Hello all, I am on a waitlist for my own puppy (should be in april next year), and I'm just reading a lot about the process to be prepared. This will be our first dog, though both my partner and I have had family dogs in the past.

I understand raising a puppy is a lot of work, and given this is a place to receive support, I understand that most posts will tend to highlight issues and difficulties with raising a puppy.

However, is there anyone here that actually had a good experience with it? I'd like to open the conversation about this! I'm curious to hear your thoughts 😊

just sharing my experience from this morning for you guys in the trenches.
i was getting ready for work, and my puppy (3 month old cavapoo) pooped on the rug, stepped in it, left poo prints all over, then would not let me clean his paws and inbetween his poo-filled toes. finally got that done, and cleaned the poo prints off the rug as well as i could.
then i took him and my other dog out for a walk so my older dog could go.
they were both sniffing the same spot, then my older dog turns and pees all over the puppy’s head! 😟
so i had to shampoo the puppy’s head too. i needed a stiff drink by that time, but it was only 9am.
despite all this, i am over the moon in love with both my dogs. 💜💜

**I don't speak English very well and sometimes I use a translator, sorry for the mistakes :(

A couple of months ago, I wrote a post here about how I thought I'd ruined my life by getting a puppy. LOL, turns out puppy blues change your perception of everything SO MUCH.

Many people advised me to return the puppy to the breeder, but I decided not to do this because I really wanted a dog.

I thought my whole normal life was over because it now revolved entirely around the dog, but as she grew up, everything became easier, and my old morning routine returned! Now she is 5 months old, and I no longer need to walk with her 7-8 times a day and get up at night. 4-5 walks during the day are enough for us, and she feels well. Now I can leave the house again to go for a walk alone for 4-5 hours. However, I feel like doing this less and less: my girl is simply superb, and walking with her is a pleasure.

Besides this, I understand how lucky I am to have her: she doesn't chew on anything except her toys, she can spend time alone without any problems, and she behaves well outside.

For all the people going through the puppy blues: it really will pass! Please believe me, it just takes a little time for your brain to accept the changes.

Of course, there is still a lot of training ahead, but it is so nice to see the results that we achieve together.

Hi all, we have a 7-month-old male show-line Golden Retriever, and we're struggling with what I can only describe as him having basically no off switch, causing the majority of our issues.

He's always been a very high-arousal, massively curious puppy. From when he was really young, he was incredibly distracted by everything around him. At puppy class from around 13–18 weeks, he was consistently the most distracted dog there. A lot of the obvious puppy chaos has improved since then though. Walks are better (largely), he isn't trying to eat every single thing on the floor anymore, getting his harness on isn't a battle, and his training has come on. But the underlying arousal and settling issue hasn't really changed.

He still doesn't sleep outside his crate. If he's awake and out with us, he's doing something. Walking around, playing, chewing, mouthing us, following us or looking for something to get involved with. He very rarely just thinks "I'm tired", and lies down. If we didn't put him in his crate for naps, I genuinely don't know when he'd choose to sleep.

One of us works from home full-time, and he actually sleeps really well in his crate during the workday. He'll normally sleep roughly 9:00–12:00, then again from around 1:30–4:30/5:00. The problem is that he has to be in the crate for that to happen.

I'd love to be able to have him in the room with me, lying next to the desk, chewing something, pottering around a bit and then choosing to go to sleep. That's basically where we want to get to. At the moment, if he's out of the crate, he just doesn't seem capable of switching himself off for that to happen.

I'm not expecting a 7-month-old Golden to lie silently in the corner all day. I know he's going to have loads of energy and be a bit of a dickhead sometimes.

He can also go from fine to completely overaroused very quickly, and once he's there it feels like you've basically lost access to his brain. Dogs are incredibly exciting. People are incredibly exciting. Smells are incredibly exciting. He can sniff so intensely that getting him to disengage is difficult, and once his arousal starts climbing, his ability to listen or engage with us drops massively. He's not aggressive or generally fearful, if anything, it's the opposite. He's ridiculously curious and wants to interact with the entire world.

