hi all! i’ve been a lurker here since i adopted my boy two months ago. he’s 19 weeks and a mountain cur/border collie/coonhound mix. he was found with his litter and mama running around the railroad!
all in all, i think im really lucky. he’s a very good, very smart, generally well-behaved boy. he sleeps through the night with no accidents, lets me know he needs to potty by barking or going to the door, and knows “no” when he wants to.
anyway, here’s what i do everyday:
three meals a day of large breed puppy food, one cup each. he was using a snuffle mat i made but he tore it up so he’s eating out of a bowl or scatter feeding right now. i switch between the two. the vet recommended large breed food.
two walks a day. i think you might call them sniff walks, because i let him lead and sniff the whole time. both walks are a little less than a mile, so probably 1.5~ miles a day, 1-1.5 hours a day. he pulls but not too bad and isn’t a maniac normally. sometimes if he knows he has the room he will run in circles around me, which is silly and i love it.
we play every time he comes out the crate, about every two hours or when he starts barking incessantly—but i wait til he’s quiet to let him out tho idk if that’s working haha. he’s out of the crate between 30-60minutes each time, and we do tug, fetch, or light wrestling/running around together.
i also let him chill on his own, with a ball or chew. he seems kinda bored with that sometimes, or like he can’t pick a toy.
we also train nearly every time he’s out of the crate. he’s very good at Sit and Paw and will lie down but only if you put the treat on the ground.
when he bites or destructs we redirect to a toy or a chew, but his bitey-ness has been getting better and i’ve been giving him cardboard to destroy (which helps my recycling fit in the bin). i saw a comment about frozen carrots helping with teething and biting so i put some in the freezer this morning, too!
i guess… i just feel like i’m not doing something right. like he’s in the crate too often or i don’t train him enough or correctly. his recall is weak but he’s barely been alive so i guess i can’t have expectations like that? i want him to have more enrichment but i don’t have a lot of ideas for what to do. i saw a tiktok of dogs bobbing for fruit, is that okay? and also how do you measure treats vs food and calories and whatever? i just feel like i know nothing and am absolutely flying by the seat of my pants and im afraid ill have a frantic, untrained, hard to handle dog as a result of my personal failings.
he’s my first dog and i know i probably just have anxiety and some weird type of imposter syndrome, but maybe you guys could tell me what else i could be doing or doing differently?
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