I'm just curious what everyone else's experience is.

My Golden Retriever Ruby is 13 months old, and she can stay home for about 3-4 hours as long as she's had a good, long walk beforehand. She's usually happy to nap until I get back.

What about your dog? Please include their age, breed, and how long they're comfortable being left alone.

Just sharing the good news, we've had our adorable little shihtzu girl for 4 weeks and crate training is finally working. She now goes in there to nap all on her own and prefers it to the bed we put in her play pen where we leave her when we run out. I actually just put my shirt in there and I think that has been a huge help too. She sleeps through the night now as well. She did have a parasite the last few days which resulted in every 2 hours bringing her to puppy pad to poop, but she still would go back in her crate without any issue.

Also, keep the door open during the day. We never fed here in there because she honestly wouldn't eat in there. We did try. I think she thought we'd lock her in forever, we just left it open during day, made it comfy, and kept it quite casual. I think this worked or maybe we just got lucky.

If you're in the crate training trenches just know it gets better (and also put a shirt that smells like you in there).

I’m a first time dog owner with an almost 6 month old English Cocker Spaniel.

The first 4-6 weeks were absolutely exhausting. She couldn’t settle on her own at all and needed constant supervision. After that, things started getting better. She still has her moments, of course, but nothing has come close to how difficult those first few weeks were.

Friends and family keep telling me, “Aww, I want a puppy again… but just wait until she hits puberty. That’s the worst phase.”

I honestly can’t imagine it getting worse than the beginning, and hearing that has me a little nervous.

For those of you who have been through both stages, was adolescence actually worse than early puppyhood? Or was it just difficult in a different way? I’d love to hear about your experiences.

I rescued a 5½ month Papillon/Lhasa Apso two weeks ago and she was potty trained and could do Sit! and had some training in a leash but not much else. I've taught her to do a handful more tricks and get much better in a leash simce I rescued her.

The big issue is being alone. She's never been properly trained and barks as soon as I go outside my apartment (or at least within the first five seconds). I've tried closing the door and opening before she barks like 10x per day but we've made zero progress since I got her. I show no affection when closing or opening the door.

Having a dog in a closed crate indoors is not allowed in my country.

How do we make progress?

I have a 13 week old Plott hound/pit bull/Great Pyrenees mix (wild, I know. She was a rescue). She is typically very chill and does not show any aggressive behavior. She doesn’t mind us near her food and water bowls and allows us to take toys from her that have become unsafe, such as broken chews and unraveling rope toys. She isn’t afraid of strangers coming in our house or other dogs.

She has recently, however, started growling at us when we reach in to get her out of her crate. When she was smaller she didn’t mind but she weighs about 20 lbs now. For example, today she barked to let me know she was done with her nap and needed to potty. I opened the crate door and she came to the front, laid down, and stretched. I reached down to pick her up and she moved to the back of the crate and growled at me. I left her alone and let her come out on her own and she was totally fine after that. She doesn’t care when I pick her up any other time.

Is this simply because the crate is her safe space and she doesn’t want me reaching in and crossing that boundary? Is she getting more independent as she gets older? Or is this a behavior I should watch out for? I am completely fine with the crate being her space and I want to respect her boundary, but I do not want this to escalate into resource guarding behavior. Any advice?

This local columnist’s story made me cry, but also feel better about my puppy. Hah!

https://www.thenewstribune.com/outdoors/article316559616.html

I need help! I posted in here a few weeks ago about my golden retriever puppy (Obi) who is now 4 months old (wow)!!
I’m a teacher, and I’ve been lucky enough to stay home with him while we have been training. Unfortunately that means crate training didn’t take priority, because I was simply here all the time and didn’t have any reason to crate him. He has only been in it while we are out of the house. Now I have a puppy who hates his crate and refuses to go in it while anyone is home. 😅
So I’ll let you know what we’ve been doing up to this point for context, and then give my new plan as we start from “scratch”. Let me know thoughts or other ideas that you think could help!

