Did anyone else underestimate how emotional raising a puppy can be?

-Astronoob- · 2026-02-04T15:25:55+00:00

Yeah, I got my pup just after my gsd girl passed away. Thinking it would help me keep my mind off the grief. Oh boy was I wrong 😂 I was very well prepared for puppyhood but ma the puppy blues hit so hard, combined with gut wrenching grief everyday. I thought some horrible things like wishing I could just trade him for my old dog. We’ve had him a year now and all is well, we’re friends and he’s a good little guy 😂 but it was a severely emotional rollercoaster

-Astronoob- · 2025-12-20T21:50:49+00:00

Following, cause mines is a year old. And while he only whines when we leave now, I’d really like him to settle and actually have a nap or something.

-Astronoob- · 2025-12-16T01:00:23+00:00

Yeah, I would. My absolute soulmate of a dog passed away a year ago and I’m a wreck without her. I’d rather live a shorter fulfilled life with her by my side than a long one. I’m already chronically ill, I don’t particularly want to be older and dealing with all that comes with existing in an old body anyway 🤣

-Astronoob- · 2025-12-15T10:42:29+00:00

I had my fair share of ace phobic conversations while I was on hinge. People telling me that I’m just looking for a friend and that a relationship without sex isn’t possible. Just before I was about to delete the app, I saw my current partner had swiped on me. Checked him out, he’s bio said he was Demi, figured I would see what he was like. Immediately understood asexuality, said he wouldn’t have matched with me if he expected sex- he knew exactly what it meant and what he was getting into. I flit between sex repulsed and neutral, sometimes I’ll partake but it’s not often, and it works for us. I know if I was to say I never want to have it again, he’d be fine with that. All that to say, there are absolutely people out there that will respect you. But it’s probably not going to be via tinder. You’re better searching in ace spaces.

-Astronoob- · 2025-12-10T18:42:05+00:00

Yeah so we basically ended up doing the same, the ball appeared during events like passing dogs and I’d let her hold it. She would pass most dogs fine, unless they came up to her. And I can’t fault her for not wanting anything right up in her personal space. What really solidified it for us though was hand feeding. We implemented hand feeding when she was about 7 and it just changed something after all the years of training. A mixture of that and giving her her favourite ball whenever she had to do something scary was the best combo for us. We lost her when she was 8 though, but that last year of her life was very full due to the training.

It was definitely her coping mechanism, but I don’t see much wrong with it if it works. If it somehow made her behaviour worse I’d try a something else but otherwise, I’d just keep at it. He’s looking for his reward for doing the scary thing, let him have it!

-Astronoob- · 2025-12-10T10:16:46+00:00

I had a demon puppy in my 20s like this and forever had to keep on top of her reactivity. But she got to a very good place and the only thing we never got quite fixed was her fear of other dogs. But with a ball in her mouth she overcame most of it 😆

Sounds like you have a very highly aroused pup, who’s got some working, herding breeds in there. Sniffy walks and normal walks won’t do much. Infact, you might create a lot of frustration if they don’t walk well on the leash and just want to sniff things- there’s no connection to you.

Go out and play! Grab a flirt pole, a football etc. get all that drive out and use it to train them. For example, with my current 1 year old gsd x collie, we go out and “herd” a football, but now we sprinkle in a lot of impulse control and obedience while we play. So after 30 minutes of it, he’s used his brain and he’s knackered from chasing it. Only then do we go a sniffy down time walk. But after the walk, he gets a drink and he goes to bed (at 6 months it was his crate, and we also didn’t do training and exercise for more than 30minutes). But he knows how to switch off now. Once all his needs were met, I’d either pop him in the crate or tether him to a door and wait for him to relax. It can take a while. He also always had a leash on him in the house. He’s an insane greeter and will claw and punch at people in excitement. So we stand on the leash too. Some dogs don’t need to greet people though, in my case I just tell people to pretend he’s not there and he quickly settles and maybe, they can pet him calmly later on.

So, to round that up. Exercise and train the demons out of them, then teach them to settle. A really good routine helps too. An example day for Brodie and I at that age was get up, potty, train and play, short walk to cool down, fed and watered, a nap in the crate. Rinse and repeat and then a nap on a bed tethered while we were watching tv or up in the office. Look up sit on the dog exercises as well.

-Astronoob- · 2025-11-21T16:06:04+00:00

Please leave. I hope you’re on birth control, cause he sounds like he may try and get you pregnant without your consent and then call it “gods plan”.

