Puppies bring so much love into our lives, but let's be honest: raising one isn't always as easy as it looks! Between unexpected behavior, training struggles, and those moments when you wonder if you're doing everything wrong, puppy parenting can be emotionally exhausting. Even the cutest little troublemakers can test your patience!

If you're raising a puppy right now, what's been your biggest challenge so far? And for experienced dog owners, what's one piece of advice you wish you'd known when you first brought your puppy home? Let's share some encouragement and remind each other that we're all learning along the way!

My 12 year-old dog died unexpectedly and I meant to get a year or two year-old dog and I somehow ended up with a puppy. I thought in six months he would be a dog. I had no idea that I had years of this. We cleaned up the back deck for him and power washed it and made it all pristine and perfect, and I just caught him with a bolt in his mouth. I hope he didn’t eat anything else. I don’t know if I can do this. I can’t imagine doing this for two years.

When does it get better? When does it get to the point where you have a companion that doesn’t eat all your furniture and swallow tool components, and pee all over the house?

I should’ve got a two year-old dog.

My puppy can be an absolute handful at home, but the moment someone else is around, I start wondering if I'm the problem 😂

I know puppies are still learning and consistency matters, but it's hard not to get frustrated when you feel like you've been working on the same thing for days and there's barely any progress.

Some days training goes well, other days it feels like we've forgotten everything we learned yesterday.

I guess I'm just curious if this is a normal part of raising a puppy or if other people have found something that actually helped.

I think one of the biggest challenges of raising a puppy is figuring out when to play with them and when to let them learn how to relax on their own.

My puppy is 1yo, a dachshund, and I've had them since she's still a puppy. So far, I've tried walks, training sessions, chew toys, and puzzle toys, but she just doesn't care.

I know puppies need exercise, mental stimulation, attention, and plenty of rest. But I also think learning to settle independently is an important skill. I don't want to accidentally teach my puppy that every quiet moment means it's time for another activity.

I'm trying to find a balance between meeting their needs and helping them become comfortable relaxing while I'm working or doing things around the house.

How did you teach your puppy to settle down on their own? Did you use a specific training method, reward calm behavior, or follow a consistent nap schedule?

I'd especially appreciate advice from people whose puppies struggled to switch off even after playtime.

I have a puppy 10 weeks old. Some days I feel like my puppy has unlimited energy while I'm running on empty. What activities actually keep your puppy busy without requiring you to constantly entertain them?

Basically the title says it all. A bit of TMI, but it seems like my puppy just leaks out his anal gland "juice" (?) only when he lays next to me. Other than that, it doesn't seem to happen. Anybody experience this?

Brought home an 8 week old golden retriever puppy on the 16th of October. Since then he's been good with toilet training with expected accidents the first couple of days and is up to usual puppy antics. He knows sit, touch, go to bed and leave it and is halfway there with lie down.

Crate training is where the problem lies. Since getting him I've taught him "go to bed" and will lock him in for increasing periods of time and leave the room and he's doing okay with that, the occasional whine but when released is happy to get treats etc.

Through the day I've enforced crated naps however after the other day where we had to leave him alone for 45mins in his crate to go food shopping he's regressed. When we came back his paws were drenched from sweating and his chin from drooling which I know is a massive sign of stress, I felt absolutely awful when I got home.

He used to go in the crate himself during the day and night and put himself to bed but now will only fall asleep on the couch or floor and has to be moved to his crate. He's obviously lost trust.

He also has a bad habit of contact calling through the night. If he wakes up and barks I'll take him out, he'll wake up once for a pee or poo around 1-3AM however wakes up and doesn't need a wee sometimes. I've started learning the difference between an "I need outside" cry and a "I want your attention/contact" cry. When we first got him I'd take him out the crate and let him fall asleep next to me which is where I think the problem lies, he's gotten used to being let out to fall asleep.  I've stopped doing that the past week or so and instead open the crate door and block it with my knees so he has to fall asleep in the crate. He'll grumble and whine but finally settle down. He won't quieten down if I sit next to him and keep the crate locked.

