tamapup

Hey, I'm not an expert but here's my two cents. Firstly I really really feel for you. My border collie is almost 6 months old and there are days where I wanna rip my hair out. Yesterday night he was howling in his crate for what felt like forever despite getting enough exercise, mental stimulation, etc etc... makes me feel like a really terrible owner because he's so upset and I'm not able to help him or myself, so it feels like I am doing something very wrong. Just letting you know that you're definitely not alone if that's any consolation. I do use the crate (as mentioned above), and my understanding is that it doesn't necessarily need to be a negative association. It shouldn't be negative if you don't associate it with scolding him or punishing him. When my guy acts up and does something he's not supposed to (stealing a wrapper from the trash, chewing on shoes, whatever it is), he gets picked up and placed into the crate without a word. This doesn't mean "bad dog you go in the crate for being bad", it means "oh no, if you do that I guess playtime has to stop...". I have also noticed that once I start thinking "I've messed up, everything sucks, I can't take this anymore" - I start noticing every little thing that goes wrong in our day. Every time he doesn't listen to me, every time he pulls on the leash, every time he acts crazy, every time he cries, etc. Then it spirals from there and I forget to see the progress that we actually have made. What's helped me TREMENDOUSLY in in my relationship with Tama (my dog) is celebrating EVERY tiny little thing that he does right. It changes my attitude towards him and helps me focus on the good things, which he picks up on too, and it's just more positive overall. Anyway - you have my sympathies, and I really do think it will get better. As others have said, just be consistent in not rewarding the bad behavior. At seven and a half months old, he's still very much in the process of settling into your life, and as long as you don't give up, keep asking for advice, and take care of yourself, things will look up.

Just seconding what everyone else has already said: don't be angry with your puppy... it isn't fair at all and will only make the problem worse. You said in your other post that you were "rightfully furious" at her... I'd strongly encourage you to rethink your attitude in general, because there's hardly a time when you are justified for being furious at your dog and it certainly will not do anything to make the situation better. It's in almost all cases something that you failed to teach or communicate - NOT her being vengeful or plotting against you. Especially now, since she's a 12 week old puppy who isn't even acting out, but is just confused about what she should be doing. Keep in mind, too, that at 12 weeks old she really shouldn't be out of your sight to begin with, unless she's in a safe confined space. That being said, I understand your decision to use potty pads and the struggle that comes with it, because I had to do that too in the first two months of having my pup. I also live in a flat with no garden, and where I live it is deemed unsafe to take puppies under 4 months outside on walks (until they are completely vaccinated). Even just on sidewalks. It's very hard for sure. I understand that sometimes you have to flexible and adapt to the situation to make it work out in the long run. Now, my boy is 5 months old and 100% potty trained to go outside on walks, so it all worked out just fine and we've had no problems with this approach to potty training, but it does take a lot of consistency and clarity (and lots of patience). Make sure you are rewarding her each time that she uses the pad... If you catch her in the act of going somewhere else, CALMLY pick her up and place her on the pad. Don't get angry - this will only make her anxious about the situation and likely make it worse. If you find the poo AFTER THE FACT, there's no point in you "punishing" her for it at all. She won't get it. The moment has gone by and she won't associate your corrections or anger with the act of going potty in the wrong place. When you transition to going outside, it helps to make the transition extremely clean-cut. This is how things work now. Simply don't give the chance to go indoors, remove all potty pads, never let her out your sight, and praise her when she goes outside. She should get the hang of it relatively quickly.

My 5 m/o absolutely hates getting his harness put on to go outside. I'm quite puzzled as to why, and how to fix this. When I take out the harness and say "let's go for a walk!" he runs and hides from it. Eventually I get a hold of him and put it on. While I put it on he pins back his ears and looks unhappy. As soon as it's on, though, he shakes himself off and runs to the door all excited to go outside. He loves going out for walks. I've checked and re-checked the harness itself and how it fits on him, and it seems fine. No tightness anywhere. He seems perfectly comfortable in it when we're outside as well - it's just the putting it on that's the problem. I try to do it with lots of praise and petting to make him comfortable, but he still hates it. He hasn't had a bad experience with it before, to my knowledge. Not sure what's going on - any ideas?

