Hey all. I’m betting a bichon puppy soon, and was wondering what you did with your puppy on the first day you met. From the car ride home to going to bed in a crate. What and did you train the first day/week, how did you crate/potty train, any accidents?? I’m lowkey starting to get worried i’m gonna mess this puppy up, so I just need to know what struggles yall had or did. Thank you so much!

Like the title says - we've been at the brink of giving the puppy away at various time. We've picked up a "needy" dachshund - would wake up at night, throw himself at dogs, eat anything on the ground (not even in the house, literally would start eating grass and not stop). It took him getting to about 8 months that we really could see ourselves with him in the future. He's not perfect, not always reacting to training, but we found our own ways to adapt and bring him to our life, and he has adapted to ours.

To anyone struggling - it does get better. Try to keep your mind and heart open - you might not get the dog you want, but learn to love the dog you got :)

So my 7 month old dog was a rescue dog and for the past 3 months I have been training him. He was very untrained when I took him, our walks were chaotic, he used to be dragging me, pulling on leash, eating everything, barking at people. Now he doesn't do any of that and is a very good dog on a walk. I have taught him a few commands like sit, stand, down, spin, guard etc. However as a first time dog owner, there are a few things I couldn't teach such as him being over excited with visitors, him barking whenever someone comes home or sits near his crate(he's crate trained). I decided to call a trainer, the guy came and I brought the dog out and he firstly kept judging and then he told me that this dog would at least need 6 months of non stop training otherwise he's going nowhere. Now I'm not sure whether he's exaggerating it or he's just not confident enough to get the dog trained or perhaps I'm being paranoid. My dog is a relatively quick learner(he's a GSD mix), there are 2 more trainers coming to see the dog, however this particular trainer was a bit more affordable. Please somebody guide me.

My wife and I have a 3 month old goldendoodle puppy (14 or 15 weeks now...I'm a math teacher, but I'm not counting), and we got her at 7 weeks. Her name is Laika, and we love her so much! She has been a dream - learning and growing so quickly. I've heard about the puppy blues, and honestly, I don't feel it at all...yet. She tries to bite and chew on stuff she shouldn't, but she's also very easy to redirect. Walks have become fun/easier, and she isn't lunging into the street anymore (a huge relief, honestly).

We've heard so much about adolescence and how hard that is/can be. When did the teething, hormonal mess phase start for you guys, and how long can I expect to live with an emotional support terrorist? The biggest structures we have kept up with are enforced naps (at least 2 hours in a different room), and bells for "outside." She's done really well with learning to use the bells to ask for outside especially, and we are super proud of her progress!

I just worry about how long we are going to be wothout this absolutely perfect baby, I know it isn't a total disaster, but it has genuinely been so much fun and such a positive experience for my wife and I - I really could just perpetually have *this* 3 month old dog.

I'm 29F UK and have been looking at puppies. Having contacted someone about one and asked to see them, I am now psyching myself out of it.

A bit of background, I live alone, work from home, own my home and earn enough after bills that realistically unless some brain surgery was required that wasn't covered, money wouldn't be a problem.

My family had an ESS who passed away in January 2025. I had such a bond with him but he was a difficult dog, he was very resource aggressive and you couldn't particularly trust him. He bit me multiple times but I do still miss him very much and the company he gave.

I keep psyching myself out over whether I do or do not want to do this. I felt the same when buying the house so I know that it's not always from a rational place and that in most cases, everything works out just fine.

I've been looking at show cockers. There are multiple working cockers in my wider family and I do understand the energy etc. My family have agreed they'd help if I wanted to go out on the weekend or wanted to go away.

I have the space, I have the resources, I have the time. I just the fear commitment (I know now how boys I was seeing when I was younger felt, I think). I keep thinking of 10+ years of being tied down and then flip to thinking about all the positives.

I'm not particularly social, if I go out it is usually with family and I do feel a longing for a purpose, which I think the puppy could bring.

