I would expect to have a mostly reliably housebroken dog at the age of 6 months. Every puppy is different, of course, but this is a good ballpark.

You wouldn’t be forcing puppy outside – you’d be outside with the pup.

Winter puppies ARE harder, though, and I think waiting would be a fantastic idea.

I wouldn’t leave the dog unattended ever. 🙂 Bored, unattended dogs turn into barky, destructive twits that everyone loves to hate.

I have a bunch of barkers very close to my house. Mine is NOT a nuisance barker – we always kept the rules simple from when she was very young, and she knows that barking means we all go inside. Set the rules early, reinforce as needed.

Well, if you keep a pup engaged with YOU when outside, they’re less likely to be distracted by the other dogs.

I wouldn’t leave a dog out in the garden unsupervised – I don’t with my 6 year old, and I certainly wouldn’t with a puppy. If pup starts barking like a fool, the fun ends and everyone goes inside.

I assume this is a dog? Retrain – new places often mean new rules, and sometimes our dogs need to be reminded of the rules. I’d also get her to the vet for a checkup with urinalysis, just to be safe.

You COULD, but it would take work. I ‘d also look into reinforcing your fencing, and making it impossible to see through. I’m sorry your neighbors are terrible dog owners. 🙁

I would look into alternatives for nails, at the very least. There’s a group on Facebook called Nail Maintenance for Dogs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nail.maintenance.for.dogs/learning_content/

They have a LOT of great info, including proper desensitization and things like scratch boards for nails. I’d look into it…especially when the concepts behind proper desensitization can be applied elsewhere in your training with your dog.

OH and as far as your dog’s nutrition is concerned…for some reason, most dogs REALLY LIKE cat poop. I’m not sure why, Dr. Magnifico might have an idea, but this seems to be a thing even with dogs which wouldn’t normally do this. I agree it’s gross, and I hope you can find a solution which works for your situation.

Clevercat litterboxes are a LIFESAVER. Not even my long-nosed Doberman can get into them. That said, now that the cat’s using the box reliably, can you move it to a room with a gate? You can also get free-standing gates for oddly shaped entries…we use one in our puppy pre-K class to block an egress point, and it works very well.

Humping is behavioral. Corrections are key, here. How old is he? What happens if you firmly tell him to stop?