i’ve seen the term in a few dog/puppy subs but had never actually tried one until recently, and y’all… WHAT A GAME CHANGER.

i got my 5 month old hound mix about a month ago and while he’s not destructive or “bad”, i want to make sure he’s getting enough mental stimulation and is a happy pup.

i work from home, so we spend a lot of time together. throughout the day, we mix in training, playtime, enrichment toys, and potty breaks. i’m an outdoorsy person myself and love going on long walks, but i know they aren’t good for his joints while he’s growing.

i decided to try a sniff walk, and WHAT A DIFFERENCE. we’ll go out for maybe 10–15 minutes and i let him take his time investigating and exploring sniffing a few spots instead of focusing on distance or pace. by the time we get back inside, he’s OUT LIKE A LIGHT.

honestly, i think he naps longer after these little sniff walks than the 20–25 minute walks. they’ve also been great on meeting-heavy workdays when i only have 10–15 minutes at a time or need to run errands on my lunch break.

if you have a puppy, especially a hound or another breed that loves to sniff, definitely give them a try!

Our 8 months old Border Collie mix hasn't been feeling well the last couple of weeks. She had no energy and was eating sparingly and drinking very little water. We took her to the Vet. They did a blood test, but couldn't find anything other than a bit of anemia, they said to bring her back if her symptoms get worse. Well last Friday they got worse. She was vomiting, stopped eating unless I handfed her soft food and I had to spoon water in her mouth. Back to the Vet on Monday and they decided on an MRI. We got the results yesterday. She has a large tumor on her liver. They biopsied it and it's hemangiosarcoma. The Vet said a tumor like this in a young dog is incredibly rare and there is nothing they can do other than make her comfortable. I've been bawling since yesterday, keeping her with me at all times, just taking her out for potty. She is still eating and drinking very little and only when I handfeed her. We now have to make the awful decision to have her put to sleep next week and it's killing me. Our little ball of energy went from never standing still to not moving much within two weeks.

I have a 4 month old English Cocker Spaniel and I’m finding the puppy stage harder than I expected at the moment.

The biggest issue recently has been sleep. She wakes around 4:20am to toilet, then starts whining again around 5:15am. I’ve been trying to maintain the crate routine and teach her that early mornings are still nighttime, but she only settles for another 40 minutes or so. I’m severely sleep-deprived, and it’s becoming difficult to manage alongside working full-time.

I’m also struggling with my own energy levels. I feel like I’ve spent so much time worrying about keeping her entertained, providing enough enrichment, training, socialising her and making sure she gets enough rest that I’ve forgotten I’m allowed to just exist around my puppy. I don’t want every waking moment to feel like a task or an opportunity I need to maximise.

Recently, I’ve been trying to do less and let her learn to entertain herself and settle without me constantly engaging with her. She actually seems to be getting better at this, which is encouraging. I want her to learn to match my energy a little more, rather than feeling like I need to be actively doing something with her all day (of course, while still meeting her needs).

I’ve also spent weeks worrying about whether I’m teaching her enough independence. I’ve been so focused on not leaving her alone for too long that I’ve questioned whether I’ve done enough to build her confidence being on her own. At the same time, I worry about pushing her too far or creating separation issues. There seems to be so much conflicting advice, and it’s exhausting trying to work out which approach is right.

I’m trying to find a balance between maintaining good habits and being realistic about what I can manage. I want to be responsive to her needs, but I also want to be able to rest, have some downtime and not feel responsible for entertaining or monitoring her constantly.

I love her, and I know she’s still little, but I’m struggling with how relentless this stage feels. The early mornings are making everything harder, and I’m finding it difficult to work out how to meet her needs without completely depleting myself in the process.

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have been through this.

Did the early mornings eventually improve? How did you balance your puppy’s needs with your own energy levels? And did you find that your puppy became better at settling and entertaining themselves as they matured, without you having to actively teach or manage every little thing?