Thank you for the feedback! @D'Elle, thanks for the clarification about turning and going the other way - seems like it would communicate the point to him better as well, rather than just circular steering whenever he gets too pull-y. @KevTheDog that's a good idea! Thanks for sharing It's wonderful to hear from someone who has a pup just a few months ahead of mine, it's comforting that someone else is going through similar stages around the same time and super helpful to hear about what works/doesn't work. I remember my first post on this forum you were the first reply and saying that Kevin was 17 weeks, a little bit ahead of us... Now he's seven months, wow!

Here's a quick video from our walk just now. I took him to the patch of grass by having him heel by me, then played with him on leash. This is us walking back. His loose-leash walking here is great... and was achieved just by talking to him, no real training. He's smart and responsive. It's only we go out somewhere that he gets too excited and starts to pull. video-1552929376.mp4

There's not really a place for him to run other than a) the dog park, or b) on a patch of grass and only on-leash in that case, since it's in a park with children and other dogs and a road with cars nearby. I do have a 50ft leash, maybe I should start using that? I could carry him to these "exercise spots" I guess, since they aren't far. I'm in the process of signing up for a class with him and really looking forward to it! (positive reinforcement of course) Carrying poop bags home is a good idea. Thanks!

Thank you for the suggestions. GentleLake, I checked out the site and it looks great. However, I'm still not sure what I would do when I'm not training him this way, since it doesn't seem feasible to do every time I take him outside, but rather something I start at home and then build to the outside. In the meantime, I'm not sure how to train him when we're outside... That makes sense but I still don't see a way to do this practically. For example, our morning walk today looked like this: I took him out, he peed, we walked around in circles until I got really dizzy, he pooped, more circles, more dizzy, poop bag still in hand. Closest trash can is a block away. Finally I just went to the trash can to get rid of the poop bag, at which point he was pulling me in every, any direction possible. He almost jumped on a toddler to say hello, kid got very close - I kept Tama on short lead right by my side, of course, but he still stood up on his hind legs (didn't really move forwards, just up). Was enough to scare kid and greatly annoy parent. Went back. Whole walk lasted about 10 minutes, and we both got back quite frustrated. These feel like silly question, but how do you stop yourself from being dizzy using this method, and how do you throw out poop bags? Since we don't really move forwards, but stay circling the same spot (he hits the end of the lead as soon as we switch direction). He also gets home full of energy and then expends it at home, which isn't great... rather than on a walk outside on a nice day. I just want him to get a few walks outside rather than be cooped up at home all day... but don't know how to do this.

He's definitely pulling.. I don't mind him walking ahead in an alert manner at all. I just don't want my hands to be sore from walking him End goal at the moment is just to be able to go on a walk with him without being pulled forwards the whole time. He throws his whole weight into it. He's in a harness right now, because I don't want the pulling to hurt his throat when he does it, but I might move to a collar if he stops pulling later on... I just want to be able to go on walks with him for now. Off-leash training is definitely something I'll be doing with him later on, but I'm not too concerned with starting that quite yet. Could you suggest some ways to go about teaching loose leashing walking? Right now there's seems to be two extremes - pulling ahead like crazy, or walking at a nice heel - and not much in between. I've tried stopping and changing direction each time he pulls, but he seems to get more excited by the change in direction and just runs the other way. Doesn't matter where we're going, it seems, just that he gets to pull me along to get there..haha

