I purchased two golden retriever brothers who are now 10 weeks old before I heard of this syndrome. I’ve done some research and now I’m worried. I’d welcome any advice, reassurance and/or success stories please.

Hey everyone! My fiancée and I just got our first puppy (Borgi: 75% Corgi, 25% Border Collie, at 8 weeks) and since she has been home, she’s taken 3 naps in the crate so far, around 30 mins to an hour each. Is that too much for her to have a good full nights sleep later tonight, or are they just tired all the time lol.

I have a 15 week old Golden German puppy; she’s got a lot of energy and I thought that some of her behavior problems were that she wasn’t getting enough exercise and stimulation. But this chart[[https://freedomservicedogs.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Puppy-Exercise-Chart-By-Age-Exercise-Chart.pdf ]] would indicate that she’s been being pushed harder than she should be. I want to make sure she’s getting enough exercise and rest every day; so any tips would also help a ton. We don’t know anything about puppies

6 month old black half American half English lab here and he’s in full teen phase. He’s a good boy but the demand barking and general disobedience has started to get worse. We do plan to have him fixed but not until he’s at least one year old. Did your dog sort of “chill out” more once he was neutered? I feel like my past lab did but that was so long ago I can’t remember that well.

Hey guys, I have a Shih Tzu puppy 11 weeks and has been with us for two weeks. . He’s really sweet and I’ve managed to make the crate a neutral place for him. He’s not scared of it, he’ll eat in it and go in to get his food, but he never goes in voluntarily just to chill. I always have to put him in and he usually gets upset and cries, sometimes for a while, sometimes just a bit then stops. Even at night I leave the crate open, put him in, and he just walks out after three seconds and sleeps right outside it on the floor.

Now the biggest issue is his bladder. It’s honestly terrible, he pees every 15 minutes, sometimes just a drop. I crate him for an hour or two, take him out, and he pees. Then I let him inside to play outside of crate (since I can’t crate him again right away or he gets super upset) and within 5 to 15 minutes of playing he pees again. Even just a drop. And if I keep playing with him or look away for a second, I’ll find another pee spot somewhere else.

The weird part is he can clearly hold it. At night he sleeps from 11 PM to 7 AM without a single accident or waking up to cry. But during the day he just pees everywhere, the bed, the couch, the floor, basically anywhere except the crate.

Another thing I’ve noticed is he doesn’t like cuddling at all. If I put him on the couch he’ll go to the far end to sleep. If I bring him close he’ll move away again after a few minutes. If I try to pet him on the head he always lifts his head and tries to bite, not aggressively, just like “stop that.” He never lets me pet him for more than a second.

Sometimes I feel like he hates me because I crate him. I’m new to this puppy stuff and just trying my best. He does follow me around the house (probably because I’m his main person) but he won’t come over for pets or cuddles. Like, if I call him he’ll come near me but stop just far enough that I can’t reach him.

Any advice? Is this normal? Does he hate me? I’m kind of overwhelmed and want to do right by him.

Lastly, I have a bigger dog at home. He’s only here for another month since I’m babysitting him. I feel like if the big dog is asleep, my puppy will sleep too, but if he’s not, the puppy won’t settle either. He’s always trying to annoy him, jumping on him, and the older dog doesn’t like it so he’ll snap at him.

We got a lab puppy, and named him Moose, because he might as well be one. Our 13 year old boy, Winston, is obviously getting up there, but he’s in GREAT shape. Even the vet is like, “Did you do some kind of magic? For all intents and purposes, he’s six.”

What a great time to get a puppy! He can teach the next generation how to be a good boy. His legacy will live on. We are so, so smart.

However, he believes that I brought Deceit Incarnate into our home instead of a goofy moose.

They are still separated, Moose has his own area still, 5 weeks later, where they can see each other if Winston chooses, only meeting each other here and there on leash or opposite sides of gates/fences.

Sometimes Winston graces Moose with his presence. A little nose bump here, a little wag there, a spinning playful attempt to act cool, all followed by a vocal harumph and growl where he seems to swear that the puppy breathed on him and he shall now be leaving the vicinity to cleanse his soul.

