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Hello, we have a 1 year old rescue German shepherd that we have had for a month. Every day we discover new reasons to love him but he also has a new challenge almost every day! At the moment our landlords have scheduled a lot of work to be done by various contractors so I have been placing him in his crate with bikkies and treats before they arrive and having him in there for the duration (1-2 hours) to keep them and him safe. He can open the doors in our house and jump the backyard fence so the crate is the only 100% secure spot and is his place as well. He is otherwise well crate trained and happy to be in there. He goes in by himself to relax during the day. My question is, when he barks at them furiously and snarls and whines from the crate what do we do? I have tried the ‘be a leader’ method telling him I will go look and then checking it out coming back and saying it’s all fine and getting him to go to a down position but he begins barking again a few minutes later. My partner has tried interrupting him by banging on the top of the crate during frantic barking then complimenting when quiet but I don’t want to end up with a fearful dog or make him hate his crate. How do we help him to feel safe and not wanting to bark and snarl and jump around when strangers are in the house or at the door.

Hello fellow dog lovers, I got a four-month Golden Retriever a couple of days back and I started training him using your techniques. He learns new commands quite easily and he is able to perform them in different settings. However, I'm unable to get him trained to poop or pee outside consistently. He did both outside yesterday, but this morning I stayed outside with him for close to an hour slightly playing and walking with his scent trail and yet he came into is crate to poop and peed in his play pen while I was cleaning the crate. Any suggestions to fix this issue? Am I doing something wrong here? Can you share some pooping guidelines for 4-month olds? Thanks!

I am trying to crate train my puppy and I have a few questions that I can't seem to find the answers for. I am a stay-at-home mom and I do have time but I need to put her in the crate sometimes. She is only 10 weeks old though. 1. While you're getting your puppy used to the crate, where should you put the puppy who is not potty trained and cries if she's not right on top of you? 2. She doesn't seem to mind her crate during the day, often going in and out and sleeping in it as long as she knows we're in the room. But at night even though it is right beside us, she cries so much. We have tried to put a fence around her crate right beside her bed, and she just cries through the fence. We have a bathroom attached to her master where we put a baby gate, and she cries the same way. 3. If she sleeps with us for a few weeks, can we get her used to the crate? I don't mind doing this for a few weeks, but I really don't want a dog sleeping in my bed. It feels like a kid, and it really messes with my mind having a kid or a puppy in my bed with my husband 😆😬😜.

I'm starting to go through the course with my new Goldendoodle puppy who is now 13 wks old. She is a loving, relaxed and mellow dog most of the time who just wants to follow us around and sit at our feet. She is my second dog and I did all of this back when my lab Cali was a pup 14 yrs ago. Cali knew more words/commands than my own kids until they were about 4 yrs old. I have clicked around and we are having 2 persistent issues with her that following the notes haven't helped us with progress. Hoping someone can give me some extra suggestions? 1. Crate training: I crate trained my older dog with no issues so have followed all the things like feeding her all her meals in there, nice blanket, cover, never letting her out when she is crying. We basically put her in there overnight and maybe 1 or 2 hrs in the day when everyone is out of the house. My husband works from home, so there are no day long stretches. She resists going in, and then cries like she is caught in a bear trap for 5-10 minutes at night and up to 20 minutes during day stays. She never soils her crate and we take her out beforehand, so its really about separation anxiety I think. We have done this consistently since day one, which was 3 weeks ago. The duration of crying when we close her in has been increasing week by week instead of decreasing. (I've already read "love the crate") 2. Morning play excitement? barking: Since my husband works from home, on teleconferences, etc we CANNOT tolerate barking from a dog. When she gets excited and especially in the morning with the kids when she first wakes up she barks a lot. In the morning routine trying to get them to school and me to work, I have them take her outside and run around, but she continues barking. I've tried distracting her by getting her to sit for treats or other actions, but she can't focus first thing in the morning. The barking has escalated over the weeks significantly and I need to nip this in the bud. (I've already read "excitement whining", all three barking ones, and the "Impulse control / frustration tolerance") Any help or direction would be much appreciated before these behaviors get worse