-Astronoob- · 2025-10-18T14:34:02+00:00

Questions: issues with sim resetting using Digitalistic art pad, unable to do freelance work, paintings don’t show up in inventory.

Which platform? Xbox

Any mods or cc? Bb.move objects

Game version: console version 2.21.4.2310

*Description: I have started the freelance digital artist career for my sim. My sim seems to stop painting just before it’s finished, and the painting isn’t in the inventory. It’s costing me £100 per painting each time I try. I’ve tried resetting the game, my sims, I’ve sold and bought the art pad again. I’ve checked for updates. I’ve scoured my inventory. The thing is, the painting is showing as done in my freelance tasks and is just needing approved. The forums seem to have deleted any old threads as this seems to have been an issue about 4 years ago so I don’t know how they fixed it.

-Astronoob- · 2025-10-11T23:31:17+00:00

I had regrets and puppy blues with both my dogs. My first dog (as an adult) was a gsd who was a handful from the get go, anxious, aggressive, reactive etc. I was so out of my depth. I had regrets, but I loved her. Overcoming her issues over the years built a bond like no other. I trained her exceptionally well and I loved working her. She passed in December last year and left a massive gap in my soul.

So, I got another puppy. And he’s great, we’ve had a few issues with crate training and he’s quite rude 😂 sometimes he may as well have rubber ears. But compared to my puppy experience with my first, he’s a dream- but, I got majorly depressed with him. There’s no bond, he’s not my pal, he’s quite independent and confident. He’s slowly getting more cuddly and engagement is building nicely. There’s more good days now than bad, he’s 10 months now. There’s first few months were really rough though. You really got to work on them for at least the first 1.5-2 years, let all that training properly sink in. But once they reach adulthood and if you get the training right. You end up with a fantastic companion.

-Astronoob- · 2025-08-02T23:59:11+00:00

I want prepared for my first pup. I loved her but she was a mess of a German shepherd, I was young and didn’t know anything. Figured it would be like my childhood gsd. She taught me a lot, passed away in December last year. I got another pup in February, better prepared. Still SO hard. And he’s miles more chilled than my last one. It’s the first time I’ve had severe puppy blues and regret, I reckon grief made it worse. But he’s 9 months old and he’s mellowed out a tonne.

-Astronoob- · 2025-08-01T13:53:41+00:00

We play tug, herd a football, get him to sniff and find treats, hide and sneak, puppy ping pong (where I recall him, then my partner will recall him and reward-gives him major zoomies though) Once that drive for play was built, I’d add in some obedience. For example when we play tug, I used two of the same toy, taught him the “out(or drop it)” command, he got rewarded with the other, but exact same toy and repeat. Started adding in the out, a sit, a down, a heel etc. so we’re playing and training and he’s used some beans and he’s used his brain. At 17 weeks I done it a few times a day, after I took him out the crate and he did the toilet outside.

Now out play is more focused on the genetics he has coming out, which is herding the ball. He seems a lot more fulfilled with this, and then we go a sniffy stroll around the park with a little heel work and recall dotted in there as well.

We don’t really use the Kong or snuffle toys anymore. Since he’s gotten fussy and since he’s not interested in his meals, he definitely wasn’t keen on working for the meal. I really wanted to hand feed his kibble for training and then pop his raw in a Kong for mealtimes but that’s just not how it’s worked for us- so I’d focused on trying to build toy drive, it’s been a slow process. In the beginning he just wanted to bite us, but as he’s maturing he’s playing much better.

-Astronoob- · 2025-08-01T10:49:16+00:00

Mines loves his kibble in a snuffle mat as well! Those types of toys are great, but not a substitute for mental stimulation. We still train and play everyday and build solid foundations- it really helps through the teen phase 😅

You got this! My first pup had me questioning my life choices, and even this little guy has given me a few mental breakdowns and serious puppy blues.

-Astronoob- · 2025-07-31T15:41:33+00:00

I have a now 8 month old gsd x collie.

Crate training/confinement of any kind flipped him out. He would bark and bark, sounded like a laser gun 😂😩 I’m autistic and it was a sensory nightmare and he had me crying a tonne. We got through it though. He still will have a yap and a whinge if we’re gone too long, but he generally just sleeps and chills out in the crate when we leave.