We've done puppy classes, a 1-2-1 training session, regular training at home, sniffing/search games, structured play, chews and enrichment. A normal weekday is around 3 miles of walking split across morning and evening, with plenty of sniffing.

One trainer basically suggested we needed to tire him out more, but I'm unconvinced that's the answer. I could probably add more exercise and make him physically tired, but that doesn't actually teach him how to be bored, regulate himself or just exist calmly without needing constant stimulation. It feels like we'd risk creating a fitter dog with exactly the same problem.

The evenings after work are where it wears us down most. He might sleep in his crate from 7:30–8:30, wake up and immediately be ready to GO again and having him out in the living room doesn't really feel like relaxing with our dog. It often feels like another period where one of us has to actively manage him because he's wandering around, mouthing, grabbing toys, sniffing around or trying to start something.

We've tried capturing calm, chews followed by settling (he just gets up after finishing them), more activity, less activity, sniffier walks, training before settling, and just doing absolutely nothing. We've only tried tethering properly once, so that's definitely something we haven't given enough of a chance yet. The crate is basically the one place where he understands "nothing is happening now, relax".

We're now thinking the focus probably needs to be more around regulation, disengagement from the environment, learning that boredom is okay, and building neutrality around dogs and people rather than constantly trying to tire him out.

I'm mainly interested in hearing from people who had similarly high-arousal dogs around this age.

Did they eventually learn to settle by themselves and was there anything specific that genuinely made a noticeable difference?

Did you deliberately make their world more boring for a while?

Did adolescence make things significantly worse before they got better?

And is there anything here that sounds like we're actually approaching it wrong?

I love the idiot, but it is pretty relentless having a dog who seemingly wakes up every morning and chooses maximum intensity.

I'm not looking for false reassurance either, so if we're doing something completely wrong, please tell me.

Before bringing our pup home, browsing puppy forums made it feel like the first few weeks are guaranteed to be pure stress, sleep deprivation, and regret. Those challenges are completely real and valid, but I wanted to offer a counter-perspective for anyone currently waiting on a puppy and feeling dread.

We brought home our female Havanese at 8 weeks old, and two weeks in, the experience has been overwhelmingly positive. I do believe that the impact of the breeder on early development has had a very positive view on our pup.

Sleeping & Containment Setup: We use an open crate attached to a closed playpen, with a patch of artificial grass at the far end. This setup gives her a safe space without total confinement anxiety and makes night management straightforward.

Toilet Training: She already understands going outside on the garden grass to wee and poo. We have had a few minor accidents, but having consistent access and a clear routine made an immediate difference.

Biting & Redirection: When she gets mouthy, she redirects onto chews and toys with very little fuss.

Routine & Personality: Adapting our daily schedule takes conscious effort, but watching her figure out our rhythms, seeing her personality emerge, and integrating her into the home has been pure joy.

I know we have teething, fear periods, and adolescence ahead—things will change, and regressions happen. But if you are counting down the days until pickup and feeling terrified by the volume of "puppy blues" posts, know that a calm, rewarding start is entirely possible too.

I posted here a couple weeks ago because I was considering rehoming my recently adopted puppy after a pretty significant tragedy.

Based on the kind words and advice from the people in this community we decided to keep him. As many people said he has been a reason to keep going and get up in the morning. We’re still grieving but I’m so glad we kept him.

He’s a black lab about 4-5 months old now and today marks one month since we adopted him and he’s doing incredible, better than I could have ever hoped.

Potty training is going really well. There are still accidents of course but when we’re diligent he does great. He knows his spots outside, wakes us to go out, gets straight to business and then back to sleep with no fuss. Sunday we went all day without an accident.

Training is going phenomenal. He has sit and stay locked down. He’s pretty good with come and he’s doing well with leash edict. There are slips here and there but he’s a quick learner. Still working on down and not climbing but I’m positive he’ll get there.

Biting and chewing is coming along nicely too. He’s no longer constantly chewing on the furniture, mostly just when he’s tired or upset. And the nipping has stopped almost entirely. He’ll mouth when we play but is easily redirected with toys. When that doesn’t work it’s a sure sign that it’s time for a nap and then he’ll usually go straight to his pen. We working on “bed” but that’s coming along nicely as well.

