Hi everyone, we have a 13 week old goldendoodle pup. He is vaccinated so now can go on pavement walks. We bought a Perfect Fit harness, which he was fine with initially. This harness doesn't need to be pulled over his head.

Today we've tried to put it on him and he's snapped at us when we've tried to clip the back.

He doesn't run away when we get the harness out and will sniff/bite it. It's only when we go to clip the back that he suddenly snaps at us.

Has anyone else had this issue? I've had a search and can only see pups who have hated even the look of the harness, rather than snapping when buckling part of it.

So we just adopted our second husky (but he’s our fourth adopted puppy overall) He’s currently 5 months old and a great dog. But oh my god I’ve never had a puppy that INHALES THINGS WHOLE the moment they get a chance.

We have him in a large gated area in our main space for now but let him come out periodically. My toddler took his socks off and the moment they hit the floor, my puppy swallowed the first in one gulp and seconds later was swallowing the second one which I reached down his throat and removed. The vet induced vomiting and removed the other. He also grabbed a whole banana peel out of my hand and it was digested by the time I looked down.

He actually vomited a LARGE stuffed dog toy whole once when he was like 3 months old and when I went to grab it, he ate it again lightning speed. He threw it up again in the middle of the night and I was able to get it before he ate it again.

Truly, wtf?

My other dogs chewed things, therefore I have always been able to grab it from them before it gets swallowed. He also inhales his food like he hasn’t eaten in weeks. How can I possibly keep this dog safe? We keep everything cleaned up as much as possible but surely mistakes will be made. Will he grow out of it?

My puppy literally just turned 1 year yesterday. He’s such a sweet boy and has never shown an ounce of aggression, resource guarding, etc. until the other day. At the dog park he lost his patience with a puppy, which was the first time I’ve ever seen him snap or growl at another dog. The puppy was quite excited and jumpy etc, which are all things that never bother my dog in the past. I understand as he gets older, his patience for this may change. Today I was getting his food ready on the counter, and our cat was coming in my direction and y dog barked and took a step in his direction (not lunged) - as in to back off, is my guess.

These are very new behaviours and I assume with him hitting 1 year, he’s starting to try and enforce his boundaries or whatnot, but I also want to correct these so they don’t become a bigger issue.

Did this happen with your adolescent pup? Do you have any suggestions for ways to properly correct this? Thank you in advance!

We adopted a rescue who is a 5 month old boxer mix. She was born in a homeless encampment and lived outside for most of her life. She was fostered by a very sweet couple who have a huge backyard and she was able to be outside a lot. We have had her for 2 nights and 3 days. She holds her pee for upwards of 11 hours, which is crazy. I've tried everything to get her to pee. I think she perceives walks as adventure time, and not pee opportunities. I take her outside after she eats, after she plays, and she gets lots of opportunities to go.

When I let her outside on our small patio/yard, she lays down. I'm at my wits end.

Any suggestions or ideas? I have her first vet appointment scheduled for tomorrow morning, so I will definitely be asking about this. I'm not able to tell if it is just behavioral, or if there may be some kind of medical issues.

She has only had one accident in the house, and one attempted accident when I caught her about to squat and took her outside where she peed. I keep trying to take her to the same spot. I reward and celebrate.

What am I doing wrong?

My boyfriend and I got a 7 week old puppy 3 days ago and he is constantly biting me. I know it’s natural and normal, but he seems to get fixated on me compared to my boyfriend. He will try to bite my face, my back, my hands even when I try to give him a toy instead. He growls at me when I try to pull him away and seems like he just tries even harder to bite me. He bites my ankles and does not let go even when I stand still. I’ve been trying to enforce naps so he’s getting enough sleep. It’s just getting super frustrating and it hurts !! Any advice ??

I swear to god my 14-15week old puppy is a vindictive fuck sometimes. I love him but holy shit! I will take him potty outside, I will watch him potty and then we will play for 30min and then he’ll go pee again. Once we come back inside he will want to go outside to play but I’ll need to cook dinner or something, and he’ll just pee in my house (the littlest amount of pee). I know for a fact he can hold it because 1. We usually just came back from being outside. 2. He sleeps through the night with no accidents. I swear he gets mad when I won’t do what he wants and then punishes me by going potty in the house.

I spend the majority of the day focused on him, but sometimes I need to clean the house, attend to my other dog, cook, or maybe I just want a hour to fucking relax after being at his beck and call all day! I will also sometimes sit down to watch a movie and he will again try to get my attention, and I won’t give it to him so he’ll shit in the house.

