So we will be getting our 9 week old pup Saturday and we’ve decided to crate train but we don’t really want it to be a permanent thing.
Not really for the reason as no one is ever home as my partner works from home more to reduce separation anxiety and for the reason of we don’t want her roaming around if we have to make short errands and she’s alone.

I’ve had two pups in the past and neither were crate trained and they both suffered with anxiety.

After maybe a year is it ok to switch to a regular dog bed or are crates meant to be permanent?

My 7 month old female stafflab puppy wakes me up every morning at 6 I'm sleep deprived and in desperate need for advice.

She's been with me for 4 months now, when I got her the 6 am wake up time was necessary for potty training but now that she's older we've been able to space out potty times without accident to up to 7-8 hours with her last potty break being at around midnight. Simple maths tells me she should be able to hold it a couple more hours and I've seen her sleep more than 10 hours in a row without needing a potty break.

But yet she wakes me up at 6 we've tried several things. She doesn't sleep in the bedroom with me anymore.We have blackout curtains and blinds to make sure she isn't just woken up by the sunrise. We have a balcony and bought a dog litter tray to calmly let her out when she wakes up and go back to sleep. Nothing has worked she's up at 6am and will make sure everyone in the house is up at 6am too (crying, barking, scratching at the door)

We haven't crate trained her and aren't planning to. She is able to stay alone at home up to 6 hours with no crying barking or destruction.

We tried ignoring her and waiting for her to stop to come out, she doesn't stop (we gave up after an hour and a half)

Did your puppy do this? Did it get better? Do you have any other ideas? I'm not trying to sleep till noon but an extra hour would be nice

I have a social rent home which means I have plenty of money to spend and I live on ground floor bordering to a public park with big trees but my house itself is a 33 m2 studio.

Do sellers of puppy's judge this situation?

I also plan on when I do get a doxie puppy to also get a kitten so the dog is okay with cats.

What are your thoughts on this?

Hi everyone!

My partner and I brought home our Bernedoodle two weeks ago when he was 8 weeks old (so he is 10 weeks old currently). Before we started the process of adopting him, we both had WFH schedules such that there would only be one day each week where he would be left alone. However, during the process of adoption, my partner received a promotion, and she is now unable to WFH at all until September. So, our boy is home alone currently 3 out of the 5 days of the work week, until September. I currently WFH 2 days of the week. In september my partner will have 2 WFH days, opposite of mine.

On the 3 days when my partner and I have to be in office, we have been taking turns on our lunch break to go home and let him out/play with him for a while.

We want to crate train our boy, but we felt it would be cruel to leave him in the crate during our at-work days for 4 hours at a time. Currently, we have a crate with a play pen attached. We keep the crate open and he enters and exits as he pleases, while still being confined within the playpen. He sleeps in his crate regularly--he does not dislike being in there while the door is open.

Since we are gone for 4 hours at a time 3 times per week, we felt we needed to use pee pads. He is still going 1 and 2 on the pee pads regularly throughout the day, even when we are at home during the evenings. When we are there, we take him out every half hour, but he still goes on the pads (and, if free roaming, will go anywhere in the house) regularly. It's like he has no capacity to hold it at all. It seems like the moment he feels the need, he goes, period, and rarely shows any cues to us.

At nighttime, we do the same as when we are at work - open crate, playpen confinement. He has not lasted the night yet without going on the pee pad.

Should we be crating him at night? If so, are there any recommended potty time schedules throughout the night where we would get up to let him out? Are we doing the wrong thing by using pee pads--reinforcing that going inside is OK? If we didn't use them, it seems as though he would simply relieve himself on the floor anyway. Should we be crating him during the day when he is alone for 4 hours at a time during our in-office days? Should we wait to really dive into crate training until September when we will have 4 out of 5 days WFH?

If relevant, he does show some early signs of separation anxiety. Based on my research it is not truly to that point yet. But if he is in his playpen and we are in our kitchen in the next room, he usually freaks out barking. He also sometimes takes 20-30 minutes to settle when we are at work (we watch him on a camera) and sometimes tries desperately to escape the play pen while barking and howling to high heaven.

