My 5 month old mini schnauzer is getting spayed next week. Any advice? I’m feeling very worried about the recovery! I got her a donut but do you recommend the surgical suit?

Hi Reddit,

My wife and I are on three weeks with our new puppy. He's a 13 week old Shih Tzu. Things have been going mostly well, but we're having some trouble with housebreaking him. I'll give some more details about our setup with him now.

I work in an office about 45 minutes away from home, but my wife works from home every day. Our puppy has been great about sleeping in his crate and at this point will sleep from about 10:00pm till 6am when we wake up just about every day. He sleeps in a crate in our bedroom and seems to have no issues with his crate. We also have a crate in our living room for him which he also uses, but mainly for naps during the day.

When he's not in a crate, my wife has a pen in her office full of toys, chewies, water, etc. She will spend as much time playing with him and let him out as often as she can during the day while she works. He also has another pen in our living room downstairs where we play with him. We also will let him play outside of the pen if he's just gone to the bathroom outside.

He's pretty good about going to the bathroom outside. We have only had two total poops in the house (none in a couple weeks,) but we are still getting at least one pee accident per day, even if we are letting him out every hour. He seems to pee whenever we let him out and I'm not seeing any signs of a UTI, he does a full pee, no discolor or anything like that.

While we try to take him out as much as possible, sometimes it simply isn't possible if my wife has 2-3 hours of meetings back to back and I'm not home. It sort of feels like he's made zero progress when it comes to house training. He doesn't alert when he needs to go out, we'll be playing and then all of a sudden he's squatting to pee, or he might just go while my wife isn't looking because she's turned around and facing the computer for work.

We have consulted with a trainer who recommended we do NOT give him food rewards for going to the bathroom outside. I can't quite wrap my head around this approach and I don't think I agree with it. I'm about to disregard this advise and reward him with chicken (he's obsessed with chicken) when he goes to the bathroom outside. We've had success training him to do other things already using chicken.

I guess I'm just looking for advise on if this is simply a very young puppy not being house broken yet, or if we're doing something wrong with potty training him.

We have two 10 month old border collie mixes we got when they were 11 weeks, one is very hyper and playful and has adjusted well to being in our home beyond a few things we are working on and I have hope we will be able to smooth out with either age or on going training. The other has only gotten more and more anxious to the point he's fighting with his brother and growling at my kids on occasion unprovoked.

The pups do really well when separated, they don't seem to even notice the other isn't around, they have always slept in separate rooms since we brought them home. They go on walks separately and have a really good grasp of sit and stay and a few other "trick" commands. They are pretty bonded to us so I'm not overly worried about it being littermate syndrome. The one is just not coping well in our home, I'm heartbroken at the thought of rehoming him but if he is unhappy with us I don't want to force it. At this point we are having to crate and rotate the two because he will just attack his brother seemingly unprovoked, the last time they weren't even in the same room when he started growling at him. They do separate really easily when it does escalate and it's never caused any actual harm, no real bites just aggressive growls and angry barking and nipping at each other in a not at all playful way.

He's a very sweet boy otherwise who will cuddle and loves to chase a ball or play tug of war and roll around in the grass and I know he's a really good dog I just don't know how to help him. I've done all I can to build confidence and help him overcome his fears but what I'm doing is clearly not working and we just don't have the resources to hire a behavioral specialist. I'm at the end of my rope and I just feel anxious all the time now worrying about him and about how this is affecting my kids. It's gotten to the point I don't really feel comfortable having my kids alone in a room with him because he's so unpredictable. He's never even nipped at a person, but I don't want it to get to that point. We love him dearly, I just feel like I have failed him. Last night we decided it was probably best that we re-home him but I still feel awful. Tell me this is what's best for everyone.

This is my first time owning a dog. We’ve gotten very conflicting advice on when to get him neutered. Some say 6 months, some say 12-18 months. We booked his appointment for the end of June when he’ll be 8.5 months old. He’s a medium sized mixed breed if that makes a difference.

Unfortunately, I was just called to pick him up from daycare after not even an hour because he was relentlessly trying to mount the females.. He was chasing them, licking their crotches, and trying to mount. Now I’m second guessing if we’re neutering him too late. Will this behaviour stop completely after getting him neutered? I’m worried about how waiting another month will impact his behaviour long term.