Tama's pulling is pretty bad lately. Here's what I'm trying now: we get outside the house, he goes potty, and then every step he takes has to be at my side with a nice loose leash. Pretty much a heal position with a little bit more leeway. He gets a click and a treat for each step, for each time he looks at me, for each time he sits when we stop walking... He seems to be responding well to this, especially since we are doing it in a non-exciting environment (right outside this house). Unfortunately this means that until he stops pulling, we stay in that area. No socializing with other dogs, no going to the park, no getting used to loud busy streets, no longer walks for exercise... He also seems to have is separate in his mind what's "training" and what's "going for a walk". So he listens and walks nicely and pays attention to me, but then will try to run ahead as if trying to say "okay so can we walk now?" I'm keeping these training sessions short, 10 minutes or so, about 4-5 times a day - so he definitely doesn't get "out" much. He wears a harness, and previously I've tried to get places with him by simply keeping the lead around my back and holding it in a such way where there's absolutely no give beyond a certain point (does that make sense?) so that we can walk somewhere, his pulling doesn't actually let him succeed in getting farther ahead or in pulling me along. However, this seems to perpetuate the pulling behavior and tells him it's okay to put pressure on the lead. So we're back at square 1. Do you think that the method I described above should work? Is there a better way that anyone can suggest? To add - he has so much energy and loves, loves, loves to go outside... I can't help but feel that through this method of leash training, I'm depriving him of something, especially now that he's a puppy and wants to explore the world. But letting him pull me around the park seems bad too.

I'm not an expert at all, but here are my two cents - Can you describe his behavior a bit more in detail? You mentioned he hasn't actually injured any young pups - maybe he is just getting very annoyed at their behavior (licking his face and jumping on him), and is telling them to back off? From what I gather, a lot of the time this kind of "correction" from an older dog isn't necessarily indicative of aggression, but is rather just a telling off of sorts. Which is understandable, and shouldn't warrant a correction from your end. If a puppy is harassing him, it makes sense that he would tell them to "stop that". Again, it depends on what he does exactly. If he turns around and snaps at them, then goes back to what he's doing, but doesn't actually harm them at all - I would venture to say that he's probably simply communicating to them that he wants to be left alone. Are the pups interfering with something that he's doing? Are they bothering him incessantly? Maybe your dog just doesn't want to be around this large group of dogs and would prefer to play independently without being bothered - in which case, why keep taking him there? If he's not happy playing with other dogs, find something else to do with him that he enjoys more. Being in a large group with other dogs isn't for every dog, and doesn't necessarily mean your dog is aggressive. Just that they don't really want to be there. If, however, his behavior shows signs of real aggression (that is, more than just a quick and benign correction to a persistent youngster), then it's extremely important that you stop taking him right away. If this is the case, him checked out by a vet to rule out medical problems (if this is a recent development especially), and then by a behaviorist... If you suspect that your dog could actually injure one of the other pups, it makes no sense to put him in a situation to do so. There have been some other recent posts about dog aggression, and I'd suggest you look over them. In short, aggressive dogs should never be left off-leash - it's a disaster waiting to happen and it your job to protect a) your dog, b) other dogs, and c) humans who could be involved in separating a dog fight, should one break out.

Gibbs sounds like a great dog, and mightily patient too I've come across the odd border collie or two at dog parks before, and all seem to act more or less the same... eyes trained on their owners, retrieving a ball or stick with great focus and determination. Not interested in other dogs. I'm so looking forward to the days with Tama when I can take him out early in the morning, off-leash out in the park, away from other dogs, and we can play Frisbee together Here's a few pictures of my boy!

Thank you all! To clarify - I have taught him to "go to bed" on command and have no issue getting him to go inside his crate. Sorry, didn't realize I said I pick him up in my original post! This is more of an exception... It's good to hear that he wasn't doing anything wrong by standing up for himself at the dog park - this was my initial thought as well, but people have been unhappy with it before and several have even come up to my dog and pulled him off their dog themselves when he does this ...even though he's not hurting anyone Not to mention that he has always been the smaller of the two dogs involved. I will take the advice on not taking him to the dog park for now, it makes a lot of sense to me. Will focus on keeping our walks short and getting some solid training in place before moving forwards. Thank you all for the great advice, as per usual.

