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  • Puppy barking to be let out of crate

    I have a 4.5 month old golden retriever puppy. she is currently barking a lot when she’s in her crate. It is when she has energy and wants to be let out.

    I try the ignoring method, but she could genuinely bark all day. The neighbours came round today to complain.

    Does rewarding her in the gaps of quiet work? Has anyone successfully taught the quiet command?

    Does anyone have any advice? I’m at my wits end. She wakes me up at 6 in the morning, and it’s so early that I can’t ignore her and let her bark it out.

    She’s only quiet for an hour after ive worn her out (through playing/walk), or when I give her enrichment (which lasts 20 minutes). She does sleep through the night which is a positive.

    I just don’t know what to do. Please help!

    submitted by /u/Simplyapinkbunny
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  • New pet owner of a 7 week old puppy

    Hi I’m a new pet owner of a 7 week old puppy what should I do if I work 8 hours and can’t take her out to the bathroom I’m doing this on my own and I’m scared she’s gonna have an accident or I’m gonna have to give her away because I’m doing this on my own any advice what I should do?

    submitted by /u/retro1557
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  • What should I get my Dog for her Birthday?

    Hey, my dog who is a Poochon has her first birthday coming up and I was wondering what I should get her or what I should plan for that day. Any/all ideas are much appreciated thank you.

    submitted by /u/Famous-Area7631
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  • When should I start letting my new 1 year old dog self settle at night and not worry about the soiling?

    Hello all. Brand new dog dad, and this is my second post. As its always difficult to find the perfect advice online sometimes.

    For some background. My wife and myself recently re-homed a 1 year old pomeranian. He's pretty well behaved, very affectionate and all round good dog. The issue is, his breeder re-homed him at 1 year and he kind of lost those initial behaviours training months. That being self settling when he wakes up in the night. We've tried to keep a schedule of 4 hour toilet breaks, unless he's acting like he need to go out. And then we take him outside. We feed him at 4:30pm, so he can empty out before bed. He does usually go pee a couple times before bed, and the occasional poop. But hes still waking up in the night to go out. The difficulty is he has soiled his bed before in thr crate and we don't want him to think that's ok to do. The crate isn't too big, about the size of his bed. We are more comfortable with him now, but still dont feel comfortable leaving him to cry out at night. We've only had him a couple weeks so its early days, just any insight people have with re-homed dogs would be great!

    Also to add insult to injury, he jumped off the sofa and broke his arm so, he's not really allowed to walk on it longer than a toilet break at a time. So we're even more aware of him crying.

    Thank you!

    submitted by /u/Stokes-Cameron
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  • Puppy barking and biting at my wits end

    Hello this sounds so stupid and I feel so stupid for getting a dog at all now honestly. But our cocker spaniel pup (12ish weeks) barks at us almost non stop and bites our hands, feet, arms, boobs. Everything. We are following the trainer's advice to ignore the behaviour but frankly we have had him for four weeks now and I am losing my mind and crying almost constantly. I dont know what to do. He also won't sleep through the night so four weeks of no sleep is making me even less resilient. We try to make his playpen a positive space but he hates it. If anyone has any advice please share it because seriously I am losing my mind. We still have one more month before he is allowed to go for walks (vaccines).

    submitted by /u/Awkward-Drummer-7259
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  • New puppy separation anxiety

    Our dachshund is 9 weeks old and we’ve had her 3 days. We quickly noticed how bad her crying was when she is not with us. If we are going about our day, she is following, but even then she will start crying. When we are on the sofa she will try to jump up constantly and cry. We have tried to train her to like her crate, she has room, toys things that smell like us. For training we followed YouTube on giving them treats in the create with the door open, closed. Leaving for 30 seconds with the door closed and then treat, then 1 minute, 2 minutes etc. but she will always cry after sometime.

    Now the worst part, night time, we know you should keep their days busy with exercise, don’t let them eat 3 outs before night and drink 1h or 30 mins before bed. Many trainers suggest putting a mattress by their crate and sleeping next to them, ignoring crying to not reinforce. But if it’s really bad stick your fingers through. Let them out for wee one or twice in the night.

    We can get some sleep, but it could be 2-3 hours straight of crying.

    We don’t know whether we should do some different training in the day, or take a different approach to night time but any help would be appreciated.

    submitted by /u/Haz22_
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  • New puppy is afraid of my husband

    Hi everyone, about 2-3 weeks ago we got a 9 month old GSD puppy from a friend and she was very very skittish, he didn’t have time and didn’t want to put time into working with her. His other dogs would also bully her and gave her a confidence issue so she has a hard time thinking for herself. We brought her home and she did okay with me(female) but was very scared of my husband. We figured she would calm down and realize she was safe and open up more. With just our other dog in the house, who she loves, she had opened up to me a lot. However, my husband is still terrifying to her. I know about the 3/3/3 rule but it doesn’t seem she has opened up to him more she actually has closed off towards him even more. He keeps trying getting down to her size, giving her high value treats, and trying to spend time with her. Our other dog tries to get her to come towards my husband all the time but she runs away crying if he even looks at her. I understand she’s got some sort of trauma from someone/thing and she’s got to learn we aren’t going to hurt her, but we’re getting really defeated. We don’t want to give up on her and really need some suggestions on how to help boost her confidence in herself and us.

    submitted by /u/SinkFun4758
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  • 6 month puppy ~ struggling to get him *into* the crate at night

    Getting my 6 month old puppy into his crate at night lately is becoming a real struggle when he would previously go on command.

    Tonight it was just me and him at home … it took me over an hour to coax him in, even though he was clearly tired and wanting to lay down to sleep!

    Once he’s inside the crate though, he settles immediately and sleeps through the night, so I’m wondering if we are unknowingly making a mistake in our training.. or if it's just a phase in his development? He has been trying to challenge us more in other ways too, but nothing is as problematic as this. I'm pregnant and I get so tired by the end of the night, so I really need a solution.

    Here’s what we’ve been doing. I’m hoping someone can help me figure out where it’s going wrong:

    He only sleeps in the crate at night. During the day, he either naps in his exercise pen or freely around the house. We have never stopped reinforcing positive associations with the crate. We sometimes toss high value treats in there for him to discover, and occasionally we also feed him in the crate (with the door closed), letting him out shortly afterward.

    He’s only been crated a handful of times during the day since we got him. Crating during the day has therefore not been a regular occurrence. We usually use the exercise pen instead, have someone watch him, or take him with us.

    The crate door is always open during the day so he can go in whenever he wants to self-soothe. He has done that on ocassion.. he even hides his chews there, so it definitely seems like a safe space for him.

    At night, we follow a bedtime routine. Everything goes smoothly until it's time to go into the crate.

    Today really made me feel how much this is becoming an issue. By the end of it, I got desperate and began enticing him with whatever treat option it would take to get him to go in. He settled on peanut butter. I know this is not at all sustainable so I need help.

    My husband thinks this is temporary, that the puppy is testing our boundaries at this age, so we just have to stay consistent, stick to the routine, and the puppy will eventually realize this is how things go. Tonight however, I just felt like I was bribing the puppy … : /

    submitted by /u/NaturalGrocery3159
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