I finally did everything right for the two hours my pup was awake leading up to nap time before we head to puppy school. She started settling down on her own and I took her to her pen and she settled straight away without fuss. Rare. I felt like I had achieved something big, that we were going to do better at school because she’d be well rested. Not to mention I would get a rest. Even when the front door opened and closed she sat up but settled again after without fussing to get out. But then my mum started cooking pup’s food and apparently she could smell it through the door, and bam, the nap was gone. Tried to settle her back down twice, tried letting her bark it out, sitting with her, singing to her, feeding her some in her Kong so she didn’t have fomo, nothing works. I tried so hard and I was finally getting somewhere, only for a two hour nap to be just forty minutes. I know life has to go on during nap time but damn, why is everything always the worst timing?

Our older dog (4 year old GSD mix) still wants nothing to do with our puppy (17 week old Doberman Aussie mix). We have to keep them separated at all times unless on leash because puppy is so mouthy , jumpy, and aggressively wants to play with him. He avoids her like the plague.

We have only had her barely two months but I thought by now we could have them in the same room with each other, however he won’t even come near her. She is gated off in the den while he is either in the living room or upstairs.

I’ve never had this issue before, when he was a puppy we had a much older dog and they didn’t get along right away, but we rarely if ever had to keep them fully separated. By a month in they were snuggling together.

How long did it take for your older dog to get along with the puppy? Anyone have any tips?

That’s pretty much the question. 10-wk old GSD loves to munch on me but doesn’t show affection unless something scares him.

​

Hey everyone!

So, we have a 12-week-old beagle puppy, Rocket. 🐶

We got him at 8 weeks and, oh my goodness, everything seemed to go wrong!

He had worms, an ear infection and wouldn't eat. We had so many accidents, barely any sleep for two weeks, and genuinely felt like we'd made a huge mistake. Everyone was miserable.

Fast forward to week 12, and we've finally got his health issues sorted. He's now a happy, crazy little land shark. He loves his food and lives for snooting absolutely anything and everything.

We've started keeping a puppy diary and seem to have settled into meals at 8am, 12:30pm and 5pm, with some of his daily kibble allowance kept in a treat pouch for training, luring and building positive associations with his crate.

Food has been a nightmare to figure out!

The vet reckons Rocket could weigh around 20kg as an adult. According to the Purina Pro Plan packet, that means feeding him 245g a day.

That seems like an enormous amount of food for such a little puppy!

I tried that amount for a few days, but he was pooing so much that he eventually started passing blood. It really frightened me.

I've since reduced his allowance to around 200g, although he probably eats closer to 170–180g at mealtimes because I put approximately 50g aside for training throughout the day.

Am I misunderstanding the feeding guidelines? How much were your beagles eating at this age?

Training and sleeping are another adventure entirely.

We're doing 10–15 minutes of training a couple of times a day, alongside little bits throughout the day. We also scatter kibble in his crate to help him associate it with good things.

We're doing enforced naps, but no matter how much I try to organise our routine, I can only seem to manage around 4.5 hours of daytime sleep in the crate.

Nighttime is a different story!

He goes into his crate around 11pm after a wee and poo outside. Last night he didn't cry or whine at all, which I thought was a victory, until I discovered he'd pooed in his crate and slept on it. Lovely. 🙃

He usually wakes around 2–3am for a wee outside.

And then there's the cabin fever!

Rocket can't go on proper outdoor walks for another 10 days because there have been local cases of parvovirus, and our vet is understandably concerned.

I think we're all going a little stir-crazy!

I've started practising leaving him alone. So far, I've managed one 10-minute trip to the shop and another trip to Aldi that took around 45 minutes. We have a camera and a lovely little pen setup with his crate, toys, water and everything he needs.

I know he's still a baby, and I know we've made enormous progress in four weeks, but goodness me, this has been an emotional rollercoaster.

I think what I'm really asking is: when does it start feeling a little less like survival mode? 😂

Please tell me your puppy horror stories, your victories, and when you finally started feeling like you had your life back!

I'm going slightly mad over here.

Send reassurance, wisdom and possibly coffee. ☕🐾

Hi all,

Happy Friday! I think I’ve probably consumed more puppy content than I ever thought I would, just in the span of 12 days.

That said, we are attempting to crate train our 11 week old pup, and generally, she does OK in the crate. We have never kept the crate in our bedroom, although the first few nights, I did either fall asleep next to her with my hand in the crate, or fall asleep on the couch, so she could see me. After a few days, I was able to go sleep in my own bed with minimal interference.