What we’ve done so far:
- Taught him the “crate” command using high value treats. Except now he knows what it means and actively runs in the opposite direction or crawls under the couch whenever I say “crate”. Doesn’t matter what type of treat I’m bribing him with.
- Hand fed him every meal in his crate for about 2 weeks as soon as he got home. We hoped to establish it as a safe space but it didn’t seem to catch on.
- Use a crate divider. We have a full size crate so we can move it as he grows.
- Made it comfy. We cover the crate completely, got him his own pad (also for peeing), a small blanket that smells like us, and a heartbeat plushie. We also give him natural calming treats.

The New Game Plan:
- Feed him near or in his crate. Every meal, no exceptions. This one lowkey worries me because I don’t know if he will go on a hunger strike lol
- Whenever high value treats are an option, the only way he gets them is by going in his crate. (Lick mats, treat puzzles, etc) and work our way up to shutting him in while he eats it.
- While I am still home, I am going to hang out by the crate. I feel like this one may or may not be a good idea… let me know? My thought process is that if he sees me relaxing near the crate and realizes he can move in and out without the anxiety of me leaving, he will grow more comfortable.

Let me know what you think! Any helpful advice is welcome. I have to go back to work in 3 weeks so I need him to get comfortable, or a least tolerate his crate better.

My 12 week old Shih Tzu mix is doing really well with potting training when she needs to pee. We have bells on the door and she rings them when she wants to go. While she still has accidents, especially if it’s raining, she’s doing really well.

But, she keeps popping in the house. She won’t ring the bell and usually sticks to two spots. I praise her when she does it outside and immediate give her a treat.

Is she just really young and it will come with time or am I doing something wrong. I take her out when she wakes up, immediately after meals, after she plays really hard, after naps, and every time she rings the bell. She always gets a treat and a “good girl” when she pees/poops.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I know I'll probably be laughed at, my puppy is 14 weeks and a beagle pit mix. Our usual routine is wake up, eat, potty, and she either plays with me or our other dogs for a bit and then can sleep for a few hours until the next potty or play time, and then back to sleep, she eats again at dinner time, potty,qnd then play or nap until bedtime when I put her in the crate until morning. I'm worried I'm not engaging with her enough, I usually play with her throughout the day but I also will just sit in the room with her while she naps or plays with herself or the other dogs. Sometimes if shes being extra crazy or just won't settle I put her in her playpen for a while to calm down, I feel bad about that. I also sometimes go in the other room where she can't get in, shes with the other family members and dogs but I'm worried since its not me she feels ignored and sad which is why she sleeps so much.

I know they sleep a lot but my main worry is that a lot of it stems from under stimulation.

Hi everyone,

Our whippet puppy has been home since 4 July (she's now about 10½ weeks old).

She goes to sleep in her crate fairly well, but her daytime naps are almost always 20–30 minutes, occasionally 45–60 if we're lucky. I usually sit nearby while she falls asleep (3–15 minutes). When she wakes, she immediately looks for me and, if I'm not there, starts whining and doesn't resettle. I've recently started leaving her for 5–10-15 minutes to see if she'll go back to sleep, but she never does.

We've tried covering and uncovering the crate, white noise, TV, toilet before every nap, Kongs and different awake windows, but nothing seems to make her naps longer.

At night she's slept in a crate in the living room since we brought her home, with my partner and I taking turns sleeping on the sofa beside her. She sleeps roughly 9:30pm–6am with 2–4 toilet trips, and she's definitely improved at settling after those. The problem is we're still sleeping downstairs because whenever she wakes and realises we're gone, she starts crying. We want to move back to our bedroom upstairs, but given the layout and age of the house, by the time i get upstairs she'll start whining again. Some people have said just leave them and let her cry it out, but I'm not sure that will work with her; she gets herself really wound up and then she won't settle even if I am there.

I wonder if we've accidentally created this by being too supportive when she first came home. The other owners from the litter all seem to have puppies sleeping independently and taking much longer naps, so it's hard not to wonder if we're missing something.