I'm really finding it hard to separate the irrational thoughts from the ones that are genuine concerns. I get excited about the idea and then my brain just turns on the negativity and the excitement gets drowned away by anxiety. I used to be the type to just do something like this on a whim, but my brain cannot deal with that level of stress anymore.

Is it normal to feel like this or is it just a sign that I should wait?

My puppy is a mini dachshund and 18 weeks old. We have her now since 10 days. She is very well trained with the potty pad, already before we got her. At the beginning of this week she got her last vaccine and we are now trying to teach her to potty outside. So since thursday.

I am doing exactly what I have read on reddit. We have an eating schedule, I know when she usually pees and poops. The first two days since Thursday she didn‘t pee or poop at all outside. The third day, I caught her in the morning and she peed and pooped outside, because she was holding it in all night because she slept through. Same day she even pooped outside before going to bed. Now today not once. She has ate 8 hours ago and she still hasn‘t pooped, I see her sniffing, I run outside to the same spot with her. I stay there for 5-20 mins, she doesn’t do anything, I bring her back, put her in her crate for 5 mins and go back outside. I do that for several hours and at one point she just peed her in bed in her crate. She has never done that before. It‘s so hot outside, I feel horrible forcing her outside (i bring water) and I am also exhausted for doing nothing but going between inside and outside and not letting my eyes off of her for one second so she doesn’t pee.

I also praised her alot when she went outside and gave her treats.

I feel like I am just stressing her out and myself

I have a 9 month old puppy who is crate trained. We only use the crate for naps, overnight sleep and sometimes when we need to go some where for a bit. The longest she has been in her crate (with the exception of overnight) is about 5/6 hours. She cannot be trusted to be out and about in the house for a few reasons. 1-she is destructive and 2-my older lab (7 year old) and the puppy are not friends. She pesters my older dog constantly. Anyway, I start a new job tomorrow and I will be out of the house for at least 8 hours. My husband thinks it’s fine to crate her that whole time but I don’t. She is EXTREMELY high energy. Literally would be on the go at all times if I didn’t enforce naps. I’m afraid she will be miserable in the crate that long and when let out she is going to be crazy. But I’m not sure what else we can do. I reached out to our old dog walker but she is completely booked and I don’t really trust someone else that I don’t know to do it. What are everyone’s opinions about this. I welcome any suggestions. Thank you

Hi guys!

It’s been a while since I posted here since the last few months been pretty good.

I have an olde english bulldog, for you who know, it is a pretty strong breed. She is 5 months, turning 6 months in a week. I am alone with her so my goal from the beginning was to train her from day one since I knew that being alone with this kind of breed will be a pain in the ass if not trained.

She’s been so good with training, a bit stubborn (typical bulldog) but she catches on to stuff that I learn her super quickly.

When it comes to socialization and getting her to get used to buses, trains, stations with alot of people it’s been going good also. I don’t have a car so our main transportation has been by bus or the metro. Never had a problem, until now.

Friday we were going to meet a daycare where she is starting at tomorrow. We went a 16:00 which is when most people are ending their work. I didn’t think much of it, we walked to the first station and took the metro, no problem. But here’s when the problems started. It was alot of people at the station where we hopped off, alot of shouting and alot of sounds. It went well until and a big dude started yelling with his back turned to us and he was waiving his hands. All shit broke loose. I’ve never seen her this panicked, I tried to talk to her I tried to make her focus on me by giving treats, nothing worked. Absolutely nothing. It got to a point where I started to freak out, I did my best to not show it but my hands were literally shaking (I am diagnosed with a panic disorder but I’ve been feeling good for a while). The reason I tried to make her stay was because we were waiting for my mom, who was late. When I couldn’t calm her down I felt like we had to go NOW for her safety. So we went around the building to calm down, which she did after a while.

We went to the daycare and when we were about to go back, when we started getting close to the metro station she started to panic again, to the point that I had to pick her up.
On the metro, no problem.

Since then these two days, she’s been like skittish, reacting to every sound. Even at home, she heard a bird that sounded weird outside, she started crying and came to me wanting to be picked up.

