One in a sea of a million of puppy blues thread 14 weeks, Sheltie, had for 9 days

The first week with Ty was pretty decent. She has been taking to potty training, and I've been diligent about it. Yesterday and today are a pretty different story.

I learned on the 7th day that I'm most likely not training or treating her correctly. i promptly ordered 3 books from Amazon to help. Perfect puppy in 7 days was not helpful to me for some reason, I think the layout. Power of Positive Dog, I have yet to read. Dog Training Revolution by Zak George is the one that's resonating with me the most. I've already read all of it.

Thanks to reading the 2 books, I now feel competent that I've been shooting myself in the foot while having the best intentions.

I've been trying to take it slow when I should've been training her on multiple things each day by now.

I've been good with crate training.

Otherwise, she's in her playpen with a plastic bottom held on by velcro straps all around. Instead of redirecting her when she chews on the straps, I've been ignoring it to avoid encouraging it. No wonder it keeps getting worse.

I've been leaving her food bowl out all day instead of just 2-3 times a day. I've been giving full-size treats sparingly instead of tiny treats almost constantly.

i have only barely started getting her used to her leash. She's fine with a collar. So I've been carrying her from her play/sleep room through the house and rarely letting her explore the other rooms for fear of overwhelming her. We've actually hardly left her play/sleep room.

I've done zero regarding command training until today.

i haven't been playing with her. Only sitting with her, grooming her, feeding her, and picking her up to go outside for potty. Otherwise, just watching her play with her toys.

I live in a 2-story house, so her potty area for now is on the deck—a fake grass strip. Otherwise, decking for the rest. I've been giving her free rein of the whole deck instead of one area for potty. So she will most often run around and play a lot before finally going potty. I'm saying “go potty” way too many times.

I've been so terrified of taking her out to play because she hasn't had her 16-week shots yet, and I don't really have a yard. I've tried to take her out each day for a car ride and to places where I can hold her to try and socialize her.

I've noticed yesterday and today, when I do play with her with toys, tug of war, and such, she seems to be ok for a little while, but then gets more aggressive and needs a nap. She's a high-energy breed, so I'm worried I'm not stimulating her enough.

Tl;dr: It's all just SO much. i feel like I've already failed. 😞