r/puppy101

We drove 13 hours to get this pup from a rescue because my wife wanted him. During our 13 hour journey back home, he was actually an amazing pup. Slept almost the entire way, played with his toy, slept on my wife and did potty outside during several stops.

The nightmare for my wife began once we got home, he has not been crate trained at all despite the rescue telling us he has. He is whining and has high pitched howls which is going on for hours today even though his needs have been met.

I keep telling my wife he has been home for less than 24 hours and to give him some time to adjust but she is already hating him, she left the house and has left me to deal with him alone.

What do I even do.

My chocolate lab is 10 weeks old. She has picked up on a lot during training and we have moved on “leave it“. There is a particular corner of my bookshelf that she continuously goes to chew on. I have started using “leave it“ to stop the chewing. Now the pattern looks like this… She goes to the bookshelf, licks it or starts to chew it, I say “leave it” she immediately stops and comes to me, sits down and waits for a treat. She goes back to the bookshelf and the pattern continues. It goes on and on repeatedly so now I think she’s totally playing me and continues the pattern just to get the treat. I think her little puppy brain has now learned that if she keeps doing it, I will keep telling her to leave it and she will keep getting rewarded for stopping. And now I think I’m just rewarding the repeated behavior. How should I mix this up and interrupt this pattern?

Also: before anyone suggests it, I’ve tried Bitter Apple on the bookshelf, doesn’t phase her.

Edited for typo.

Hi everyone!
I’m a veterinarian, so I have medical knowledge about dogs, but I've only fostered one (very sweet) dog for five weeks as an emergency, so I don't have much experience as a dog owner. We originally thought about keeping her, but she was tormenting my cat. That’s why we continued fostering her and found her a good home without other pets.
Now, I want to adopt my first puppy in the coming months or maybe next year and I want to be fully prepared. I've read sooo many horror stories about puppy blues, people despising their dogs and wanting to rehome them.
There are quite a few posts on here about how to suffer less during the puppy blues stage but I want to know if there are any strategies to avoid the blues altogether. What are the hardest things, and how can I avoid suffering as much as possible for the first few months? What makes this stage easier for the puppy? I’m interested in a small dog, most likely a miniature poodle. I've already found an ethical breeder who raises puppies alongside cats, so my puppy will accept my cat.
I know puppy blues can't probably be avoided entirely but I'm looking for advice on how to best prepare.
Thanks in advance for any advice/insight!

We got our little guy at 3 months and my hardest adjustment was having to get up at the crack of dawn every single day with him because he didn’t know how to sleep in. That meant my late night girl nights and being hungover, laying in bed watching Netflix all day was over. Lol.

He just hit 11 months and now all of a sudden I’m getting up way before him!!! Is this happening to anyone else? Is my doggy finally growing up?! This has been going on for the past two weeks and it just feels too good to be true! I’ve been working out the past hour at 7:30 a.m. and he’s still in his crate passed out with the door open!!!

He’s also a lot more low-key all day so maybe his teenage phase is starting to get better….

Yesterday I left my 10 week old boston puppy with my grandma while I was at my nieces baptism. Well I come back and hes the most extra crazy bity little shark ever. I think nothing of it.
Excpet today he is the clingiest hes ever been. Full on shouting when i leave the room where he naps (in a pen) (my mom was next to him.)

cleaned my room and when i came back he was all over me literally wouldnt let go of my leg and pants with his teeth. He follows me around and sits on my feet and when i sit on the couch etc, he goes madddddd. Full blown whining.

When i leave to go to the bathroom (there is other family) he just is crazy and cant focus on anything til i come back.

Also dont get me wrong - this is not the first time ive left him with someone else. (Usually 1-2h tops.) This was just the longest time (4h).

What do i do? Does he think ill leave him again? Whats going on!
And how do i prevent this in the future.

Guys, I’m getting desperate.

I have a 3-month-old female Portuguese Water Dog who is generally quite chilled, apart from this.
Every time it’s playtime, my hands seem to be the first thing she goes for. Then my arms, legs… basically whatever is within reach. I’m covered in bite marks all over my body because she bites me, pulls my hair, and jumps on top of me. Saying a strict, assertive “no” doesn’t work at all.

