Category: Top Dog

I’m completely overwhelmed with my puppy and I need real, practical advice.

I adopted him back in September 2025 when he was about 2 months old, so he’s around 8 months now. I live in an apartment and work long, physically demanding hours in hospitality, so my schedule is pretty intense.

I feel like I’m doing everything “right”:

• Two walks a day (at least 30 minutes each)
• Kong, lick mats, enrichment, toys
• He has his own bed, I take him to the vet, I bathe him, clean his teeth, etc.
• There’s also another older dog in the house (very calm)

The problem is: when no one is actively supervising (like when I’m at work or when my family goes to sleep), he destroys things. And when I get home, he’s extremely overexcited, jumps on me, crosses in front of me on walks, and has even made me trip.

I’m exhausted. Honestly.

I know it’s not okay, but I’ve reached a point where out of frustration I’ve h it him. I feel awful afterwards, but in the moment I lose control. Between work stress and this, I’m at my limit.

What’s making it worse is that I feel like he’s not lacking anything, so I don’t understand why this keeps happening.

Is this just adolescence? Am I doing something wrong even though it seems like I’m doing everything I’m supposed to?

Has anyone gone through something similar and actually managed to fix it?

I don’t need “be patient” type answers. I need practical, realistic solutions that work with limited time and a lot of stress.

Hi everyone. I’m not a first-time dog owner, but this is my first time being the sole caregiver and I genuinely don’t know if I’m doing okay or failing my dog. I’d love any advice or encouragement. I just want to know I’m not failing her.

Background:

I adopted my dog from a local shelter at 4 months old. She’s now about 6 months, estimated Husky/Shepherd mix, around 33 lbs. I’m a full-time healthcare worker with a roughly 7am–4pm day including commute. I live in a studio apartment.

A friend is temporarily staying with me (about 2 more months) with her 20lb Maltese mix, who has socialization issues. My friend was with me when I‘ve bring my dog from shelter. They’re separated from my dog by a baby gate. My dog has her crate in her side of the space, knows “house,” and sleeps in it overnight with the door closed without issue.

Daily routine:

6am — Outdoor potty trip + 5–10 min walk, then breakfast.

7am–4pm — I’m at work. My friend is instructed not to feed, train, or play with my dog (to preserve the primary caregiver dynamic), just removes pee pads and gives brief petting. Pet cam shows my dog mostly sleeping near the gate or in her crate.

4pm — Home. Feeding, 5-min training session, nose work toy, then a rawhide chew while I cook and eat dinner.

6pm — Around 20 min walk. Working on loose leash and focus. Still very excitable outside, but handles the hallway well. Mixing in sit/down/watch me throughout.

7–7:30pm — Post-walk nap ends and zoomies begin. Tail-chasing, barking at the other dog. Short training session, nose work or tug, bathtub desensitization practice. Then a frozen Kong in the crate for about 5 minutes (some demand whining, not screaming), released once she’s calmer.

9–9:30pm — Last meal, pee pad available, everyone in bed by 10pm.

The struggles:

1. Outdoor potty transition.

She knows indoor pee pads and uses them reliably, but the overflow and constant cleanup is burning me out. I’ve been trying to transition to outdoor-only, but her pattern is: hold everything overnight, pee a little outside in the morning, then come inside and finish it all on the pad. I can’t seem to break the cycle. Even I stayed at the same spot few more minutes, still. After pee outside, I give her big applause, good girl and little walk. Also, the reason I’m not trying during day and night is simply she is so excited and even I brought her outside when she is sniffing and looking around her pee pad, after we go outsidr she just forgot about peeing. I tried to put her in crate for 5 mins and tried to go outside again, but it just made her stress and arousal and I just pure stress.

1. Evening overstimulation.

The 7–9pm window is hard. Zoomies, tail-chasing, barking at my friend’s dog.. she’s difficult to settle even with Kongs, chew toys and enrichment. When she gets to that point, she chews the walls or her crate. Even she has something she loves to chew! (Kong, rawhide, nylabone .. etc)

1. Attachment to the wrong person?

I’m the one who feeds, trains, walks, and plays with her. But when my friend steps out briefly, my dog screams and barks loudly enough to disturb the whole building. When I leave for work, she didn‘t even cries, just settles within minutes. I don’t fully understand it, and it’s honestly a little demoralizing.

1. The guilt.

I know the criticism — full-time worker, studio apartment, large-breed puppy. I carry that guilt every day. But the shelter was over capacity, and I watched her vomiting from stress with a heartbroken face. I couldn’t walk away. I just want to know if I’m actually doing right by her.

Is she okay? Am I okay? Some grammer is akward, but I‘m just little tired, friends. Any advice or words of encouragement are very welcome. I really hope.

TL;DR: 6mo Husky/Shepherd mix, studio apt, full-time healthcare worker. Solid routine, crate trained? ,enrolled in group classes. Struggling with outdoor potty transition, evening overstimulation, and a dog who panics when my temporarily-staying roommate leaves but is calm when I go to work. Constant demand whining… Am I failing her?

I have a 2 months 18 days old male toy poodle. I live with my boyfriend and my other two friends in a spacious apartment, in india. Currently, Mellow is limited to the playpen, he sleeps there, and we have a small crate inside it. I also have pee pads with holders to poop and pee as he isnt fully vaccinated yet and can’t take him out.

Here are what my problems are:

1. His playpen is in the living area and it has become tough for us friends to have any us time. We play a lot with Mellow but I feel he isnt getting time to sleep enough. He sleeps alone in the living room currently in his playpen and does well, I trained him to sleep alone from the beginning.

2. I wake up at 11am around and want my puppy to get integrated to my schedule but since the maid and the cook comes at 9 in the morning, my sleep is disturbed and I am not getting adequate sleep. I want Mellow to sleep with me in the bedroom, but the playpens are too big to fit in the room, hence thinking of crate training.

3. My problem area is that, he is very used to see us all day, now if I crate train him, and make him sleep at 11pm lets say in the night, inside the bedroom alone, will he be able to adapt to that or would it be too harsh on him?

4. Also I just do not understand how to crate train and open the crate for pooping and peeing? Like what times? Every hour throughout the night for 9 hours? Or how exactly?

5. Do any of you guys have crate trained your puppy where your puppy is comfortable in sleeping alone in the bedroom for sometime in the crate, and then you join them jn the bedroom? How does it work?

Please help me out here, as everyday I think of crate training him, and today I am sure to take the first step.

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