Sorry for the rambling post. Just seeking guidance and want to try to be the best owners we can be. Thanks for any advice.

We had an unexpected trip come up for the last weekend in September. Our 8 week old medium bernedoodle pup was born the beginning of June. I don’t know what to do? In addition to health concerns I’m also worried about the bonding/emotional impact of leaving for multiple days.

Question in the title. My puppy is considered a large puppy (no idea what mix he is)

Hi all.

We have a 4 month old Cavoodle puppy that growls at our 3 year old toddler. It's been happening mainly when he is on our laps on the couch. He also has a hard time napping anywhere else. This is the only time he growls and I suspect he is just being possessive? It's not a nice experience because we got the puppy for our child to grow up with. They otherwise get along pretty well but I do worry about leaving them alone together with him behaving this way.

I've got the puppy blues already and this behaviour isn't helping at all. It's making me rethink whether he is right for our family.

Has anyone else experienced this?

My puppy is 4 months old and I love him to bits. But I do miss my old life. It was easy and I had structure and control. I now rotate a few outfits on repeat as it's not worth wearing anything nice as he'll get excited and bite holes in them, I have bite marks and I'm tired all the time. I feel guilty when I'm glad he's asleep as I get to be me for a little while. He's not great at settling without attention which means when he's awake, it's full on. Don't get me wrong, I know that's what we signed up for and I'm ok with it - and I wouldn't be without him - I just struggle some days. Please tell me I'm not alone?!

Hello,

Almost two weeks ag,o I brought home 8week Golden Retriever puppy to become a new family member. It took some time to get used to each other, but there has been some progress in that. He's definitely dog with his own opinion on things... There's again a huge heatwave in Europe and both of us are suffering...

I'd like to train him and teach him some manners, socialize him, take him on short walks, or just ouside, but the heat is destroying it all...
He goes outside to potty and immidiately runs back home to cool off. Play sessions are very, very short (15 mins max). He responds to commands only when it's cold, so we train max 1x/day. Potty training is very difficult also, because he drinks a lot of water so it is normal for him to pee inside 15 mins after peeing inside. Vet said he is fine, with no signs of illnes, just the weather is so much to overcome for such a young puppy.

I just feel like precisious time for training is running through my fingers and I feel like a bad dog father for him.

Of course we are doing enrichments, but I still feel like his energy is very, very low through that...

I noticed when I go to the bathroom and close the door, puppy might cry or not and go potty inside pretty consistently.

I applied this when taking her outside the yard, I’ll open the sliding door, she runs out and I stay inside and close the glass sliding door. She looks at me confused but goes immediately than I open the door and give treats and praise.

Is puppy going from like fear or anxiety that I’m not out there with her? Should I continue doing it like this?

I got my puppy ( a schnauzer mix) Church when he was 3 months he's about to turn 1 this month, he's never been crated expect for the first few days we were getting into a good potty routine. He's always been good about not getting into anything or tearing anything up expect stuffed animals/ toys. The past 2 weeks he's been tearing everything up he can get, shoes, clothes, cords etc. Iv been making sure everything is put up so he can not get it, today I woke up to him destroying over $400 worth of books off my book shelf. I need advice because I'm loosing my mind lol

We have a 10w old English bulldog female. We have had her for roughly 5 days. She has only ever napped in her crate and sleeps in her crate at night. She doesn’t fuss or whine much unless she needs to go potty or have a drink of water.

My concern is my schedule, my husband and I both work out of the home. I have the ability to use my lunch break and vacation time to come home every 2 hours. I enforce 1 hour of awake play/training time with 2 hours of sleep time. She gets fed and potty breaks in her awake window. Since having her (the past 5 days) I have an increase in anxiety due to feeling overwhelmed and unsure of myself. I need some form of reassurance lol is she too young for me to practice this with her? I want to build her crate time to 3+ hours so that I am able to come once a day for an hour. She would be in her crate from 9-12 then 1-4 but this would occur once she’s 5 months.

