down” and “shake” in a few days. She doesn’t chew on anything besides her toys and she’s an overall very calm good girl.

This is my first ever puppy and so far it’s been a breeze. Did I get lucky?

My puppy will sleep in her crate in the office with me and I can close the door and she will nap. But when it’s night time and I close the door, she freaks out. Why might this happen? What can we do to prevent it and get better with it? Will this just work itself out over time if we continue to make her nap in the crate during the day and feed her meals in the crate? Let me know. Thank you!

Hey guys, I’m looking for a bit of advice here. My family and I had a dog (a lab mix) for about 6 years, but she died last year after an accident 🙁 My family has been mourning her for over a year now, and recently we decided it’s time for us to get another dog. What prompted this was an intruder tried to break in our house, and my parents realized if our dog had still been alive she probably would’ve been at her usual spot in the front yard barking and the intruder wouldn’t have made an attempt on our house. But also, beneath all that, we’ve been contemplating if we should get another dog, and my mom has stated that she plans on getting another dog at some point— we’re a dog family now, since we’ve owned a dog once, we’ll always be wanting a dog.

My parents had oddly specific requirements for a dog, like it should be medium-ish small sized but over 20lbs and under 30lbs. It should be a good watch dog, and be okay spending time on its own, etc. etc. After hours and hours of research, I thought maybe a Shiba Inu could be a good match, and I reached out to some applications about a Shiba puppy available, and things moved pretty quickly and now we’re meeting with a puppy that’s being fostered by this couple on Friday.

But later on when I told this to my friend, who is a veterinary assistant, she said that she doesn’t recommend we get a Shiba. She says that my dad works all day and comes home at night, my mom is gone half the year to live in a different country for work, and I’m an unemployed recent college graduate who doesn’t have a job but i might/that’s what i want to work towards. She said that we’re not stable enough for a Shiba, since they’re higher maintenance/higher energy/could be aggressive without training. She suggested I get a smaller breed, such as a Pomeranian, instead. I keep thinking over this again and again. Yes, my parents aren’t as available, and my career prospects are random and unpredictable (I’m trying to get a job in the film industry, so i could literally book a job tomorrow, or not get a job for two more years) and if I did MIRACULOUSLY get a job right now, I would have to live in Los Angeles in an apartment, but I’ve been home for months after graduation just working on my own projects, and i felt like I had come up with a whole plan to take care of the Shiba best i can, to take it on walks everyday, socialize it, take it to the park, to the beach, get it in puppy training classes—

She’s worried because our last dog, a lab mix, was high energy, and we weren’t able to match her energy that well, and she said Shibas are higher energy and higher maintenance.

I’m not sure what I should do. I’m starting to wonder if a Shiba’s actually a poor match for my family. Should I listen to her advice? Is a pommie, or a smaller dog like a maltipoo or a yorkie a better match for me?

Or maybe the question is more, does your dog also become a landshark demon until you take them outside and what do you know, they had to poop? (and no, I don't mean the obvious smelling the ground intensely while walking in circles).

For context, my 15 week old Golden Retriever has been great for the past 1-2 weeks of going to the door when she needs to pee. But when it comes to poop, it's like a switch has turned and she goes from cuddling/playing/sleeping sweetly to a possessed landshark immediately biting my arms, hands, ankles, feet, clothes, anything she can get her mouth on, really. She's not hurting me most of the time, it's just like a 0 to 100 energy shift.

I try to make sure she gets 16-20 hours of sleep a day and is not over/under-stimulated as much as possible. This specific type of biting is different than when shes overtired since that's more playful/accidental.

I mainly ask out of curiosity as this is my first Golden Retriever and puppy that is 100% mine and mine alone. My childhood dog (terrier/chihuahua mix) has always been a "freeze and look guilty" type where she moves slowly until she poops and has immediate zoomies/burst of energy. My sister has a lab/great pyr mix and a super mutt (German shepherd/border collie/golden retriever/doberman/american Staffordshire terrier/etc. lol, the list goes on) I've spent endless time with and they never seemed to do this, even as a puppy.

Hopefully she'll outgrow this and will continue to sit at the door to indicate she has to go potty lol.

My boyfriend and I adopted a 10 month old puppy about 3 weeks ago. He is the sweetest little guy and has done really well with training so far. My only persisting issue with him is the fear of loud/somewhat loud noises. For example, the other day (i live in an apartment) i took him out the back to the little grassy field that we go to for potty. across the field is the other buildings lot/dumpster. A garbage truck was picking up the trash when we walked out, and he LOST his mind. peed on my foot, tail tucked, practically dragged me back to the building door. It’s not just garbage trucks specifically, it could be a loud car or motorcycle, construction, etc. I feel so SO bad for him but also lost on how we can overcome this (if at all). Any advice appreciated, thank you!

We have a 14 week old corgi and we’ve had him since 8 weeks. He’s is in the final stages of potty training, where he knows going inside is a no no and will sometimes alert us! But sometimes I just take him out because I know his digestive schedule. He’s only peed in the house twice, and both were times where we thought he alerted but also couldn’t really tell. So my first question is: How do you teach them to not only go outside, but also alert they need to go? I was hoping I would eventually be able to ween him off me forcing him to go outside, and he just goes when he has to. Is this something that will just come in time? I’m aware we are still in the early stages.

Secondly, crate training. So he is crate trained, although he now sleeps through the night with us because for some blessed reason he can sleep through the night pretty easily, and the times he hasn’t he woke us up from sleeping to potty. So currently he’s only in the crate Sun-Tues when my husband and I’d work overlaps. I was hoping one day he’d be able to just roam in a confined area like our living room. Is this an eventually possibility? Or do most people never graduate from the crate because they prefer it? More looking advice/input from people who do/don’t leave their dogs to roam and why? Obviously he’s not in any position to do this anytime soon, but eventually?

Can I teach my big dog to not play with the small dogs toys?? He rips them up in .5 seconds. Or do my small dogs just have to have big dog type, indestructible rubber and rope toys now?