My problem is I can't keep sitting next to him each time he wakes up to whine and he doesn't need the toilet. If he settles in the crate and I move before hes asleep he starts crying for me to sit back next to him. I've been sleeping on the couch since we got him. It's the same when I leave the room during the day even if he's out of the crate - he'll sit at the living room door and cry for 5-10 minutes before settling down - the issue is sometimes he doesn't and will cry until I return to the living room.

I know he's only 10 nearly 11 weeks now but was wondering if anyone has any tips for reducing this behaviour or how I should move forward rebuilding that trust?

Hello! I was an avid poster here for the start of my puppy parenthood and will say it helped a great deal. We've fell into a great rhythm and problems we had (not settling, biting, etc) have gone by the wayside - so those to who are in the trenches, it gets better!

My question today - how much pen time is too much? My pup has the common puppy issue where when he's tired at night he'll have some trouble settling, especially if there's more than 1 person in the living room, and it's myself and my husband. The past few nights when he's starting to get worked up (biting furniture, humping, nipping us) after his evening walk we'll put him in the pen with a frozen chew. He usually barks for the first 5 minutes and then settles and is calm in there until it's bed time. We had him in there for about 2 hours each of the past two nights (our other route is one of us going to the basement/upstairs and then him settling outside the pen) and he's been calm as we watch tv/hang out. The rest of the day he's settling outside the crate with no issue. Is this 2 hour window too much? It's been nice not to have to separate for the night and enjoy our living room. TIA!

Hi, I have a 4 month puppy . She's a Shih Tzu and I had her for 2 months. Potty training has been great except that when she poops she eats her poop. I have to watch her like a hawk to remove the poop from her. She wakes up twice at night to poop. It's been hard for me to wake up twice a night to get her poop. She has different times when she goes. If I don't make it on time she already ate it. I asked the vet and said it was normal for puppies and eventually grow out of it.

Does your puppy eat its own poop, and how did you stop it ? Thanks.

That is all. I’ve had dogs before and this 5 month old rescue is so difficult. I feel trapped in my house and want to cry constantly.

She hates outsides and also screams her head off when I leave the house for 2 seconds.

I feel so defeated. Maybe an older dog would’ve been a better choice, but she needed a home.

I have a 13 week old male bull terrier puppy, and I love him to death, but I CANNOT seem to get him to stop biting me. He bites me more than anyone else (although he still tends to bite other family members and friends) and I also have another elderly dog in the house as well as a cat that I want to socialize him with but so far all attempts have either not gone too well or my grandmother who I live with puts a stop to it. She seems to think that my dog is a killer, and that at any moment he gets the chance he’ll maul the cat and dog. What can I do about these issues? Thanks in advance.

I left my puppy home alone for maybe 45 minutes today and he screamed bloody murder the entire time. I love in ana apartment building with thin walls. I’m have to go back to work in two days but i don’t think he will be ok.

initially i planned for someone to come 2x a day while we are away (9:30-6:30). this is definitely not going to work. What else can we do? i can’t find someone to stay here all day in two days

Our 11 week-old Yorkshire terrier is a generally very happy little pup and I think on the whole my fiancée and I are doing a decent job taking care of her. We have a big shortcoming when it comes to her being separated from us, however. She has no problem going in and out of her cage and will do so throughout the day, but she will not tolerate the door being closed at all, even if one of us is right on the other side of the door. Her crying will quickly turn into sharp barks and little proto-howls. She almost immediately will not respond to voice or food which really concerns me. We have a little camera set up to monitor her when we're not around and she will settle periodically but only for spells of 15 minutes max before it's back to torture sounds.