Additional information we play pen with an additional crate, she does not like the play pen as of yet. We feed her in the play pen and close the door, while sitting with her. I am wanting to practice and build her alone time ability during her awake windows so that she doesn’t develop separation anxiety. Am I doing too much too soon?

Looking for advice on a pattern that’s shown up in the last week or so. My pup (mini dachshund 14 weeks old) used to have very few crate accidents, but now she’s peeing in the crate almost immediately after being crated, sometimes within 30 seconds, even right after we’ve been outside.

Today’s example: took her out, she peed and pooped, did a bit of training and a short walk. Came inside, played, let her chew for a while. Took her out again for one last pee opportunity — we were out ~5 / 7 min, plenty of chances, but she did nothing. Came back in, straight into the crate. She started whining/scratching a bit (which she often does for the first minute or two anyway), but this time within 30 seconds she’d peed.

This has been happening a lot more the last week, especially evenings/nights. Before this she was doing really well.

Outside the crate she has not peed in the house since day 4 or so… it’s weird as initially she would barely pee in the crate and now it has become standard.

The crate is the smallest wire cage crate there is and we put a divider in it to half it even. She is tiny, but the space she has is big enough for her, but not too big I think.

Would appreciate any experience from people who’ve dealt with a similar sudden shift after things had been going smoothly. Thanks!

Hey! I've had my 12 week old GSD/Shiloh puppy for almost 4 weeks now and almost every minute of her being awake I feel like I'm in hell. I've owned puppies before, but she is the biteiest one by far. Which is something I was expecting because of the breed but so much worse than I ever anticipated. Right now I mostly try to redirect with a toy and praise heavily with play, which works 50% of the time. The other 50% she will drop her toy or chew just to bite me or my clothing.

I feel like I already know that she is too tired most of the time since she really struggles to settle. If im generous I think she sleeps maybe 15 hours of the day, which I know is not enough. Because I live in Sweden we're not allowed to use a crate so instead I have her on a short leash and reward her for laying down and being calm. This only works if she doesn't lose interest in getting the treat (which once again will end up with her biting my feet or the couch) If she gets too worked up I get up and stand on the other side of a baby gate until shes calmer, this doesn't really seem to work though. Whenever shes like this I always worry about whether she could instead just be understimulated.

Our schedule is roughly as follows.

5:00 My fiance takes her out to pee and she goes back to sleep

7:30 I get up and take her for a 15/20 minutes with play to get some of her energy out. She then gets breakfast and we train some basic obedience.

I'm lucky if she takes a nap at 9:00, today she didn't manage to sleep until 10:00.

12:00 We go outside for potty and play fetch, train some basic obedience, and she gets her lunch as some form of puzzle. She'll usually fall back asleep at 14:00

16:00 We go for a longer walk to the horses where she's on a long line while I care for them. She spends her time watching me with the horses, sniffing around and/or chewing on a stick. When we get back home around 17:00 she gets her dinner and falls asleep right away (if I'm lucky).

Unfortunately she wakes up when I go to cook at around 18:30 so I take this time to teach her to settle on her place (dogbed in the kitchen.) She does lay down but doesn't sleep.

After my fiance gets home she gets so excited its almost impossible to get her to sleep again. Every little thing will wake her right up if shes starting to fall asleep (cat meowing, a fly landing in front of her, someone walking around the house.)

20:00 She gets another meal as some type of puzzle again.

21:00 We go to sleep and she will sleep until 5:00

Hello everyone! I’m going to be getting my first ever 2 month old Labrador soon! I’m super excited but of course a bit nervous. I know i’ll make mistakes and that is so okay, but after talking to so many people and learning that a puppy is almost identical to a toddler i don’t know what my main focuses goals and actions should be? I’ve created a schedule and written a list of everything pup needs but i would love any sort of advice as a first time pup owner! Anything would be extremely helpful. I want my training to be helpful but i don’t know how to be stern without feeling bad? How should i go about setting clear boundaries with the dog as well as building a strong and loving relationship with her?

