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Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice on potty training our puppy—we’re a bit unsure if we’re doing things the right way.

We live in a ground-floor apartment, which makes things slightly tricky. Unfortunately, we can’t take him out for walks yet because he hasn’t completed all of his vaccinations. To work around this, we’ve bought a grass patch and placed it outside for him to use as his toilet area.

So far, it’s been a bit of a mixed experience. Sometimes he’ll go outside on the grass patch on his own, which is great. Walking him out to the grass mat works sometimes, and placing him directly on it also works sometimes—but it’s not consistent. He’s had a few accidents inside: he’s pooped on our kitchen floor mat twice, just outside the mat twice, and used the grass pad properly a couple of times as well. Pooping seems to be the bigger issue compared to weeing.

We do try to stay on top of it. We take him out frequently, and we usually leave the door open so he has access to the grass patch. When he needs to wee, we take him out of the crate and straight outside to go, then back into the crate afterwards.

We’re trying to figure out the best way to teach him to only go outside. Would it help to put him on a lead and keep him on the grass patch until he wees or poos, then reward him with a treat straight after? Or is there a better approach we should be taking?

Any tips, routines, or training methods that have worked for you would be really appreciated. We just want to set him up with good habits early on.

Thanks so much in advance!

gente acabou o gosto daquele produto para mordidas na minha mão e agora o gosto amargo não saiu por nada, alguém tem alguma dica?

Ela é uma vira-lata, tem 3 meses, tenho ela faz uns 5 dias. Já fazem uns 4 dias que to com o gosto Já tentei passar álcool, detergente etc.

About two weeks ago we rescued a four month old German Shepard pitbull mix from a bad environment that has given him the WORST separation anxiety. My partner and I had talked about getting a dog (not a puppy) as our first furry friend and this puppy kind of fell into our laps way sooner than expected after pulling at our heart strings. Now feeling way in over our heads with how demanding he is, and I can’t help but feeling like we made a mistake. We live an active lifestyle that is good for him and I can take him to work with me so he really isn’t alone that often right now, but the issue is that I have to walk away from my desk to deal with people about 5 times a day at about 15 minute intervals, which he is NOT ready for. We’ve been doing diligent separation anxiety training and have started to crate train (he used to be locked in a crate for 8+ hours a day so it’s very slow going); but I can now leave the house for about 10 seconds when he’s in his “place” before getting up to look for me. Really looking for any advice on how to possibly help him understand that I’m always coming back? Idk if I have enough time or energy for a puppy with these issues but he’s already bonded with me so heavily that it would be traumatic re-homing him again and I love him. I’m just concerned for my job because when I do walk away from my desk, he barks and whines until I return which is incredibly disruptive for my coworkers and the customers.

For reference, he has a raised bed we’ve been using as his point of reference or “place”, where he gets all his high value puppy bones and we do our separation training from which comes to work with me. The space in my office gives him about a ten by ten space that he can roam around in which is blocked off by a large dog pen. He won’t sleep on his raised bed but will at my feet under my desk. He doesn’t bark or wake up when customers or my coworkers walk by or when the phone rings. But as soon as I step out of the penned off space (even after putting him on his bed and he can still see me) he immediately pushes at the pen and howls until I come back in. Last week I put him in a closed office space when I had to leave but that was worse for him even though it was less disruptive to everyone else. Any advice on helping him? I’m so exhausted and I can’t lose my job but don’t want to have to start crating him again sooner than he’s ready, or re-homing him to someone that has more time for him.

Hey,

We have a puppy she’s a shepherd x around 18-19 weeks old,

She started submissive peeing around 11 weeks. Cowering and just letting her bladder go.