Admittedly our crate training has focused on the little travel crate which she's sleeping in (and she's not a massive fan of that either), and we're only realising recently how much of a problem this is going to be. We've been fortunate enough to be able to string together almost 4 weeks of time off to look after her after bringing her home but that time is coming to an end and to my mind she's not at all ready for us to leave her to go to work.

I've raised this concern with my fiancée who has had dogs all her life (this is my first) and she is of the opinion that we just need to let her cry it out, that she will get used to it, and I'm being too soft hearted about it. I would love that to be true but I suspect that her anxiety/terror is beyond what we should be letting her handle on her own and most of all that this will impact her negatively in the future.

I'd love to get your thoughts on whether I'm being too sensitive and/or what we can do to reverse her feelings towards the cage. If there's a mod approved method of sharing videos here I'd be happy to show some of the camera footage to illustrate my point.

Hello!!! my boyfriend and I are going to be adopting an Australian Sheppard puppy. Does anyone have any advice, insight, and or knowledge that you think would be really helpful?

I’ve done a lot of research and of course I understand the breeds need for both physical and mental stimulation. We’re going to incorporate a lot of of that. I would like for the dog to be cuddly, any tips to raise a cuddly puppy? (I understand every dog has different personality may not want to cuddle which is ok too.)

We’re going to start with crate training, we’re also going to make sure that we do a puppy training course and once a week have a socialization class as soon as the puppy has all its vaccines.

I’m just worried about the puppy whining and barking a lot. My boyfriend works from home for a call center and that might disrupt work a bit. ( I will be home with the puppy all day tho!)

So, my 12 week old golden retriever puppy has been battling Diarrhea/soft stool for awhile now and we’re trying to find out what the root cause is (fecal and vet check ups were negative for any giardia/worms/parasites). It may be because we were giving him different types of treats and chews, or also because he ended his round of doxy antibiotics about a week and a half ago for kennel cough.

Some high value treats I was trying out:
- Crumps Dehydrated Beef Liver
- Crumps Beef Trainers
- Crumps Duck Trainers
- Chews: Beef Collagen Chew and N Bone Puppy Teething Rings

I’m worried that we have tried too many things and it’s upset his stomach so now I’m looking for any reco’s for high value treats or chews that are gentle on the stomach. He absolutely loves the beef collagen chew but I’m worried it may be too rich for his puppy tummy and causing loose stools.

My puppy is 5 months old (estimate), she is a chihuahua mix. She is 6.2 lbs. I’ve had her since sometime in late July/ early August.
I will admit, I slacker HARD when I first got her. The literally DAY I got her, literally right after I picked her up, my now ex, got arrested and then went to rehab and then disappeared out of my life with a girl he met in rehab. We were together for 7 years and the sudden shift of everything killed me. I refused to give my puppy away but again, I did not even try to train her. I was broken and just couldn’t focus on her or anything but getting by. My “training” consisted of putting puppy pads over the ENTIRE floor of the rooms she went in and a puppy gate at the door of the hallway. I would take her out on her leash occasionally. I did no research and bought an enormous crate for her, she cried that first night and I gave up. Just let her sleep in her dog bed with puppy pads everywhere.

Of course she learned nothing (literally how could she!)

Fast forward & I picked myself up off the floor and Im doing right by her now. Im doing my best. I did some research & got her a size appropriate crate. Her first night in it was HORRENDOUS and I almost gave up but she took to it amazingly well. She will not go in it willingly but she doesn’t not fight me when I put her in it at night and she hasn’t whined since that first night. She goes right to bed and wakes up at 5:30 on the every morning. (Thinking if this is bc of my alarm though and maybe she does this through the night and I only realize once Im awake , I will explain further down )

So her whines are very soft in the AM when Im getting up, she does amazing in the morning as I get her straight out & out her harness on and carry her outside.

Question 1. If I let her down on the ground inside and try to let her walk herself outside vs me carrying her, she WILL pee before we get to the door. I have read chihuahuas have small bladders, so is this a her not being trained or a small bladder issue? But she an hold it when I carry her?

