@elinell It’s a puppy and it’ll be hard. The behavior you describe is totally normal and not liking him is also normal. I didn’t like my puppy and I also posted here about the puppy blues. It was very hard for a long time.
People say it gets better and it does but very gradually. One behavior goes away, others come to replace it. For our pup it didn’t really get better until after 1 year and a half. Sure it actually did get a bit better before that but just not enough for me to feel I have a life. Only within the last couple of months (he is 1 year and 8 months) he starred to suddenly behave more like a dog.
He doesn’t play rough with other dogs anymore and he’s a good boy at daycare, we don’t get complaints that he’s rude or opened the gates and caused a jailbreak lol He doesn’t bark at people and other dogs on walks, he doesn’t dig in the yard, of course he doesn’t bite but that went away long ago after teething, he doesn’t incessantly bark at windows and now we can keep them uncovered. He also lays down doing nothing and doesn’t need to be supervised 24/7 so he doesn’t chew the house. He still needs some supervision but not like before. He doesn’t chase the cat anymore. He’s much better with new people and only barks at them a little bit while before he would sound crazy. He’s still a handful, needs to be entertained every day , barks some at windows and the neighbors but overall he is finally a dog.
I coped with daycare, trainers and training and before daycare I had him in a training day school since 4 months old until 8-9 months when he was accepted into daycare. Also my husband and I split the time for dog care and I carved me time in the evening and morning. He’s still going to daycare 3x/wk. We still use a crate when he’s home alone. Crate training was very useful and is recommended. Intensive training also finally paid off but not overnight.
Edit to add that I know this sub doesn’t recommend it but for us the dog park worked really well after 7 months. 30 minutes of running there got him tired while just the walks weren’t enough. It also helped me teach him recall and playing politely because I wanted him in daycare and he wasn’t playing well. Yours isn’t old enough for the dog park but in a few months she will be and you may consider it.