I know a lot of people are going to say that 8 months is too early but his day to day behaviour is more of a priority at this point. I’m trying to stay hopeful that this is teenage behaviour and not permanent but ugh.

please help I’m perpetually exhausted with my girl and I know it’s gets said constantly on here but I need y’all to rinse and repeat for me because I’m losing hope to having a decent life again. I rescued her 4 months ago and I love her so much and i guess my love gives her endless energy or something. It’s EMBARRASSING how much energy she has compared with how much I do for her. we go for at least 3-4 30 minute walks a day plus a longer sniff walk at her pace for an hour now that she’s better leash trained and I can take her outside without getting frustrated.

when I say it’s embarrassing I mean is I took her with me to visit a friends dogs (her dogs are 2 and 8. 8 yo mainly watches but they all play nice together). when her dogs are done playing after a couple of hours, mine was still running around like we just got there. this was also after I spent most of the day with her outside so we could go into this event tired. its like more excitement just gives her more energy.

inside i do treat find games, play with her for hours longer than I should some days bc nothing else works (it’s making me lose my mind btw) collagen sticks, a few 5 minute training sessions a day and a lick mat. we were doing kongs but she quit using it for some reason and I don’t know why. I even put peanut butter in it to test and she wouldn’t go near it. it happened the last time I washed it. they’re hard to clean so I soak them and have a dedicated straw brush but nothing was done differently other than maybe too much soap?

please help me figure out how to tire this dog out while trying to crawl my way out of an early grave :)

For those of you who work from home with your puppies, what do you do about them potentially barking or whining while you are on meetings? My job is spend 90% of the time on zoom with patients, and I am worried about them hearing my puppy in the background.

I have a 15 week old puppy (mini wirehaird dachshund) and would like to start working on him being alone at home for short periods of time. He currently whines if I leave the room he's in. He can't do the stairs (daschund) so I use stair gates and he can't come to find me, which I think stresses him out. He sleeps/naps in his crate fine. 

I have tried crating him and leaving him home alone twice. Once for about 20 minutes where I tried the school run without him, and once for 1hr for a GP appointment which was delayed so was away longer than planned. On both occasions he whined / barked for the entire time. 

I have been reading Be Right Back but I am uncertain as to whether he has separation anxiety in the traditional sense as I've not really left him alone much. How can he be anxious or have a panic disorder over something he hasn't yet properly experienced?

Whether or not he has it now, is the best approach the same? Do the training with gradual exposure to my absence? I was going to try leaving him in a safe room, as in not crafted to see if that made a difference.

But I have a friend who says this is 100% behavioural and not separation anxiety and I just need to teach him to stop whining but shouting NO when he does it if I'm home. And just leaving him more often until he learns.

Any advice greatly appreciated including other books / resources I could read.

As the title says, our puppy stays inside all day with my wife, with 0 accidents. But whenever i'm the one with her, she pees/poops inside. Last week our maid locked her inside the house so she could clean our garage, and our dog didn't pee or poo inside. Once she let her out, she actually peed outside. So i don't get it, it feels like i'm the only person who she will have accidents with. My wife thinks she does that to get my attention. Altough i don't have much time at home, our puppy will stick with me while i'm there, i think she "chose" me haha. She will follow me everywhere i go, and will stay with me over my wife while i'm at home. So that's why the wife thinks she pees inside to get my attention. Does that make sense though?

Mini Schnauzer

14 months old

12 months with us

Fully potty trained in our old apartment. We recently purchased a new home and he poops and pees in the basement all the time now.

He used to scratch at our front door, with bells, in the middle of the night to ask to go out if he needed to.

Now he just walks downstairs and does his business on our carpet in the middle of the night. Just one spot, he’s decided that’s his bathroom area.

I was worried he was scratching but we couldnt hear. It is quieter than our old door, but we brought the bells back and he doesnt use them anymore.

Our old apartment was on the 2nd floor so he probably thinks anything downstairs is fair game since we used to go downstairs to pee before.

We are welcoming a dachshund in the next 2 weeks and are so excited - we already have the crate and playpen set up. It's been a long time since I've had a pup and my partner has never had once.

What can we expect? I've already said that one of us will more than likely have to sleep on the couch and bring the crate beside it for the first few nights and to expect lots of whining/crying. But what about toilet breaks? How do I know when to let puppy outside to pee/poo? Or should I just let them go on the pads?

How many nights did it take your pup to settle?

Our american bully mix puppy(about to be 11 weeks) loves human interaction and other animals, dogs especially and does fine with my cat(about 2 years old) sometimes. However, he gets jumpy and tires to nip at her.

I’ve been teaching him to stay calm and also teach him not to chase the cat even she runs away.