I haven’t done really any discipline, as soon as she started I started being the “fun” one doing the training with treats, the feeding, walks, playing the back yard etc.. some days are good and she doesn’t do it at all but then something changes and for a week I can’t even talk to her and she’s peeing everywhere. It’s getting really tough as my wife is basically solo parenting this puppy and I have to ignore her. Not sure what to do to try and get her over this. I talk in a higher pitched voice. Get down to her level, do 0 correcting, watch my hand placement when I pet/play with her.

Any advice or anyone else dealing with this.

I’ve posted about my cairn terrier puppy here before on here but he’s 15 weeks and has been with me since 8 weeks.

We’ve lived in a rural area with a big yard with my parents while I was looking for a job in the city. So he’s had a huge yard to explore.

We just moved yesterday and in some ways he seems fine but in others he just seems so confused. I know that’s normal, taking him from one environment to the next but I just feel so bad.

I have a private patio with grass which is super helpful for quick potties but he seems super scared of it. He’ll pee but run back inside and won’t poop. He does poop on the lawn in front of the building but again he just seems so confused and he whines. I’ve had him meet so many people in our time together but still, he’s never seen so many.

There’s so many sounds like at 5 he woke up scream barking because someone in the apartment building next door opened the outside door. It happened a couple more times after that. He was consolable but I feel bad for my neighbors.

I know I’m describing normal puppy things that happen during a transition but I’m terrified that he’s going to be depressed and never adjust. How can I make this smooth? I’m afraid that 7 weeks in the country have him expectant of that sort of lifestyle and he’ll never grow out of it. There’s so many parks in this city but I’m waiting until he’s more adjusted to take him. A trainer is coming on Tuesday to the apartment to assess how to go forward with training, and he’s enrolled in her 5 week puppy kindergarten class with me and other puppies and their owners for training.

I just have so much guilt

Hi all,

Just looking for some advice. We recently got a new Australian Shepard puppy and we also have an older (12 years) Sheltie mix. The puppy obviously needs to be fed more often than our older girl, and so at the moment he gets fed at different times. When we feed him on his own (in his own space) he displays no resource guarding behaviour and is completely fine while eating. However, over the past week, when we feed our older girl by herself, he freaks out when he hears me pouring her food, beelines straight to her food bowl and starts eating her food. When I’ve tried to take him away from her bowl, he has nipped at me. She also snaps at him to try get him to stop (no physical contact, just a bark) but he won’t listen. Just looking for some advice as I can’t find anyone else on the internet who has experienced resource guarding in this specific way, and since he only does it while she’s eating I’m not 100% how to go about correcting it (obviously other than making sure he’s not near her at all when she’s eating). Please let me know if I need to be concerned and how we can go about training him to stop this. Thanks!

Hi! I have a 16 week old golden retriever puppy, a 6 year old golden, and 9 year old husky. Leaving Florida soon to drive back to Massachusetts. Takes 27 hours plus any stopping for gas etc. I have a pick up truck where the back seat folds up. 2 adults in front seat. We don’t stop overnight dogs don’t like hotels and bark at every noise. What’s the best way to travel with all 3? I’ve done it many times with my older two dogs. Puppy is not fully house broken so worried about accidents, puppy getting squished by other two anyone travel long distances with 3 dogs before?

Hey guys

We live in an apartment not far from downtown Denver and have a walk out patio with a grassy area right in front. Other dogs that live in the building use the grassy areas to go potty on a daily basis. Since we will be getting our pup at 8 weeks without full vaccinations, is it okay to have him go potty in these areas? Any advice/similar situations would be appreciated!

Edit: he is a long haired mini dachshund, currently 4 weeks old.

Our 15 week old crazy girl is a jumper. We’ve tried ignoring her, standing on the leash, rewarding her for not jumping, rewarding her for the behaviour we like. No one touches her while she’s on her back two legs so she’s not getting positive reinforcement for the jumping. She still constantly jumps up on us, the cupboards, the pen gate. Shes also a land shark which makes the jumping so much worse.

I’d love ANY and ALL suggestions on how to stop this behaviour.

Thanks ☺️