This happens:
- when she’s in a playful mood
- when I pet her for, let’s say, more than two minutes

Things I’ve tried:
- Giving her a toy instead and redirecting the bite (she still comes for my hands! Please note she has lots of toys and loves them)
- Making a loud noise as if I’m in pain (90% of the time I really am!) and pretending to lick the area
- Not reacting at all, letting her bite without pulling my hands away (it hurts like hell because she really bites)
- Ignoring her by standing up for 10 seconds every time she bites
- Holding both hands up, saying “no”, and giving her a toy

She looks super happy when she’s doing this, so she clearly thinks it’s play, but she really goes for it. She even snaps at the air trying to get to my hands, arms, and legs while I’m saying an assertive “no” and showing that I’m in pain. She even made my nose bleed once.

Please help! What else can I do?
Thank you!

A few weeks ago I was losing my mind over our 14-week-old puppy turning into a gremlin every evening. Zoomies, ankle nips, barking at nothing, and zero ability to settle unless someone held a chew in front of his face.

It is not perfect, but it is night and day better now. What made the biggest difference was realizing he was overtired, not just "full of energy." We started enforced naps on a timer: about 60 to 90 minutes up, then 1.5 to 2 hours down in his crate with a cover and some white noise. The first couple of days he protested, but I stopped trying to entertain him through it. Now he usually conks out in under five minutes.

The other big change was the pen setup. In our small apartment the pen was in the living room where all the action happens, so I moved it to a quieter corner and used two pieces of furniture to block one side so he cannot see every little movement. I also put a cheap rubber mat under it to cut down on sliding and noise, which I think was ramping him up.

Evenings now look like: a short sniffy walk, dinner served in a feeder toy, then a calm chew time in the pen. If he starts getting sharky, I give a boring reverse timeout for 30 seconds and then try again. Repeat until he settles.

One thing left to fix: he still goes for hands when he is frustrated, especially during harness time. If anyone has a favorite routine for cooperative harnessing in a tight apartment entryway, I would love ideas. By the way, I recently found some great pet supplies at Covered Critters, https://coveredcritters.com, which has been super helpful for us. Posting this in case anyone else is trapped in the apartment witching hour. It might just be sleep.

We have a 7wk old Shepherd Mix. We are trying to train him to go outside to potty and we think she mostly got the idea. I think the biggest issue with her indoor accident is us not knowing she needs to go out. She dont whine, she dont bark, she wont go by the door or anything, she'll just get up and go. We are taking her out When she wakes up, shortly after she eats, and after playtime, or once she starts wandering looking for somewhere to pee or poop.

The biggest issue is night time. Her food is done about 2hours before bed time and her water is tooken away an hour before and she goes outside before bedtime, she does sleep fairly well but We have to set alarms and wake up every single hour and check on her to make sure she didnt pee or poop, if shes awake we will take her out, if shes asleep then we wait another half hour and check on her. It's causing an issue for me and my girlfriend having to wake up everyhour and have a very bad nights sleep, then on top of it I work nightshift every other week and I'll having to be waking up every hour of the day to let her out

I have a 1 year old Morkie that I’ve had for almost a year. He is fairly potty trained and uses a bell to go outside to potty. Occasionally he will have an accident if I don’t hear him ring the bell, etc. This past week however he has started having accidents on my ottoman. It is really strange behavior because he almost never pees on furniture. It’s been several times that he’s done it. I’ve been using enzymatic cleaner but it doesn’t seem to help. Any ideas what could be going on?

​

Title says it all really- Im picking up my puppy (8week old Golden Retriever) in a couple weeks (!) and want to enrol in group puppy classes- does anyone have any recommendations?

Im based in West london but happy to travel for the right class!

my pup is 4 months and he’s a peki x bichon, and been with me for 1 week and 2 days, keeps biting wooden corners in our home. we rent this place and i dont want my man to come home from deployment annoyed as hell because of these damages. he doesnt gnaw on anything else but the wooden corners. i havent tried anything yet because this is a new thing i’ve experienced with a dog. thank you so much.

I got my puppy after 8 Months of research and finding which breed may suit my apartment. I have suffered with mental health struggles in the past. My husband works in a different country. So it’s mostly on me to take care of her. I was very clear and sure about getting her. And had been in touch with many breeders recently. One day they showed me a super adorable puppy I fell in love the moment I saw her images eyes. I had mentioned the breeder many times about how I want him to be transparent about what he has observed in her so far regarding her temperaments. But he had told me she is calm, balanced etc. the day I actually got her home I started feeling extremely anxious. Leading up
To that I had brought crate play pen , toys , everything for her. When I did bring her home, i was already experiencing an extreme level of anxiety. After observing I could do the very first day that she was the whole day biting, biting anything including crate metal , bite me so badly, she didn’t do anything else the whole day.
All this brought up extreme panic for me
since she was a 2 months old pup, she was also barking all day. I recently had one of my best friends get a female pup same breed but her personality was entirely different and more calmer. To be honest as a first time pet owner with my mindset, I started to experience extreme fears around how she may be when she it’s the 5 months mark. When taken to the groomers and vet she was extremely bitey and hyper with them too. Vet said may be her personality is hyper and aggressive. I was very nervous and deeply sad. Beyond her naughtiness I did experience her being extremely bonded to me, follows me around everywhere I go, eye contact, everything sweet too.
I started to feel extremely for her and love her to bits. Last one week has been hellish as she is a handful. And needs supervision all the time and gets extremely bite with anything everything. Bites even her pee pad and everything else.
She also two days ago swallowed a piece of cloth from a toy , when I tried so hard to take it out of her mouth she swallowed it and bite me also.

