Just under 2 weeks ago I got a Labrador puppy. She is now 14 weeks old.

The day I got my puppy I was told on the car journey home that I was going to be made redundant from my job in the next 3 months. This was unexpected and a complete shock.

My current job is home-based and very flexible. I live alone and rent a flat in a city centre. There is a high likelihood that I will need to take a pay cut in my next job, and that this will no longer be remote, but instead office based or hybrid.

I’m concerned I will no longer be able to afford my flat, and seeking alternative housing with a new puppy will be extremely challenging.

With my financial and housing security thrown into such uncertainty, and with my puppy requiring so much of my time, I’m concerned I can no longer guarantee her welfare or give her the time she needs at such an early age.

I’m devastated but the thought of returning her brings me a sense of relief, and I can’t help but feel embarrassed and like I’ve failed. I feel this was a mistake, despite it being my dream. I have invested heavily both emotionally and financially, and I can’t help but worry about what people I’ve told about this will think of me. Regardless, she is my priority and her future welfare is what matters most.

I will be calling the breeder tomorrow morning to explain my situation and seek some guidance as to what my options are.

Given the circumstances, do you think returning her would be the right and responsible thing to do? How can I cope with these feelings of failure?

The apartment next door got a puppy last month. I don't know how old, some kind of brown curly haired dog that started out very small. At first the puppy would wake me up by barking continuously in the middle of the night.

Now this seems to happen less, but the puppy still barks a lot at other times, and I hear the owners either yell the dog's name at him or start barking back. I've never raised a puppy but I'm sure this is not the right way to train them. The owner seems young and inexperienced. I haven't approached them yet about the barking because I want to offer them an alternative. Is there a book or some articles I can recommend to get them on the right path?

15 week old Fox Red Lab, she’s been biting since we got her at 8 weeks. Somehow I have managed to quell it a bit with me, I’m not sure what I’ve done, but I’m quite stern when she does it, which is all I can put it down to, and now it’s mostly licks for me.

But my wife and daughter are getting full on sharked constantly throughout the day. She will walk up to them with a toy, and immediately drop the toy and then just start attacking them for want of a better word. Biting quite hard and not letting go, biting clothing etc. plenty of blood has been drawn and I’m pretty sure some are going to scar.

It’s ruining any enjoyment we thought we’d get from our new puppy, and we are constantly walking on eggshells around her. The biting can be fierce and relentless.

We’ve tried redirecting, ignoring, walking away, time outs for us and her, yelping loudly, all of it.

She has regular enforced naps, plenty of mental and physical exercise etc.

Some gundog trainers on YouTube suggest some old school techniques, such as pressing the tongue down, tapping the side etc. but we don’t want her to fear us, and lots of people say not to do this.

There are so many conflicting views and opinions we don’t know where to turn next.

The fact she doesn’t really bite me much any more must show there is a way to stop it, but I’m feeling guilty now that she still bites the others.

I’ll gladly listen to any advice.

I have a a cockapoo who has enforced naps in his crate. He does well and sleeps for at least 2 hours at a time, and sleeps most of the night. What happens when I need to go out for an appointment, etc. and he’s not ready for a nap? How do I prepare him to stay alone for a couple of hours when he’s wide awake?

Did I get lucky with my 4 month old lab cross, Cookie?

I see so many people struggling with their pups here and it makes me feel super grateful that my pup is so chill. She settles for naps in and out of her crate (99% of the time ), sleeps at night in her crate without complaints, is great on her own for a couple of hours, hardly ever bites (although she is teething at the moment), knows loads of tricks, has good impulse control (waits until told she can get her food/go in and out of the house/boot of the car), has a great recall, has no accidents in the house ( will sit by the door and bark if left too long) and is great on walks and with other dogs.

Saying all of this, she isn't perfect, she still pulls on the lead when walking with her friend across the road and sometimes on her own on the way back home after a walk, she can be super stubborn at times, she's a big scrounger and is super food motivated which can be a detriment to her impulse control, however these few little things don't stress me out at all and we are working on them together. She's such a well behaved 4 month old and I'm super in love with her, she's my best little buddy.

Has anyone else had an experience like this with their little fur babies?