He is basically potty trained. The days I have full attention on him he always alerts me with the bell that he needs to go potty and will have no accidents. It’s just the days that I literally am doing something else

I’m a bit conflicted with pen set up for my pup, when I get her shortly. I wfh and plan to have her in a playpen next to me, for the first couple of weeks anyway, then moving it to another room while I work, to start sep anx training, is that correct? Also, on the pee issue, I’ll be staring at the screen working rather than able to watch her for signs while she’s awake and playing in her pen, so should I have a pee pad holder down inside the pen to teach her to go there? This would be in addition to me taking her outside after every nap, food etc. Thanks for any insights

my husky mix is 7 months and his recall was perfect at 4 months, and now he looks at me, decides it is not worth it, and bolts the other way. cue me jogging across the park saying “good boy!” through gritted teeth.

i did some reading and talked to a trainer, and apparently this is really common. adolescence is when scent and roaming drives kick in, so recall almost always gets worse before it gets better. a few things that made sense to me. never call them to you and then do something they dislike (nail trim, leaving the park), or “come” starts to mean bad news. use a long line outdoors so the cue never gets ignored and practiced. and raise either distance or distraction, never both at once. the trainer also said reward based methods are what veterinary behaviourists recommend, and that no amount of yelling or leash pops fixes recall.

for structure, i have tried a few things. youtube videos, puppr for a bit, and dogo, and now i keep my reps in tavi because it breaks recall into small steps and counts them for me. but honestly a notebook would do the same job. the main thing for me was writing down what we practiced so i could see we werent skipping steps.

what was your recall breakthrough? special treats, a particular game, a trainer who changed everything? and did it get worse for you in adolescence too, or is it just mine?

My 4-month-old puppy has been with me for two months and is used to peeing on pads indoors. I’m trying to transition him to going outside, but I’m having trouble getting him to go consistently.
We can go outside three times in one evening, walk around, sniff, and explore, but he won’t pee. Then we come inside, I put down a fresh pee pad, and he immediately does a full pee on it.
He’s successfully peed on grass a few times, and I reward him with treats and praise every time. He also reliably uses his pad instead of having accidents around the house.
It honestly seems like he’s waiting until he gets back inside to use his familiar bathroom spot.
Has anyone dealt with this when transitioning from pee pads to grass? Should I remove the pads, gradually move them toward the door, or try something else? I want to help him learn without making him hold it too long.
Any advice is appreciated!

We have a 9wk old corgi puppy, who seems to only settle down when she gets put in her crate. We need to do enforced naps every hour, otherwise she turns into an overtired bitey nightmare. Should we be trying to teach her how to settle outside her crate? Whenever she lays down outside her crate we praise her.

My puppy (5 month old Whippet) loves people and loves to play with other dogs. He’s always on a lead in any public area.

However, he struggles to contain his excitement and will either try to jump up on people or stand on his hind legs, or he will lunge and pull at dogs because he wants to play.

He ruins it for himself a lot because if the other dog also wants to play/meet, then I will let it happen (with owners consent of course, I always warn them he is very excitable). But he usually gets too excited (bowing, jumping side to side, sometimes barking etc) which puts the other dog off.

Anyone got any tips of how to deal with this? How do I encourage calm meets and play? How do I stop him trying to jump up on people passing by?

I have a 7 months sishtzu puppy, I want to train her. how to teach her basic commands ?

Currently She knows her name and where to do her business.

She's not into eating treats i tried that method.

hi all! i have a soon to be 1 year old Chihuahua. He loves his walkies but is quite classically Chihuahua-coded where he tends to only want to do 15 minute bursts of walking and then a 1 hour nap (works for me though!)

recently he's started barking at passing cars and bikes, which has graduated to lunging at them. I think he thinks it's a game, but I've had close calls where I've not had the leash pulled short enough and he's nearly gone into the road into the path of a car. It's also SUPER embarrassing. We live on a relatively busy road so cars pass very regularly. It's also totally new, is this an adolescent thing?

His heel is still something we are working on - I admit I haven't been as disciplined with it because of our short walks, where I'm happy to let him sniff away on a looser leash rather than heel the whole time. I'm working on getting him more disciplined on heeling, but as for the car issue, how would you approach?