Dog and cat parents how did you guys manage your puppy around the cat and how long did it take for puppy to finally chill out and actually hang out with the cat instead of play rough. Open to any or all suggestions

My cat also likes to instigate. I’m trying to teach our pup to stay chill regardless.

I have a 15 month old female golden retriever, the sweetest nature. Recently added a GSD puppy (now 12 weeks) to the house hold, she’s super sweet and they get along 99% of the time, they love to play with each other however sometimes the GSD will bite my goldens back legs/tail and back but my golden won’t stop her or correct her? I can tell she doesn’t like it and I generally try to step in and tell the GSD off but I’m worried this behaviour will continue and the GSD will bully my golden or hurt her.

Any advice?

I’ve really only seen a puppy crate trained once, usually the puppy was always left in a puppy proof room.

I just got a puppy (12 weeks mixed breed, he is sweet, calm and very smart).

Anyways, I’m finding it really hard to see him in the crate - it’s not really what I want to do, but I know it’s for his safety while he is young, while I’m at work and it has some benefits for him in case of the vets/travel/boarding etc. (it’s also more like a medium sized cage).

I’d only like him in there until he can be trusted in a larger puppy proof room - what age do you think will be appropriate?

I also only need him in there during the day, then he can sleep in my bed/on the sofa at night when I’m home, is that confusing or will day crate training be okay?

I have been training him on alone time but of course he is just a little scared pup, he can manage for a small amount of time (like minutes I think) but I made a few mistakes early this week with both the crate and alone time, so I’ve been careful not to push him again.

When he first came home I fed all meals in the crate lots of treats and he never really had a fear of it. Once I closed the door it was a different story he started to panic clawing at the gates etc. but I quickly took him out. I then abandoned the crate for a few days.

I’ve just moved the crate into the room we have been hanging out in all week and he will go in there, he sulks a little but won’t fully relax or sleep. he still puts his paws through the wire and keeps giving me the side eye. I don’t think he likes it either. but what’s a girl to do?

I thought about a gate but he figured out how to climb it and jump over it. any advice, words of comfort or support would be appreciated!

edit:
I’ll be going back to work soon - I’ll be gone about 28 hours a week which includes travel time. Next week, I’ll have friends with him for all the hours I’m out, but in two weeks, he’ll have to manage in the crate mostly by himself. There will be no full time pet sitters but neighbors and friends popping in and out to check on him/potty break/play every two/three hours or so.

I have a 16 week old lab and I'm miserable. I want my living room back. I'm so tired of pee smell. I miss feeling relaxed while eating. I miss doing laundry other than the absorbent floor mat.This is hell.

i have a 10 week old lab. this is my first time raising a puppy. my husband has had a lot of puppies. i believe im doing pretty good cause ive done a lot of research, and our puppy is just really well behaved and a super good boy. we're still working on potty training. ive been doing a lot of positive reinforcement with treats, try to take him out at least every 30 minutes or after nap, play, food or water. i dont discipline when he pottys inside, i just grab him and bring him outside saying "oh no baby boy, we potty outside!" then put him on the ground in his potty spot, and prompt him with "go potty!" immediately followed by a reward if he goes.

well, obviously, he's only 10 weeks old, so he still has accidents pretty often. my husband is telling me that my method sucks because all his puppies were potty trained by this age. he says youre supposed to rub his nose in the pee, swat his nose, tell him no, and put him outside. ive already told him ive read that this is a bad method, explained why, but he claims he knows more about raising puppies and the internet is wrong, because our puppy still isn't housebroken with this method

so im asking you guys, at what age were your puppies when they completed potty training?

Our mini dachshund puppy just turned 5 months and we've had him since he was 8.5 weeks old. My partner has been off of work since the beginning to work with our puppy on training, but has now returned to work with me. Potty training was surprisingly smooth! We had a few accidents in the first weeks but after that he's been stellar with going outside and only outside.

Unfortunately, now we have to have him home alone while we head to work 3 nights a week. We work from 6pm to 4:30am and have a whole puppy room set up for him with an artificial grass potty spot but he refuses to use it. He will hold his pee and poo for extended periods instead of using the pad. I'm struggling to find a way to encourage him to use the fake grass and know it's okay. We set him on it right when he wakes up and give the same command to go potty as outside. I've tried some of those Go Here sprays to no avail. I've plucked some grass from outside to sprinkle on it to make it smell enticing. I soaked up some of his pee from outside with a paper towel and rubbed it on the fake grass mat. I even shoved one of his disposable puppy pads under the grass to try to see if the smell of those would help. (When we had a terrible tornado/thunder storm he did use the disposable pads a few times so he knows those are okay)

I currently take a long lunch to come home around 10pm to let him out and do his business, but I haven't been happy having him crated overnight, (between running around from work to home and back, as well as him in his crate for 10 hours) which is why I made the entire room puppy proofed for him so he can roam around a bit and stretch his legs while we work. I assume he'll sleep most of the night anyway, but I want him to be comfortable. I also can't keep coming home on my lunch because I have to extend it by an hour (it's a 20-25 minute drive both ways and my regular lunch is only 30 minutes). I don't have enough paid time to cover this going forward continuously, while also keeping some on hand for an emergency.

