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*Well, almost a perfect puppy…..when people see me out and about with my well-behaved service dog puppies they say: “I want a perfect puppy too! tell me how you did it?”
My name is Colby, I created the Puppy In Training blog to tell our story about raising and training guide and service dog puppies and to help you train your puppy.
Whether you’re just thinking about picking up your first puppy or you’re a grizzled veteran of the dreaded puppy vampire teeth this blog will help you on your way to a well-behaved, perfect practically perfect puppy (just like Mary Poppins: “Practically Perfect In Every Way”).
This page contains information to help you get up to speed quickly and start working on some of the basics of raising and training a puppy.
About You And Your Puppy
QUICK TIP: No matter if you’re about to bring home a puppy or already have one tearing up your house you’ll want to take a look at our new puppy checklist. We include anything and everything we could think of that you need for your new puppy.
If you’ve reached our site then you are probably in some way, shape, or form associated with/in love with/frustrated with/enamored with a puppy (or future puppy).
I’m taking an wild educated guess as to who you are to help you find the information you need to make your puppy raising journey as pleasant as possible.
Puppy Raiser: You are a puppy raiser (or future puppy raiser) for one of the many guide or service dog schools around the globe.
If this is you then you might be most interested in our Puppy In Training TV series, a YouTube TV show that documents our journey with our third Guide Dog puppy in training, Dublin. Check out Puppy In Training TV!
Pre-Puppy: You’re still in the decision making process: Should you get a puppy? What kind of puppy should you get? Lets start you off with 5 tips you can use when bringing home a new puppy.
Post-Puppy: The bliss pain of puppyhood! Thank god puppies are cute adorable creatures because after the initial bliss of bringing home your puppy you realize this is going to be no easy chore.
Potty training, crying, yelping, howling, barking, biting/nipping, jumping, digging, counter surfing these are all parts of the joys of raising and training a puppy. Lets get started with some of the most common puppy problems:
Dog Lover: The majority of the site revolves around puppies and our journey raising and training guide dog puppies. However, it’s been many years since we started writing to the blog.
Two of our puppies are well into adulthood. Stetson is 12 and Raven is 5 years old. Unfortunately, we lost our beloved Linus last year 🙁
We can’t leave our older puppies out of the mix! So you might notice from time to time we will veer off and talk about Linus, Stetson, Raven and dogs in general
Stetson has considered a career as a therapy dog and Linus wanted to get certified as a K9 Nosework dog.
So, even if you’re puppy is no longer a puppy there is a spot here for all dog lovers. Read more about K9 Nosework and/or Therapy Dogs.
Pet Product Advertiser: If you’re hoping to advertise one of your products on our site then congratulations you’ve done more than 95% of pet product advertisers. We wrote this blog post specifically for you: A Post For Pet Product Advertisers.
Puppy In Training Is Everywhere
Well, not really…but we do keep an active presence on some of the most popular social media channels.
- YouTube – up to this point with posted Puppy In Training TV videos and Product Review videos on our YouTube Channel. Check it out and subscribe!
- Pinterest – we love visual search and enjoy collecting and pinning our favorite content.
- Facebook – we have an active page on Facebook with over 70K “likes”. If you love cute puppy pictures this is where we post most of our favorite puppy pics from our various outings and events.
Most Popular Puppy Products
Are you looking for a popularity contest? Some of our favorite products are also reader favorites. Here’s a list of the top 5 puppy products we sell on Amazon:
- SmartLove Snuggle Puppy – a plush puppy with heat pad and beating heart. A great toy for new puppies.
- Rocco & Roxie Stain and Odor Eliminator – if you have potty accidents make sure you get an enzymatic cleaner to completely remove potty odors.
- The Puppy Primer – a great introductory puppy book. It’ll give you a good foundation to start when raising and training your puppy.
- Dog Crate – Midwest Life Stages – we crate train all of our puppies and we’ve used the same Midwest crate for all of our puppies for 15 years.
- Grannicks Bitter Apple Spray – does your puppy bite, chew, destroy things? Bitter Apple Spray can help deter these unwanted behaviors.
That’s our top 5 and must haves in any puppy starter kit. By the way did I mention we have an extensive essential new puppy checklist. Oh yeah, I did…
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For?
Okay U2…if you’re still confused, you still don’t have a perfect puppy, and you still can’t find the answer to your puppy problems please leave us a comment below and we’ll do our best to answer your question.
Top Picks For Our Puppies
- BEST PUPPY TOY
We Like: Snuggle Puppy w/ Heart Beat & Heat Pack - Perfect for new puppies. We get all of our Service Dog pups a Snuggle Puppy. - BEST DOG CHEW
We Like: Best Bully Sticks - All of our puppies love to bite, nip, and chew. We love using Bully Sticks to help divert these unwanted behaviors. - BEST DOG TREATS
We Like: Wellness Soft Puppy Bites - One of our favorite treats for training our service dog puppies. - BEST FRESH DOG FOOD
We Like: The Farmer's Dog - A couple months ago we started feeding Raven fresh dog food and she loves it! Get 50% off your first order of The Farmer's Dog.
Check out more of our favorites on our New Puppy Checklist.
Jeannette Lopez says
I just tried signing up for your newsletter to keep up to date and was sent to a page showing the notice:
! Mailing List Not Active
This mailing list is not currently active.