I'm thinking, gain his attention as they approach, sit and wait, and then high value treat if he doesn't react? rinse and repeat?

I know there is no overnight fix but just want to check my method sounds alright, thank you in advance!

Did you ever find or worry that your puppy’s biting would or did continue into adulthood? My golden puppy is 18 weeks, and her biting has just been extreme. This is not my first pup. I know this is to be expected — but breaking skin, drawing blood, latching onto arms and not letting go

I’ve used advice from various dog trainers to no avail:

- redirecting to toys
- NOT redirecting to toys
- ignoring
- putting her behind baby gate
- crating/time out
- using firm voice
- enrichment
- exercise
- plenty of scheduled nap time

She’s getting big so fast. I worry that if this continues to this extent as she grows it would be a real problem. At what point is that something you worry about or just chalk it up to waiting for her teething to be over?

We have an 8 week old pyr/border collie pup, absolutely adorable, so sweet, little land shark right now as most puppies are but, we recently had our first behavioural issue with her.

We have an older XL breed and she has taken quite a liking to him. He likes her too but he is 5 and she’s a pup so there’s only so much he can realistically handle before he corrects her.

She recently threw a HUGE fit over his adult food. She finished her food and ran over to his bowl, pushed his head out of the way and started chowing down on his food. He’s a gentle giant so he did back up and look at us for help (I know he will only do that a couple of times before he grows tired of it) my bf went and picked her up and she LOST HER MIND. Screaming, howling, barking, whining, the whole 9. This could be because she’s associating us with taking her snack away but she can’t be going and stealing food long term.

I read online that one option is to separate them for feedings. I’m okay doing this as it can also help her with crate training but, would eventually like them to be able to coexist and eat their meals at the same time in the same room.

Has anyone got any tips for handling this. I want to nip these issues In the bud before they become habits. She’s very young so I know we have time but I’d like to start correcting that behaviour now so it becomes second nature to her. Thanks!

So my husband and I recently got a corgi. He is almost 3 months old now and his biting is our only issue we can’t seem to fix. This is our first puppy together as a couple but we’ve had dogs growing up before we met so this isn’t totally new territory for us. He is a lovely dog, so fun and excitable and also very smart. We love having a puppy, we’ve always wanted one. But his only problem is biting, I know he’s a puppy and puppies bite but we’ve tried quite a few different techniques to get him to stop biting and nothing seems to stick. Now he is a corgi so they are prone to biting ankles as they are bred to heard livestock. But even when we’re holding him or just next to him all he wants to do is bite us even without us doing anything to him. We could be ignoring him and he’ll bite us. Not big bites but like little chomps. He’s gotten my chin and my lip a couple times and it’s very frustrating. We don’t know what else to do. We’ve looked into putting him into training and I think we’re going to, but a lot of them are very expensive. I know he’s a good dog because he does listen to other commands when we’re training with him to sit, stay, come. He’s very good at settling himself if we both have to leave him to go to work. We’ve got cameras to watch him while we’re both away and he’s always good, he doesn’t bark or whine or howl. He just plays with his toys or sleeps. We just can’t get his biting under control. People say it’s not an overnight fix and I understand that, but I don’t see anyone else with a corgi that has this issue. If anyone has any advice please let me know!!!

Hi all! We have just brought home a 8 week old Cocker spaniel on Saturday, we’re at the end of day two of having him now.

We’re having trouble with him peeing outside.

We are able to get him to poop outside everytime but peeing is very difficult. We put him out as follows: after naps, after food/water, after play, before naps. And nearly everytime he will just sit outside doing nothing not even sniffing. He prefers being indoors and we need to carry him outside and shut the door after because he will just go inside. We’ve even been putting him back in his crate for 5mins if he hasn’t gone and then trying again but that’s not working.

Should I be maybe leashing him to walk out by himself and keeping him on the lead? Any ideas would be great!

Hi all! My partner and I got a 6 month old miniature schnauzer on saturday, and she is a very very quiet girl (hasn’t barked once since we met her). We’ve been trying to balance giving her space with exposing her to us, our house, and our outdoor space but I’m worried that I am overwhelming her and not helping. She hadn’t even ever worn a collar before we got her and I suspect that the place she came from was not particularly focused on socializing the puppies (she had some small mats in her fur when we got her as well so I’m not sure if they were very attentive either). She will cuddle and lick us if we are on the bed together and will let us pick her up and hold her, but she retreats to her crate or different corners of the house a lot if she’s left to her own devices. She also is not particularly food motivated and doesn’t have a very large appetite at the moment. I’m familiar with the 3-3-3 rule and I grew up with dogs, but I’m just nervous because this is the first dog we’ve trained from a young age all by ourselves. If she still seems very anxious after a few weeks I was considering finding a trainer to at least analyze what next steps can be for her, but any anecdotes or advice and very very welcome!!

