MeganLewis

Hello Adrienne , you were absolutely right with the anxiety . Our puppy was fine on the second day at our holiday house. I am wondering if you could please offer any advice on our dog really starting to pull on his leash whilst being walked . He is now 5 months old and quite strong and pulls to reach things, sniff things or to chase birds whilst out on a walk. From what I have read, I have been stopping when he pulls and encouraging him to come back to me and loosen his leash. Then rewarding him with “yes” command and a pat . We are doing this up to twenty times each walk , which is frustrating and hope that it clicks soon. I would rather persist with this then let him continue with bad habits . Is there anything else we can do or should be doing to help him understand that pulling will result in us stopping . thanks in advance , megan

Hi Adrienne , our puppy is back on track and the diarrhoea has stopped . Phew . I have another quick question for you as I really value your advice ! We have come to our holiday house today for the Easter holidays and brought our puppy along for the first time. I am trying to keep to his usual routine and have brought his familiar bedding , crate , travel kennel , etc. he was falling asleep indoors and normally I put him outside in our garden for his day sleeps and he never cries / barks . at our holiday house when I put him out the bark he immediately started to yelp high pitched yelps . I think it is best to ignore him as I know he has water , shelter and is tired and in need of sleep . He is also scratching on the back door . he doesn’t do any of this at our normal house . I think if I go to him then he will learn that I come when he yelps. I guess I need to just give him a few days of becoming familiar down here . I spent time with him outside when we arrived to make him feel comfortable and settled . please offer any advice that may help , megan

Hi Adrienne , you were right ! All day yesterday his poo was on the runny diarrhoea side. we put him out the back to sleep and he had diarrhoea overnight . Much easier to hose down the garden than his crate and bedding . I had given him some new chew bones so they have possibly upset his stomach . In response to your question , no, he didn’t come from a pet store. We bought him from a reputable breeder . I think you were absolutely correct in predicting that his tummy was sore and I will continue to sleep him out the back until we see his poo becoming more solid . I will also just keep him on his kibble and treats that I know and have used. I am wondering as he slept well outside and didn’t cry / bark/ scratch at the door, is there any benefit in keeping him crated? Or , could we do a combination of both so that he keeps up the crating to make staying at others homes more familiar if we go away and then has a few nights sleeping in his kennel outside overnight . I appreciate all of your amazing advice and support and you are always exactly in tune with what is going on with our puppy! thanks , Megan Lewis Thank you so much for the advice . Just when we think we have things sorted with our Brittany puppy, he has decided to poo in his crate overnight for two nights in a row ! He is now 16 weeks old and never has accidents inside whilst roaming around the house . He will always go to the back door whilst awake to toilet . We take him out around midnight to do a wee before we go to bed and then he sleeps through to 6.30am. I set my alarm for 6.15am to make sure I am awake before he wakes up (I can see him on the baby monitor ) and he is always asleep . When I go down stairs to him he goes straight outside to wee but has already done the poo in the middle of the night !! I would love some advice please on how to stop this habit from forming, as he must have rolled in the poo last night whilst asleep and it was all over his head ! It’s not particularly pleasant to wake up to ! I am ensuring that I am spraying the whole crate and bedding down (once cleaned and washed ) with a good quality enzyme based spray to ensure he cannot smell any trace of poo. I think you will remember that he doesn’t really bark or scratch on his crate to alert us that he needs to wee in the morning , which is why we wake up beforehand to catch him in the act . unfortunately , this is also happening now with a poo! He is doing a poo silently in the middle of the night without waking us up to let him out . I hope you can offer some solutions or advice please . thanks , megan

Thank you for the tip re - keeping kibble next to the couch. It is a great idea and we will start straight away. we want to keep him off the couch permanently so we will keep up the training you suggested . thanks again, I really value your insightful input . megan