Please notify the website owner
I will add that I’m so glad I found you. We’re planning to sign up for our local Puppy Raiser program as soon as we get moved into our new house next month. I’m very much looking forward to the experience.
Colby says
Hi Jeannette,
Congratulations on joining your local Puppy Raiser program! How exciting for you. Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you for letting me know about the newsletter. We’re in the process of changing email providers and newsletters and updates will be down for a short while. I’ll inform you when we’re back up and running. Until then feel free to contact me through our contact form if you have any questions. https://puppyintraining.com/contact/
Take care,
Colby
Kirby says
Hello I am trying to find a breeder that has a black and tan or chocolate and tan labrador, preferably located in vrginia/north Carolina.
Danielle Flair says
Hello, my puppy is 13 weeks old we have been working on potty training but we’re not all the way there yet. Every once in a while, either inside the house or outside in the grass he will sit on his butt flat on the ground not a squat and pee. I think he’s trying to hid it from me but I don’t know why or how to fix it.
Note: I live in a 3rd floor apartment and I am trying to train him to use a grass pad on the balcony and real grass. This has been a process but he has about 85% trained on the grass pad with a few mistakes. I am just now introducing him to real grass.
Jason says
My puppy is 11th month old, and she use to pee and poop in her potty tray but now she suddenly stop using it, and she never pee and the whole day. I think its 2 days now without a pee. What should I do now? Any advice or suggestions?
Colby says
If this were my puppy I’d take her to see the veterinarian.
CayDyn says
Yeah, I recommend taking her to the vet to get her checked out. she could be sick or something.
Erika says
Hi!
We have a 9 week old labradoodle. We’ve had her for a week. Crate training and potty training are going fairly well. She let’s me know if she has to go in the middle of the night 1-2 times and has never gone in the crate at night.
At night her crate is beside my bed. I then move it into the main part of our house during the day – our house is a small bungalow. Yesterday evening and then again this morning she stepped into her crate a peed! Out of the blue! Both times I was right there!
I’d like to understand why she is doing this and what I can do to avoid it happening again.
I thought she was doing so well, but now I’m concerned.
Any advise would be appreciated.
Erika
J says
Your puppy realized that the house is not a place to pee, so she “retreats” to a place that’s familiar. Try closing the door to the crate throughout the day, and encourage outdoor visits more often. She’ll get the idea that going outside is much more favorable. Reward her for the outside poop/pee.
Noel says
Hi Colby,
I have a 7 month old Bichone / Shih tzu mix, and he is a bundle of joy. The only thing is he sometimes poops and pees in his crate. He’ll hold it all night with no problems, and he’ll do number 1 & 2 in the morning. However, when I leave, I have to crate him, sometimes it’s only for maybe 2 hours, and he will sometimes make a mess in his crate? He is good about holding it outside of his crate, but he isn’t 100% housebroken, he will have accidents if i’m about my day without letting him out for a couple of hours. Anything I can do to help him not soil his crate, I’ve bought a weeks worth of crate beds, just so i can change them out daily…
Hillary says
Hi, I rescued a puppy (breed unknown), that is now 4 months old. She is in the crate when we are not home and over night. I come home at lunch and walk her. My son then takes her out when he gets home from school and she is out in the house the rest of the day. She never has accidents in the crate. However, she pees in house anywhere from 15 to 30 times a day. We take her outside at least every 20 minutes, she has done this since we got her at 9 weeks old. Its exhausting. She also pees 3 or more times when we take her out. I have taken her to the vet 3 times. I even went to a second vet to get another opinion and there is no sign of a uti. The last vet went ahead and put her on an antibiotic and it didn’t help at all. Its extremely exhausting and I dont know what to do at this point. Please help if anyone has had a similar experience.
Ash says
Hi, I just got a 4month old yorkie puppy 3 weeks ago. I’ve had dogs all my life and have always been patient with training, but I’ve always had at least 2 dogs so I’ve no experience with dealing with what i can only interpret as isolation distress – from what I’ve read in other places. I’m not working right now so Im mostly home with him which has been great for potty training, but as soon as im out of sight for a few seconds he’ll bark/cry/howl his head off. And I don’t know if peeing/pooping out of anxiety or anger is a thing but i think he does that too.
I’ve tried leaving him by himself in my bedroom where he has proven he’ll go on his pad 100% of the time if im in there with him only to find he peed and sometimes pooped (ultra tiny) a right outside of the pad. And this can happen in as little as 2 minutes while i get a glass of water.
Any thoughts? -Thanks!
arlene heaps says
At what age will a female come into heat?
Colby says
You should check with your vet. We’ve only had a couple females, a Labrador Retriever and a Golden Retriever through their first heat cycle and as I recall they both happened around 10 months of age.
Rick says
We have a 7 month old Bichon Maltese mix puppy that we bought from what we thought was a reputable breeder. Anyway we’ve had her for almost 4 months now and potty training is going very badly. We do everything that is recommended. We use a crate. We reward her after she does her business outside. We have her on a regular feeding schedule. She still routinely pees and poops inside including in her crate. She is showing no improvement. We have had many dogs and trained lots of puppies in the past. But I believe this dog may simply be untrainable. This just doesn’t seem normal and it is a major source of stress in our family. I believe we will probably have to give the dog away. Any advice you could give for this type of situation?