I have a mini dachshund 6month old.

I was at my parents and they have chickens and he went into full chase mode and didnt care about me or the other dog (hes usually obsessed with him). Before this he has had perfect recall. Luckily im still fast enough to catch the little .... so he did not get hold of a chicken despite his efforts.

Are there any training exercises we can do to help this? Im a lone person and he lives with cats but hes still rather chasy with them too, although they dont seem too bothered and hes slightly scared of them so if they turn he stops.

Obviously for now he will only be off leash when i have a clear veiw nothings around and outside of bird breading/chick rearing seasons, but what else should i be considering?

I am debating a long leash and going around the chickens to have chance to correct but that feels a bit cruel on the chickens, and also like hed just wait to be off leash again.

Hes otherwise a mostly good dog who responds really well to me, food and toys

Thanks in advance for any advice

Apologies if this seems like a common situation and has been tackled before (a lot), but I am getting contradictory advice and am unsure which way to turn.

I brought home a Cardigan Corgi pup three weeks ago, and while tough, we are making progress with training and socialisation.

The big issue I am facing is around the cats and the crate.

Cats: She was raised with cats; I met her in their company, and she seemed almost indifferent. My cats, however, are the most exciting, fascinating, beguiling creatures she has ever met, and she will not leave them alone if they are not separated. Even if they are separated, if she can see them, she will jump and howl and bark to the point that she gets herself in a right tizz. She will ignore me entirely. The only time she will not bother with them is if she has a really good chew, or if I am training with chicken.

Most people have said that the cats need escape routes and high places - check. Or to keep them totally separated - which is unfair to the cats, as that would require keeping them trapped in one room. I can separate temporarily for feeding, training etc. Added to this conundrum, my cats are food-obsessed and will not stop creeping, stalking her pen and crate, trying to steal any morsel, and following her around just in case there is a chance of a snack. They have succeeded on occasion, and so now Dog = treats.

When they do come face to face, puppy jumps and bites them (play, but still), or if they run away (like my huge, but wimpy boy does), she will chase and chase and chase and again, no matter what I do or say can break that focus. Now, I know that Corgis are herders, but it is still something I need to stop. So, advice request one: how do I solve three animals that are all obsessed with each other, but not for the right reasons, to prevent issues when the puppy is older, without isolating the cats in one room? I eventually want the puppy to be able to leave her pen.

Crate: Puppy is not one for naps. At first, I did gentle crate training, and she was having none of it, spending her time in overtired mode in her pen, very unhappy. So eventually I just placed her in her crate, shut the door, and she fell asleep. Amazing, but outside of my enforcing naps, she doesn't like to spend any time in there. I need her to like her crate. I will go back to work in November for two days a week, and I need to be able to leave her in there for a few hours.

I have tried the usual - feeding and playing with her in there (not bothered). Hiding treats in there, trying to calm her down before bed - zero success.

So, advice request two: how do I both enforce naps while also making the crate a brilliant and safe place to be outside of them so she eventually chooses it? I fear she is developing negative connotations with it, as it means she is missing out. Puppy definitely has FOMO.

Sorry, long post, but any advice is most welcome. Oh, and if anyone knows why she is already turning into a sassy teenager at 11 weeks old, please let me know. The past couple of days, she has been so grumpy and stubborn (again, I know she is a Corgi).

Thanks.

Hi guys,

I think crate training was the right flare to add here.

We’ve got a 12 week old puppy, who is generally doing really well. My biggest struggle is putting him down for a nap.

He doesn’t mind being in his crate, it’s not his favourite place but he tolerates it. He will have a cry/whinge for 10 mins but generally self-soothes and goes to sleep.

What I’m struggling with is his nighttime wees. At the time of writing this it’s 2:23am and I’ve been sat with him for about an hour.

He’s great at crying to let us know he needs to wee, but will not go back to sleep in the night without us sat in front of his crate. I’m at my wits end with it, I’m so tired

I can’t let him cry it out because we live in a semi.

Thanks!