When we walk them or take them in the yard on leash, Moose sits intently, waiting for Winston to acknowledge him, sometimes with a smol bark or whine, hoping his fan girling will pay off and he will get a sniff of Winston. Meanwhile, Winston looks around, sniffing the air, completely aloof as if to say, “Did anyone hear anything? I thought I heard something, but I guess it was just the wind.”

Winston is a loose canon sometimes, by the way. He’s a scrappy 50lb mutt who moves like a Fae King of fairy tales, and had times in his youth, many moons ago, where he surprised us with his choice to tackle and take down what he viewed as a threat to his family. The threat was his best dog friend, who was as unfortunately a bulldog that ended up on its back rolling around like a turtle that couldn’t get up just because he looked at Winston’s kid. Another time it was an unsuspecting door dash driver that tried to hand my teenager a drink they forgot to deliver, and Winston chased him off to his car, jumping and nipping at his elbow.

My favorite was my teenager’s dad (my ex) that Winston jumped over an apartment balcony (first floor), and chased through the parking lot as my ex screamed like a little girl.

Winston is wonderful, but I’m terrified to let them off leash in the off chance that Winston will decide the puppy is actually the devil that he needs to deal with now that there are no restrictions, especially since he hardly ever pays any attention to the fact that we brought a new pups into our house.

Any advice?

I’ve had my Yorkie puppy for exactly a week now , she’s 9 weeks old today and is a little dream , she’s sleeps from 10pm to 7am on a night in her crate and is learning to pee/poo outside. She has her bedtime crate next to my bed which she loves and a play pen with a crate in downstairs , she will settle in seconds in her crate (which is inside the playpen) and I cover this with a blanket, she eats and plays in her pen too but as soon as I close the door she cries and whines and jumps up at the door etc . I’ve been off work this last week and am due back a week today so she will have to be on her own for around 2-3 hours a day until my husband is home , is it best to leave her in her crate for them 2-3 hours (I feel bad leaving her in a crate as we never used a crate for our 6 year old cockapoo dog and he just goes upstairs to my bed when we leave the house) . Basically, what I’m asking is , if I leave her in her pen to cry, will she eventually settle or am I setting her up for seperation anxiety as she gets older. I can’t remember ever having to go through all this with our older dog.

Our puppy is a 3.5 month Maltipoo. We've been doing so well with potty training and he's been going to his spot all by himself for the past 2 weeks now. He's also been sleeping through the night for at least 6 hours in the crate without any problems. Last night, we might have slept through his sounds and this morning when I woke up to take him out he was soaked in his own pee. I'm feeling terrible and also like we've gone back 10 steps in training. How can I prevent another accident from happening in his crate? When we tried letting him out every 2-3 hours he would just go and sleep in his spot and not actually pee, we'd have to end up putting him back in his crate

Thank you all for your stories. I really thought I was going to lose it. Border Heelers are already very active. Like yours he didn't sleep much for 3 days, barked for hours, bit me 50+ times a day. Couldn't sit still, cried, wanted treats nonstop, it was endless. At least reading this made me laugh hysterically. I am hoping to help others with their journey. Glad we survived truly.

We got our puppy at 8 wks, she is now 10 wks. We have a couple diaper pads in the house. She is tiny and it is hard to reach all parts of the home, so there is one in the master bathroom, one in the kitchen and one in the living room. I stay at home, so I have been completely devoted to the pup, running behind her. My husband wakes twice per night to take her potty. Last week, she started to understand where it is safe to go potty. Each time she goes on the pad she is rewarded with treats. We thought things were going so well.

This week she started doing something unusual. Normally after a nap, she would either go potty, or I would take to the pad and she would go. But now, I take her to the pad, and she either sits on it, or walks away and pees a foot away from it. I feel sometimes she looks at me while peeing on the floor. 😂 I don't know what to do. Obv I will keep rewarding her for pottying in the right spot, and I will carry her to the pad, but today he refused the pad entirely today.

What is happening?

Another thing is let her sleep with me, and my husband wakes twice per night to take her potty, but despite that she pees and poops in my bed. I was thinking about getting a small kennel or something where she could go, but I don't know if that is a good idea.