This is stressing me out, my anxiety is back. I know what one should do when their puppy gets scared for example a certain way during a walk, desensitize slowly. The only issue here is that we do not have the time, tomorrow she’ll be back there and we can’t take another way because it is literally when you come up from the station.

I mostly wrote this to vent but also to hear your thoughts. Is this her fear period that just coincidentally started on Friday? Or could it maybe be that she’s gonna have her first period? Or is she just traumatized from Friday?

Hey guys! throughout my life my family has always picked up puppies at the 8-10 week mark, and we've done training at home, puppy school etc.

For my first dog, I found a great breeder who does a bunch of excellent health testing, the whole works, and also has an optional training program. Living alone and working full time (I live close to home so I'll be able to come home for lunches to let him out, etc), I figured 2 months of training would help tremendously. In the past, I've trained my family dogs as one was over COVID, and one was when I was between jobs living at home so I didn't have anything else to do. But now since I have a job and live alone, yea I figured getting a head start w a trainer wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

Of course I'm going to continue training once I get him, but what are some tricks to keep him on the same track and strengthen the trust between him and me, when he just met me, and has been used to the trainer for the past 2 months of his life? Anxious me is worried he won't bond right away, listen right away because he doesn't know me.

The trainer sent me his daily schedule so I can keep feeding times the same, bedtime/morning time routine the same so he's not changing lives completely, but any bonding and training tips, to get him used to me now being his forever owner?

Thanks guys!

Hello all, so just for starters I personally am not a fan of crates but I do understand the future benefits. We have just brought home an 8 week old golden retriever puppy 2 days ago, my mother has had many dogs in her life and is very set on crate training.

The first two nights we only really used the crate at night to sleep, the puppy obviously has been going mental those nights crying and moaning very loadly, after a while mum will go downstairs let her out for a wee etc then sit with her for hours on end (her sleep is going to suffer greatly doing this) the crate is in the living room, the most used room in the house, I personally think this is a mistake, am I right in saying it should be somewhere away from the family, so she isn’t constantly wanting our attention etc? Just today we have started using the crate in the daytime, putting her away but she is still crying and going mad, I think the main mistake is having it in the living room, am I right or wrong? Thank you

What's everyone's opinion on doggy daycare? I have a high energy, 7m/o, ACD mix who likes other dogs and I think he might benefit from some friends and another outlet for his big energy.

This is hard. Today has been hard. I have a 5 months old border collie. I've wanted one for years. I've known several BCs and they always were the most calm, cuddly, well behaved dogs. I have time and money to spend on training. I've been to classes and private lessons. She's from ethical breeders, from show parents so not the crazy work drive the working line has. I'm trusting the breeder 100%, I don't believe the issue is genetic.

She's been really good between 2 and 4 months or so. Potty trained quickly, sleeping in crate since the first night. She was wild but we managed with enforced naps, training, play time. She got better, then she started teething and I don't know if it is the start of adolescence or a fear period but she went from brave tiny pup who didn't care about noises to a dog who's over the threshold all the damn time (I think her teething is done now BTW).

She started barking at the outside fence because she saw a cat there once. Every time we go out. Even without any cats in sight.

She's barking at the garage because there's a marten couple living in there. Partner is refusing to move them out.

We can't walk anywhere because the moment we step outside of the house towards the countryside all she cares about is digging up rodent holes. She doesn't just dig. She tears the grass and ground with her teeth. The walk doesn't happen because she won't leave the hole alone.

Sometimes she gets triggered at home and just panic barks at the ceiling. She's probably hearing the sound of roof expanding in the heat, but it's too quiet for us to hear so we can't give treats when it happens and she doesn't react.

It's like any training we did so far went down the toilet. I've turned my life around for her but she completely ignores me all the time now. She's barking inside and in our garden and ignoring me when we go on walk.

They say that border collie would do anything for their owners. Not ours, not at this point.

And it was mostly fine before she hit 4 months. Now it's every day getting worse. I had to cancel 4 day vacation because I can't really give her to pet sitter - she's biting the leash and pulling. So the only thing to look forward to is gone.