Thank you all for the feedback. One of the things I am most concerned about - which I did not detail in the original post - is his jumping habits on ME when we are in the dog park. He runs up behind me and jumps on me, and continues to do it nonstop. If I ignore him, he begins to nip my jeans and jacket, and actually tears the fabric. If I give him any kind of attention, I'm afraid it will reinforce the behavior. He acts completely wild, and turning away sharply in no way dissuades him from the behavior.

Tama is now 5 month old and growing and learning lots. A lot of these "behavior issues" simply come from him being a puppy - such as pulling on the leash and jumping on people with excitement. Now, I'm not giving him a pass just because he's a puppy...just saying that these are behavior issues that are quite common for this age, and with some training, I'm confident we'll get past them. That said, I would love your advice on how to address them. Firstly, he is very, VERY into jumping on people. He is okay about it at home, but when we're outside meeting new people, he cannot contain his excitement and leaps up towards people. Every time that he jumps up on me, I simply ignore him and turn away. When he jumps up on other people, he's wearing a harness, so it's easy to prevent him or pull him off. Doesn't stop him from trying every. single. time. On another note, any ideas on how to address this with humans? We were at the dog park just now, and Tama jumped up on this man to say hello. Of course, what I do every time is come up to the person, pull Tama off immediately and say "no", then turn to the person and say "I'm sorry about that, he's a puppy, we're working on it". Most people are very understanding and give him a pet. Nonetheless I get some very dirty looks from some people - this man included. My instinctive reaction, which I don't vocalize, is to say that if you're coming to the dog park on a muddy spring day, maybe don't wear your fancy breeches. Aside from that, recently I've observed a very strange barking reaction from him, which I hadn't seen before. When we walk down the street or through the park, Tama LOVES people and tries to say hello to everyone. However, a few days ago we were sitting down on a bench, and suddenly the people passing by made Tama try to run towards them, barking loudly and in a low, menacing kind of voice, as though protecting our "area". Any ideas about what this is about, and how to stop it? He has also gotten much more barky at home, and starts barking at every "suspicious" sound. I'd really like to stop this... my temporary solution is to pick him up and put him in his crate every time he does it, but I'm not so sure. Lastly, the way that Tama plays with other dogs in the park - I'm not sure if it's something I should leave be, or try to correct. I take him to the dog park almost daily, because I feel like it's the best way to teach him how to socialize with other dogs. Firstly I'll say that he has NEVER attempted to be aggressive with another dog, and has NEVER bitten any dog (or human of course). However, he does tend to be quite dominant with dogs, and very protective over his balls and sticks that he plays with. Today, there was a dog (bigger than him) who attempted to steal a large stick away from him. Tama's reaction was to pin this dog down on the ground (who happened to be quite submissive) and hold him there, snarling and growling and baring his teeth quite vocally. No biting. Just showing dominance. The dog's owner came running over and was quite unhappy, understandably. However - Tama wasn't hurting this dog... How should I deal with this? My worry here is not Tama hurting a dog, but my worry is that he will snap at the wrong dog and trigger a reaction and perhaps get very hurt himself. Something like this happened once, when a large dog came and took away Tama's ball, and he snapped at him, and then the large dog snapped back and actually got quite aggressive. Thankfully the other owner was right there and pulled him off immediately, so no one was really hurt. It was a scary incident, and I wouldn't want it to happen again... but simply avoiding dog parks altogether doesn't sound like it would fix the problem. Dog parks are the only way for us to get Tama to run around off leash in an enclosed space, while socializing with dogs of all breeds and all ages. Advice?

This might be a bit of strange question but it's been on my mind lately. Plus it's a nice topic to discuss How did you first feel that bond forming with your pup? Any particular moments come to mind? Anything that made you suddenly go, "wow, this dog loves/trusts me"?