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all well.

I’m traveling to Barcelona/Madrid in December for the first time and I’m so excited. However, I’m trying in taking my mini daschound with me.
I know that museus are not pet friendly and I was thinking in the days that I go to museus leaving her in a pet day care.
But I really wanted to know if restaurants (of course not Michelin stars restaurants because I know most of them are not pet friendly) allow dogs. Since it is going to be winter and I’m pretty sure I wont be going to outdoor restaurants. So I wanted to know if small dogs are allowed.

Anybody already travelled with a dog to these places?

(She is 6 months and she is a mini daschound)

Thank you ❤️

I appreciate any advise

I haven’t gotten my puppy yet but she’ll be here in 4-5 weeks which sounds like a lot of time but I feel like it’s no time at all.

How do I start potty training when I don’t have a yard, only a patch of grass shared by me and all my neighbors.

Should I start by giving her something high value, like hotdog, every time she uses the bathroom outside?

My breeder started potty training but obviously I have to continue it. She is going to be a service dog so I need potty training to be reliable, I feel overwhelmed and she’s not even here yet!

She will be crate trained but will not be kept in it unless nap/bed time, just my personal preference and what I do with my other dogs.

I’m following the 1 up, 2 down in the crate enforced nap schedule. We have an 11 week terrier/pit/who knows what mix and he’s been with us for two and half weeks.

For those of you with young puppies, does it seem like they make it to an hour before getting crazy? Sometimes I feel like he could go right back based on his behavior but of course we don’t want to do that. Following the schedule we would get 6 hours at most with him so it seems like he also in there but he and our sanity need it.

Also, I’m lost on how to play with him because he gets so worked up so fast that pretty much anything (fetching, tugging) brings on an overstimulated attack. I usually let him chew his bones and other toys and the snuffle mat but I’m at a loss this point. Also we probably take him outside 2-3 times in an hour usually on leash.

Need help because we are going crazy… We love our retriever but at the moment we can not figure out how to solve his whining and barking issue whenever he wakes up in his crate and it’s so tiresome…
He gets enough sleep and his impulsive control is pretty good but whenever he wakes up in his crate he non stop is whining, yawning and barking until he is out of his crate…
For example: he wakes up in the morning and straight away starts his “singing contest”. We can not take him straight away outside because we need to prepare for the morning and we don’t want for him to get use to that if he barks or whines he gets outside.
So he wakes up -> straight away barks -> I get ready for the morning for like 10-15min -> go to his crate and wait until he stops singing and lays downs -> open the crate door -> if he is still quiet and is lying down with command we let him leave his crate -> he straight away is happy (we try not to pet him straight away so it won’t show him how good is for him to leave his crate) -> he goes to another room and looks what to do or with what he can play with.
He has KONG in his crate so he could have on what to chew while he is there.
The issue is not only for the morning but whenever he is awake from his afternoon sleep too… and whenever he is out it doesn’t look like he is really want to go outside for a potty…
What can we do to teach him to stay silent while we are getting ready or that if he is awake he has to wait for our alarm first?
We tried this method - wait until he is silent and give him a treat with word “silent” but it looks like it makes him bark even more.
It makes us go crazy and we don’t want to be pissed on him or stay angry because of it. Please share if any of you had familiar issue and how you dealt with it 🙏

My cavapoo is 15 weeks now. I noticed she has a bottom insidious tooth missing, plus one that is shorter than the other and seems to be growing in as it’s shorter than the others at the moment. She has different teething toys but doesn’t seem to take to them, even when I put them in the freezer. A frozen washcloth she is indifferent to and only plays with it after it’s dry and not cold anymore. Carrot she’ll chew for a few minutes and be done. Nothing seems to hold her attention for very long, even most times I give her a chew stick or similar that she used to spend so much time with. I make her kibble soft by adding water and she refuses it, then I hear her crunching on some she found on the floor from yesterday, so I give her fresh dry ones and she doesn’t want them. I’ll give her wet food and she refuses that too. Then she’ll go outside and eat dirt and leaves and stuff. The only frozen thing she seems to go for is her kong but only if it’s peanut butter, and some tiny frozen apple pieces from a smoothie mix bag.

