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Hi guys… so I’m 22 and live in a 2 bedroom apartment on my own. I suffer with both physical and mental disabilities which I know might make you think how can I take care of a dog…

I knew going into this is was going to be hard, I’ve had a dog/puppy before but I was A LOT younger then with family who all looked after him. No one could have prepared me for how hard this would be.

I now have a 9 week old golden retriever puppy and he is the most handsome, amazing boy I have ever seen. I’ve had him 6 days and I love him so much I feel like my heart could explode so why am I crying all day everyday…

My family were very supportive of me getting this dog, the idea was that he would come to me as a puppy so we could bond and that he would be raised as a service dog. This dog is so so amazing, in 6 days he knows his name, sit, paw and he does really well in his crate.

He does 90% of wees on pads and maybe idk 30% of poos on pads which obviously I would prefer outside training but he isn’t fully vaccinated and I have no private garden.

Today I felt so broken and distraught, he started off the day by catching me while he thought he was playing but reality is he was biting and even after trying to tell him no he went on. He has been chewing on everything… my couch, clothes, computer chair, metal but I’m most concerned about him chewing my doors, walls and radiator… I had to pull parts of wood from the door and part of the wall out of his mouth today which could have been really harmful to him.

In the past 6 days it’s taken a massive toll on my mental health and physical, my back is in so much pain I don’t even feel like I should move half the time (it’s normally not that bad).

I even got so defeated that I texted the breeder I got him from to check how long the cooling off period is (I have till next Friday till it ends).

I really don’t know what to do here, I love him to the ends of the earth, more than anything and other than the chewing and biting he is the perfect puppy and it’s obvious that he loves me, he has really rapidly bonded which makes this decision all the more harder for me.

I don’t want to take him back, it’ll break my heart he is everything I’ve wanted (except the biting and destroying my home) but is this what’s best for him? I don’t want to fail and if I give him back I’ll truly hate it and maybe myself for it and I don’t want to hurt him either, I don’t want him to feel abandoned… What do I do? :((

My husband and I brought a 9 week old labrador home on Saturday. For context, we looked after our friend's labs in the past and decided that we're ready for a puppy ourselves. The first night was stressful for everyone involved – he wouldn't pee outside, he would pee the moment we got home, woke us up multiple times at night, but we expected that.

Thankfully from the following day we had more luck. He started peeing outside (consistently in the same spot which helps), we managed to avoid accidents at home by carrying him outside and not letting him touch the carpets on the way out. He's sleeping through the night in his crate which is amazing. Apart from the first night, he usually sleeps from 10:30pm until 5:30am which is great! The vet saw him the other day and is happy with the overall health of our pup. We're developing a nice bond between us.

Now to the stressful part. – toilet break is almost too stimulating for him. There are rocks, grass, dead leaves everywhere (it's a tiny rear access path behind out block) he wants to sniff and lick everything. He was sick one night because he ate some dead leaves, so now I try to limit how much sniffing is happening. This makes me worried that I might hurt him by restricting him and holding the lead right. – he's quite hyper, especially the last 2 evenings. I think that he's overtired, but we are unable to force naps, as he doesn't seem to fall asleep on his own. He normally whines when he's in the crate and when I open the door when he's quiet, he sometimes runs into my lap – absolutely adorable, but not sustainable in the long run. – his puppy biting is getting more and more annoying/painful. We were at ours wits end today when he started going absolutely mental and biting everything around him. We resorted to putting him in his crate and leaving the room. When we came back after some time (maybe a minute?) he seemed a bit more chill…

And now some questions: – Is it too early to give him timeouts? Does this create negative association and add to the separation anxiety, or make him hate the crate? – how can I make sure he doesn't eat anything that can potentially harm him. Should I try to distract him or lure him with a treat, or just control his movements with a lead? – how can I start forcing naps? He doesn't mind being in his crate if someone is next to him, but he has never settled to sleep on his own. Do I just ignore the whining and sit next to the crate? I don't want him to have separation anxiety.

I understand that he's a baby. A week ago he was still with his mum and his brother's and sisters and now he's in a brand new place with brand new people. I want to give our pup the best possible home.

