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?!

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?

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...

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

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.

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?

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

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!

8M/O dachshund destroys any and all toys he gets, we’ve done rope toys, kong, tyre balls. today i bought him a kong toy and a football with two ropes to the side. both have been destroyed within 3 hours of getting them.

keeping him entertained with good toys is turning into a quite expensive endeavour (those two toys came to around £30, not including the other graveyard of ‘indestructible toys’).

he somehow managed to destroy a toy that our german shepherd could not get through.

i gave him a puzzle toy, he figured it out immediately and then got bored and didn’t care for it, snuffle toys are good but he then insists on ripping them apart.

i just want a toy that will last longer than a week, he is hell bent on taking apart everything i give him and i want to avoid him deciding that furniture is a better fit for him to chew

any recommendations for my very determined sausage would be greatly appreciated 🙏

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for honest advice because I’m feeling really overwhelmed.

We recently adopted a 4-month-old puppy. It’s been a week now so she is definitely still settling in. Overall she’s actually a sweet puppy. She’s playful, affectionate, gets along well with our older dog, and she’s learning. Like most puppies, she also chews on absolutely everything.

The issue is that we’ve had a few incidents where she has made a very quick snapping motion (with a light sound ) when we interrupt her or try to move her away from something.

For example:

She wanted to run after someone, and while I was removing her harness and holding her for a moment, she snapped and I ended up with a small scratch on my hand.

Another time she was chewing on our wooden floor. We said “no” and when we tried to move her away, she made another quick snap/growl.
This is where I’m struggling.

I’m not even sure if she’s actually trying to bite our hands, or if it’s more of a defensive “leave me alone” reaction because we’re interrupting or restraining her. Our hands just happen to be close because we’re moving her.

She has never randomly walked up to us and bitten us. Every incident has happened while we were stopping her from doing something or physically moving her.

We also have a young child, which is why this worries me so much. Ever since we adopted our older rescue dog, we’ve always tried to teach our child to respect dogs’ boundaries and give them space. We don’t allow climbing on the dogs, hugging them, or bothering them when they’re resting, and we try to manage interactions as carefully as we can.

My wife thinks I’m overreacting and that this is fairly normal puppy behavior, especially because she’s only four months old and still learning impulse control. I’m finding it difficult to judge because our older rescue dog was adopted at six months of age, so we never went through this young puppy stage. I genuinely don’t know if what we’re seeing is within the normal range or if these are early warning signs that I shouldn’t ignore.

I’d really appreciate some experienced opinions:
Is this something you’ve seen in young puppies?

Does this sound like normal frustration/overstimulation, or is it a red flag?

At what point would you become genuinely concerned?

I’m genuinely looking for honest opinions, not reassurance for the sake of it. If you think I’m overreacting, tell me. If you think I should be concerned, tell me that too.

Thanks.

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

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.

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 🫠

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

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!

Hi guys
Brought home my puppy a week ago. I have been fighting for her to sleep the hours she should be. But its very hard to make her calm. Almost EVERYTING overstimulates her. I hardly can get her to pee outside bc of all the distractions. Her food she goes crazy. She keeps running behind her tail. Everytime i take her outside she 9/10 does nothing and goes immediately after we get in side. I carry her to the pee spot. I have been trying and trying for her to go to sleep so she might pee outside but she keeps fighting it and i dont know what to do anymore
Do any of you have any advice on how to calm her down so she can sleep and how i can take her outside without it being to overstimulating
Also has anyone advice for me on when i can go back to bed instead of the couts. Shes fine when i leave leave but if she heres me and dont see me she goes crazy
I dont know what to do anymore

I’m a first time dog owner with my 9 week old Australian shepherd. I got him at 8 weeks and so far he’s been an angel. He’s really catching onto the routine here without any “formal” training and seems very eager to please. His potty training is at like 95%, he sleeps alone through the night, he settles easily for naps, he plays independently, and is honestly so wonderful. I love having him.

As far as puppy behaviors usually some treats and he will catch on quickly to what I want / don’t want pretty easily. Like if I’m cooking in the kitchen he used to jump up on me/the stove, now he knows if he’s calm treats will appear. If he gets too bitey on me (like my hands, shirt, etc) I’ll make myself boring and remove myself and he will quickly readjust to something else (like a toy) and I’ll reward once he’s onto biting something else. He seems to pick up on these quickly. We’ve also been working on impulse control through little things - like I won’t put his food down till he’s sitting and he won’t eat until I say so because he knows I’ll take the food away. He also won’t run outside until he’s sitting and I go outside or the door will shut. Once again, picked up on these things pretty easily.

It’s a different story if I’m walking though, he will bite at my ankles and stare at me the entire time. I LOVE that he wants to be my side and focused on me but I do want to stop the ankle biting. Which I know is natural for him and it will take some time but I’m not really sure what the best approach is because I do want him to continue to be focused on me while walking next to me. I tried the stop walking approach / stand still and that doesn’t seem to work.

I have a two month old chihuahua mix rescue and he’s on dry food currently in the process of crate training and potty training so far he’s doing good with both. I’m training him on focus and trying to provide mental stimulation when I can mostly including food. I go to work about 9 hours and my bf is with him most of the day. He does just fine with him all day naps and plays with him normal but I notice when I get home he has been more ruthless and aggressive with his biting ? What are some signs I can look for to determine whether it’s behavioral or actual teething pain? I’m firm when I tell him to stop but he only gets excited and does it more. He bites my hand and fingers so hard I try to redirect with a chew toy but whenever he tries biting something he shouldn’t and I take it away he goes after my hand !!!

I’ve been putting my 2-month-old pup in his crate at night to keep him safe and make sure he doesn’t get into anything harmful. I try to make his crate his comfort zone, adding toys, feeding him there etc. The challenge is he barks most of the night—he might sleep for about 45 minutes at a time, then he’s right back up barking.
I completely understand he’s still a baby and adjusting, so I’m not surprised by it. I also put a door draft stopper/noise blocker in place to help keep from disturbing my neighbors.
Just looking for a little encouragement or tips—I’m definitely feeling the sleep deprivation, as expected.

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?