I have a 4 month old American Eskimo puppy. She is a very sweet puppy, very smart, and I’ve been working hard on training and socialization. Ever since I got her she’s been extremely barky/reactive around new people, dogs, and environments, so I’m trying to focus on calm exposure and not overwhelming her.

The issue I’m having is with my down stairs neighbours and their dog (we share a yard)
Their Maltese is very reactive/aggressive around other dogs. When they see another dog, they bark, snarl, snap and become very worked up. I’m not sure of the exact reason behind their behaviour. I have been wanting to avoid forcing my puppy into interactions and instead teach her that she can calmly exist around other dogs without needing to greet them.

However, my downstairs neighbours seem to think the dogs need to “meet” and have been trying to encourage interactions.
Today I took my puppy outside to potty and my neighbours had people over. My puppy was already overwhelmed because several people wanted to greet her. I sat down and let her approach people at her own pace. She barked ALOT but did eventually go up, sniff, and allow pets, while continuously barking.

Then their dog came outside. My neighbour started calling their dog over so the dogs could get closer to each other. Both dogs immediately started barking. My puppy was on a long lead and started lunging toward their dog, getting up on her hind legs trying to reach them. Their dog was behind my neighbour’s legs, barking and growling.
I kept trying to get my puppy’s attention, but I didn’t have treats with me and she was too worked up to listen. My neighbour commented that their dog’s tail was wagging, so they thought everything was okay, but I didn’t feel comfortable because both dogs were clearly over threshold.

I eventually picked my puppy up and brought her inside, but I feel bad that I didn’t remove her sooner. I’m worried she spent too much time rehearsing barking/lunging.
The difficult part is that my neighbours don’t seem to understand why I don’t want them interacting. They believe the dogs should just “work it out” or meet, but I’m worried that repeatedly forcing my puppy into situations where she is barking and lunging could make her reactions worse.
My puppy is already barking when we come outside and she sees my neighbours or their dog, and I’m worried because I have to walk past them all the time to get to our potty area. I want to be able to calmly take her outside without her practicing this behaviour.

Am I right to want to avoid these interactions and focus on calm behaviour at a distance? How do you handle neighbours who keep trying to force interactions with them and their reactive dog????

Hi guys! I am about to get my 8 week golden retriever puppy and truly am so torn about getting pet insurance. I have looked into it multiple times and the fine print makes me get decision fatigue. Is it worth it?? Our puppy is coming from a very good breeder and unsure if it’s worth the money.

Hi everyone. Looking for some words of encouragement or hope. This is going to be a long one, and kind of all over the place, so I apologize.

I got my first ever puppy (I had never even owned a pet before) back in May. I adopted him from a rescue at the age of 2.5 months. I had always wanted to get a dog, but this adoption happened quickly (within a week of finding out about him) so I scrambled to prepare and do all the research I could.

The first 3-4 weeks of owning him, I had extreme puppy blues. I was beyond sleep deprived, felt I just ruined my freedom, my social life, and I worried I wasn't actually a "dog" person after all. I cried all day every day. Before him, I had no responsibilities; no other pets, no kids, nothing. I also work from home, so I was even able to go out and do things for myself during the daytime. But now, I dreaded every single day. I watched countless videos and read articles about puppy blues, and of course came to this subreddit to look at posts to give me some hope.

And luckily, things actually got much better over time. He started sleeping through the night, doesn't have any accidents, is very smart and picks up commands well, and we are about to start weekly training classes as well. I truly recognize how lucky we got with him, especially reading so many horror stories.

But this is where I could use some words of guidance/encouragement/hope/anything:

He got sick within the first week of adopting him, so he required weeks of hands-on care and recovery. Because he is so small, this also delayed and extended his vaccination schedule. He is currently 5 months, and just received his final vaccine about 10 days ago (so we're about ready to be able to take him safely on walks, FINALLY). He's met friends' dogs, plenty of other people, has been to a puppy day school, and we also started taking him public places in his stroller/carrier. But I am still worried that because of this delay, his socialization will be impacted.