Thank you so much for the advice . Just when we think we have things sorted with our Brittany puppy, he has decided to poo in his crate overnight for two nights in a row ! He is now 16 weeks old and never has accidents inside whilst roaming around the house . He will always go to the back door whilst awake to toilet . We take him out around midnight to do a wee before we go to bed and then he sleeps through to 6.30am. I set my alarm for 6.15am to make sure I am awake before he wakes up (I can see him on the baby monitor ) and he is always asleep . When I go down stairs to him he goes straight outside to wee but has already done the poo in the middle of the night !! I would love some advice please on how to stop this habit from forming, as he must have rolled in the poo last night whilst asleep and it was all over his head ! It’s not particularly pleasant to wake up to ! I am ensuring that I am spraying the whole crate and bedding down (once cleaned and washed ) with a good quality enzyme based spray to ensure he cannot smell any trace of poo. I think you will remember that he doesn’t really bark or scratch on his crate to alert us that he needs to wee in the morning , which is why we wake up beforehand to catch him in the act . unfortunately , this is also happening now with a poo! He is doing a poo silently in the middle of the night without waking us up to let him out . I hope you can offer some solutions or advice please . thanks , megan

Hello , my 4 month old Brittany Spaniel puppy has worked out how to jump up on our couch . Can you please tell me how to address this issue so that it doesn’t become a habit ? We are pushing him off and telling him “off” but not sure if this is right ? thanks in advance , megan

Thank you, so our puppy normally falls asleep for the evening around 8pm and wakes at 6.30am. I take him out to wee at 11pm and then into his crate for the night . the clocks are going back 1 hour . What do you suggest I do ? Is it , put him to bed 1 hour later at 9pm , in the hope that he doesn’t wake at 5.30am for a wee ? If he does wake at 5.30am for a wee , do I then just start the day then and try to stretch him out gradually to 6.30am over the course of the week ? thanks , megan

Thank you Adrienne for your advice . It’s worked ! Setting my alarm for 6am and watching him on the video monitor has stopped him weeing in the crate when he wakes in the morning . He was still asleep today at 6am so I just waited for him to wake . Instead of going straight to him I made noises in the kitchen so he could hear me , all whilst watching him on monitor . I wanted to see if he would whine or bark to alert me that he was awake and needing to go to the toilet, which is what he had stopped doing . After hearing my noises he started scratching at the crate . It made me so happy and I am hoping he goes back to doing this ! We have daylight savings in Australia in 3 weeks where we switch the clocks back 1 hour . what is your best advice on preparing a dog for the time change as I don’t want him starting his day at 5am, especially as I have just sorted him sleeping past 6am and holding his bladder! I would appreciate your insightful feedback please . kind regards , megan

Hi Adrienne, thank you so much for your reply . I am really enjoying your training program and I am so impressed with your tips . Last night I managed to find an extra piece of metal sheeting and halved the size of our puppy ‘s crate but he still pee’d upon waking. He fully emptied his bladder at 10.45am and woke at 6.45am . He pee’d straight away upon waking and did not whine for us to come. We went to him as soon as he whined but he had already pee’d . I will set my alarm to 6am tomorrow and start his day a little earlier, in the hope to stop him peeing in the crate and forming a habit . My only question with this method is how will he learn to cry out for us if we are waking him in the morning every day ? Thanks again, Megan Ps. I have added photos to show you his crate and if you think I need to swap anything ? Size , bedding ?

Thank you for your reply . It is only occurring when he wakes in the morning after his night sleep. His crate is in the living room and our rooms are upstairs . I have a monitor in the room so I can hear him though. He used to cry upon waking and I would hear him and come down straight away to let him out. The past few days he has woken and done a wee and then cried for us . He goes outside to wee at 11pm and then usually wakes around 6.30am. Should I wake him up at 6.15am to go outside and wee ? Or is this just going to start making him wake up earlier ? He is a Brittany and the crate is quite large with the bedding covering the whole surface of the crate . He is weeing on the bedding . I am thinking I should reduce the crate in size ? But I don’t have a divider ? I appreciate your feedback !

My 13 week old puppy has started to wee in his crate when he wakes up. He used to cry out for us to take him for a wee . Now , he wees and then cries for us . how do I deal with this ? Please help !