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Hey all! I bring home my puppy, Maple, in about 5 days, and we are planning lots of safe, elevated socialization time before she's fully vaccinated. We're planning to take her on sling walks, ride around dog-friendly stores, sit in our open trunk at the park, etc.

But I'm wondering how on earth to let her go potty while we're in public, because we obviously don't want to put her on the ground. We live in a city, and I wouldn't trust that any ground is safe until she's vaccinated. My best idea so far is to just not stay out long enough that she would need to go to the bathroom, but that doesn't seem practical if she's needing the bathroom every 30 minutes to an hour. I'd also like to avoid using potty pads, since we were hoping to exclusively use a real grass patch for potty training at home. I wouldn't want her to be confused about where it's appropriate to go.

I'd love to hear your ideas! How did you handle this with your puppy? Thank you all in advance!

my puppy has been doing so good on his potty training today and taking naps in his kennel and in order to keep this positivity up im curious to know some positive things that everyone else’s puppies have been doing or things they did today that made you a proud pawrent

I’m mainly asking this because sometimes he gets really crazy bitey and I can’t tell if it’s because he’s overtired or just being a puppy. Currently I take him on walks once a day (I’m trying to do two but the fireworks spook him) and let him play outside once a day as well. The bite inhibition doesn’t seem to be working he’s currently 4 months old. I’ve been doing absolutely everything, stopping playtime when he bites after three strikes, leaving the room for a bit, giving him a toy instead of my limbs. Sometimes it seems like he gets it for a minute and then he completely forgets and gets so much worse and jumps and bites me on walks. So I assume he’s tired and I end the walk. Is he biting me for a different reason? Please help he is my first dog and I really want to do the best for him.

Does your dog turn his head when he hears an odd noise? Does your dog bury their food with your pants? This is the thread to ask why.

Please keep this thread to non-medical issues only.

Which pet insurance is best for you? Are there any that may cover your dog's current treatment? Did your dog get injured during the waiting period and want to know if you're covered?

Here's the place to ask.

Do know we cannot help you here with medical concerns, and lying or not disclosing things to the insurance company is illegal so we don't allow that either.

I have a 9-16 week old puppy (not one vet has been in agreement on the age and between him and his litter mate that a friend has, they have seen 7 different doctors across 4 different clinics) that is still peeing EVERYWHERE. We’ve had him for 3 weeks now.

Since the day we brought him home, he has urinated every 10-15 minutes MINIMUM. We’ve had him checked for a UTI (he had one) and it’s now been cleared for almost a week. However, his frequency of urination hasn’t slowed at all. We kennel him at night, we take him out constantly, we monitor/limit his water intake, we kennel him if we can’t keep a constant eye on him, etc.

He never goes away from where he’s at to pee. He doesn’t sniff, walk around, or show any indication that he needs to go. He will just go right where he’s standing. He can be laying on the couch with us, will stand up, and will pee before we can even reach to grab him. He actually peed 3x in the ten minutes it took me to type this and once was on my leg while he was laying in my lap.

We easily clean up 50 puddles of pee a day. He’s a medium breed dog (currently 8lbs, estimated to be ~30 full grown) and the puddles are about 3-5mL each time.

He’s the 6th puppy I’ve had this young, so I’m not a stranger to potty training. I’ve just never had this much trouble. Even my chihuahua was easier to potty train at this age (she was 1lb as a puppy) than he’s been. I’m at my wits end and don’t know what else to do.

I will be taking him to the vet again to make sure he isn’t developing another UTI, but he was clear 4 days ago at his recheck.

Hear me out, I have a 14 weeks old puppy.. for the last 1-2 weeks I’ve decided to keep her predominantly in her pen. Before I had the kitchen area closed off with the pen in the kitchen for her to go in when she needs water or we use it as a “reset” area if she is a bit to rowdy. If I can’t directly supervise she’ll go in also.

But recently I decided I wanted to have her hang out other areas so I can do work or other things around the house and using the pen is easiest. I am starting tethering training today and eventually once I start leash training (working with a trainer, will start leash training in a few days), I want to use a house line to give her more controlled freedom. I don’t anticipate we can get to that point until maybe a few more weeks to get her use to having a leash attached.

So back to my question- I was worried that she won’t know how to handle herself if I am a bit too restrictive. I think I’m overthinking this but reassurance or advice always helps. Today, I wanted to start taking her to different parts of the house to do some training (to help generalize). The bathroom is large and small enough for this, I have nearly nothing on the ground for distractions. She started chewing the walls which is normal she is teething, so I just redirect. But I suddenly had a thought of- what if she never learns to not chew something or how to coexist with various objects and furniture..

This is def my fear talking I know I won’t confine her to the pen forever, it’s a process. But I keep hearing about some people letting their puppy have more access at this age and they’ve been doing fine.. but I can’t imagine how that’ll work for my puppy.

My puppy is almost 6 mts old. He is very friendly, has never lunged or attempted to bite anyone, aside from play biting which he only does when he is comfortable with someone.

But he tends to bark at random people and dogs on the street when he is at a distance. he will fixate on a person or their dog and will start barking. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen on a daily basis.

When this happens, he fixates on whatever he is barking at. I try to be stern and say "nuh-uh" or "no barking", but he does not listen to me. I try holding treats in front of him, but he ignores it. He resists me pulling him away, and when i do pull him away, he keeps looking back, and will often runs forward so he can turn around and keep barking. If i stand in front of him, he looks around me and keeps barking.

any advice on how to handle this type of behavior? especially when he stops listening to anything i say or do?