Hey all, I got my puppy almost a month ago (he was almost 4 months old then). Another family had him for about 1.5 months but decided they couldn’t handle him. I asked if there were any issues with him and they said he was a normal dog (spoiler: he was a normal dog), but those first few weeks was still terrible.
I live alone and even though I watched all the videos and read all the forums, I still didn’t expect it to hit that hard. My head was buzzing, I had trouble sleeping, I was stressed as hell, and I couldn’t leave him for a minute without disastrous barking. He was biting a lot too and I genuinely started wondering if I could handle him or if I had made a huge mistake. I felt like I was trapped in a cage, I also lost 5kg due to stress haha.
Reading other people’s experiences here helped me so much. We pushed through the first weeks and even though it has only been almost a month, the progress is insane. He listens so much better and today I left him alone for 4 hours and he was calm as spaghetti (checked on the camera). We started from just juggling keys, opening/closing doors/putting jacket on/off and repeating it plenty of times through the day, felt stupid but it works! He is also fully doing his business outside now.
The biggest things that helped were crate training (he loves it now) and having a routine. I love him so much now and I can’t imagine giving him away. Ofcourse there's still many challenges to come but I feel more ready now
Maybe this will help someone else who is struggling, just like all the posts here helped me! ❤️
submitted by /u/yeezy0722
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