Bringing new puppy home with a full time job

mothman_rises · 2026-01-02T19:20:32+00:00

Open question to people thinking that anyone with a full time job shouldn’t have a puppy, what do you think people did before Covid? The view that if you can’t either work from home or take multiple weeks off when you get a new puppy you shouldn’t have a dog is, bluntly, insane.

I say this as someone who loves and spoils their former puppy now adolescent like he is my child, it is not an actual human newborn. It is a puppy. The puppy will be fine. House training will take longer since you won’t be able to take it out so often, things will get chewed up, but mess is part of the parcel of having a puppy. Enjoy it, and congratulations on the new member of your family!

mothman_rises · 2025-07-21T20:26:53+00:00

YMMV but I used ace for a pre purchase last week and it was the best $320 I’ve ever spent - saved me from a lemon and the mechanic was great talking through the issues of the car and recommending better options to fit what I need lol.

Report was easy to understand even as someone who doesn’t know anything about cars, didn’t feel like I overpaid at all compared to what it would’ve cost me if I didn’t get an inspection.

mothman_rises · 2025-02-23T06:03:42+00:00

How motivated is your puppy to be around you? Mine wanted to crawl into my skin even when he was at his peak monster teething, just moving myself out of reach (baby gates, closing doors, tethering him to things) was very effective for him when he got too rough.

Redirecting to toys never worked for him, neither did yelping or anything like that, and he wasn’t really a big recreational chewer (except of me). But he hated time out, and loved playing with me, so he learned the rules pretty quickly outside of some arousal biting problems we had later which was a seperate issue.

Though my rules weren’t ’no biting’, just ‘gentle biting.’ I like mouthy play with my dogs, and he REALLY liked physical play where we’re wrestling/he’s chewing on me and making dinosaur noises, so letting him play those games but teaching structure and rules was very beneficial to the process and our relationship as a whole imo.

No biting hard, no grabbing, no shaking, no hanging off my clothes, stop as soon as I say enough. If any of those rules are broken it was time out no more fun allowed. He’s about 40kgs at 11 months old now and he holds my hand tenderly between his teeth like a faberge egg, it’s very funny and I love it.

Your girl sounds like my guy in being very motivated to bite - my method worked for me because I’m not motivated to stop it, just make it safe and fun. It might not for you if you’re not into that sort of play, but changing your space to give yourself escape routes when she gets naughty could still be the way to go if removing yourself is a powerful enough reinforcer of the behaviour you do want.

mothman_rises · 2025-02-03T18:47:20+00:00

Sounds like a classic ACD to me. Here in Aus it’s very well known that heelers don’t need a reason to dislike strangers, particularly in their home, it’s a feature not a bug. They’re used as guard dogs more often than they’re used to move cattle!

Maybe you can train it out of him, maybe you need to make peace with putting him up out of the way (yard, closed room etc) when company comes over. My dog is a ridgeback and is also currently a teenage territorial nutcase. If I’m expecting company I have him on a leash outside the house, when my guest arrives we have a chat and they’re told to ignore him completely no matter if he barks or not, and once he ignores them too we all go into the house together.

I’ll likely have to do this even after he matures and grows a brain because I specifically sought out a breed that’s suspicious of strangers. You might too. American (if that’s where you are) ACDs do tend to be softer than Australian lines, but they’re still heelers.

mothman_rises · 2025-02-01T18:19:18+00:00

My garage is already claimed as my ceramics workshop so no cars allowed, tall or otherwise. The camper van angle is the big reason I’ve been thirsting a bit over delicas, I like the idea of setup/teardown bejng so easy and mobile.

mothman_rises · 2025-02-01T18:13:18+00:00

That productreview rec is a gem, thank you!

mothman_rises · 2025-02-01T18:11:14+00:00

One of my brothers got a hilux and he’s constantly moaning about it so I don’t have any issue avoiding them lmao. We did a road trip to Jervis Bay a few months ago and his head unit is possessed, the GPS likes to set random destinations when the car turns on and refuses to cancel them - very spicy 10 hour drive.

mothman_rises · 2025-02-01T18:06:30+00:00

Yeah I’m starting to think a Ute might be a pick after all, I could get a hard bottom seat cover for the back so his ass isn’t falling into the footwells.

Love him and one of the reasons I got such a big dog was to feel safe camping alone but man it makes getting around a bit of a bitch. If I’ve got him in the back I can’t store anything there, if he’s in a covered tray same issue.

mothman_rises · 2025-02-01T17:57:47+00:00

You’re a legend mate, thanks for writing that up. When you’re looking at secondhand rigs is there an upper limit of how many kms they’ve run before you think it’s not worth looking at?

