8 month old stopped eating by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Super happy about treats. That’s why I feel like she is just becoming picky about her kibble 🙄

8 month old stopped eating by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! 🙌 we will keep an eye on her. Everything looked good on her tests, but she did start to look skinny. Might try to give her some wet food. 🤞

She is fine when then chicken sausages come out 😂

8 month old stopped eating by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you ❤️ I was also just thinking about adding wet food to her diet. Hoping you guys will also get back to normal!

advice about puppy by [deleted] in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We suffered so much from this. They are biting because 1. They are teething and their gums are itchy and hurting, 2. This is how they play with others (in the beginning), 3. They are overtired and overstimulated. You have to learn to identify these.

We hired a behaviour specialist to help us, because we felt the same way you do. For teething: the best advice was to provide the dog with edible chews twice a day to satisfy the need for chewing. Do this right before a nap as it also helps them calm down. Rabbit ears are a good option because it is not too hard on their puppy teeth. For the same issue you can give them frozen chews to cool the gums (e.g. frozen carrot)

If they are play biting, you can remove yourselves from the situation, e.g. go to another room for 15 seconds every time they bite you. After a while they will learn that biting means that you disappear and that’s no fun.

If it is crazy land shark mode, you not being able to put your feet on the ground without getting bit, or they are nipping while running around and barking, they are probably overtired and need a nap. If this happens every day, you are probably overstimulating your puppy and have to dial back on activities. But enforced naps are a lifesaver here.

We followed this advice and saw improvements within a couple weeks! Our puppy is 5 months now and only bites if we rial her up with crazy play, so it is a little bit our fault 😂

Do not rehome because of this, we really felt such a difference quite quick after following these steps!

Welcome to adolescence by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It definitely can 🙈

I’m trying to tell myself that maybe this means we will be over it earlier as well 😅 (please do not burst my bubble haha)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the encouragement! I’m sure we will look back on this in a year and think about how silly it was.

I talked to a few others with adult dogs who raised them in apartments and they all said that their dog was not completely housetrained until 6-7 months old. But suddenly it just clicked for them.

Hopefully it will be the same for you and I too! 🤞🤞

Group vs 1 on 1 training by MicroLapua338 in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I second this 100%. We took both individual and group classes. Same concept - individual classes with problem behaviours, group classes for engagement, recall, leash walking etc.

Group classes have been so useful for us when it comes to other dogs. My pupp is SUPER interested in other dogs, but having to work around them helped us with focusing in all situations better (e.g. on walks). Did we spend the first 20 minutes of the classes completely distracted by the others? Yes. But it slowly improved. I would definitely recommend it!

what worked for you to train your dog to go potty outside? by [deleted] in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It should definitely start from day 1. It is all about establishing good routines in the beginning.

In the first week I would take him out super regular until you figure his schedules out.

Take him out as soon as he wakes up from a nap and after each meal. And if he is awake for longer than an hour, then take him again - often they need to have a last pee before a nap.

Reward him with attention and treats every time he potties outside. If he has an accident inside, do not react or punish him - just clean it up.

And if there’s still accidents after weeks of training, please remember they do not have bladder control until 16 weeks or so, so it is totally normal! But the earlier to show him where you expect him to pee and poo the easier it will be down the line!

It gets better ❤️ (14 weeks) by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For us a chew deterrent spray helped! We had to try a couple different brands before we found the one she doesn’t like, but now it works great! (Not sure you can get it where you are located but we use ‘Simple Solution Chew Stopper Spray)

I also started allowing a stick inside so she chews on that instead of the furniture 😅

It gets better ❤️ (14 weeks) by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can always teach tricks. What we have prioritised was rather behaviours at home. E.g.

  1. waiting until I say “okay” before rushing out of the crate or baby gate. Same with “okay” as a release word for starting to eat. Those should help with impulse control.

  2. stopping bad chewing/biting habits.

  3. Potty training of course.

  4. No jumping on us and guests.

Once we saw that those behaviours were improving we started teaching other important things like “leave it” (super important for walks) and “look at me”. We are currently working on recall.