I take her out in the middle of the night, 10 PM, around midnight, around 3 AM, and then at 6 AM. So we have had minimal crate accidents, and the one crate accident she did have was totally my fault, I thought that she had done everything outside, and left her for 20 or 30 minutes, noticed on the puppy camera that she was barking for about 15 of those minutes, so she was definitely trying to tell me, I just literally was outside… I now know what that bark sounds like.

Anyway, when I put her in her crate for her enforced naps, and at night time, she may whine for max of five minutes. I do cover the crate with a blanket, with a little bit so she can see out of the sides and bottom.

At what point did your pup start actively going to the crate themselves? I feel like we’ve made some progress this week using the treats, getting her to walk in and out of the crate while the door is open, and praising her when she does.. but she never chooses to go in there on her own, does not think to go and get her toys that are in there, or to lay down. She’s more content with lying at my feet, even with the tile floor. And that’s only if she gets tired during our play.

Any thoughts welcome, either way I’m thankful that she really doesn’t cry all that much while she’s in there.

Hi everyone. I’ve posted here a couple times regarding questions on my now 5 month old red heeler girl. I am so deep in the trenches it’s not even funny. I’ve had dogs my whole life, and was thought I fully prepared for the stubbornness and anxiousness that comes with the breed, since she’s my first cattle dog. I was so, SO wrong.
She’s sassy, she’s extremely anxious, and she’s SO HARD TO TRAIN. We picked her up at 3 months and since then we’ve been able to teach her to sit, lay down, stay, high five, she’s learning center and heel. She does okay on walks, still pulls but we’re working on it. Hasn’t stopped her biting and has actually made holes in our skin because her aim isn’t very good when she’s trying to get a toy we’re playing tug with.
She hates anything on wheels, barks at nearly everybody, there can’t be any noises whatsoever outside that she isn’t prepared for because she will damn near yell at the thing and it’s hard to get her to stop. She’s not very good with other dogs, as she’s very vocal, barks loudly and gets very excited and tugs to get to the other dogs to play, and obviously it isn’t seen as her being friendly.
She loves being on the balcony (we live in an apartment and before anybody starts, she gets more than plenty exercise and mental enrichment, I stay at home and spend all day with her) but we rarely let her out there bc she barks at EVERYTHING. I literally just had to put her inside because she barked at a neighbor getting in his car, and it’s not even just a bark, she almost yells like a beagle and it’s so loud. She can sleep in her crate at night just fine, but absolutely hates it during the day and it seems she’s developing some separation anxiety with me because I can’t go check the mail without her howling the entire time. We’re getting better at separating me from her when I need to grocery shop and she’s in the car with my husband so I’m trying for more solo walks next so get rid of the anxiety as soon as possible.
I can’t get her to like the crate no matter what I do, if she doesn’t want to listen to me when we’re training then she will absolutely ignore me for minutes on end until I go away. She still pees inside without warning, even though she sits by the door most of the time to let us know she has to go, and she’s even had a button to press to alert us for the past 2 months. She’s not toy motivated, not touch motivated, and very rarely food motivated.

I am absolutely NOT giving up on her, but I’m so desperate to figure out what to do to help her. I’ve tried everything people, books and videos have recommended and we seem to be getting nowhere. I just want her to go through life without being afraid of everything, without having her guard up 24/7, and without us having to step away so she won’t be scolded when she does something she shouldn’t. I’m usually very good at controlling my emotions but I have health issues and on the bad days i just want to scream and she doesn’t deserve that.

Please for the love of god, somebody help me, I’m slowly losing my mind.

Hi guys,

We have a 14 week old pup. He’s just started going in his crate and is generally very good in there. He has a little whinge when he first goes in, but other than that he’s quite good.

He doesn’t accident in there at all & is good at crying to let us know he needs the toilet. Issue being this is normally at about 5am, and then he wakes up for the day at about 6:30-6:45.

He can nap for 4-5hr stints, so we tend to get a good run of sleep through the night, but I’m struggling with the early wake ups. At 6:30/6:45, he will just cry until we go down to him.