Has anyone had any luck training your puppy to go outside as well as use a puppy patch? Should I just leave him with it and pray he uses it when he's finally ready? When I'm home he knows we go outside and I have yet to leave him 100% alone while roaming in his room. He's done wonderful in his crate but, being in there for so long just doesn't sit well with me. It's only 3 nights a week but as I said I simply don't have the time to keep coming home.

As for the puppy pad he did use, he also likes to chew them and I don't want to leave one with him and come home to it half eaten... I can't imagine the absorbent powder in them is safe for a puppy to eat, thus why I'm trying the fake grass patch.

I'd love to know peoples experience with this or ideas to help with it. I'm exhausted. He's a lovely puppy and I just want him to be happy and comfortable. I've considered something like Rover or other dog walking sites but finding someone to come in the middle of the night is almost non-existent and I don't have much trust for people, with my puppy or being in my home when I'm not present.

Purely curious how long do you leave your puppy/dog alone? Daily and then for things like going out for an afternoon? Struggling to know what is normal. I mostly look after mine by myself but sometimes like to head out to see friends for 4 hours, feel guilty but then surely I have to have a life too.

Hey everyone,
I’ve had my puppy for 5 days now (he just turned 10 weeks old today), and honestly... the puppy blues are hitting me so hard right now. I’m just feeling so overwhelmed and exhausted.
To be fair, he is actually a very good boy in many ways and so much is already going great:
He sleeps through the entire night.
He already lets us know when he needs to go outside for a potty break.
He has plenty of rest phases throughout the day.
He already accepts short periods of spatial separation (like being alone in a room for a bit).
But there is one thing that is absolutely driving me crazy and making me despair: After walk, usually right in the morning and then again in the evening about an hour before bedtime, he completely loses his mind.
He enters this extreme "zoomie/psycho" mode. He starts barking/whining, attacks our ankles, tries to bite heavily, goes after the furniture, and even starts humping me. It feels like he is completely red-lining and I cannot get through to him.
I’ve tried everything the internet suggests:
Saying a firm/loud "No" or "Ouch" (he completely ignores it or gets more hyped).
Standing up and walking away / ignoring him (he just follows and bites my calves/wades).
Gently pushing him away (he thinks it's a wrestling game).
Nothing seems to work and I’m at my wits' end. I know he is probably just overtired and overstimulated, but in those moments, I feel so helpless and honestly just want to cry.
Has anyone dealt with this? How do I actually stop him or get him to calm down when he is in this state, especially since we don't use a crate? Any advice or words of encouragement would mean the world to me right now. Thanks.

Doggo is 3 months old, we got her as a rescue at 8 weeks. But she nailed crate and potty training, no accidents since the week we brought her home. Im trying to figure out how long I should keep going into the yard with her everytime she wants out.

Our main floor is small and we have part of it blocked off to give the cat space, so she has a hard time settling inside because all of it is the "play zone".

She does love to be outside though and will settle herself on her outdoor bed (fully fenced, small yard). I'm a bit worried about her being outside by herself and getting into things she shouldnt or eating sticks or something else, so am always out there with her.

What age did you start letting your pup be in the yard alone? And how slowly did you ramp up the amount of unsupervised time?

Obviously the title is an exaggeration, but I am still SAD

This morning my pup and I were doing our morning dance routine to Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind, and Fire, and I noticed something terrible.

His baby face has gone.

Like it’s GONE!!!!

At first I was like “aw look, youre growing up,” but then I took a picture to send to my husband and on the photo, his baby face was literally no where to be found. It felt like a moment trying to capture a picture of a ghost. I put the phone down, there it is. I put it back up, it’s gone.

MY SHAYLAAA

I feel like I didn’t get enough pictures of his baby face 😭😭 I have HUNDREDS, but now they don’t feel like enough!!!

My baby is turning one July 1st. I should start preparing the invitations for his friends.

When did you all notice your pup’s baby face was gone :(