Hi everyone! I'm writing to ask you all some advice on leash training my pup, Tama. He is now 4 months old, and we've been working with him extensively on how to walk politely on a leash. We started indoors, moved out to the hallway, and then out to a quiet street. He definitely knows how the leash works by now, understands "let's go" perfectly, and generally waits for us without pulling. However, there are two areas where I'm struggling and could really use some advice. I live directly adjacent to a busy street and directly adjacent to a park. In order to leave our block, we can go either into this street or into the park. We're having a lot of trouble with both directions. 1. The park I used to walk him into the dog park without too much trouble, simply by keeping his leash a little longer and walking at a brisk pace. Once there, he would run around lots and play with the other dogs, and then we'd walk nicely back without much trouble at all. The past week, however, I've been trying to be super strict with the way he walks, so I move slower and keep the leash shorter, and soon as there's a pull I stop dead in my tracks. I try to have him walk in a heel position, clicking and treating with each step we take that doesn't result in him passing me (and pulling on the leash). This upsets Tama tremendously. He pays no attention to me and wants SO BADLY to go play and the park, and doesn't understand why I'm holding us back at all. He gets so upset that he begins to cry, whine, jump up on me, pull forwards, etc. We end up getting nowhere, needless to say, and both end up going home frustrated. I'm frustrated because he's upset, he's frustrated because he didn't get to play, and he ends up having pent up energy the rest of the day. Not good for either of us. The second park issue we're having is his obsession with sticks. I vaguely remember someone posting earlier about their pup being obsessed with leaves, and someone replied saying that this should be stopped immediately so that he doesn't develop an OCD-type thing, which could ultimately end up being really disturbing to him. So I'm not letting him pick up any sticks on our walk, saying "AH" firmly and pulling him away. Sometimes he still snatches one up, and when I take it away from him (or when he drops it accidentally and I don't let him pick it back up) he gets really, really upset as well. A few times he's actually thrown mini temper tantrums, jumping up and me and ripping my coat, biting at his leash, etc. The first time he did this, I was at a loss. Then I worked out a system of immediately picking him and carrying him away from the situation as soon as he had a temper tantrum, and this seems to be working - he still gets upset but doesn't jump at my coat or bite at his leash as much. 2. Busy streets. I'm actually slightly less concerned about this one. He's still very, very scared of large noises and trucks, and going into the streets is extremely overwhelming for him. He can't take a single step without him running ahead wildly and pulling against the leash, but not because he WANTS to go somewhere/is being stubborn (as with the park), but more because he's so freaked out and overwhelmed that I'm pretty much nonexistent to him. So my plan of action here is to lead him to the corner between my quiet street and the busy one, have him take it all in, and click and treat every time he looks at me. Hopefully, if all goes as planned, he will slowly start to pay more and more attention to me and then we can start working on walking along the street. I guess the most frustrating part of all this is, is that I can't go anywhere with him, and he doesn't get to play and run around in the dog park. We used to have such nice mornings together, until I tried getting much more strict about the leash. Are my expectations too high? Lastly, here's a picture of my sweet boy (coincidentally, holding a stick ) . He really is, all in all, doing very well and learning lots.

She's beautiful! Do keep in mind that she's just a baby. My pup is nearing 4 months, and we also have lots of ups and downs. At this age, they are like tiny human toddlers, who can be blissful one moment (or one day) and then terrors the next. I think it's completely normal for them to act out - however, you can (and should) use these moments of acting out as teaching opportunities. You need to make sure that she understands when something she does is unacceptable, and also make sure that she understands when something she does is great . How do you respond to her when she barks aggressively and runs off? Or when she nips at your son? Do you stop and go home straight away, signaling that all the fun of the walk stops as soon as she begins to act out? This would probably be useful. At the end of the day I think it is normal for such a small puppy to have good days and bad days, but it's also very important that you are constantly encouraging the good behavior and very consistently and gently correcting the bad behavior. She should get the hang of it as she grows older as long as you're patient and consistent