What can I do to get that time pushed back? Is it a matter of putting him to sleep later in the evenings?

Signed a girl who would love to wake up at 7!

Hi, everyone

I'm filled with extreme guilt and shame as I write this, but I wanted to get some honest opinions and feedback.

I got a Whippet puppy about a month ago. This was something me and my SO did a lot of research about, I've watched hundreds of videos, read a ton of articles, did so much prep. We chose a Whippet because they're known for being calm dogs, basically couch potatoes. We knew a puppy demands a lot of attention but we thought we were prepared for this. We also have a cat and read many success stories between Whips and cats.

Fast forward to a month later and I'm absolutely miserable. I know "Puppy Blues" is a thing but I feel like this goes beyond that. Tragically just 3 days after getting the puppy and completely unexpectedly I lost my job of 10 years and my world was shattered. The puppy developed extreme separation anxiety from day 1 even though we tried to to everything by the book (crate training, lots of positive reinforcement, training, etc.). I can't leave the room and do anything without him barking and howling like crazy. For the past month I essentially have no life: I stand silent by the crate when he's sleeping, and I stand by his side when he's awake. We're trying desensitization techniques but without much success for now.

But the most disheartening thing is that despite us trying our best he goes wild with the cat, it seems he just had soo much prey instinct. We try to reward calm behavior with loads of high value treats but as soon as the cat takes one step in either direction he tries to to for him (he can't because he keep him in a house lead). We live in a very small apartment and because of the puppy's separation anxiety I can't leave him alone, so for the past month the cat is constantly contained to a small bedroom which makes me so sad. He was such a jolly guy and just looks miserable, doesn't play and doesn't seem to have any joy. And I can barely have time for him because I'm with the puppy 24/7.

I've had a couple panic attacks and non-stop crying for days. I feel like my life fell apart the past month, I feel like I let everyone down including the puppy. The past few days I look at him and I only feel shame and regret, I stopped feeling any joy. This only adds to my feelings of shame and regret.

Is it time to admit defeat? My relationship has suffered, my cat is suffering, I'm suffering and I don't feel like I'm equipped with the tools to handle this the right way. I truly appreciate anyone taking the time to read this and any feedback, I don't know what else to do.

I thought he was barking or making a mess when I'm gone. Checked the camera today and for 6 hours straight he just carried one shoe at a time from the door to his bed, made a little pile, and slept on it. Now I feel so guilty for leaving.

Puppy is 10 weeks, chihuahua, has been with me for 7 days. Right now i move the crate back and forth so its never in the same room as me. For his daytime enforced naps its in the bedroom, for overnight its in the living room. Its covered, white noise playing, his needs all met, and he whines but eventually mostly settles. The issue is if he wakes up which he often does for his (whats supposed to be 2hr) naps he really really struggles to settle again. As it’s a small flat it also means i feel like i need to tiptoe around. It makes me anxious to leave the house with him in the crate as i know he’ll wake up after 30 mins and whine. I have a DREAM of the crate being in the living room, without all the frills of white noise etc & him taking himself to the crate when he’s sleepy and him being fine to be awake or asleep in the crate as i wander about. But im also conscious to have separation from him as it’s just me and him & im so so so conscious of seperation anxiety so don’t know if having crate in the living room will cause that. He cant self settle outside the crate unless he is on my lap which i think links to the issues somehow. I don’t know whether to just bring the crate permanently in living room and place him in for naps but i know he will whine and whine and whine if he can hear me nevermind see me. Its overwhelming me and stressing me out 😭

she plays with them for all of about 30 seconds before losing interest. i suspect it’s just teething, though i still can’t help but feel like i’m doing wrong by her.
i’m hoping maybe the guilt will subside once she’s vaxxed and i can take her on walks rather than giving her toys she doesn’t seem to enjoy.

any advice on how to make playtime actually fun for her? how to get her to play with her toys?

Puppy is a 5 month old English Setter, most of the time is good in his crate for naps if there’s a good treat to get him in there. He loves the collagen peanut butter chews we’ve been giving him when he naps, but they’re 55kcal per treat, we try not to give him more than 3 per day, but he often is taking more naps than that. We have frozen lick mats with Greek yogurt that he loves, but for some reason don’t really excite him enough to go in his crate like the collagen chews.