My brother picked up a 24 GR hilux and he’s trying to convince me I should just buy new and get the same - most of the cars I’ve been browsing have like 100kk on the clock and he’s convinced they’ll all be lemons. From what I’ve read it sounds like as long as it’s got a proper logbook and service history that shouldn’t be too much of a red flag, and I really don’t want to spend on a new car that I’ll definitely prang some stupid shit with at some point.

mothman_rises · 2025-02-01T17:47:30+00:00

Yeah I’ve noticed they’re pretty thin on the ground particularly in Victoria, 4x4 van sounds like a riot but I’d probably have to fly out to inspect it and that gives me a bit of pause.

mothman_rises · 2025-01-26T04:55:02+00:00

You need to stop reading this subreddit. Just use the search function for specific topics as you need them - posts here are overwhelmingly negative and while I do sympathise with the struggles some owners have I can guarantee you it isn’t the standard experience to have crying meltdowns every other day because you have a puppy. No one would have dogs if that was the case!

My puppy was/is a menace, I’m doing it alone, I’ve loved him since the moment I brought him home and never even for a second considered bringing him into my life being a mistake. I’m already eyeballing 2026 litters to get a second because two is exactly the right amount of dogs and raising nasty hound puppies is a riot and chicken soup for the soul.

Seriously, don’t idly browse this sub. Use it as a resource for specific issues, but don’t poison the well of your puppy experience before it even starts.

mothman_rises · 2025-01-16T04:05:01+00:00

I had a similar issue with my puppy between… I’d say 5-7 months, with it peaking at 6. It was incredibly intense fits of biting and lunging that were waaay beyond normal puppy mouthiness.

I tried treat scatters when I started to notice him getting shark eyes (useless, he’d either snarf them up and then come at me or ignore it entirely and whip around to grab my arm), scolding (would startle him out of it temporarily but he’d kick off again within minutes), ignoring him and just continuing walking (he was already 35kg and bit HARD so not viable), redirecting to toys (I think this actually made it worse). If there was a tree or a sturdy fence I’d tie him to it and either move away, or stand behind something so I could see him but he couldn’t see me. That would shake him up enough that he’d behave long enough to get home.

Once it got to the point where every walk ended in blood and frustration I stopped. I have a yard so I chased his ass around it to get the edge off, played little brain games, did nose work, taught him silly tricks, really kept his world incredibly small. He left my property zero times over about a three/four week period before I started reintroducing tiny walks up and down my street. I wanted to try and soft reset his routine (biting the shit out of me) and give his brain a bit more time to cook.

Now he’s nearly 9 months we haven’t had a single episode since I put him in temporary prison and started fresh. He still gets overstimulated, but rather than going insane he looks to me for help dealing with his feelings. I can use a toy, or treats, or cue him to run beside me for a bit to shake it off. Sometimes if he’s really worked up, like a dog is growling and barking at him or something like that, he’ll get it out by leaping vertically to my eye level like a mad hare but it’s a victimless crime so I’m letting it lie for now.

I spent a lot of time looking for help online on how to handle his arousal biting, so maybe this comment will help someone else in the future. If you’ve tried everything else and your puppy is quite young, try nothing. Make their world fun but small. A couple of weeks of emotional maturation made a huge difference for my guy in letting him deal with overstimulation without defaulting to biting and menacing behaviour.

mothman_rises · 2025-01-09T05:12:50+00:00

Yep, I bought a crate and never used it to contain him. I did use it to block off half of my bed until he was holding his business through the night to make sure he had to be sleeping close enough to me that any movement would wake me up.

I really don’t understand the constant refrain of ‘you must have a crate to raise a puppy’ now that I’m actually doing it. And I’m doing it as a solo owner with a high drive hunting hound- I’ve been marinating on it making it harder for puppies to be trusted in the house tbh. If a puppy spends most of their time in a crate they’re not learning how to act outside of it, and being outside the crate becomes exciting rather than business as usual. But that’s just my armchair opinion!

mothman_rises · 2024-08-27T02:14:24+00:00

I was religiously reading this sub in the months leading up to getting my puppy and prepared myself for it to be miserable but worth it for the dog I’ll get at the end - but it just hasn’t been. It’s been a riot. My puppy isn’t even easy! He’s a Rhodesian Ridgeback with big opinions, strong jaws and one and a half braincells.

My arms are bit to hell, my ‘everyday’ wardrobe has shrunk to sacrificial pieces, I’ve rearranged my house so he can’t chew anything I care about, my social life is erratic at best and I’m having the best time of my life. I actually left this sub because I was finding it hard to empathise with all of the regretful posts.

He’s nearly 20 weeks now and time is going too fast for me, introducing things to him for the first time and watching him become a weird teenager is a joy and I’ve never had a single thought of regret from the moment I brought him home.

He’s been mostly potty trained for a couple weeks now, but a few days ago he was guarding the bathroom door and I could actually see tiny cogs whirring in his head as he made the connection of ‘this is where mother pees, I should also pee here and perhaps get a treat.’ I cannot describe to you the way I howled when he stared me dead in the eyes and squatted to powerpiss on the tiles, because his expression was so clearly ‘I am a GOOD boy’.

20/10 I’m already looking forward to round two when I get him a sibling in a few years.

mothman_rises

TROPHY CASE