He’s not perfect by any stretch but the progress I’m seeing is so reassuring especially considering it’s only been a month. Consistency and positive reinforcement work wonders.

I just want to say thank you to all the people in this community. This sub is my go to with any questions. Just search whatever issue and someone’s already gone through it. The support from this sub is unbelievable, and hardly ever negative.

When I made my first post we were going return him to the shelter that day but they were closed. One user said that was a sign that he was meant for us. That seems to be true.

My wife and I adopted a rescue almost 3 weeks ago and I already feel like I’m losing my mind. He’s about a year old, 45lbs and we assume to primarily be a boxer/pit mix. He’s incredibly sweet and is super well behaved when we are home and around other people and other dogs. He’s house trained and also generally super quiet rarely barking or whining. We’ve had no issue taking him outside of the house on walks and to public places as well.

However everything seems to go out the window as soon as my wife and I leave our apartment. Please keep in mind that my wife and I both work full time and while I can work remotely M and F I need to be in office the other days of the week. Staying home isn’t an option. I have been coming home every day at lunch to let him out which is the best I can do. It’s very apparent that he has very bad separation anxiety and has had a few panic attacks when he’s left home alone. The first week we had him, he was staying in the crate and would initially whine a bit but would settle himself. This did progressively get worse as the noise would get louder and it would take him longer to settle. This last for about a week until when we had to step outside of the house for less than an hour, he had a full blown panic attack. He clawed and bit at the crate wires so much that he actually managed to force himself out and proceeded to then pace around the apartment howling and unable to settle because he couldn’t find us. After this he had a complete aversion to the crate and with the danger of him hurting himself with another escape attempt this no long became an option. We took him to an after hours vet and he is now on Flouxetine.

This then resulted in us purchasing a gate for the hallway in which the second week he had kept him while we were working. This started very strong with him making minimal noise and settling fast on his own. I would give him a peanut butter Kong and he would enjoy while I left. However, he now has associated the crate with me leaving and refuses to enter the hallway. He won’t even be coaxed by a high value treat, toy, or even myself sitting/laying down. If he’s forced in there he will then begin having a panic attack as soon as he’s alone. Today we had a 20 minute standoff and I had to go to work so I let him stay in the living area for the morning. He had not shown any real destructive behaviors before and I had taken everything I was worried about out of sight so figured he’d be fine. He did well for the morning (only whined and paced by the door for a few mins) and slept for most of it on the couch. However, right before I got home he managed to tear into an Amazon package (which I’m not too worried about but notable that he hasn’t done anything like this when we are home or before when we’ve been gone) but more concerningly he managed to get himself into our pantry which I didn’t believe he could access but the jokes on me. Ended up eating some stuff he shouldn’t so had to spend my afternoon at the emergency vet. It’s clear though that while free roaming worked for majority of the morning when he perks up and has some energy we can’t leave him out.

I’m just getting really tired as nothing I seem to do works. I’m well aware that in an ideal world we would slowly get his tolerance up to being alone but that isn’t an option for people who work. I feel like I’ve tried everything, covering the crate with a blanket, leaving clothes that smell like us in his area, leaving on the TV/music to drown out outside noise, leaving him toys and the peanut butter kong, trying different areas of the apartment, calming treats, and getting him on Flouxetine. I love this dog but I genuinely don’t know what to do. If anyone has some advice or went through something similar please share

I wasn't around at the time but he was in the care of my parents. He was in the garden and... bad thing happened. I just got told about it.

I know it's instinct but man, it feels horrible. I feel guilty as if I did it...

Please no judgment. 🙏 This is long, thanks for listening.

I am a single mom, two high school kids. I work from home. Our longtime family dog passed away a year ago, and kids have been begging for a dog ever since. They agreed to help me if we got a puppy. We looked for a year, and landed on the perfect little guy. The puppy was 12 weeks old when we got him from a reputable rescue.