Question 2. This is why I think she is possibly waking up in the night and only softly whining, which does not wake me up. But her blanket in the crate will smell like pee. She will NOT sleep without padding/ blanket. She gets cold on top of I can’t sleep without a fan. Resolution to this? Do I need to set alarms to get her up?

Her accidents have significantly decreased since I’ve started taking training seriously. (Taking her outside ALOT, especially RIGHT after waking up or drinking, and giving treats and lots of love when she potty’s)

She DOES however still pee EVERY time she is excited. Whenever I come home if she has spent the day at home (usually I take her to work with me but some days I can’t) and whenever I take her to work and my coworkers greet her whenever she hasn’t gone pee right before - she will pee.

Question 3 - again is that training or small bladder issue? And what would resolution be?

Question 4 - she does not whine or signal anything to me that she needs to go out. She doesn’t go to the door or anything. the only thing I’ve noticed is that she clearly has started holding it (she goes potty the second we get to grass outside) vs when she used to go whenever she wanted. Occasionally I will get caught up and can’t take her out every hour or 2 on the hour, and instead of signaling, she will just pee somewhere inside.
Will the going to door/signaling come with time?

My boy is recently 6mo old and the teenager period is setting in.

It is starting to be winter where I live (and we get real winter here). I was recently stalked by a man in his car on a morning walk with my puppy and then the next day, someone intentionally drove into a puddle to splash us in 34°F weather. Yes, these were traumatizing. The former for me and the latter for him.

So I'm not enthusiastic about morning walks in the dark anymore. I got him good jackets and can put on warm clothes myself but the walks in the dark don't feel particularly safe anymore.

We, of course, still do plenty of walks (during the day), training, sniffing, and stimulation. Just a lot of it is having to be pushed back into the day when it becomes light and a bit warmer out.

He is just an absolute menace in the mornings (before exercise) and the evenings (when he's tired to overtired from the day but having a hard time settling). Extra barking, running around, pushing his (14yo, tired) sister's and my buttons, generally getting into new mischief, and so much more fuss and attitude when I try to help/get him to settle and rest when I know he needs it.

In the mornings, he will settle after breakfast so I can work (fully remote worker) but the snuffle mat/feeders for breakfast are not enough to take the edge off his morning sillies.

We are looking into a slatmill. I know we'll have to pair it with equal amounts (and probably more) of other kinds of mental stimulation but we need to get the edge off of some of his energy when it is less feasible to go outside. We don't have anywhere we can "try before we buy" so we're really hoping he can enjoy it through careful and thorough exposure, desensitization, gradual introduction, etc.

Puppy teen period is the final boss of self-regulating to not lose it. But man he can be such a wild little goblin.

Hi everyone!

My partner and I are hoping to bring home our first puppy in about 2.5 weeks. We're going to visit the litter for the first time this weekend, so we're holding off on buying too much until then.

We're expecting a retro french bulldog puppy and live in an apartment with a small balcony.

I'd love to hear your advice on a few things:

What are the absolute essentials we should have ready before bringing our puppy home?

What did you buy that turned out to be unnecessary or a waste of money?

Are there any specific brands or products you'd recommend (or avoid), for things like harnesses, beds, crates, puppy pens and toys?

What setup worked best for you at home, especially in an apartment? Crate, puppy pen, or both?

I'd love to hear your experiences, especially anything you wish you'd known beforehand. We'd rather buy a few useful things than end up with loads of stuff we don't need!

Thanks! :)

Hello. My Maltipoo puppy is 4month old, had had for nearly 2 month now.
I am trying to potty train her but nothing seems to stick with her. One time she will use the pad and next time she does everything on the carpet. I am trying to be gentle with her and follow her to pad after eating and playing, waking up … but she sneaks out to do it on the carpet. Problem is she is very small and yet not fully vaccinated to go out so I don’t have an option of taking her outside.
Additionally she started eating her poo… i had her to the vet obviously, they gave us medication to use for her to stop but nothing affects her. It is very mentally tiring and i feel like I’m doing something wrong, please suggest whatever is possible.
❤️❤️

We got a pup and she is 14 weeks.