We have a lovely little golden retriever who we have just brought home 3 days ago. He is almost 9 weeks old and comes from a reputable breeder. We are a family with 3 kids and one of us works from home. We have researched and planned this for a year. We saw him with his litter mates and he was calm and confident. He is showing some signs of aggression that are worrying me.

He has started to growl and attempt to bite out of anger or frustration when we try to move him away from something or pick him up to go outside. We have stairs so don’t want him to climb down them. I am getting nervous that he is already showing aggression. Any ideas to help us start? He knows sit and is learning ‘come’ at the moment.

I’ve had my puppy a week, and she’s 10 weeks old. I’ve been training a little bit every day, and teaching her basic commands like sit, stay, paw, and come. Potty training has been difficult, she pees on her puppy pad or right next to it. Pooping on it is every once in a while, or again, right next to it. I take her outside when she wakes up, and after she eats, and before bed. But she goes outside and eats leaves, or sits down, or begs me to take her inside, which i think is because she was cold or it was raining (or both) and she rarely pees and never poops outside, except for 3 times she’s pooped and i rewarded her heavily. I’m worried because she doesn’t seem to be picking up on it. Sit and come are really the only things she knows how to do, but it either takes her a second, or she stops listening to me or gets distracted. This is my first puppy, and i’m worried i’m not doing enough, or not doing something right, or am I just overthinking it, and she just needs more time? because i know she’s still a baby. I just don’t know the timeframe in which she should be learning stuff…

Needing reassurance! We took our 8 week old puppy home yesterday and WOW I am just shocked at how hard the night was. I did get her to sleep in her crate 11-5 but she whines/escalated to howling every 30min-1hour. I would let her whine for 3-5 minutes but if it escalated I took her out to try and pee (nothing all night) then gave her some love and put her back in the crate. I slept next to her crate on the floor until she settles herself then went to bed to try to get some rest.

I will say on a positive note I was consistent with the routine of putting her back in her crate all night and she settled down faster to sleep each time. And then peed outside at 5!

I'm just.... Exhausted and didn't realize it would be this hard. And I know it was just the first night and she's SO little. I have 3 kids (5, 5 & 8) and they are doing great with her. They day with her was AWESOME, if I could just figure out how to crack night sleep I think I can do this. I'm medicated for anxiety and I just feel like this could really cause a spiral 🫠 I just need people to tell me how hard the first few days were but then it got better, please!

Since the first 2 nights with loads of crying weve established a routine of 2 hours before lights out we play hard and tire the lil thing out, so now he falls right asleep n doesnt cry unless he needs to go potty. Hes a quick learner that crate time is quiet time n sleepy time. Same with his playpen while im up doing housework, either nap or chew on a toy quietly until time to snuggle or play when im ready to sit down and focus on him.

i took her to the emergency vet the other day because i was freaking out so bad

I posted here a week or so ago feeling totally overwhelmed with our newly adopted 8mo golden mix (adopted three weeks ago today) - I was struggling so badly with her barking in her crate all night.

Well… today she got into something somewhere (still a mystery) that made her really sick from both ends. Got her to the emergency vet, she is ok thank goodness but they said she may have a couple accidents before she’s back to normal and to just watch for signs dehydration.

Rather than crate her, I got her set up in the basement bathroom - all tile, so it’s easy to clean and she won’t be surrounded by any bodily fluids if something happens. I put her bed in there, some of her favorite toys, and water.

She has been SILENT. I’ve been waiting three weeks for this but now my heart is breaking. I feel awful that she hasn’t made a single peep. I’ve been checking on her regularly and have alarms set to check on her throughout the night. She gives me tail wags so she is happy to see me when I go in. She is still peeing outside as usual. I’m hoping her silence is just because she isn’t feeling well but I’m also scared that she’s going to lose any progress she’s made in feeling comfortable here. Like what if she’s just so traumatized by today that this makes things worse for her?

I think I’m just in my head and seeking reassurance. I’m sure she just isn’t feeling well, is exhausted from the day, and maybe even just enjoying not being in her crate. She’s crated for now when we aren’t home (very rare) and at night when we sleep, just while we work on learning what to chew and not chew. So maybe this is a good thing? Maybe we should try always keeping her in there overnight instead of the crate? It’s a spacious bathroom that’s pretty try much never used.