Everything was great. I noticed as the months went on, the kids stopped being much of a help, but it was fine because I was home every day, and we lived in an area with a huge fenced in yard. Life was good.

But…

In May, my landlord announced a 15% increase in rent for everyone in our subdivision, effective on the next renewal, which for me was in July. We have been in the same home for four years.

In June, my son fractured his ankle which was “covered by insurance” but still required me to shell out a thousand dollars, due to a high deductible. His recovery and physical therapy has been even more expensive.

Facing the upcoming rent increase, surprise expenses, and the cost of everything from food to gas skyrocketing lately, we had no choice but to move somewhere more affordable instead of renew. It absolutely sucked, but we did it. New home does not have fenced yard, but it’s fine, because I work from home.

And then… my employer announced starting in August, that they are doing away with remote work and everyone has to be back in office.

The kids are back in school. I have been hiring dog walkers and putting the dog in daycare, and it’s stressful for the dog and for us, and costly.

This month, I am looking at my budget, and am breaking down in tears - I cannot afford to keep him. It’s unsustainable. I don’t know what to do. I can’t get rid of him. He is the best dog and a part of our family. But what do you do if you simply can’t afford it? I am embarrassed to say this but I can barely afford to live suddenly - everything is absurdly expensive. It’s not normal increases, feels like everything is suddenly through the roof.

At some point, I am sure I’ll be able to leave the dog home alone for longer, but at 9 months old, we are a long way from that. I’m up at night worried every single night about this.

Are there low cost care options? Are they any good? What would you do? I am losing sleep. This is the worst.

My parents have a jack russel pupply (female around 7 months) and a labrador (male 8).

They get along well but they are both currently intact (i do not condone this), the female wont be spayed until she's older (that's fair).

Parents will be going on a trip and Im scared their puppy is about to go into heat. What signs should i look out for?

Thanks

So I’ve decided a different approach to potty training my puppies. My pomsky is doing beautifully. It’s the first time since I’ve had her that she hasn’t had a single accident. Why? Because I am crate training and taking them outside every hour two hour and a half. Well, despite that, my bichon decided to poop in her crate! I literally cannot take her outside more than what I’m already doing and I’m going to lose it. Out of six takeout, she finally only peed. But she absolutely refuses to poop outside.

Both are 6 months old and I’ve had them for yep months.

Other training is going extremely well. Especially for my pomski. She already knows not to go upstairs. And to stay off of the couch unless she is held. She also understands not to bark. Though we will engage in exciting howls together. 💛
Both of them are learning manners with not charging at water and food.

Edited to add: I’ve tried a play pen and pee pads. She doesn’t care.

Hi all, we (M/F 30) just adopted a new puppy from the shelter. He's just under 6 months old and right at 20lbs. We're on day 6. He has a great temperment, does well with people and other dogs, and is overall a sweet, energetic boy. We don't know what breed he is, but physically he looks like a mini dutch shepherd, so we think he may be some sort of shepherd mixed with a smaller breed like a terrier.

This first week has had ups and downs with behavior and training, specifically with potty training, so I'm just looking for a sanity check and some encouragement, or even better - some critique.

He wasn't potty trained at the shelter so that's been our focus. We've been crate training him (really more like kennel training). Our routine is generally: come out of the kennel, go outside, walk around the block (we don't have a yard), go potty on the lawn outside, if he goes potty he gets praise and a high-value treat, then practice sit/stay/let's go (trying not to throw a bunch of commands at him all at once, but he's doing pretty well with these 3 so far) for a little bit, come inside, get play time for a little bit longer, then back into the kennel with the Kong (filled with some food and a small dab of cream cheese) to settle down and nap time. Stay in the crate for about two hours napping, then wake him up and go back outside to repeat the process. Repeat throughout the day.

A couple deviations: we also take him out for walk/potty/short play session 15ish minutes after any time he eats or drinks water. At night time he's generally able to hold his bladder for 6-8 hours (amazing) and wake up to go potty outside first thing in the morning.