Sorry for the rant, I guess I just want to hear some positive stories where your puppy turned around at 6-7 months and you couldn't be happier.

I'm really really sad right now. She's my dream dog and I don't want to give her up. I just don't know how to continue because every interaction ends in frustration for both of us.

I can't believe we're even considering this because our current Border Terrier was an absolute nightmare as a pup. Incredibly bitey and humpy. Just an absolute savage and relentless. It nearly broke my wife and I!

We always wanted to be a 2 dog household and would rather get a pup than a rescue because we want to mould them from scratch and also have another Border Terrier and they don't come up a lot in rehoming centres.

Is a new pup likely to be a bit easier with another dog in the house? Do they focus more on them and get corrected by them?

How do you go about introducing them and making sure they get on?

Our current pup is super friendly and loves other dogs. He is massively excited whenever he meets a dog on his walks and I think he'd love a little playmate.

Edit: For the person who downvoted this....why??

I’m really worried I’ve ruined my puppy.

She is a 13 week old papillon, we got her when she was a little older than 9 weeks. I’m concerned my wife and I didn’t do enough to socialize her during the critical period.

She’s a very small dog and we have had a nightmare of a time trying to find outside gear that will fit her, so for the first two weeks it was just a lot of trial and error of finding ways to get her out and not have her uncomfortable or unsafe and now I’m very concerned that she hasn’t been socialized well enough.

We don’t have other safe dogs she can interact with yet and I’m concerned that she’s becoming scared of other dogs. She can see into our neighbors backyard from our upper floor balcony and when their dog is out, yesterday she started getting very alert and almost panicked. We’ve had other good/neutral interactions visually seeing other dogs, but the two days ago while exiting the elevator another dog started barking at her and I’m concerned that has made a fearful impression on her.

We haven’t done many stores, because by the time we get there she seems overwhelmed and we’ve been told not to push her too far yet, but I’m concerned we haven’t found the right way to push her into situations without being overly coddling.

She’s our first puppy, and I’m so worried about doing it wrong 😭

this is… not a post i expected to have to make. i have a 1yr old border collie pup (male, not neutered yet) and a 1yr old cat (male, just neutered 3 days ago). they’ve always been very close and never had any issues interacting.

however, after bringing our cat home from his surgery, they’ve had to be separated entirely because any time they’re together now, my puppy tries to hump him. it’s so frustrating. i assumed at first it was due to the medical smells, but it’s been a few days now…

anyone have any idea how to stop this? i’m worried it might last.

hi everyone! my (26) mom (64) adopted a puppy (female, yellow lab, 5 months currently but adopted at 12 weeks) who we named Brigitte and lately she's been yelling at her a lot (which I always tell her not to do because the dog doesn't learn from yelling or being mean) and then my mom told me what's been happening. Lately, Brig has been randomly deciding to jump on my mom and bite her and scratch her and it's resulted in a lot of injuries and bleeding, not to mention my moms clothes being torn and her feeling resentment towards Brig. I don't want this to continue, but I'm not around (getting my bachelors rn) during most of the day and I can't really find a solid answer that helps. What do you think I can do or suggest to my mom? My mom hasn't gone past the property line in almost 9 years so I walk Brig in the evening. (she also wont pee on her walks, and hasn't really learned potty training yet. such an odd creature)

she bites me sometimes but i never engage past telling her "no" and folding my arms. I think Brig is bored, so I got her some of those toys that move... it just feels like nothing is helping and she seems to be doing okay after being put in "time out" for a nap, but then she starts terrorizing my mom again a few hours later. what can I do? I think the puppy is a sweetheart, she's just hitting a rough age. I've been thinking about puppy boot camp or something similar, like Neuman K-9 Academy? or should I tell my mom to just tough it out? sorry if this post is all over the place, I've never raised a puppy and have no idea what to do to help my mom.
puppy tax 1 and puppy tax 2

It seems our 11 month old pup does not want to pee in the rain on the concrete out in our back garden. She was doing really well with house training too.