Thank you for listening to my rant.

I found a dog everyone believes he was dumped and he has a microchip… I called the agency it’s attached to and they said that they will give them my phone number if they call back. It’s been 2 days I haven’t heard back. What do I do now? I want to keep him but feel like he deserves someone who can give him more time. I have 4 dogs and he doesn’t like how energetic they are because he’s older so i keep alternating him in and out of the room which he doesn’t seem to mind at all. Shelter here is high kill and they euthanize owner surrenders right away and wait 3 days for strays and the rescues are all at 100% capacity!

My dog has a torn CCL and needs surgery but also has an autoimmune disease so she has to get stable on medication for a certain amount of time before she can have the surgery.

She used to be VERY active. Zoomies all the time. Running laps in the dog park.

Now she’s limited to going out to pee and taking one slow 10-minute walk a day. I’m making the most of the walk by taking her by fire hydrants and garbage cans for the sniffing enrichment (she loves that) but she’s just so bored the rest of the day and seems depressed.

I do give her meals in a puzzle and that helps and do some frozen peanut butter in kongs but there’s still hours and hours of nothing to do. I work from home but she is NOT a lap dog so that doesn’t help that much. She can’t have any more food than she’s already getting.

She’s really smart so the snuffle mats and puzzles don’t take her long and she’s super uninterested in any toy that doesn’t have food.

Any ideas for a dog who won’t play with toys, can’t exercise, and has all the food she can already? Maybe something to do with a smell game? (I have no idea)

We are fostering this lil Chihuahua guy and potty training has been frustrating. Getting him to pee os hard enough because he is fearful, and will sometimes just pee out of fear. That's hard, but we've had a fearful dog that we raised to learn to be confident and happy and so that sucks, but by no means our biggest issue.

One thing that ultimately makes us hesitant to adopt this little guy is, he pees on his own front foot. He raises his leg but pees on the back of his foot. This is unfortunately a dealbreaker for us, as we can't imagine having to clean him up for every potty break, as we can't be present 24/7 to do so, and bending over like that constantly hurts my back due to a chronic health issue.

Are there any solutions to this? Please keep responses related to this specific issue! Thanks!

Edit: clarification

Hey there! I'm looking for a pair of scissors that can cut through nylon and leather collars in an emergency. Preferably ones with rounded tips! Thank you so much!

I have a poodle mix and her hair is currently about 1.5-2 inches long. It’s about 2°c—5°C right now. Do you guys with long-haired dogs put your dog in a coat in winter? If you do, at what temperature do you start putting it on? What are some signs the dog may need a coat or is too hot from wearing one?

Thank you to any who answer any of these questions! 😊

I read the wiki, but I need some help/advice please. My older brother recently got a new puppy he's at least 2 months old. My brother goes to work Monday-Thursday and on the weekends. My mom and I are the ones watching the new puppy. I have a disability with limited mobility in my arms, so I have to do everything with my feet and it's hard for me to deal with the puppy because of my disability. We're having trouble with the puppy going on the pee pad. I've been taking him there almost every hour, when he's sniffing on the floor. I've been noticing that he's been going in specific places. I've been thinking about putting the puppy pads there, but I've been getting mixed opinions about that. I also have been trying to put the puppy pad on the carpet, but it didn't work. If you guys have any advice/helpful tips that would be greatly appreciated.

For context, my roommate and I have a puppy (11 months old) together that we got in March of this year. About a month ago, my roommate and I went on a trip. Four days later, we came home. When I walked into our apartment, our puppy got excited and was happy to see me (not barking) but when my roommate walked into our apartment, our puppy barked loudly at him for about half a minute. This has happened twice since then (other than we were only gone for a few hours those times). Our puppy doesn’t even behave this way towards strangers that come into our apartment. He barks at other dogs and rarely a stranger on a walk. I always walk in first and my roommate follows right behind me. My roommate has a good relationship with our puppy. They cuddle and play with each other. I do spend more time with our puppy since my roommate works full time and I am only taking online college classes.

Does anyone have any ideas why this might be happening? Or how can we address this issue? I want my roommate and our puppy to have a good relationship, but my roommate is getting anxious about the barking.