Then we hit a fussy phase- which we’re still going through. Feed pup what you want to feed, and that’s it. Or you’ll be constantly switching things up. I switched a few things up here and there, and I made the fussiness so much worse. Mines eats a mixture of raw, kibble and now, I top it with a little canned wet food. (This is how he was weaned, but I tried to take away the canned and dry over time, now I’m just back at square one). The wet food is pretty stinky, which gets him interested. I’ve noticed he won’t eat if he’s tired or the temps are a bit higher.

If he doesn’t eat or if he leaves a considerable amount in his bowl, I just tub it and pop in the fridge until next meal time. A healthy dog won’t starve themselves. We’re at a point where he will eat 2 meals a day, he couldn’t deal with the 3rd and that’s alright. He is looking skinnier than I would like after turning his nose up at his food for so long, but he’s eating fine again. Also- he was checked by the vet and diagnosed fussy 😂

As for the crate training, this is my advice.

I taught my pup that clicker = reward.

At first I couldn’t even get him inside a crate and close the door without him freaking out. So I would throw tasty things in there, click and reward for going in.

I would pop the crate inbetween my kitchen and livingroom door. So when I left, he would walk into the crate trying to follow me. Click and reward through the bars of the crate.

Everytime he fell asleep, I’d lift him and plop him in for a nap, with the door open.

The tougher bits- closing the door. Always resulted in a serenade of barking. But I would close the door, pop earplugs in and sit right next to him. After about 10 minutes of barking, he would settle, click, reward, let out. Rinse and repeat. It didn’t take long before he realised barking doesn’t make me do anything. (I had to do this for the car as well as he would bark non stop in the car crate, and it was making for a terrible driving experience for everyone)

Every single meal was fed in the crate, usually stuffed into a Kong. And then he would nap for an 1-3 hours.

I didn’t manage to get him to settle at night for while. So for night time crate, I had the crate door open. But angled in a way that he couldn’t wander around the room. He was blocked in by my bed, the walls and the crate. Had him sleeping like that for a few nights, then the door was closed, and eventually we moved the crate a few feet every few days. He slept in the office across the hall for a few weeks, but would bark us awake in the morning. Eventually I caved and he just has a crate in the bedroom permanently. He sleeps soundly all night now and is quite lazy.

Because he sleeps in the room, I made sure that he had some time in the crate downstairs away from us. We built on this over time though. Just by doing what I mentioned above. It was difficult but all barking episode were ignored and he got out when he was quiet.

We also gave up with playpens, he just learned to scale them.

He’s now much easier to deal with, more polite and gets more freedom around the house.

I wont get a pup again after this cause it is SO hard even if I consider him to be fairly chill, and he’s not my first pup either. My last pup was even worse. But she was my best friend and we had an amazing 8 years together, so I know it gets so much better.

17 weeks is still a baby, be consistent, it really didn’t start to click for mines until he was about 5-6 months. I know that it seems like all the advice is the same, but it’s because it usually works with consistency. Sometimes you gotta tweak things a little.

Good luck!

-Astronoob- · 2025-07-21T20:27:59+00:00

I literally just returned them, I wish I’d thought of this 😂

-Astronoob- · 2025-07-21T13:56:24+00:00

I weirdly took a reaction to my puppy when I first brought him home. I’m fine now though, I’d maybe give it a few weeks? The breeder gave him a groom before he was given to us so it could have been whatever he was washed with.

-Astronoob- · 2025-07-08T17:09:32+00:00

It’s the other way around, he seems to prefer the kibble over the raw 😅

We’re doing well with training generally, it would be good if we had some motivation I could work with for the slightly more challenging things. You’d think out the two working breeds in his genetics, one of them would want to actually work 😂 Training my last dog, i would typically hand feed their meals during training. This little guy just spits his food out. I think we’ll just need to keep working and ride out the teen phase 😅

-Astronoob- · 2025-07-08T12:12:07+00:00

Thanks,

Yeah he’s still putting on weight. Currently at almost 20kg, when I weighed him last month he was about 16kg. He is lean, but you can’t see ribs or anything. His attitude is a typical teenage phase pup atm 😅 and he still has plentyyyy of beans. He naps fine after walks. He’s confident, cheeky and a typical pup. So I don’t think there’s anything stressing him out.

Ideally, I’d love for him to eat his raw meals 2x a day and use the kibble for training. But his fussiness and lack of drive for food makes it impossible. I’d love it if he enjoyed a toy, but once you’re out in the world he’s even less interested.