Thank you for the suggestions! I am the one feeding him from now on, and during the day I'm really the only one who takes care of him. I train him, play with him, feed him, take him outside... My boyfriend spends at MOST one hour a day with him, playing with him/teaching him to play fetch. Tama definitely loves me... he is happy to see me, plays with me, and responds well to me when we train. BUT, there are some things he does which makes me worry that he sees my boyfriend as his "master". Every time my boyfriend comes into the room, Tama runs to him in a submissive, overjoyed kind of way. He wags his tail, pins his ears back, and sits directly in front of him, looking up at him all while wagging his tail like crazy, super happy but also very submissive. He doesn't do this to me. He is much more concerned with playing with me than he is behaving with me. One little "ah" from my boyfriend stops Tama in his tracks, whereas with me he doesn't listen as well. The other day, he also sat in my boyfriend's lap sleepily, just quietly sitting there. He's never done this with me. Does this mean that Tama has "picked" my boyfriend? Overtime, do you think I can still become his person? This is so important to me... the thought of my dog being bonded more with someone else DESPITE me being the one who cares for him and trains him most of the time makes me quite sad. Am I just not dominant enough? Simply in terms of personality, my boyfriend is much more outgoing and dominant than I am. Should I work on being more firm?

Thank you all for your replies - I've found them extremely helpful. The last few days have been much better. We've had many conversations and I've set some clear boundaries with regards to how he should be trained. I insisted that we go back to using the crate for time-outs, and that we completely remove any sort of yelling or physical corrections. I've also said no more interrupting him while he eats. I guess the first few days were tough with the transition of adding someone back into mine and Tama's day-to-day life. My boyfriend is much gentler now and we both agree that consistency is the most important thing with training him, so we're correcting him in the way we both feel comfortable with. I really want Tama to know that I'm his person, though, and at times it still seems like he prefers my boyfriend. Although I'm really happy that they're bonding, it makes me sad to think that Tama might like him better. This is probably an overreaction on my end, though... Although we both play with, train, and feed Tama, I'm more of the primary caretaker and I'm hoping this means that Tama will bond to me as his "human" over time.

Hi everyone, I'm writing with a little update and a question about Tama. He is, overall, doing extremely well, and I'm very happy with his progress. Some context: I've been raising Tama by myself for the first month of him being home. My boyfriend just got back and we have some slightly different dog-training views. Generally, he is much more strict with Tama than I am, and corrects every small thing that Tama does wrong with a very loud and harsh-sounding "UH UH". I personally corrected him more gently, never raising my voice at him and just putting him in his crate when he did something really wrong such as nipping at me or chewing on furniture. I didn't correct the little things, such as him jumping up to greet me, or putting his paws on the furniture, partially because I don't mind that much but mostly because I wanted to focus on getting him to behave in the bigger ways first. My boyfriend's approach is that every little thing that Tama does wrong gets an immediate and vocal correction. Not quite yelling, but a loud and extremely firm correction. He also takes Tama's food away from him in the middle of him eating a meal and has him Stay and make constant eye-contact before putting the food back. If Tama moves a little bit, or breaks eye-contact, he gets the same loud "UH UH". The thing is, I'm new to all of this. My boyfriend's approach seems to kind of be working - Tama adores him and acts super submissively around him, and has learned some things that I've put off teaching him for now. But I'm still not sure. I'm a little worried that this approach expects too much of such a little pup (he is only 13 weeks) and is pushing him way too much. Is it reasonable to expect a puppy to act perfectly and correct him like this for every little thing he does wrong? My voice is hoarse from the last few days and I feel very frustrated from constantly correcting every tiny thing. I feel like this is too much for Tama, but then again, this is my first time training a puppy. My boyfriend has raised a border collie before, and has a well-adjusted, friendly, and well-trained dog who only listens to him. Advice? Of course, I realize I could have been doing things wrong and am more than willing to change my approach if this is how things are supposed to be done. Like I said, I'm new to this. I'm just wary of this being too much, and am feeling quite confused. I've been so happy with Tama's progress the first month of having him and could feel our bond developing, but now I just feel like things are different and I'm not sure what's best for him anymore.

