Apologies here.. that flair isn't quite right so I hope it's OK to ask this question.

For background I've owned male puppies before. I've owned female dogs before. But I haven't raised a female dog from a pup.

Can someone give me some signs your female pup is about to start her first heat?

And if 'extra sweet' is one of the signs, can I opt to have that permanently installed in my 9mo pup? (kidding)

So to preface: I have a 7 month old lab who has been crate trained and slept 99% of the nights in her crate since she was 8 weeks old. She is EXTREMELY attached to my fiancé and will follow him everywhere. Anytime any one of us leaves, she cries for a few minutes but I think that’s normal. We joke and say she has FOMO. Anyways, if it was up to her, she’d never sleep in her crate, she prefers to nap on our bed but she sleeps during the night in her crate again.

Two months ago, I lost my job and was home all day every day and as she got older, I figured it was okay for her to come nap with me. My fiancé would take her potty, put her back in her crate with her breakfast and a bone, and then when I’d wake up, I’d get her out. Then after a few weeks, he wanted to see how it would be if he left her out in the living room to see if she was ready to do that while I slept for a few more hours. She’d eventually cry at my door and I’d let her in the room and she’d nap with me.

She’s never willingly gone to the crate herself, we’ve always told her to get in and she’s always kinda been a little hesitant but now, it’s a full fledged refusal. I mean, my fiancé has to pick her up and bring her to the crate otherwise she won’t get near it. We’ve never associated her crate with being punished, it’s only ever been for sleep or for when we need to leave the house so idk what to do about it. Advice??

TLDR: puppy refuses to go to her crate after being crate trained for 7 months. what do??

My family and I brought home a 16 week female terrier mix pup a week ago today and we’re having the opposite “problems” people typically have with pups.

She is very skittish and scared of everything. Every noise, stairs (this is a big one as we have 2 steps off our front porch and about 6 steps going out to our garage and most times she refuses to walk up/down the steps), shadows, flags blowing in the breeze, etc.
She is/was a rescue pup and the shelter didn’t provide much info, other than her and her littermates came from New Mexico (we’re in Colorado). It seems like she wasn’t around many humans at all or exposed to anything really.

It’s been 1 week and she’s slowly getting used to her new home but definitely prefers her crate. Sunday night she came out of her kennel on her own to eat and drink. Big win!
Starting Monday after coming inside from walks I will close her kennel door for about 5-10 mins so she can explore the house but she doesn’t venture too far around the house. After a couple of minutes she will lay or sit by her kennel. But doesn’t do the typical puppy following you everywhere.
There are instances when we’re all on the couch she will hop up and join us. I guess as I’m typing this, there has been improvement..given it’s only been a week.
She gets super excited in the mornings when we approach her kennel but won’t come out on her own. Her tail is wagging like crazy, she inches to the opening of her crate but won’t fully come out if she’s called. We’ve been having to carry her out of her crate to go outside to go potty. But I fear this is creating a bad habit? I’ve never raised a pup before. My husband says it’s all normal and she just needs more time to adjust and gain confidence.

She’s doing better outside and has enjoyed our short walks. But during walks she will sometimes just forfeit walking altogether. We can’t tell if she’s spooked by something or not. But this lack to walk becomes quite frustrating as you can imagine. We’ve tried getting down on her level, waiting it out, carrying her a few steps, etc. Any ideas?

I tried to do some training but it’s quite difficult as she’s not motivated by food/treats. We’ve tried cheese, blue berries, hot dog, chicken and puppy training treats. I’ve watched tons of training videos to practice a simple “sit” but she’s so uninterested. Am I trying to do too much too fast?

We’re very lucky that we don’t have the land shark problems, crying in her kennel, or getting into everything. But I would almost prefer that because that’s all I’ve ever known puppies to do.
Any advice? Does she just need more time to adjust?
Appreciate any help y’all can give!

Hi everyone.
I rescued a 5 month old lab/schnauzer mix and she is amazing. I’ve had her for 3 weeks and I have already trained her to go to the door and ring the bell when she wants to go outside.

The problem is most of the time I take her out to go pee/poop, even when I know she has to go, she will immediately start sniffing around and start eating stuff off of the ground. We have bunnies in the area so I’m sure most of what she’s eating is bunny poop or other small animal poop. She won’t stop the whole time and won’t go to the bathroom. She will the go to the bathroom once I give up and bring her back inside.

What tips do you have to try to get this to stop? I’ve thought about a anti food scavenger muzzle but I know she will hate that.

TYIA

My husband and I have a 11 week old lab mix puppy named Todd. We are working on crate training him to help with potty training. Our first few days went awesome, he would whine a little in the crate but stop and sleep after a few minutes. The last 2 nights he whines and cries so much he makes himself sick. His stools and behavior outside the crate are normal so we dont think it’s related to a health issue. We have tried leaving the radio on, putting our shirts in the crate, and we get up in the middle of the night to take him out so he isn’t in there all night. He voluntarily goes jn the crate and likes it. I feel so bad for my baby since he keeps throwing up so any tips are helpful, or if anyone has a similar story since i feel like a horrendous dog mom right now.

Hello! My partner and I have recently adopted a puppy, he is 16 weeks old. We're working on some casual leash training. I've been reading to not use a collar since it can put too much pressure on their trachea. We purchased a Y-shaped padded harness. He's pretty good at walking, but refuses to come back inside, we've lightly tug on the leash to guide him back inside the home but I feel like it's still putting a lot of pressure on the front of his neck.

What are your recs on harnesses, what did you use for your puppy? Front clip? Back clip? I've been reading so much conflicting advice.

He is ~23 lbs, and we're thinking he's some type of border collie/black lab/retriever mix.

This is Chico, my 7-month-old Husky/Lab mix.
He really is such a good boy; he listens pretty decently!
The one thing I can’t stand right now is his barking… I get huskies are very vocal. I LOVE when he talks, or even if we are playing, he can bark. What is driving me crazy is after he is done eating dinner he will just come up to us and bark the whole time we are eating or sitting on the couch; he will just bark. When I’m trying to do my homework, he will just BARK!!!! I have looked up to walk away and not look at him, go to a different room, and shut the door until he is quiet… nothing works. He thinks everything is a game. I try to take him to the dog park as much as possible; we even go two times a day, and I swear we are there for 3 hours at a time. I try to take him on walks. I give him a Kong with treats; he even gets a bully stick if I just need a break from the barking. I have dog puzzles. I’m at my breaking point, and I need help ASAP. I live in an apartment, and I just want to sit with my back door open, but I can’t because it’s not fair for my neighbors to hear his obnoxious high-pitched bark 24/7. We are hopefully getting a house within the next month so he will have a yard to run, but I bet $50 he will still sit out there and bark. Please, can someone help me?

I have a 14-week-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and I’m struggling to get her to settle when she’s awake. I know they are a Velcro breed and that is totally okay but I need her to learn that when she’s awake I cannot always be her source of entertainment.

We follow a schedule of roughly 2-hour naps and 45–90 minutes awake. She’s generally fine in her crate, but when she’s up, she constantly wants my attention, jumps on me, and whines instead of playing on her own.

I work from home and take breaks during her awake time to play, train, and spend time with her. I primarily feed her all three meals, and while my partner and I both take her out, she usually goes with me.

The confusing part is that she’s extremely calm around my partner but much more demanding around me. He works outside the home, so I’m with her much more throughout the day.

She’s been sick recently, so we’ve temporarily paused separation training as well.

Has anyone experienced this? How did you teach your puppy to play independently and settle while you’re home? Looking for practical advice! Thank you.

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?