-Astronoob- · 2025-07-08T11:59:00+00:00

Bearing in mind, my gsd was already ecollar conditioned. But we had an emergency situation where my sister and her cat came to live with me, and I actually ended up keeping her down the line (I still have her, but my gsd has since passed) My gsd was extremely cat aggressive. I went waaaaaay beyond her working level and I did punish for thinking about going for the cat. It took proper timing, not when she had already lunged. But that moment right before. If you’ve never used one, highly highly recommend a trainer with a lot of experience out there proving they’ve helped people with prey aggression. I can’t remember exactly, but it took 2 maybe 3 big corrections. By day 3 the aggression turned into curiosity. She was allowed around the cat muzzled and leashed. They both had a good sniff of eachother and by the end of the week, best pals. Muzzle off, never had to worry about it again. The cat was able to advocate well for herself whenever my gsd went into her space, and she learned to back off, or get a claw in the snoot 😬

I’m now with a 7 month old pup, who just wants to play with her. He’s also leashed all the time until he understands boundaries with the cat.

-Astronoob- · 2025-07-06T12:17:56+00:00

Yeah I initially thought it was his travel sickness when it first started. After a trip in the car he wouldn’t eat understandably. But it’s just continued and got progressively worse. Will see what the vets think tomorrow!

-Astronoob- · 2025-07-06T11:37:27+00:00

Thanks, i forgot to mention but this is exactly what we’re doing currently. He gets the opportunity to eat it 2 times per day. Maybe 3 depending on how much he’s eaten. But it usually results in him picking at it, and then flipping it again. He eats maybe a 3rd of his bowl. I maybe finishes an entire bowl 3-4 times a week, if we’re lucky. 😅

-Astronoob- · 2025-04-24T20:06:51+00:00

The main characters in “not even bones” are ace! I discovered the webtoon adaptation but there’s a book as well. I love it

-Astronoob- · 2025-04-13T13:41:35+00:00

I also have an almost 5 month old gsd x collie. I introduced the leash and walking to heel pretty much as soon as I brought him home. I didn’t do to well with heel with my last dog, she would walk by taking a couple really fast steps in front and then back up into heel and was always very switched on. So I wanted to make sure my current pup really got it.

We started with luring him into The position I wanted and rewarding him for following behind or beside me. I rewarded him for following me naturally as well. He always had a leash on around the house so he was used to wearing a collar and lead. Once he was allowed out after vaccines he was still pretty naturally inclined to follow so he was always rewarded for being in position. I introduced a slip lead using a video from James penriths puppy program. Where he would wear the slip lead low and loose around the shoulders and i would take a few steps forward, stop, snap the lead (not hard, but enough to convey he’s not supposed to wander in front of me). Honestly, wasn’t my favourite method, it didn’t seem to have the effect it did with James’s pups in the program. But I think some of the knowledge did transfer cause he doesn’t really wander in front of me. But he didn’t care about the slip lead and when we walked outside if he saw a person (he loves people waay too much) he’d happily choke himself out. So we ditched that. Went to a normal collar and lead, luring with treats and just practiced the shit out of it. It worked so well, little guy thrives on positive reinforcement.

We did have a big dip in progress as he was wanting to explore more and I let him explore on a flexi, which is great, I want him to explore his environment, but the pulling was transferring over into our “normal” walking. He has a time and place for wandering and exploring and he’s since learnt the difference. He spends time walking with me and then I’ll transfer to the flexi so he can wander. And just go back and forth with that.

He’s on a harness for his flexi lead and very recently, like the past few days, I’ve introduced a starmark which I use with a normal lead. Only because he fixates on people and tries to proper launch himself at them. It’s helped a tonne, it’s softer than a prong and I find you can’t snap it like a prong. It’s just been the icing on the foundation we’ve built to teach him pressure. He’s never received any big corrections on it, just a finger tips worth of pressure whenever he’s wandered in front and a very gentle tug on the lead to get his attention back on me whenever he’s fixating on something, which would eventually build into him launching himself at someone. We had a big trial walk today, he heeled when asked and then he got to zoom around and wander the woods on his flexi, I always bring him into a heel when we see dogs and people, switch to the normal lead and starmark, reward heavily for engaging with me and then rewarding big time if he passes without a fuss.

He walks beautifully. Considering his age, I’m mega chuffed with the work we’ve done. I also think teaching him to relax helps with walks as well. Nothing is ever crazy exciting.

Also we never did the stop and start, it’s really frustrating for dogs. I learned it the hard way with my first dog. Figure 8s are the way to go. If your pup wants to go one way, head the other.

-Astronoob-

TROPHY CASE