We are using crate and it seems to be working really well. She sleeps through the night, potty training as just accelerated with no mishaps inside the house since past 4 days now. We got her 7 days ago.

We are following the general rule where 2 hrs sleep and 1 hr wake window through the day..

After her lunch and training around 1 we get her into crate around 2 and she wakes up around 4 on her own.

The problem now is that I work and get off around 5.

For that 1 hr how do I make her settle.

I know frozen kongs can work but I want something permanent where she understands that not all wake windows are a playtime outside or her play pen..

If I keep her in crate, she will just bark and scratch constantly..

My 7ish month old puppy has struggled with potty training since the moment we got her. We live downtown on the 5th floor of an apt, and she would get super distracted when going out to pee causing her to not go and just pee when we got back inside. This led to months of us carrying her outside directly to her spot and doing the crate and repeat method. For context later her pee spot is a patch of rocks that's used by all the other dogs in the building as well.

It seemed like she finally was beginning to understand it. She filled out her crate to the point where she learned to hold her pee, and when she did have an accident she HATED it and would bark at a high pitch until we came and cleaned it up. We were recently on a 3 week streak of 0 accidents.

Fast forward to this week, and she has just regressed entirely. We're based in the PNW where there's a ton of rain. When we have gone outside lately, she not only gets distracted but she refuses to step onto the rocks to urinate. There is a covered area that we have been trying, and she has peed there twice and we gave her lots and lots of praise each time but she peed in 2 completely different spots and it's just sidewalk as opposed to a landmark etc. She is back to getting distracted and not peeing. We have been out for 5 min and attempted to go back inside to crate and repeat, the problem is as soon as she gets indoors she just pees.

I am ready to pull my hair from my scalp. I have been so patient but it has been months of my apartment smelling like piss, cleaning up pee in the middle of the night, going up and down from the 5th floor over and over again. What do i do because im genuinely not sure how much longer i can deal with this. I don't want to give her up but this is getting to a point. It was nowhere near this difficult with our first dog, we potty trained her just fine. But this has been hell.

Hi to everyone who responded to this post. Today, a 90lb black lab attacked my 43lb 7 month pitsky mix and it was actually terrifying considering the owner was my size (short and probably weighs like 130lb) not being able to control a dog that big. Miraculously he made out with only a minor limp and no puncture wounds (it’s a good thing he’s got a lot of loose skin on his neck.) Thank god I spent a lot of time on confidence training bc it seems like he bounced back mentally pretty immediately since he tried going up to other dogs to say hi and continuing his tomfooleries. I however, had to go to urgent care since I got in between them and my hand ended up needing some stitches. But what I didn’t expect was my once cuddle adverse (exclusively me and not my bf) is now actually trying to snuggle and lay on me. I think we both trauma bonded today and that we both needed some comfort after today. In the moment you forget that you’re not supposed to get in between dog fights but when you see your baby in danger, your first instinct is to get in there and get them out of it. Luckily it was only my dog who bit me but I was really dumb risking getting mauled by a 90lb powerful dog. Would I do it again? Absolutely, only next time I’m shoving my fist up the other dog’s a-hole. At the end of the day, I’m so glad he’s okay, and that I’m somewhat ok, and that we’ve gotten closer after a terrible experience.

hi! i rescued a very young puppy with no momma or littermates (5 weeks) and id like to get her as socialized as i possibly can! that being said, ive never done this before!

how do i get her used to sounds?

also, could i start to vaguely crate train her? how so? i have her in a pen- i want to teach her it’s okay to be bored and play on her own in her crate

lastly, biting! i know she’s too young so i know she’s missing out on the biting inhibition piece. any tips on how to train her as if she were with her mates?