Looking for what you like for long lasting, high value treats for crating.

My new puppy F 16 weeks old she is a German shepherd mix with Rottweiler and my two old year male dog(he is fix) I don’t really know his breed, anyway a few weeks after we brought back our puppy, my older dog has started to pee on the floor before we have to head out to go on our hourly walks I’m not talking a small piddle a huge puddle it’s no where near the pee pad we have for accidents. Has anyone had this happen to their dog? Any tips or tricks since he was potty trained and able to hold it.
Thank you i appreciate it

My puppy is currently 5m old and from the day we got her has been nooking (I hope that’s the right term) she can suck on her toys (I wash them frequently and take away any with holes so she’s not swallowing fluff) for over an hour at a time.

I’m wondering if this is normal behaviour? I’ve never had dogs do this and worry it’s becoming excessive. She can go into states where we can’t pull the stuffy away from her or distract her without her scrambling to find her stuffy to continue sucking on it. She does this at any time of day. I’ve read that it’s a form of self soothing, she’s currently laying on me right now doing it and it makes me wonder if she doesn’t feel comfortable. Should I be setting time limits or putting more effort into stopping the behaviour?

Our pup is a bit over a year now and we have built up alone time until 2 hours with lots and lots of patience (cockerspaniels are notorious for their separation anxiety). We have not yet succeeded to go past 2 hours as he starts showing real distress every time around the 2 hour mark on the pet cam.

Now, we have left him alone this evening, I guess for the first time since it is getting dark earlier. Usually, he likes to watch out the window and does so when he is home alone as well, but because it was already dark, we closed the blinds and let on a dim light when we left, not really thinking about this.

The pet cam showed intervals of him lying down alternated with howling from 30mins onward until we got home some time after that. He was really crazy and panting and needed over 30mins to settle after we got home, which is really unusual. I feel really bad about this and am trying to understand why this happened. Could it be because of the dark? Or does this really mean we need to start separation training all over again?

We have a 13 week old Scotch collie, got him 5 weeks ago. We’ve crate trained from the start and done enforced naps plus overnight in there. He does pretty well, generally puts himself to sleep without much or any whining. Where we messed up was only using the crate for sleep and not practicing happy awake time in there. When he wakes up, we let him out right away and take him out to go potty (if he’s whining we wait until he’s been quiet 10 seconds or so). Consequently, he wants out immediately when he wakes and has no tolerance to hang out in there while awake. We do leave the house while he’s sleeping in there, and at times he’s woken before we return home. He’s ended up crying quite a bit for 30-45 minutes until we can get back to him.

I’ve recently tried doing short stints with a stuffed Kong or lick mat in there, and he’ll happily go in for the treat, but still wants out as soon as it’s finished. Do I just keep doing this, and letting him out when he whines? I worry he’s very conditioned to believe he shouldn’t have to spend any time in there awake. But I also worry that extended time whining/escalating in the crate is going to create a negative association.

I do not think it’s a potty need— we take him out every 30-60 minutes and he gets ample, ample opportunity to go throughout the day.

My female 6month old puppy has recently started to hump me whenever I try crating her.

Usually our routine is I’ll kneel next to her crate, throw in a couple treats into the crate and she’ll go in willingly without a fuss.

I toss the treat as usual this week, expecting the same. She looked at the treats for a couple seconds and went behind me and started to hump me? She has attempted it every time I take her for a nap. Usually I say “No” and stand up and she always stops but it doesn’t stop her from trying the next time. She would go into the crate after I tell her off. She doesn’t hump me in any other context. She is our family’s puppy but she has also only done this to me and nobody else. I’m the youngest but certainly not the shortest person in the family. I’m also a girl and she’s not in her first heat yet anyways, if that matters.

She’s only done it once before this when she was 2 months old and overly excited.

I can only assume it means she wants to play more or she’s unhappy that I’m crating her but I don’t know for sure?

What does it mean? Is she just overtired and needs more naps?