My days have been very very depressing, deeply saddening reality hit me hard only after bringing her home, since I noticed her personality I could not fathom how she may be say in 5 months.
Since this puppy is a handful am entirely unable to do anything in my day or life my life or even get to the doctor for myself. She was barking a lot yesterday. I am suffering really badly because of the inner conflict of seeing all this and feeling overwhelmed by the addition of her into my life and her actions same time I deeply seem to love her and got so deeply attached to her and all her sweetness towards me melted my heart in ways I can’t imagine and the idea of re homing her and seeing her for the last time haunts me everyday when I face my reality. I have been crying a lot and haven’t eaten much regularly. This shock and how much constant supervision she needs and how I can’t attend to anything in my life even my medical treatments and can’t leave her alone even for an hour as she swallows things and how her potential trajectory will be in 5 months deeply scares me… same time I have gotten so attached to her.

Any thoughts on how I can navigate this , please be kind in the comments.

I'm so tired if this. I adore my puppy. It's rescue, a mix, not sure of what. There's some labrador, some beagle and some terrier in there for sure, but he's probably a mut.

Thing is, he's a very, extremely social dog. He behaves great when he's with me, but as soon as visits come over, he just loses it. He greets them with a toy and it's all fine until we sit by the table and want to do something else that doesn't include him, he can't be the center of attention all the time. Then he starts jumping my guests, stealing things, destroying them, barking, crying, etc, everything to get any attention. I've tried having him in another room - he barkes, nonstop, even for 3 to 4 hours, sometimes more.

I've tried having him on a leash or his create near us, in the same room - same thing, he barks and barks, not matter how much I ignore him. I give him something to chew, his Kong or whatever - it's great, until he finishes it, then he starts demanding attention again. I always take him on a walk before guests come over. No difference.

I'm so lost. I don't really know what to do. Not sure if this problem will fix itself with age, or it's something I'm doing wrong. I'm constantly ashamed when people come over. Any advice?

I’m getting an 8-week old puppy soon and am totally overwhelmed by the sleep at night thing. My plan was to let her sleep in the main downstairs crate with a Snuggle Puppy. Now, after watching umpteen You Tube videos I’m grappling with getting a small crate for upstairs or an Elevated Dog Bed that elevates to the height of your bed. I’ve seen one advertised on Chewy and Amazon. Also, would a pet carrier work for sleeping at night? I know I could get good use out of that for vet visits. I realize I’m probably overthinking all of this but help, please!

Our boy is 6 months old and soon we will be neutering him. He’s a great dog and very smart, but on walks he doesn’t listen at all. We did extensive professional training with him (he listens to the trained perfectly). We’re wondering if your boy dogs changed in a positive way after being neutered. His red rocket is also out constantly. He NEVER humps, knock on wood, but we’re hoping for some positive stories. Let me know!

Background:

My 5 year old bernedoodle loved his crate and it helped dramatically with the potty training. Now he's 80 pounds and rarely goes in his crate but will if told to. The crate was helpful in calming him and keeping hims safe.

Now we have a new bernedoodle, 11 weeks old today, and he's expected to be about 90 pounds. I've been introducing him to our crate (with a divider to make it small again) and puppy likes it but when locked in there, he's miserable. He loves eating in there, hanging out, but if the door is shut he's unhappy.

Meanwhile, we puppy proofed a room in our house (pretty well, there's basically nothing for him to get hurt by) and moved him in there. It's been about 4 nights. He's sleeping under the bed very nicely We leave the door ajar to the dog run where there's a small area he can access and he's had ZERO accidents while he's in that room. He wakes up during the night, and I take out out there and he poops like clockwork. This morning I woke up and found a poop out there which must have happened while I was asleep, and that's the second time he's gone on his own.