I got an 11 week old puppy a few days ago, I’ve been wanting one for a while now. But my entire family cast judgement and their opinion the day I was going to pick him up. Let me preface, my retired mother lives with me and isn’t fond of dogs, doesn’t hate them or anything but just doesn’t really care for them (she told me she was okay if I really wanted him), and a big reasoning the were resistant was how it would impact her and the fact I’m often out of the house for the entire day when I visit the office (I’m hybrid).

It left me feeling a lot of anxiety and apprehension as I was bringing him home. Their points were valid I can see their side. I can’t shake the feeling of wanting to cry all the time, and I feel physically sick. My siblings who were against are now all lovey dovey with him/boarder line obsessed and so are their kids. But I can’t shake the feeling of sadness when I look at him. He hasn’t been bad or anything so far he’s been pretty good bar the whining when he goes in his crate.

I spoke to the breeder if it was a possibility to return him and he said yes, and now I’m left with this decision, I told my siblings I might take him back and they’re now making me feel worse that I would do that so it’s adding guilt at the notion of returning him or keeping him out of guilt to please my siblings. I can’t explain the way I’m feeling towards the dog because they’re all so “elated” and happy around the cute puppy when they visit.

The last year hasn’t been great for my family, I wouldn’t say I’ve struggled with my mental health much in my life but it’s been worse this year and as cliche as it sounds I really thought getting a dog would help me, something to focus my energy into outside of my job and it’s just left me feeling absolutely shit. I guess this is just to vent cause I’m feeling awful and none of my friends seem to get why I’m feeling this way.

So I got an 8 week old black lab yesterday. Shes great, slept the whole night, minimal whining. Nippy but that’s expected. On the car ride home she slept while she wore her collar most of the drive and was fine (it was 2 and a 1/2 hours). But now she keeps itching and rolling on the ground to get it off. With the leash it’s even worse. It’s a martingale collar by the way, but I tried clipping it so it wouldn’t tighten, she still hates it. I’m sure eventually with enough of getting used to it she’ll be fine, I’m just not sure how to start off so she at least tolerates it? Thanks

I'm getting a hunting lab soon. My last pets were ferrets, which are obviously very different animals, but when they got sick later in life I learned that I should have been getting them used to soups while they were growing up so I could easily add their medicine whenever they inevitably get sick in old age.

Of course, ferrets are more prone to disease later in life than the average lab and they're also known to imprint hard on their food as kits. I understand these are not quite the same issues that labs have, but it was such a painful struggle to get my sick ferrets to take their medicine that I want to be prepared this time.

My dad has a hunting lab that used to be great about taking pills wrapped in a pill pocket/peanut butter/whatever when he was young, but he has grown picky in his old age and it's a battle to get him to take pills now, no matter the method.

Is there anything I can do for my puppy to prepare him to easily take medicine when he's older?

TLDR: Is there something I should be doing for my puppy at a young age to prepare him for taking medicine later in life?

I got a new puppy two weeks ago. She is now 10 weeks old.

I brought her home at 8 weeks. She is the same breed as my current dog, a six-year-old female. My older dog recently had two tumors removed from her mammary area. It was a major surgery, as they had to remove a significant amount of tissue, but thankfully, she has recovered well and is now tumor-free.

We want to protect her, but as soon as the puppy met her, she immediately tried to nurse. We had to stop this behavior right away. Despite being well-fed and not needing milk, the puppy constantly—absolutely persistently—tries to nurse from my older dog. Keeping them separated while still in the same area has been extremely exhausting.

Will the puppy eventually grow out of this behavior? My older dog seems frightened by the situation, and I’m concerned about how this is affecting her.

Hi Reddit!

We are due to get our puppy in four weeks. We are both first time dog owners so, to ensure we are fully prepared, I have been putting together a list of things we need to get - which feels VERY overwhelming.

I have been researching for all of these items in the last couple of days and some seem so insanely expensive - should I be spending nearly £200 on a crate which the puppy will outgrow?! Could someone please tell me what we must ensure we have - and provide any links if possible?

Thank you in advance!

Hiya! So, I have a six month old puppy, as the title says.

