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Puppy blues—advice needed!
We have a three year old male miniature dachshund and a week ago brought home our eight week old female whippet puppy—she is now approaching nine weeks.
As I am sure everyone thinks—we *thought* we had made a considered and informed decision after about two years of wanting to get another dog specifically a whippet!
Well, the day rolled round and after a sleepless night of excitement and nervousness we went to collect our new bundle of joy. She is a lovely little thing—was so good on her journey home aside from one incident when she climbed on my head with such speed that I couldn't stop her becoming entangled in my hair and my boyfriend had to pull over to help!
Initial introduction to our dachshund didn't go that well. As she was eight weeks old and without vaccinations we couldn't have her meet him in a park and to make matters worse it was torrential rain complete with thunder so a meeting in the garden was off the cards. The dachshund growled at her and she hid under the sofa. Now though they play together really well and he even allows her in his bed and he likes to get in her crate too.
All this aside, a number of problems (and the sleep deprivation) have left my boyfriend and I with a serious case of the puppy-blues.
We had not anticipated the complete lack of sleep for one. With the dachshund, he slept pretty much through the night from the second night we had him—I don't know how! We would wake up once a night at the most and take him out, otherwise we went to bed late and got up early and he was fine in his crate by our bed.
With the whippet, she will willingly go into her crate at night with no squeaking but was waking up almost hourly and needing to pee (11:30, 12:30, 2:00, 3:30 and then 5:30 she was up and ready to play). We have tried tiring her out before bed, and also setting our alarms so we can wake her up on a two-hourly schedule for elimination. This seems to be an issue though as she will willingly pee, but will then howl when put back in the crate leading to even less sleep.
Dachshund in his crate in the same room I should point out is heard snoring through all the squeaking and howling—I wish I had his ability to turn my ears off!
Now, we are happy to train her but we are running on empty. I feel like I have a baby and no maternity leave at the moment—as does my fella!
In the day she is, how shall I put it... single minded. I have never seen anything like it—"no" just does not register with her. She is on/in/under everything. I realise she is a pup but my word this is exhausting. One reason for this is that we have a huge issue with toys. Dachshund gets his hackles up and his best growls out whenever she has a toy. I can snap him out of it but it is a constant source of disquiet really and I am at a bit of a loss as to what to do.
Food also was a bit of a battleground with a jealous dachshund, but now I feed them in the same room, at the same time and just keep them calm and apart. He does sometimes get a bit funny with her afterwards but nothing dramatic and it is improving. I feel like I don't want to be telling him off all the time though as he for the most part has the patience of a saint dealing with a boisterous pup biting on his tail or jumping all over him.
Puppy is only going to get bigger and into more mischief and with the total exhaustion I need some help.
Going back to the breeder was genuinely considered last night as both me and my boyfriend struggle to cope at our jobs. Him due to extreme lack of sleep and me as I also am tired as hell and work from home so am constantly distracted looking after the pup. We realised a pup is hard graft but seriously didn't envisage the damage that is being done to our work!
I worked from home with the dachshund pup and he was saintly in comparison. The whippet just seems to bite, scratch, jump up, howl and fluster me all day!
She also can hold her pee at times for a few hours in the day, and then all at once we will have three pees all on the carpet/floor within 15 minutes which is maddening when you know she has just been out.
The constant cleaning up, not sleeping, saying "no", fighting over toys, making sure dachshund is ok and not too stressed cycle is unbelievable. We are on the verge of breakdowns!
She is, of course, an angel when napping...
We have a three year old male miniature dachshund and a week ago brought home our eight week old female whippet puppy—she is now approaching nine weeks.
As I am sure everyone thinks—we *thought* we had made a considered and informed decision after about two years of wanting to get another dog specifically a whippet!
Well, the day rolled round and after a sleepless night of excitement and nervousness we went to collect our new bundle of joy. She is a lovely little thing—was so good on her journey home aside from one incident when she climbed on my head with such speed that I couldn't stop her becoming entangled in my hair and my boyfriend had to pull over to help!
Initial introduction to our dachshund didn't go that well. As she was eight weeks old and without vaccinations we couldn't have her meet him in a park and to make matters worse it was torrential rain complete with thunder so a meeting in the garden was off the cards. The dachshund growled at her and she hid under the sofa. Now though they play together really well and he even allows her in his bed and he likes to get in her crate too.
All this aside, a number of problems (and the sleep deprivation) have left my boyfriend and I with a serious case of the puppy-blues.
We had not anticipated the complete lack of sleep for one. With the dachshund, he slept pretty much through the night from the second night we had him—I don't know how! We would wake up once a night at the most and take him out, otherwise we went to bed late and got up early and he was fine in his crate by our bed.
With the whippet, she will willingly go into her crate at night with no squeaking but was waking up almost hourly and needing to pee (11:30, 12:30, 2:00, 3:30 and then 5:30 she was up and ready to play). We have tried tiring her out before bed, and also setting our alarms so we can wake her up on a two-hourly schedule for elimination. This seems to be an issue though as she will willingly pee, but will then howl when put back in the crate leading to even less sleep.
Dachshund in his crate in the same room I should point out is heard snoring through all the squeaking and howling—I wish I had his ability to turn my ears off!
Now, we are happy to train her but we are running on empty. I feel like I have a baby and no maternity leave at the moment—as does my fella!
In the day she is, how shall I put it... single minded. I have never seen anything like it—"no" just does not register with her. She is on/in/under everything. I realise she is a pup but my word this is exhausting. One reason for this is that we have a huge issue with toys. Dachshund gets his hackles up and his best growls out whenever she has a toy. I can snap him out of it but it is a constant source of disquiet really and I am at a bit of a loss as to what to do.
Food also was a bit of a battleground with a jealous dachshund, but now I feed them in the same room, at the same time and just keep them calm and apart. He does sometimes get a bit funny with her afterwards but nothing dramatic and it is improving. I feel like I don't want to be telling him off all the time though as he for the most part has the patience of a saint dealing with a boisterous pup biting on his tail or jumping all over him.
Puppy is only going to get bigger and into more mischief and with the total exhaustion I need some help.
Going back to the breeder was genuinely considered last night as both me and my boyfriend struggle to cope at our jobs. Him due to extreme lack of sleep and me as I also am tired as hell and work from home so am constantly distracted looking after the pup. We realised a pup is hard graft but seriously didn't envisage the damage that is being done to our work!
I worked from home with the dachshund pup and he was saintly in comparison. The whippet just seems to bite, scratch, jump up, howl and fluster me all day!
She also can hold her pee at times for a few hours in the day, and then all at once we will have three pees all on the carpet/floor within 15 minutes which is maddening when you know she has just been out.
The constant cleaning up, not sleeping, saying "no", fighting over toys, making sure dachshund is ok and not too stressed cycle is unbelievable. We are on the verge of breakdowns!
She is, of course, an angel when napping...