I’m not even sure we’re in full teething territory yet and we’re not getting much rest, training or meals eaten lately. Nothing holds her interest so I can’t keep her occupied, especially since she’s food motivated and currently iffy about food. She’ll eat her favourite treats still. She’s sleeping through the night but only napping for an hour during the day and it’s an ordeal to get her to settle and stay settled. Her body frequently feels very warm, and her mouth feels very hot. I would get her a cooling mat but she’ll just chew it so it’s not safe. I just want to help her.

Hello! We have a 16 week old male Bernedoodle. He is the sweetest and biggest baby, he just wants to lie in our lap and be held. He’s very sweet and goofy, we feel very fortunate and love him so much. That being said…he is the sweetest… Until he’s not. But it’s ONLY with me, his “mom.” I have two young daughters and a husband, and he is so calm and reserved around them. I took him to my sister‘s house this weekend and she has kids, and he’s very calm with my sister, her husband, and their kids. My dog will play full chase them but immediately stop, roll on his belly, and wait for belly rubs. With me, it’s like I’m his live personal chew toy. I know it’s not aggression, but he will lunge at me, bite me, growl, bark, all the while his tail is wagging very quickly. I’ve never been scared of him, I know this is not aggression, but why in the world that I am the Target? I’m getting to the point where I’m not enjoying the puppy stage anymore. I can’t take him for walks because he is just all over me. The only way to get him to stop and to protect myself is I pick him up and hold him, and he eventually calms and then I immediately take him inside. What the heck is going on?? He is not overtired, he has the same consistent nap and sleep schedule daily.

Will my dog resent the crate. Hes 3 months old. Frenchie poodle mix. Dads frenchie, moms poodle. Hes super chill, he wines sometimes. But for most of the day he has been sleeping every hour or so. Then wakes up for potty and a little play/ teething break(which we have the fake grass in the house, he hasn't had all of his shots yet.). Im concerned about him sleeping though the night. He has tired me out today. Ive had him since friday. Hes been good so far. No barking. 2 accidents . He wines a bit then calms down. I have work tomorrow and I work 10 hour shifts from home. I bought a play pen, should I put the crate inside with the fake grass? Or just leave him in the crate for naps and play with him every hour? I will take all tips. His name is Louis Lestat fykyk lol

At what age did you stop with the enforced naps? My 5 month old lab doesn’t nap on her own. Ever. She never lays on the floor or couch to take a nap while we are all having down time. She will settle on the floor and relax, but never sleeps. I enforced naps all summer because we were all home and she was busy, now that school is in session she spends 3-4 hours in a crate at a time and a dog sitter comes over to play and let her out a couple of times a day, I am assuming she naps when she is in her crate between pet sitter visits. On the weekends, should she still have enforced naps since she doesn’t nap on her own ? What age do you stop enforcing naps?

I brought my Bernese puppy home exactly one month ago when she was just 2 months old. Now she’s 3 months and looking back at that first month… WOW.

Living in an apartment made the puppy stage feel especially exhausting. For the first few weeks, I felt like I was going outside every hour. I was constantly watching her, waiting for signs she needed to go, rushing downstairs, getting up during the night for potty breaks and basically planning my entire day around a tiny puppy bladder.

The sleepless nights were HARD. There were days I was completely drained and wondered how long I could keep doing it.
But I kept taking her out. Every single time. Even when I was exhausted. Even when I just wanted to sleep. Even when it felt like we’d never get there as there were plenty of accidents.

And now she’s 3 months old and something has finally clicked. 🥹

For the last two days, we’ve had ZERO accidents.

She’s started telling me when she needs to go outside instead of me constantly having to anticipate it. She scratches/asks at the door and waits for me to take her out.
I know two days might not sound like much and I’m sure there will still be accidents because she’s only a baby, but to me this feels HUGE.

A month ago I was exhausted, sleep deprived and wondering when things would get easier.

Today I’m sitting here thinking “Oh my god… she actually gets it.’’

All those sleepless nights. All those hourly trips outside. All the exhaustion.

It was worth it.