Yesterday I started to attempt to do dog park exposure with my 20w old cavoodle. At puppy school she barks at other dogs, then when they are close up (on leash) she backs away/pinned ears, low tail. I did the research on how to start introducing her to the dog park and so the plan was to have her watch from outside, treat, a few times before even thinking about going inside. She was more interested in sniffing the bin outside and all the plants than the dogs inside, and sat and watched the birds that were inside. She went up to the fence and got pats from a woman who was inside with the same breed and size of dog, but she was very wary of the dog even through the fence and stayed at a distance.

Today, my dad takes her out to “the park” for a walk. He took her into the dog park and let her off the lead. Apparently there were dogs bigger than her in there. I've been to that dog park without a dog and every time the experience was off-leash dogs running up and barking. That is not a good experience for a puppy who is already not socialising with dogs outside of a controlled environment e.g puppy school and at groomers house. There have also been multiple people i met there say their adult dog is now scared of other dogs because of things that happened to them in that dog park. If she's scared and the other dogs are off-Leash, she's unable to retreat from them. She is much quicker than us and he has seen how she is at home with getting through doors and gates. She should not be let off the lead out in public before we know she will recall and do as told, which lately she is not even doing at home so is less likely to do outside. E.g. not even sitting when told at home or in car let alone out in the world with distractions. If someone has the door of the dog park open, what's to say she won't bolt if she's off the lead?

My dad has never been to one class of puppy school where we learned how to handle meeting other dogs (where both dogs are on the leash), the behaviours to watch out for indicating comfort level, and how to handle the thereafter to enforce positive experience and return. He doesn't recognise the signs of overtiredness or overstimulation and has said repeatedly "oh she'll learn" instead of listening to me when I show him how to teach her what words mean that he keeps repeating and expecting her to just know. He brings her home from a walk and while she is going berserk because she’s had too much, he says “maybe we should’ve walked further”, and throws every single one of her toys to try to tire her out thinking she has too much energy.

Hey guys, my 13 weeks old Jack Russell is doing great on potty and crate. The forced naps are going well too.

I've been trying to make him get calm in some interactions but failed miserably:

- When I lay to connect the lead he just don't stay sit and starts to jump, so I get distance, ask to sit, and do all again. Eventually, I lure him with a treat so I can reach the harness and clip the lead.

- When playing with toys, he do a great job on biting only toys and not our hands. However when I call him to come to me, he started to get right distance to no get grabbed and do some sudden bites to my hands and run away.

- We can't hold him on our arms for long as he starts to bite and tries to scape hard. Mostly he does not get calm down on any cuddle moment, only when holding something to chew.

- He also started to bark but excited or happy, when we are getting close to him to get him out of the pen.

Would like an advice to show me or point me to what I'm doing wrong or what I possibly be missing.

Sorry for the bad wording. English as a second language 🙃

It’s 1 am when I’m typing this up. My male pup is 4.5 months old, mini Aussie/shiba Inu mix & has been doing pretty good with his crate training at night and during the day this week with adding a snuggle puppy, stuffed Kong & sneaking out of the room to his routine. However he just started something new tonight. He keeps digging frantically at the corner of this crate.. this crate isn’t his crate from home though.. but he’s slept in this one before with no issues. The only difference is that there’s a new to him dog in the house. I took him outside to go potty, ran him around for 3 hours, and he even has a few toys in the crate. I’m not sure what to do because he just keeps going; he takes a breather, then goes right back in. I’m just concerned and I don’t know what to do.

Also any tips on how to tire this pupper out when it’s raining and freezing would be helpful. There’s only so much I can do in an apartment..

My shih Tzu is almost 1 year old. Is she ready to transition to adult dog food?

So my Aussie rides with me in the semi. And most places I go aside from the farms I go to require leashes and my little wigglebutt as I like to call her (actual name is Willow) absolutely freaks out on the leash. She is 9 weeks old I’ve had her 2 weeks and she’s rode in the truck with me since day four. She absolutely loves it. But hates when I put her on a leash. She gets aggressive and or runs away from me. And when I get her on the leash she will do somewhat okay walking till she decides we’re done and refuses to walk anymore and will start refusing to do anything. I’m scared to tug on the leash for fear of choking her or hurting her. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. And I’m not sure if this is training advice or behavior advice.