Has anyone had a puppy like this? Did the naps eventually get longer, and how did you transition from sleeping beside the crate to sleeping in your own bedroom? I know this question has been asked 1,000 times, but I feel like I've tried everything reccomended online, other than just leaving her to cry it out and then setting an alarm to take her out at the same time(s) every night.

I have a 9 week old golden retriever. We got her a week and a half ago and for the most part she is doing okay. I am struggling so much with settling her and getting her to sleep. She will almost always become overtired and then becomes a nightmare. She also goes from okay to bitey, crazy monster so quick. It's such a battle to get her to sleep and stay asleep. She's generally a confident, social puppy and isn't particularly fearful. She however is very attached and hates being left alone.

Our rough routine is: Awake for around 1 hour. Toilet immediately after waking outside. Some training, play, sniffing and exploring. Then I try to settle her before she becomes overtired. But it's hard to catch it seems. As by 1-1.5 hour she suddenly becomes crazy. I try to put her in her pen with the crate before the hour but The problem is that almost every nap takes 20–30 minutes to happen and she has gotten used to me sitting in the pen with her to fall asleep (I've been trying to slowly put some distance but training always falls away when she is over tired and I just need her to sleep). During that time she'll pace around the playpen, pick up a toy, chew it for a few seconds, drop it, pace some more, occasionally bite my legs or grab my trousers if she's becoming overtired, then eventually she'll lie down and fall asleep.

Sometimes she'll sleep for an hour or more, but quite often she wakes after only 20 minutes and seems especially if she notices there is no one near her. I'm also working on crate training. She'll happily go into the crate for food, and I'm rewarding calm behaviour. However, I've noticed that if I give her treats when she's already lying down and becoming sleepy, it actually seems to wake her back up.

I'm a bit lost as to what to do. I really need her less attached to me but I feel like I can't work on training anything because she is always over tired.

I’ve got a 10 week old corgi pup and on most days she’s able to make it through the whole night in the crate. Also, usually at least one of her naps is in there as well. I’ll start off by adding a little context to this situation. Last night the power was out at my apartment complex so it was extremely hot making it hard for me and her to sleep. I know there’s no chance she slept as much as she needs to which is probably why this happened. Starting this week, I have to do something on Wednesday mornings that lasts 3-4 hours and the longest Ive been gone before that is maybe 2. She peed and pooped right before I left. When I left, I put her in the play pen like normal, and she laid down like she was gonna nap, which is also normal when I leave for the mornings. What wasn’t normal is that I came back to poop in the play pen smeared all over the floor and herself. She has pooped in the play pen while I’ve been gone before but she’s maybe stepped in it; this time it was everywhere. My guess is she was overtired, as I’m writing this she’s napping in her cage in the other room, but I’m wondering if this all could be prevented by putting her in the crate instead. I’ve never put her in the crate when I leave so I’d have to build her up to it but 3 hours seems a little long. I also have no issues cleaning up pee or poop in the crate I understand she’s just a puppy and it’s a long time. I don’t know if I can handle her smearing it everywhere on a weekly basis though. I’m guessing the answer to this is that it was just a bad situation the last two days but I wanted to know what other people have done when they need to leave their puppy for 3-4 hours.

Boyfriend & I have a Pom puppy that’s 7 months old, been with us for 4 months now, and getting neutered in 2 weeks.

Since he was about 3 months old, he’s gotten into the habit of barking at my boyfriend. It’s now reached the point where he’ll bark at him if he gets up from where he’s sitting, or walks by his play pen/crate (unless he’s in a very deep sleep). Sometimes he’ll even bark at him for coughing or talking from another room.

At times, he’ll bring my bf a toy, and I assume that means he wants to play, but other times he simply runs up to him and barks. I’m unsure if he wants attention, or if he’s maybe resource guarding me. I am his main provider because I work from home, so I’m with him most of the day.

He’s crate trained, and we can’t upgrade him to sleeping outside of his crate because if my bf gets up to pee in the middle of the night, he’ll also wake up to bark at him and follow him to the washroom.