For the first 3-4 days things were going great! He had a couple accidents the first 48 hours but that was largely on us; we let him walk into another room unsupervised during play time, and the other time we made him wait in the crate too long. 100% our fault. But after that we had a strong

Fast forward to yesterday and today (days 5-6) and we're backsliding a bit. The first few mornings he would wake up and whine to go out to pee, or one of us would wake up before him, wake him up, and take him out to pee. This morning he woke up and peed without giving any signals. Then later in the morning, I took him out for his walk/train/play, and after coming back in the house and in the crate he made a little poop (instead of pooping while we were out).

Then this afternoon, I took him out for a total of about an hour. That time was mixed between going to the park, walking around the block at home, doing some training commands, and doing a little play. He pooped while we were out (good!), but as soon as we came back inside the kennel, he almost mmediately peed. This was frustrating, as we had just spent an hour outside.

I know it's normal for puppies to backslide a little, and we're still super early on in the potty training. I just want a sanity check to make sure we're approaching this in the right kind of way. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Fundamentally we're trying to:

1. Bring him outside often enough that he has ample opportunities to pee/poop
2. Reward him with high-value treats and praise any time he goes potty outside
3. Keep him supervised at all times to watch for any signs that he needs to potty

Thanks to anyone who reads this and any suggestions anyone has!

This may seem like a obvious question but my mini Aussie is now 15 weeks old and I can tell he’s really smart and wants to make me happy and get his treats. Sometimes I feel like I am confusing him or he gets frustrated. I try to keep it simple and always give him a lot of wins/yes with new commands.

In a single training session should I be doing a variety/circuit of commands or just focusing on 2-3?

Right now he’s pretty good with:
-sit/siéntate (until release)
-down/acuéstate (until release)
with wait (said after sit/down until release)
-stay - he’s tries not to move until I come back
-shake & shake other paw
-come/ven (English and Spanish) - puts his nose to my hand
- center
-casa (his playpen for when I go out)
-crate (his sleeping crate)

He’s getting better at spin and we are working on roll over, leave it/drop it (he seems to know what it is just doesn’t depending on the item he has). I believe he has the concept of ‘off’ people and tables but I haven’t rewarded it heavily with treats.

I’ve started to do a place a few times, but haven’t gotten any where solid with it. He does always go to sit on his bed when I feed him meals. He stays until I tell him release now. We have been working on that since he was 9 weeks old and he’s great at it.

Sometimes when I do sit he will scoot back to down instead, especially when I have him wait a while. Should I not reward that or make him go back to sit? If I try to say sit again he seems to get frustrated like “I already sat and I’ve waited 30 seconds give me already.” In real life I can’t think of a time it would be so important he sits vs lays down like for safety or obedience. I’m also not sure if it may be because most of my floor is vinyl and he slides.

Hi - I have a 17 week old mutt (we think lab mix) and she really is a great dog - crate trained, sleeps through the night, minimal accidents (mainly because of human error!) but my anxiety is bad. I got severe puppy blues at the start but we are on the up & up!

My question:
1. If you have a barky reactive dog - what age did that start?
2. If your dog has separation anxiety - when did that start?

I’ve read the posts - the teenage months are rough but is that when these behaviors start? Or would I know that already at 4ish months?

My question is, is a 10-15 min run in the street going to hurt him? I know it’s ill advised to run a dog under 12-18 months, better for small dogs, mine is 40lbs slim dog. Hes nearly at a year and I’m feeling like the benefits outweigh the harm? I would never push him more than he wants and I very much follow his pace. I can tell he feels so much calmer and happier. When hes wound up he seems overwhelmed, stressed, and unfulfilled.

Here’s my reasons for why I think this is necessary:
My 11 month male in-tact pup is frustration-reactive and needs a lot of outlets. Hes very smart and obedient, we do plenty of mental stimulation, training new skills, words, sniff games, etc. we made immense progress with his reactivity towards dogs on walks over the past 8 months UNTIL the last month or two he has been so overstimulated just going outside, too many smells, dogs, people, and he won’t pay attention to me.