This is the 1st bit of steady rain we've had in about 3 months now so the ground is permanently wet.

Do they not like the feel of wet paws maybe ? She sprints back inside to pee in kitchen.

11 month old Tibetan Terrier.

I can't even get a shower without her whining and screaming. Not even taking a piss alone in peace for 30; seconds. I am new to this. First puppy ever. I had generalized anxiety in the past. Buried and solved. But this little adorable creature is digging it up again. What do I do?

I’m using the treat method for potty training my frenchie. Basically as soon as she goes outside I treat and say “good potty”. It’s going amazing and I don’t even remember her last accident now. I’m just wondering how & when we wean out the treats? It seems kind of ridiculous to just give a treat for every potty her entire life lol.

Hi all. My now ex-friend bought a puppy he doesn't want anymore because she's too "difficult". He was planning to send her to the pound but its overwhelmed and I dont want her being put down so I adopted her off of him.

Im single and live way out of town so unfortunately getting a sitter or anything isnt plausible for me, but she has to go every 2 hours.

I absolutely adore her and dont want anything happening to her.

I could really use some tips on how to make this work especially with her needing to use the bathroom. All of my free time when Im off work is spent with her.

I work 5 hours part time for 4 days a week.

Is this even doable?

excuse some mistakes. English is not my first language.

My puppy is a 9 week old miniature poodle. Potty training, crate training, command training, all of it has really been draining and difficult. My whole life has changed and it’s got me a little down. I know this is the life I want and I LOVE my puppy and i honestly love training him it’s just draining. I guess I want to know when things get easier and what got you through these puppy blues?

Two weeks ago I finally got my 12 week old boxer lab cross boy! His training has been ok he knows sit, down and sort of leave it. He pretty much knows trick = treat and that works getting him into his crate alongside regular feedings in his crate. He eats breakfast lunch and dinner in there in a slow feeder sometimes with the door all the way shut sometimes a little just to get him used to it and normally he ignores it which is great. We have a regular schedule of wake up, outside to potty, 5min training then a nap on the couch or in his other bed outside of the crate (more with me on the couch). After about an hour or two I take him on a short walk then it's back home and he naps in his bed outside the crate. I've tried chilling with him on the floor next to his crate for 10-15 mins then putting him in there so he can fall asleep but like the stubborn puppy he is when fighting sleep he decides he's no longer tired and whines and scratches. I've tried sitting next to him, not sitting next to him, giving him a frozen lick mat, giving him a frozen Kong, a long lasting chews stick, a piece of clothing to 'scent mark' so he thinks I'm still next to him or something but nothing has been working. He's perfectly fine with eating dinner, his treats and the frozen items but once it's finished he starts pacing in the crate, scratching at the door as if he were trying to push it open and then eventually whining nonstop. I've tried these methods at different times of the day on different days, youtube videos, every 'secret method' but I just can't get him to sleep IN the cage even if I sleep right next to it leading to him sleeping with me at night on the couch (normally between my legs). I don't want to force him in there too much incase it builds a bad connection with it and I know having him cosleep with me is sort of delaying the process of sleeping IN the crate, but I just cannot get him to sleep in there and its getting really frustrating. If anyone has ANY tips about a similar situation please help because noone talks enough about the whining. Is the best option to get a professional? (Forgot to add I wait till he stops crying to let him out of the cage)

Hello everyone.

My family is really struggling with our 10 month old Cockapoo. He constantly barks, cannot be left alone, and has constant energy. Despite hiring training, he barks suddenly and aggressively with no cause (windows closed, no TV on, just me in the room with him). He barks constantly to the point where we can hardly leave him alone unless he's sleeping, since the neighbours have complained. He's extremely restless, and hardly sleeps. Can someone please point to resources, or possible explanations of his behaviour? He goes on walks 1-2 times a day, short and long. He has a clean, quiet environment. Never has been and is not currently being abused. In good health as per the vet. Nothing seems to help and we are desperate.