Adolescent puppy chaos — help

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.