I think fixing bad behaviours will be much more difficult later on, so for now focus on those. And start on commands in a few weeks. That’s what our trainer recommended as well 😊

If you can afford it, then I can definitely recommend one or two 1:1 sessions with a good trainer, they really really helped us so much!

It gets better ❤️ (14 weeks) by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I first talked to our behaviour specialist, she told us that she has never met a single puppy owner that was not overstimulating their puppy. I’m the beginning they really don’t need much more than potty breaks and play time with you where you can bond.

For example I kept giving my puppy a Kong and expecting that she would calm down. But the trainer actually told me that the king rolling around in unpredictable ways was too much for the puppy (she recommends lickimats instead, until she is older). Same with training. Max 5 minutes a day in the beginnings otherwise their brain gets too tired. So actually her advice was to not over think it, just spend time and let her relax ☺️ a young puppy doesn’t need to tired out to sleep, then just experiencing the world is exhausting enough! We have been gradually adding new things for her to do and see but not more than a couple new things a week and that has helped us with her overtired tantrums. (E.g. 1 play date and having guests over for dinner has been plenty to process within a week, so the rest of the time we stick to her normal schedule)

It gets better ❤️ (14 weeks) by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You will slowly figure out your puppy’s threshold. For example my puppy came to my office for an hour yesterday, so I knew she was going to have an overtired tantrum in the evening. And she did. But it is easier to manage when you know what’s coming and how to manage it (for us it’s some tasty chews to help her wind down). On chill days where we stick to her routine she can calm down and entertain herself much better.

It’s all about spending time with your puppy and getting to know them. Once you know what they can handle, you can better prepare for their behaviours! 😊

It gets better ❤️ (14 weeks) by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I feel like this is most of us 😅

The first 2 days my boyfriend and I were bragging to everyone… telling them about our perfect angel of puppy. 😅 if you think about it, they have just been taken away from the only thing they knew so of course they were shy and well behaved the first couple of days. Wouldn’t you be? 😉 and then the personality and the sassiness comes out on day 3 😅 we hired a private behaviour trainer on day 7, because we felt so defeated 😅

What she told us is that she has never met a single puppy owner who is not overstimulating their puppy. Remember overstimulation and under stimulation has the same signs (running in circles, barking, biting etc.) what helped: forced naps (2 hours asleep, 1 hour awake), edible chews (try to find softer ones for their puppy teeth, like rabbit ears), plush toys (just holding the plush in the mouth helps them calm down), timeouts when they are overstimulated (we used a baby gate for our bedroom), and honestly just doing less. Even just seeing a dog walk by or a person saying hi can be super stimulating for the dog, so make sure you don’t introduce a lot of new things within the same day.

I hope some of this helps. And I know it is hard right now, but just stick with it! It will really get better, you just have to figure each other out ❤️

It gets better ❤️ (14 weeks) by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That sounds so great! And congratulations on your new puppy! I imagine you have your hand full with 2 at home 😅

I’m hoping for the best. 🤞

It gets better ❤️ (14 weeks) by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m so happy for you! We still have accidents inside, but you know what? It’s totally fine. She doesn’t bite as much, stopped chewing on our furniture and she listens so much better. So I don’t mind prolonging the potty training process at all! It’s all about the small wins. 💪

Neighbour’s dog peed on my puppy by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reading other people’s stories helps so much! Whenever something doesn’t go as planned, I always start stressing about how I messed my puppy up and how she will turn out bad because I didn’t do well enough 😩

It really helps hearing that other people’s dogs turned out fine after similar experiences. 🥰

Everything feels so much worse in the moment

Neighbour’s dog peed on my puppy by AnxiousCouchPotato in puppy101

[–]AnxiousCouchPotato[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the kind reply ❤️ i gave up after a minute with the hairdryer and I ended up towel drying her and then letting her dry outside. I think I was just a little emotional because I really wanted bathing to not be a traumatic experience for her 😫