I’ve found if he runs and gets some energy out that hes able to settle better and focus on me, hold back his reactivity, and loose leash walk. I was advised to see how he’d do running next to a bike and boy did he LOVE it. He has so much gas in the tank, and I haven’t been able to find anything else that satisfies this drive.

Hello! We brought home a 3 month old mixed breed a few days ago and have been working on crate training, playing games and she’s been sleeping well in her crate at night. Leaving her in the crate during waking hours (I’ve had to make two short 10 min trips out of the house) has been less than ideal with lots of crying and barking, even trying to dig her way out.
We have at home a 2 year old golden and wonder if the puppy’s day time crate is better off away from the other dog in the house or where they can see each other for comfort.
Tomorrow is the first day she will be crated for any significant amount of time (2 hour blocks with potty and snuggles in between) as I need to go back to the office. I’m worried about her crying and throwing a fit in the crate, and never settling.

8 month old Pom, I understood this breed needs a ton of desensitizing to grooming and started right away. She is a pro at taking a bath and tolerating the high velocity dryer. Less of a fan with brushing/combing but will deal with it.

But, she REALLY hates having her nails done. She is not aggressive but mouthy if that makes sense and tries to pull away when I touch her paws. I use a dremmel instead of clippers because she moves so much. Trying to go back to square 1 but not sure what that looks like.

Hello, I have a 10 month old mini golden doodle and i’ve had him since he was 8 weeks old. Recently he’s started chasing and tackling my 6 pound cat and i’m afraid he’s gonna hurt her one day. I understand he’s trying to play but he can’t do that. Does anyone have any advice? He has never done this up until about a month or month and a half ago.

He also keeps randomly barking in his crate whether it be 4 am or 11 pm and we have covered his crate and play sound machines so he doesn’t hear anything. Anything to help with that?

I work at a veterinary office and brought home a blind puppy a few days ago that someone surrendered (they originally wanted to euthanize, I just couldn't let that happen). The pup is about 9-10 weeks old. I have an outside covered kennel that I puppy-proofed today and I worked on keeping him in it for an hour or so at a time so I could keep an eye on him. My 4 other dogs are in the adjacent yard and were laying next the kennel most of the day. He didn't really bark or whine at all, just played and slept. Do you think he'd be OK in there all day while I go to work? I only work 2-3 days in a row and could potentially come home on a lunch break (my drive is 20 minutes each way). He has water, bed, toys, out of the weather. I'd take him to work with me but our kennels fill up quick every day and there's lots of unvaccinated dogs that come through so it's not ideal. Thoughts and suggestions are welcome!

Puppy sometimes accepts food in the bowl, mostly in kong but lately only if I scatter it on a tshirt? What is this moodiness ? How do I correct it ? My dog is not food motivated at all. He’s a 4 month old shihtzu and I’ve had him for a month, initially he accepted kibble alright, but since a week I see a lot of disinterest. I’ve added yoghurt, chicken broth, nothing seems to interest him

first time dobie parent here:
we have had our girl for a little over a week now (she is 9 weeks old) and she is doing amazing potty training.
the only dilemma is that our girl has learned that going outside = treats. she is obsessed with ringing the bell on our door to ask to be let out, which i don’t think is necessarily a bad thing. i only reward her when she goes potty outside, but now she is peeing in increments in order to get multiple treats for going potty. should i reward her for every little pee? i don’t want to discourage her from going outside but i also don’t want her to make it a habit.
thank you for your advice!!!

Hi, we just got a new puppy 2 days ago. He’s having a really hard time settling unless we’re right with him. He’ll eventually settle down in his crate, and has even gone to it himself a couple times, but once we move he freaks out barking and whining.

My first question is is it normal that he can’t settle himself even in the pen or crate with us right next to it? It’s making me also cry all day because I don’t know what the right thing to do is.

I would also love any tips, I know there are a lot in this thread, but I feel like they’re so conflicting as far as whether he should cry it out and not get attention, or whether he needs support. I also don’t know if we aren’t tiring him out enough or if he’s getting overtired because he’s not napping much (because of the not being able to settle). Should we just let him nap in our lap sometimes if he’ll do it?

I should also mention, all his bathroom needs have been met when this happens.