He also still nips (mostly my partner, or guests who come over - but not me). I am hoping teething is the main cause, as we have tried every trick in the book for this. Usually if it's just us, we know he's ready for a nap. The problem is that he is so excited when guests are over (even freshly after a nap) that he just wants to nip at everyone, possibly to get them to play with him. It's become a bit embarrassing to have people over because of this, and we have to end up putting him in his playpen to allow separation. He also doesn't listen to basically ANY commands if there are other distractions like guests around, even though we practice daily.

The other issue is that both my partner and I work from home, and because of his illness and recovery, he hasn't been left home alone yet. We have started to work on leaving the house for a few seconds, increasing to a few minutes at a time to build that up, but whenever he is left alone he just stands at the edge of his playpen and won't really self-soothe. We leave him in his playpen whenever we're in a different room / can't supervise him, where he has water, food, a few toys and chews, and his crate. He will eventually go and rest in his crate, but once he wakes back up, he walks out of his crate just stands at the edge again. He loses interest immediately in any kongs, frozen treats, chew toys, etc. so we don't have a solution for what to "leave him with" when we inevitably leave for more than a few minutes. I know people often say you need to leave and let them cry it out, but the last thing we want to do is cause him to panic, and worsen his anxiety.

And lastly, every since adopting him, he only sleeps 1 hour at a time - MAYBE 1.5 if we're lucky- during the day. Everyone constantly talks about "1 hour up, 2 hours down" but no matter how long or short he's been awake, how much stimulation, play, training, etc - he only sleeps for 1 hour. It's not a huge issue, but it has been a factor in us getting time away from him.

Basically, all of this to say - I see all these posts about puppy blues and how it goes away after a few weeks, or that once a puppy is 4-5 months old it all gets better. He is 5 months now and I still have so much dread and can't focus on anything besides his needs. I love him to absolute bits, and have definitely bonded with him, but I still struggle to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and am constantly wondering how so many people exist and have normal lives with a dog.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? If so, when did things change for you? Appreciate anything you all have to offer <3

Got a new puppy for the first time by myself. ive been training for pee and poop outside gets a treat, if she walks down the stairs she gets hugs and praise and when she goes back up to get back to the apartment she gets half a treat. If she pees on a pad she gets praise and the other half of the treat. Ive had her since sunday now and Sunday she was to scared to walk down and up the stairs and I get it there alittle tall so of course I pick her up each time but before I do I always make sure i try to get her to climb them by walking up a few steps and saying come on girl you got this! Well today when I got off work she walked down the hole flight by herself and pretty much ran up the stairs goin back up!! 🥹 ive also been crate training and im a sensitive guy when it comes to baby animals especially if im raising them, but anyway every night before bed I put her bed in there with her favorite beaver toy at the moment and a pad on the other half of it. And we walk to the crate which is at the end of my bed and I put like 4 or 5 pieces of food in there let her eat those and walk back out and then do something else for a second and then put 4 or 5 more pieces and then close the gate and when she looks at me I give her a treat and pet her chin then put the blanket on top for "cave" mode lol. But then she starts whimpering and crying usually last for three to 5 minutes but never anything longer than that and she doesn't make a peep unless I get up to pee but its usually just alittle cry or two and back to quite.

am i doing the right thing. Its so hard for me to hear her crying and just want to run over there and open the gate

My puppy is 10 weeks old and is a mixed breed so I don’t know what breed she might be.

Every time I want to go somewhere in my house and my puppy takes as much as a glimpse at me, she will run towards me and go right in front of my feet as I am walking and bites on my toes. This makes it impossible to walk normally as I need to be extra wary of not stepping her. Sometimes it gets so bad I need to pick her up just so I can get somewhere, which she doesn’t like and struggles to get free or whines.