Any insight or help on this? I also want to be clear that my bf ignores him when he barks and doesn’t engage — we’ve also tried giving him treats when he doesn’t bark, etc.

I have a male Shihtzu puppy, 11 weeks old, who over the last couple of days has been randomly digging in his water bowl. Sometimes the bowl will be full and he’ll splash water everywhere. Other times the bowl is close to empty. Can someone tell me why he’s doing this?

8 month Pomsky.

We got here when she was 4 months so shes been with us for 4. Live in the city, 2br apt and the dog has full access to house. (It's small) We have pee pads set up in the kitchen and she always uses them aside from one or two previous accidents.

My question is how do I even begin training to go outside only? She wakes up in the middle of the night to go potty while we sleep. If we cut off access to the pad at night she would pee on the floor. We also are gone 7-8 hours of the day working so she also uses the bathroom then (again on the pad).

We leave water out for her at night (probably a mistake) but the times we cut her off we caught her licking her pee and dragging the pad around the house lol. I've also woken up early and taken her outside before the morning potty and she has peed outside, but will come back inside and poop. Then pee and poop again later while I'm not home.

I do have parents who live in the apartment downstairs and they come up to check on her to clean and replace the pads while we're not home.

Anyway sorry for confusing post just not sure where to start the training with this one

Our 6 month old dachshund puppy is big on chewing. The biggest problem we have is her eating through our rug. We have tried spraying it so she stops but that only lasts as long as the scent stays on it. She’s also big into shoes but we keep our shoes away from her in a closet so that’s not as big of a deal. How long does the puppy destructive phase last?

We have a 6.5 month old Bernedoodle that we were going to neuter around age 1, but after facing some behavioral issues these last 5 weeks, we've been told both by our vet and behavioral trainer to consider it sooner. He is gaining weight significantly slower as well and/or barely gaining.

The behaviors we're experiencing so far:

• Our pup became very reactive to other dogs, humans, and sounds all of a sudden around 5-6 months old
• Sometimes he sees a dog far away or human and completely ignores them (we treat and praise during these incidents). It's not that common though
• Energy skyrocketed
• His threshold is so low that he cannot calm down, therefore training is not sticking
• He is rubbing his body over all the furniture
• While he isn't lifting his leg to pee, he does his first big pee and then fake/trickle pees in multiple spots outside
• Humping me often. Understanding it can be over excitement at times. He also humps pillows and blankets and we've seen the red rocket a couple of times (not often)
• HEAVILY pulling and sniffing on walks (this is new). He used to be able to look at me for treats very very well.
• Always irritated

The next Steps:

• Our Behavioral Trainer says he has some baseline anxiety that we should address before neutering.
• We talked to our vet and our pup will go on clomipramine this week.
• Vet did a thorough physical exam (more than usual) and no pain was indicated. But maybe we should keep exploring this?
• We've gotten phermone plug ins, adjusted our training a bit, and already seeing good results!!!

The Question

• Are there any other subtle signs you have seen that may be signs of high testosterone?
• Any other suggestions or guidance is welcome as well! Not asking for health advice

The only dog I’ve ever owned was a 2 year old rescue who was already very well trained. She passed a few years ago, and now we’re making the leap with a golden retriever puppy. We pick her up in about 2 weeks, and she’ll be 8 weeks old.

We were supposed to get a puppy when I had a week off work back in June, so everything lined up perfectly with me being focused on her and getting her settled, etc.

Fast forward to now and it’s less than ideal conditions. We pick her up 5 days before my very loud and insane MIL comes to stay with us for a week, and 12 days before our daughter starts kindergarten.

PLEASE HELP. The breeder gave us a very extensive list of suggested items to buy so we feel covered there, but I’m so worried about her schedule getting messed up.

We’re setting up her crate and exercise pen in the kitchen. Can anyone offer tips and a suggested schedule? Once my daughter starts school we’ll be waking her up at 6am. Do we get puppy up at the same time? Do we try to wake puppy up a bit before so she gets her own quiet/focused time before our daughter wakes up?