Is this too late to socialize? She has met one stranger dog and was scared out of her socks, but she also has three adult dogs in the house with her and a cat. Will that help with future socialization?

How can I fix dog-dog resource guarding?

She also has an issue with biting our other dogs/humans when they go out of her leash range and come back in. How can I fix this?

Is this too late to teach bite inhibition? I was.. rather inconsistent at first due to being new to puppy owning (I'm a minor, wasn't even my decision to get the dog don't come at me lol)

Hi! I got lucky enough to adopt a lil lady on Friday :) She was found by a couple of college boys and wasn’t chipped, nor did anyone claim her. The boys loved her so much, but judging from her behavior, she didn’t have many rules at their house for the week she was there. She’s 4 months old and h a t e s her crate. I know it’s supposed to be slow going, but there are times I need her to be in there due to my job, etc. I’ve been feeding her in there and have been trying to make it fun. However, she’s a chewer and we’ve already had 1 ER visit from eating what she wasn’t supposed to, so no more toys or anything in the crate. I also read that she should have some time in there throughout the day so bedtime isn’t jarring. But rn she is going crazy in there, and my nerves are pretty shot. Any advice would be happily received! Please help a first time mama out :)

We are having issues with our 6 month old English Cream golden retriever puppy consistently eating his poop. Aside from consistently following him out to clean it up right away, does anyone have ideas on how to get them to stop? Also, this has nothing to do with him not getting enough to eat? I feel like it’s instinctual since he gets 2.5 cups a day. I’ve had Golden’s before and they have done this but I don’t think it’s gone through 6 months. SOS!🆘

my family and i got a mini golden doodle puppy 2.5 weeks ago. he’s 10.5 weeks old. the first couple nights with him were pretty terrible. he didn’t like his crate and would bark all night long. we got a snuggle puppy for him, but he just tried ripping it up. then we discovered that “shushing” him works wonders. we ended up buying a machine that will “shush” him all night long. when putting him in his crate, we have to sit there for a few minutes before he falls asleep. otherwise he’ll start barking like crazy. we have a blanket over his crate, but he can hear us moving. he’s definitely gotten better, and our bed time schedule typically looks something like this:

• put him down between 9-9:30
• he wakes up for his first potty break between 11:30-1am
• he wakes up for his second potty break between 3-5:30am
• he wakes up between 6-7:30am for the day

the second potty break and his wake up are where issues arise. we do our potty breaks in shifts. i stay up until 1, waiting for his first break. my mom is on duty for the second shift. then my sister is awake for his wake up. my mom and sister really struggle to get him to go back to bed for their shifts/get him to calm down and we’re struggling to understand why.

night potty breaks are boring. we don’t speak to him, don’t pet him, don’t make any noise or turn any lights on. it’s simply pick him up, take him outside, and immediately back to his crate. this works great for me. i can sit by his crate for no more than 15-20 mins and he’s out. for my mom, she sits by his crate for 30-45 minutes at a time. we’ve gone over what we each do and see if there’s any differences, and there don’t appear to be any. everytime she tries to sneak away, he’ll hear her and start barking.

as for my sister, if he wakes up between 6-7, he won’t go down for a nap until 10:30-11, no matter how hard she or anyone else tries. i know he just slept for a long time in the middle of the night, but everything i’ve read says puppies need 18-20 hours of sleep a day. he is NOT getting that much. i told my family we should strive for at least 14, and have started doing enforced naps as of a week ago. these work out decently well, but he’s still not getting 14 hours. i read that for enforced naps, you should do one hour up, two hours down. for him, he’ll do one hour up, one hour down. he doesn’t sleep longer than an hour and a half for these middle of the day enforced naps. i know he’s tired. he’s biting, acting crazy, and yawns a lot, but he refuses to calm down to sleep. we don’t play with him when it’s time for a nap, we speak to him calmly, and try to create a calm environment so he can chill and nap.

with this said, how can we get him to sleep during the second shift and in the morning when he’s been awake for hours but clearly needs a nap? we know he’s tired and it’s obvious in his behaviors, but we just can’t get him to calm down for the life of us. it’s frustrating, and we don’t want to stress him out because we’re frustrated but we don’t know what to do. i would appreciate any advice that you have to give!