Context: 9 week old Labrador, crate set up in the living room, no pen, access to living room, kitchen ana hallway when supervised.
Hello, we brought a gorgeous 9 week old boy home almost a week ago. It's been tough, but also very rewarding. I think that the main unwanted behaviours were experiencing are: – not settling in for a nap leading to him being overtired
– biting and pulling on clothes
Could someone please give me some reassurance if what in doing is right or give me some pointers? I do not want to ruin the bond between the puppy and us, I don't want to poison the crate, I do not want to do anything to him that would harm him, because he's such a sweet boy. Our day looks kind of like this: He wakes us up, we carry him downstairs for toilet. He goes in the same spot for a pee and if he doesn't go for a poo within the first 5 minutes we go back upstairs (he gets super distracted outside with all the dead leaves, branches, etc). He pulls on his training lead quite a lot when exciting things happen during poorly break and I feel so bad when I am holding the lead firm. I always try to redirect him with a cue or a sound but not always successfully. If he gets too excited I just carry him home. We then give him fresh water and play with him a bit and try to do some short training, even if it's just reinforcing "sit". I try not to do training sessions for too long or to play with him too hard, because I don't want to overtired him. We try to settle him down for a nap in his crate. We give him chew toys, but he wants to play with them outside of his crate, which is ok, as long as he will be ok to chill in the crate afterwards. I don't know if the chew toys calm him down, or excite him when he accidentally throws them in the air, or pushes them away. We try to lure him to his crate with a treat and when he's in down position, we close the door and stay next to the crate. He then starts to whine. If he starts to bark, we wait for him to calm down, give him water and try to settle him again. If he barks again, we take him outside. Usually after that when he gets back to the flat he only whines in the crate, and doesn't bark. I know that sometimes he just wants a cuddle and we let him fall asleep in our lap and then move him to his crate. And it breaks my heart when he cuddles up and I was just having really negative thoughts and frustration towards him just minutes ago. When he goes berserk on zoomed, he bites our ankles and latches onto our clothes and growls. We started putting him in the crate (luring with food) for timeout and we leave the room. This usually clears his mind a bit. We hear if he's whining or barking and then we give him water and take him outside.
Are we doing the wrong things? I know that's he's a baby and he's only been with us for 6 days, but I want for him to have a great experience when he's with us. I know it should get a bit easier when we can take him for longer walk once he's fully vaccinated…
Thank you for your help, this community is really lovely and I hope that someone will be able to point me in the right direction
submitted by /u/Limp_Parfait
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