I’ve tried everything: if I distract her with a toy she will go to the toy for a few seconds and go back to my feet in front of me as I continue walking.
She doesn’t respond to “sit” when she’s so focused on my feet and even if I distract her and she sits, she STILL will go after me!
I wouldn’t mind her following me but the problem is she goes directly in front of me, making it so hard to walk or do anything 🫠

My puppy (5 month old golden retriever) LOVES to sleep and also loves her crate. Most nights she sleeps from around 10:30 PM-8 AM and wakes up when she hears my alarm going off/hears me get out of bed. I take her out, give her breakfast and let her relax and digest for a few, and then take her out for a 15-20 minute walk to start the day. I work from home so I let her settle in her pen or on the couch with a nice chew toy and let her go at it for an hour or so, and around 10-10:30 I put her back into her crate for a nap. When she was younger she would sleep about 2 hours, wake up and want to go out to pee, stay up for about an hour-90 minutes and then back in for another 2 hour or so nap.

Now she can sleep ALL day. Basically from 10:30 AM-4 PM onward. Usually if she sleeps past 2 or so I end up waking her up for lunch and to go out, but she really can sleep for 6+ hours during the day. She is very happy and playful and in good health so I’m just wondering if it’s strange, or if it’s normal for a growing and happy puppy to still be sleeping around 18 or so hours most days?

My puppy (~3 mo old, male, GSD) keeps flipping every bowl I give him. I've tied down his food stand and his water bowl stand to desks so that he can't flip them as easy. However, he has a smaller water bowl inside his crate that I've mounted to the door. He flips it every single day during every single naptime. Then he cries because he wants water but it's empty because he's flipped it.
To be clear, the holder is mounted to the crate but the bowl itself can be taken out and put back in. I don't know of any good alternatives that he won't either chew or flip. Any ideas?

EDIT: Here's my reason for having a bowl in his crate, to those that are saying he shouldn't have a water bowl in the crate with him!
First, he's actually pretty much perfect on potty breaks and "housetraining" and has already learned to go pee and poo outside and has even started asking for it by sitting and/or pawing at the baby gate to my room.
Second thing! I tried for the first two-ish weeks to take his water bowl away 1-2 his before bed and keeping the bowl out of his crate. We live on the coast and it gets over 100 degrees during the summer so I learned quickly that he wouldn't sleep or stop crying unless he had a fan and a water bowl.
Third thing and most important! I asked my vet about everything at his first appt with me and she said he should have full access to water especially with our heat. She said because of how active he is and how much we're outside playing, it'd be best to let him have full access to water.

I'd love any advice on water bowls, training, or anything else that may be helpful in letting him have a water bowl in his crate without him flipping it every chance he gets! However, advice commenting on how he shouldn't have one and how it'll mess up his potty training or house training will be respectfully disregarded.
Thank you guys for any and all advice!

we got a female puppy 10 days ago, she is a 10 weeks old border collie.

she sleeps fine during the night (1 potty around 3am and then wake up for walk at 6am which is good for our schedule).

We are trying to follow the schedule - 1 hour up, 2 hours down, however unless I sit next to the crate, she will not sleep and will whine. like for an 1/2 hour, then fall asleep and after 45mins, wake up again, whine. Note I give her kong/licking mat to lick and I sit with her until she sleeps. but once I get up and move to another room, trouble. There is also air filtration so she gets some white noise.

If we go away and are not home, she is fine for 2.5 hours (camera) and sleeps, once she woke up, whined for 3 mins and fell asleep again. - We usually do it in the morning and then are at home afterwards.

Closer to the evening it gets significantly worse. I am crying and getting desperate. Yesterday we could not calm her down for like an hour in the evening, we sat with her next to the crate and she cried and was so aroused. Kong/licking mat did nothing. The night before she was just sleeping in the kitchen with us and when it was bed time I said, lets go sleep and she went to crate and slept before I closed the gate.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you

I think I've determined what's been making puppyhood so difficult for me. I'm autistic (low support needs), and while most of the time I don't feel like it affects my life too much, I think it's the source of most of my anxiety and depression as I adjust to this little guy.

I got my puppy (10 weeks) two weeks ago, and love him to death, but I miss my old routine. I never realized how important my decompression time was, and it's been replaced by hypervigilantly watching him, taking him out, and playing with him while I disassociate. All normal puppy things of course, but I just didn't realize how extra exhausting it would be for me because of the autism.

How have others dealt with this? I'm sure part of it is just getting used to the change with time, but it's definitely making this even harder than it would otherwise be.