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A couple weeks ago my male 4 months old cockapoo puppy – he started exposing his “red rocket” / “lipstick” and also humping both our elderly female golden retriever and a stuffed animal I bought him that’s a puppy with a battery operated heartbeat. I redirect my male puppy when I see him engaging in this behavior. But honestly sometimes it’s just gross with his red rocket out. It’s my understanding this is just play behavior as he’s not developed sexually yet as only 4 months old. He’s not lacking mental or physical stimulation, and is otherwise mostly well behaved (minus ankle biting). Should I bring it up to his vet? I am so embarrassed and want to make sure this isn’t a sign he’s developing early or going to be some SA 15 pound puppy dog lol save the poor female dogs in my neighborhood ugh! Any tips please welcome

I have had my new puppy for about 12 days now. he's about 10 or 11 weeks old

for the first week, he was making real progress peeing and pooping outside. about 5 days ago, for 2 or 3 days, he was really figuring out that he should go to the bathroom when we're outside on the pad (apartment living and he's not fully vaxxed of course). we actually had one entire accident free day where he went when I took him out and didn't go otherwise

over the past 3 days now, he has heavily heavily regressed, we're back to maybe 1 or 2 successes a day. haven't had a poo success in 2 days (except at night). and this is with me taking him out a lot of the time that I know he needs to go

at night is almost complete different. he wakes me up at night (I'm a light-ish sleeper and attuned to the lil noises he makes) and he actually has far fewer nighttime accidents than successes

and if we go out at night, he goes potty immediately once on the pad

but with the day time regression now, he won't go on the pad. he doesn't view it as potty time. and if I bring him back in he will immediately pee or poo on the pad in his pen. he knows to use the pad in his pen, but not outside

when we're outside, he struggles against the leash, he repeatedly jumps at me to get me to pick him up, and most of all he repeatedly darts off the potty pad to pick up leaves and twigs

I can't figure out what went wrong. any ideas? accidents are fine if he's making progress but the progress has stopped and reversed

People who have cloned their dog what differences have you noticed between the dogs?

I have a 4 mo old pup and crate training is not going well. 😩 I try to leave him for an hour (maybe two max) while I run errands, but he howls and cries almost the whole time. I take him out to potty, feed him and make sure he’s tired before going in the crate. I can’t let him roam the house unsupervised either, so I’m stuck! Also I have a feeling a playpen will yield the same results so don’t want to waste my money.

Does this get easier? When do they finally chill in the crate for more than 20 minutes? 😭 Pretty sure we’re dealing with separation anxiety here. I feel isolated and overwhelmed. Haven’t been able to do much and literally have no groceries right now lol. Any tips welcome! 🙏

11 week old staff puppy. Seen in here that lots of people are giving frozen carrots as a chew. Do I just freeze a carrot?! Do I need to peel or cook them first? Any advice welcome!

I have 14 week old Shorkie and he is sweetheart. He learned very quick to use bell to indicate when he wants to for pee/potty! The problem is the in order for me to give him access I have to leave his playpen. How to solve this. I want him to sometime roam around free but sometimes in the pen(when I am working).

Context: We've had puppy for almost 2 weeks, he's about 4mo mixed breed (probably black lab + some hound). He's a stray rescue. We rent a town house with a small yard. He's never unsupervised when awake, including when he's in the yard.

The problem: There are two spots in our yard that he cannot resist digging in. They are pretty close together (1-2 feet apart) and one is directly along the line of our fence. Every time we are in the yard if he walks by one of those spots, he HAS to dig in it. It's starting to make potty training difficult, because if he's sniffing the perimeter (where he usually pees & poos), he will find his dig spot, and then he's distracted by digging and forgets to potty. I dont know what could possibly be under the ground. The deepest the hole he's made so far is about 6inches. I haven't seen him find anything from his digging (food, worms, rocks, nothing). He doesn't try to dig in other spots.

What i've tried: Simple redirection sometimes works to get him away from the spot, but he often returns when sniffing for a spot to pee. Standing on the spot and covering it with my feet is sometimes enough to prevent him digging – but is starting to teach him to dig and bite my shoes while i stand there. Burying his unbagged poop about 3-5 inches below the soil didn't help (he hasnt yet dig up the poo, but it's almost uncovered at this point). Putting a large trash bin over the spot resulted in him going at it from an angle and making the spot bigger.

Considerations: We've considered getting a sandbox for him to dig, but it feels like there's something with this spot that he wants, not like he has an instinct/need to be digging. We rent, so we can't fill the holes with cement or anything like that.

TLDR; my puppy is digging in one specific area of the yard, and I'm struggling 1. to stop him in the moment while he digs and 2. to making it less appealing to start digging. He is never unattended, but he gets so distracted by digging that it's getting difficult to use the yard for pottying or training.