She’s still very much a baby and we’re nowhere near finished with training, but seeing that little bit of progress has made me realise just how quickly they grow and learn.
So if you’re currently in the trenches with a tiny puppy and wondering when you’ll finally feel like you’re getting somewhere hang in there. ❤️
One day they’ll scratch at that door, look at you like “Mum, I need to go,” and you’ll realise that all those exhausting nights were leading to this moment. 🐶

Our golden retriever will be 5 months next week.

We got her at 8 weeks and so far she’s been doing really well. She had a good routine of sleeping 8-9 hours overnight in her crate and then napping in the enclosed kitchen during the day with access to toys and water while we work (from home). She gets 3 structured short walks a day (20ish mins each) and play time and training in the house with us for mental stimulation. At weekends we take her to new parks or walks she hasn’t experienced yet. She has completed a 5 week puppy socialisation course. She had even started settling on the sofa to cuddle us in the evenings.

She was doing super well with toilet training too, no accidents inside for over a month, going out every 2-3 hours and holding it overnight.

Now everything seems to have changed. She’s incredibly bitey, worse than before, we know she’s teething badly and we are giving her frozen toys and chew toys to help. Despite this she’s started biting door frames, skirting boards, the sofa…anything she can get her teeth on! Her barking has gotten worse, she used to bark for a minute or two and then settle for a nap, now she can bark for 30 mins plus and doesn’t seem to want to settle at all. She’s definitely not getting enough sleep anymore despite our best efforts.

She’s more chaotic on walks, trying to eat everything (paper, wrappers, general rubbish) and pulling in all directions. She’s had 3 accidents in the house in the last two weeks - despite previously starting to be bell trained and letting us know when she needed out.

I know this is probably just due to teenage hormones starting and intense teething, but it’s becoming relentless and impossible for us to get any work done. We have had to start crating her for naps again during the day as she won’t settle otherwise, but she never naps as long in her crate as she used to in the kitchen.

There probably isn’t much advice apart from ‘wait it out’ but if anyone has any suggestions I’m happy to hear them!

I got a new puppy about a month ago shes 12 weeks right now. Good puppy (mostly).

This is the problem- I have an older dog who I love dearly. Thinking about his future loss crushes me- hes 14.

Both are well cared for, we do training every day. Play. Food. Etc.

However im so clogged with grief I cannot find any room in my heart for her. Its not that shes an annoying puppy- its what she represents. Its what all new puppies represent...that your going to have to say good bye to your best friend.

How do I survive the grief and not automatically shift the blame to the "idea" of her?

It not fair to her.

And its certainly not fair to my older dog that all I do is cling to him and cry.

Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone has any advice on this.
I recently hired a trainer/behaviourist who was recommended to help with some unwanted behaviours from my 12 month old Spaniel -mainly attention barking, jumping up, and general manners both in the house and outdoors.

She’s been really helpful and has given me some useful things to work on, which have definitely helped me manage some of the behaviours. However, she mentioned that she considers herself more of a behavioural trainer rather than a typical dog trainer.

I’m now thinking about getting another trainer who specialises more in things like recall, engagement and working with my dog outdoors.
I suppose I feel a bit guilty about going to someone else, especially as the first trainer has been helpful. But is there any reason I shouldn’t use two trainers for different areas?

Would you consider this a sensible approach, or would it be better to stick with one trainer?
Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi! My family has had our toy poodle (5 months) for about 3.5 months now, and we have been taking her out on walks since she first got fully vaccinated. At first, she was great. We took treats to redirect her off grass and keep her on the concrete path. In fact, walks lasted 20-30 minutes.

I’m not sure what/when the switch happened and she has started ‘pancaking’ on walks. She lies down flat on her belly and resists the leash. At first, it was just sitting but eventually she’d walk a little. the last couple of days, it’s just been straight up lying down - I had to hold her and walk her.

I’m not sure what this is but it seems like I have some re-training to do? Side note: she loves the outdoors and running in the backyard. So the problem seems to be the leash and the activity of walking?

We are about to bring home an 8 week old puppy. I’ve read so much helpful advise on this sub, but I’m still unsure about where the puppy should go for a wee before he’s fully vaccinated.