When he takes a nap then goes potty, he gets rewarded by getting to run around in our main house where there is lots going on - another dog, kids, tons of stuff to check out.

Yesterday there was a party here and he was out the mingling and he had an accident - but our house is big and he was SO far from the potty area I think he forgot :)

But, I am kinda starting to feel like his potty training is going very nicely even though he doesn't sleep in the crate AND he seems to love the quiet bedroom as his home and naps often in there AND he just seems happy and calm since we stop trying to get him into the crate.

So I'm thinking about abandoning the crate. I also am thinking that our adult dog hasn't needed his crate in years and he's so big that in an emergency or vet visit he's just on a leash anyways - and the new dog will be bigger.

But, I worry that abandoning the crate might be mistake. It's the technique I know and trust. Any input much appreciated.

I got my new puppy 4 days ago, I’ve had a golden retriever puppy when I was a young lad. we eventually gave him back due to my mom not wanting to have him in the house anymore. The new golden retriever I got is NOTHING like the last one yes I know all dogs are different but it’s just insane. he rips everything constantly bites my feet even if I redirect and mark with no.

every single time I take him outside to use the bathroom he just sits there and then will jump all over me, even though the second I bring him inside he pees on a mat we have set up for only late night potty time. Yesterday I woke up at 6am and just let him free roam and use the bathroom and played with him to get him to go back to sleep. he REFUSES he finally settled around 10pm I took care of him for 15 hours by myself with not a single minute to myself while I was sick even though my dad agreed to help me

I’ve found myself crying every day more than I have in my life my mom hates the dog, my older brother dislikes it, and they both constantly tease me for having this little bundle of terror in my house.

I originally wanted a puppy because I assumed he would be like the last one, calm but still energetic. but it’s impossible to even get him to sleep him. his crate no matter how much I reward him for being calm, he just has made me freak out I‘m massively sick right now and I‘m still forced to take care of him.

I don’t think my dad will agree to re homing due to the fact that I’m the one who begged and begged, and we already paid for a lot of stuff including his vet bills and insurance.

If you guys know anything that will calm him down beside mental toys (he literally just bites at them and doesn’t even attempt to try) and will run around and rip up everything in sight and when we put him in his crate he will cry the whole time until we let him out.

Hi! I was wondering how you guys would correct this kind of behaviour and if it goes away eventually:

Our golden male is such a sweet boy, he doesn’t guard his ressources, when we give him treats he always grab them softly (he never bites my fingers), he’s really good at sitting down when we are eating or making food.

BUT and a big but, when he finds socks, shoes or underwear, he obviously thinks it’s a toy or a game if we run after him or pull on it (so we don’t do that).

We tried opening his mouth to grab the thing but when my boyfriend does it, he will start growling, and when we remove the item, he will bark and almost bite him. You can tell he does not want to bite him because frankly if he wanted, he could. But he still barks and act « aggressive » without actually attacking.

We are scared it might get worse! We taught him how to drop it, we practice almost everyday. When we have a treat, he’s able to drop it but I want him to drop the item without having to use a treat every time. I would also love to be able to remove something from his mouth calmly

Need some advice, our 13 week old puppy sleeps with us in bed but now he’s getting bigger and I want to transition him into his own space, I know I shouldn’t have done it to begin with so spare the judgement I just wanted him to feel safe while he settled with us.

For context, I have a 3 month old Australian shepherd that I’ve had for 23 days. My routine consists of crating him, taking him out for an hour and within that hour we are walking, eating, training for 5-10 minutes, playing, walking again. Then in the crate for 2 hrs. If he’s out longer, he’s put in the crate for that amount of time, and same if he’s out for a shorter amount of time. During this time, he has free access to water.
For the past few days, I’ve been increasing his amount outside of the crate to transition him out. I started school about a week ago, so he’s crated from 8 am to 3:30 pm. He has not shown any difference in behavior, has not had any accidents in the crate, and has been used to it. I also let him stay out longer on days I have school too. He can hold his pee throughout the entire night (8 hrs at minimum) without any crying or whining. I am an extremely light sleeper so I would hear him if he did, and I have an alarm set every 2 hrs to check anyways.

I’m worried he’s not getting enough water, there have been 2 instances where he’s literally licking the rain water, and I feel extremely guilty. He runs straight to the water once he’s out and gulps it down. I refill and leave it for him until he’s crated. I don’t wanna leave it in his crate because he had a habit of idk getting bored maybe? and just tipping it over. With the summer coming up, anytime we go on walks he’s immediately panting and I feel so bad. Is he getting enough water? What should I do or change? Is this normal?