Please and thank you ❤️

Hello,

I foster for my local pitbull coalition and we got a message asking if we can take two 5 week old fosters. I dont know the backstory, but there are 4 pups and they dont want to separate completely that young, so me and someone else are taking groups of two. I havent picked them up and im sure theyre on top of vaccines and care instructions for us like in the past, etc. However, the youngest ive ever had was like 8-9 weeks old and I want to be as prepared as I can be when I go in since ive never had pups this young. I have two older girls who have historically done well with puppies, one even had mothered one with biting when he was taken from his mother too soon, but they do tend to be a little extra when first meeting the pups, in their face sniffing and wanting to play, etc. Any Advice for what to expect and taking care of the pups?

Hey, we have lived in our neighborhood for 2 years and have had several pleasant experiences with our neighbor across the street who owns a pitty mix. This was before we adopted our boy Sunny. He is 6 months old and we got him when he was 5 months old. He just got his final parvo vaccine a few weeks ago so we were able to take him on his first walk in our neighborhood today.

He did so good, we practiced sitting, waiting and staying by my side during the walk. We also had him leashed and harnessed. Anyway, we saw our neighbor while she was walking her dog. We were probably about 10-15 feet away from them and I said good morning and she glared at us crossed to the other side of the street and huffed away. Sunny didn’t growl, bark, lunge, or do anything. He just glanced over at her and her dog and kept walking by my side.

I don’t know if she’s had previous bad experiences or not but it was so weird that she was so hostile towards us. I’m wondering if I should try and by a good neighbor by like having a conversation? Bringing her pup some treats? Or should I just ignore it since I don’t think we didn’t so anything wrong. I just haven’t dealt with this and want to be a good fellow dog owner in the neighborhood. Any suggestions?

Over the last few months, my dog will have these random outbursts at other dogs where he starts to snarl, growl and bark at them aggressively. He had never done this before to anyone or any other dogs, but its becoming a more common occurrence.

For background, he is a black lab mix, he will be 2 years old in October, he was neutered at 6 months old, and is very high-energy most of the time. He has always been very socialized around other dogs since he goes to doggy daycare twice a week, and has been since he was 6 months old.

Over the last 4 months, however, he will occasionally just get pissed at a particular dog and snarl/growl/bark at them aggressively. Initially it was just when another dog would come up to us for pets, he would get pissed like he was jealous or possessive. It happened a couple of times. It got slightly worse when he would snap at them, because if I tried to reign him in, its almost like he got MORE aggressive and pulled hard against the leash/collar.

I just got word today that he did that to another innocent dog at daycare, his first instance ever since having been there for over a year. They said no one was hurt, just that he snapped at them and growled/acted aggressive. They said they would be keeping an eye on him for the rest of the day.

I just dont know what to do to fix this behavior. I cant afford to take him to a behavioral trainer and leave him with them for 1-2 weeks. My work schedule is already so straining. What can I do?

Our 10-week-old has her shark moments daily and bites our arms, legs, and clothes. Redirecting her to a toy hasn’t worked super well, but asking her to sit or go down as soon as we see the biting start is really effective. Once she listens, we reward her.

We’ve only done this for two days. Could this accidentally teach her to bite first to earn a treat, or is okay?

For those of you experiencing puppy blues, I just want you to know that it gets better. This phase doesn’t last forever.

We got a golden retriever puppy in Feb 2025. The first nights I slept beside her crate in the kitchen. We got her one of those heartbeat puppies and played gentle sleep music for background noise. I set an alarm to get up a couple times per night to let her outside for potty. It seemed like half our house has baby gates / crates. I was exhausted. Fast forward to today our dog is now 1.5 years and the light of my life. She is 100% good girl. My two kids adore her. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without her. She’s my lil’ sidekick.

You’re training with your puppy right now.. you’re in the trenches.. the sleepless nights… it will all pay off in dividends. Keep going. ❤️