Just an update - I know it's soon, but he's made so much progress just the past few days and I'm feeling like a proud mum. We go to the local store for 10 minutes a day now, just to train for walking on a leash. We get there, I carry him to the back, and set him down. He's so smart and has learned on SO quickly what he has to do there: look at me and sit quietly (and eat treats ). In just three days, his distraction has gone way, way down. He follows me on the leash and I click and treat every couple of steps. No pulling from him, and if he runs ahead we stop, I tell him to sit and come back to me, which he does without any issues. Then we change direction and I have him walk alongside me, looking up at me every few steps. I didn't think he would be that focused and behaved after just a few days of these shortened, more specific training sessions in a new place. I could not be happier with his progress, it's incredible to watch him learn so much.

This is great advice and very useful - thank you. I do think he may be getting over-stimulated so I'll try shortening our outings. I know he's still very tiny and I have to be very patient with him and build him up very slowly. He really does do wonderfully at home on the leash, but I think my next task will be finding some intermediate environments to work in, rather than going from 0 to 100. Like you said, baby steps.

Tama is 13 weeks old now, and overall he's doing very well. Our main issue is getting his excitement under control whenever he is outside or meeting new people. I realize that it's perfectly normal for a small pup to be overwhelmed and overstimulated by the world - I just want to make sure I'm going about training him the right way to make him as well-adjusted as possible as an adult. We live in a big city, so this is especially important. What I'm doing for now is this: taking him to bookstores and hardware stores (and other places that allow dogs), and then leading him to a quiet spot away from people. Usually, whenever he sees a person, he gets extremely excited and jumps up at them, wagging his tail and kissing them. I'm happy that he's not shy of people, but obviously want him to be polite. For now, I take him to quiet spot in the store and work on getting him to focus on me. I give him treats whenever he looks at me/responds to his name, or listens to a command, or just sits quietly for a few seconds. When a person gets close, I sit down next to him, say his name, and reward him if he pays attention to me. Getting him to walk politely on a leash seems futile at the moment - he's just way, way too excited and doesn't fully understand the concept of a leash for now, although he does very well with it at home. I am thinking that this will come with time, but for now I just try to reward him whenever he moves with me. Secondly, I sit with him at a bus stop by the busiest road for about 10 minutes a day. He gets startled by the loud trucks that go by and whines - but doesn't panic - and just pet him and reassure him. Does anyone have ideas for what else can I do now, with a 13-week-old pup, to prevent him from being a fearful, reactive, or overexcited adult? I'm considering playing "city sounds" for him at home, but don't know how useful this would actually be. Again, I know this stuff takes lots of time - I just want to make sure I"m doing everything possible, especially while he's still this little.

Thanks! That makes me feel better. He definitely isn't a fan of his crate - if it were up to him, he'd be out playing 24/7 I think. But he does seem to settle down in it reasonably well, so I guess that means he's doing okay. I definitely try to keep my emotions in check and if I feel like I'm getting too frustrated and overwhelmed then I'll leave him in the crate and get some time alone for a bit. Serves the same purpose for the both of us I guess! @herdcentral - this was what I did initially (redirecting him with toys when he misbehaved), but the little guy quickly used this as an opportunity to start training me Whenever he felt I wasn't giving him sufficient attention he would start to do the specific behaviors that would get redirected, i.e. get my attention on him. Haha. They're too smart for their own good sometimes.

I've been wondering about this. My understanding is that the crate should never be used a punishment, but can also be used as a very valuable tool to give "time outs" and a space to chill out when things get out of hand. When Tama gets nippy with me, I calmly tell him "no bite" and then plop him in the crate for a few minutes without any scolding or comments of any kind. He cries for a minute, then calms down, I let him out, and playtime resumes. Does this constitute as using the crate as a punishment and will he hate his crate because of this? Or is this just a way of telling him firmly that playtime ends when he is being naughty? I'm having a hard time distinguishing between the two. Thanks in advance.