Puppy overtired and has a hard time to sleep

Hi everyone,

we’ve had our puppy Emma for 8 days now (11 weeks old, ~8 kg) and could really use some advice.

Emma is a 25 Aussie/25 Berner /50 Goldie mix.

Main issue is rest/sleep. He has a really hard time settling during the day. He seems overtired, starts chewing everything (even walls), digging, and just won’t switch off. At the same time he only sleeps about 8–13 hours total, which feels way too little.

We’ve tried:

• keeping everything very calm (almost no walks, low stimulation) • just sitting/lying quietly ourselves • chew toys (sometimes help, but often just keep him busy) • crate/bed (he struggles to relax there) 

What kind of works is limiting him with a short house leash – then he eventually calms down and falls asleep. Without that he just keeps going.

What confuses us:

After 1.5–2h of sleep he’s super calm and perfect… but after just a few minutes of activity he flips back into that overtired chaos.

So now we’re wondering:

Is this just an overtired puppy phase? Or could he actually be under-stimulated? And is it okay to limit him like this to help him settle?

We also have cats, so there’s definitely extra stimulation at home.

Would love to hear if anyone went through something similar 🙏