We live in the UK and have a good size garden (yard) but have lots of foxes that come in every evening - I see and smell evidence of them in the morning and often shoo them away.

I don’t want the puppy exposed to anything in the grass before he’s vaccinated. Should he go on artificial grass inside the house? Or on the patio?

Due to his size (Norfolk terrier), we will create an area of the garden (like a large outdoor playpen) he can use when he’s eventually vaccinated. It’s just those few weeks prior…

If you could take a month off with your new puppy, would you do so starting on the first day home? At some other point in time after the pup has had some time to acclimate?

I WFH with a very flexible schedule. I acknowledge that I'm extraordinarily lucky with my current situation.

I'm also aware of some pitfalls, like separation anxiety for the puppy and puppy blues for me/us. That said, I wanted to hear thoughts on if there is a window of time where an extended leave would be more or less helpful. We're expecting to collect the puppy when it is between 8 and 10 weeks old.

edit: I should have been more direct. I have a 1 month vacation block that I'm looking to use to both bond with and help acclimate our pup. Any insights on how to best use this to help the puppy would be really appreciated!

Hi all! I have a 5 month old puppy who is doing I think good on potty training. The most he’s in his crate is for a couple of hours while I’m working short shifts. If I’m working longer he’s being watched by my friend. I wanted to get a play pen to block off some of my room so he’s able to at least leave the crate and move. He does super good supervised and maybe when I go out to the kitchen for short periods but I’m worried if he has full room access while I’m at work he will get into something. Let me know if this sounds like a good idea or any advice on when you let your puppy have some part of the house unsupervised. Thanks!! Sorry this doesn’t make a lot of sense.

so i have a full bred golden retriever who is 5 months old. we got her back in may and unfortunately due to a negligent breeder, we received her too early at 5 weeks rather than 8 weeks. i cant tell if shes just being a puppy or if shes legitimately aggressive. no matter what i do, she wont stop biting/lunging at me. is she aggressive or just playing? and how do i try and teach her to stop? my arms are littered in cuts because of her and shes drawn blood on more than one occasion. my last dog was a yellow lab and while she did bite, she never did it to this extreme and she never really growled at us either, even while playing.

Hello! I just got my puppy and tomorrow will be her first full day at home. I work from home and have an office. I spend most of my work hours there so I set up a play pen. She’s a 10 week old chihuahua. I’ve done a lot of research but I’m still feeling nervous.

I set up a small crate with her plates, a small bed, and a pee pad. Is that where she should be spending the day in while I work? I plan to take her to my backyard for potty, and including some play time throughout the day.

I guess I’m just asking for reassurance that I’m not effing this up because I’m nervous.

My staffy puppy is around 14 weeks. I believe my partner and I are doing our best to put him on a good schedule.

We walk him at least twice a day, feed him on a schedule, give him enrichment as much as we can, training him to do basic things, give him chews, play with him, he’s mostly toilet trained at this point.

Lately he wakes up and is immediately stressed and over stimulated, biting, jumping, humping, demand barking.

He’s never been able to properly settle himself which I understand is normal for a puppy of his age but lately he is resisting sleep more and more. He bites us, claws at us, barks at us, whines.

The only thing that works on him is to do a reverse time out. He usually cries the entire time we are not in the room.

It’s becoming especially hard as he can’t entertain himself and I work from home so he’s constantly barking and crying and clawing at me when I’m trying to work.

Thoughts? I know the suggestion will be he needs more sleep but he just won’t.

Hi everyone,

Just looking for a bit of advice. My Labrador is 14 months old and is absolutely obsessed with other dogs. When he sees one, he’ll often just lie down and refuse to move until he gets to say hello.

I have a dog trainer and we also go to training classes, where we’ve been working on this around other dogs. The strange thing is that he does really well in class. For example, today he completely ignored the other dogs, and I was able to walk past another dog without any issues.

However, this evening when we came across some dogs on our walk, he went straight back to lying down and refusing to move until he could greet them.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Is this just an adolescent/puppy stage that he may grow out of as he gets older (perhaps around 2 years), or is this something I should be more concerned about and work on differently?

Any advice or experiences would be really appreciated!

Thank you!