New puppy is so high energy. I'm exhausted

[FiveRings]

I've got an almost 3 month old puppy.

We've had her nearly 4 months.

She's absolutely beautiful but gosh she's very boundy and bitey and scrabbly.

I spend my days deflecting from the biting and tugging and scrabbling by passing her enrichment toys and kibble on the guise of puzzles, which she'll take, solve and be back over at me scrabbling for the next one so quickly. Its absolutely exhausting.

She sleeps exceedingly well 10+ hours a night and then a few 2ish hours naps in the day. As I sense one of these naps coming, I'll leave the house and she self settles well for that couple of hours.

It's predominantly me caring for her all day though I try to escape for another couple of hours in the evening when DH is home.

Any reassurances, suggestions, or advice for more occupying enrichment puzzles please?

Hang in there, OP!
goldens are difficult. My boy is a working golden and he was sweet as pie until 3 months and then really difficult until 6 months with 4-5 months being the peak. It likely will get worse before it gets better. He’s 9 months now and just starting with adolescence and won’t be grown up until 2 years old.

Make sure she gets enough sleep and enough small meals. We dropped to 3 meals at 4 months I think and he’s still not ready for 2 meals yet.

Awww she's beautiful. I'm 18 months ahead of you with my goldie girl.
She sounds like she has a wonderful life but I think she needs to get into a normal routine with a little less stimulation from you. Mine is the laziest big bundle of fluff now - she's very happy to potter or snooze near me -snooze anywhere now but blimey she was a big ball of manic at the start.
Some more low key activities would be licky mats and kongs - it's less charging about.
They are the best, most happy go lucky, confident clowns, aren't they?

She’ll be better once she can go out.
This.
We have working-line gundogs who are maniacs as puppies, demanding, insatiable and into everything. I've always taken them to friends' gardens etc even before the vaccinations fully kick in, because otherwise they would lose their tiny minds.

Once I can get them out properly they become so much easier.

Something else you can do is drive somewhere busy and then sit on the edge of the boot with the puppy in it, and watch the world go by together.

Watching

My GR pup to be is 3 weeks old now

It’s the puppy blues 🥰 we all go through it when we get a new puppy, don’t worry!

she will be an absolute sponge for training right now so try and do as much everyday with her as possible as it will pay off big time when she’s older. And being a retriever she will be super intelligent and will become the most wonderful dog and companion

as soon as she’s had her jabs, get her into local puppy training classes, not only for training but also socialisation. Socialising is critical for a dogs healthy development

she is likely to be very bitey and excitable for the first year so you need to be conscious of that. I remember being in tears with my Labrador when he was a puppy as he’d full on ‘attack’ (play) me every night and would go mental with zoomies… jumping on the sofa to get my head etc!

I would say taking her for at least one hour daily walk and letting her run off the leash would help massively once she is vaccinated. I have had dogs all my life. The first year is usually the toughest.

Just be very careful with this advice, I think Goldens, like Labs can be quite prone to joint disease, and take a long time to mature skeletally. You need to gradually increase the exercise in a controlled manner.

I also found if they did too much, and were over tired, the manicness (is that a word?) became worse.

she Is very cute do you do .fetch and wait with her ? it engages their littles brains, also when you ask her to do things wait her out don't say too many words. she is basically a new baby that you are looking after what you are feeling is normal, does she have a crate?

yes when they are tired they are terrors.

sorry I didn't see this, we used a crate from start we used to pop him in for naps and cover it with a sheet (like a budgie 😃) it is really easy to crate train some tasty treats and she should be fine.

This is far too much exercise for a puppy golden retriever.

You risk doing permanent damage to the joints as well as hugely overstimulating them.

I have never understood this, puppy blues like post natal depression is perfectly normal! I have a 23 week old border collie puppy, when she was 4 weeks old,DH and I got Covid first time ever,and trust me,that was hard. Have never felt so ill. It was what it was. We lost one dog almost a year ago, have always had 2, used to be 3. I carried the pre vaccinated pups in a back pack on my front to get them used to sights, sounds, socialising.plenty of car trips as well. Have a relative with gun dogs, 2 puppies. No stairs because of the hip problems, definitely NOT an hour's run off the lead,no puppy should have that. She's crated at night,and if we go out, but when she's older, wont be. She is already long since flap trained. We've had them for 25 years, I also find 2 dogs (yes, I know you have another) helps. Looking back,in the early 90s, young children,ft night nursing,we got 2 puppies 6 months apart. I remember a lot of carpet cleaning 😁

Please ditch the gravy bones. This is just one example of the ingredients but I think pretty typical.
Cereals, Meat and Animal Derivatives (1.5% Beef Meal), Oils and Fats, Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Minerals, Various Sugars.

My dog was a nightmare puppy. Nearly drove me round the bend but gang in there! He's a delight now (sometimes still a bit of a dickhead). He's two. Settled significantly at about 18 months.

Are gravy bones bad for dogs then? I usually have them in my pockets for encounters with dogs!

@Tilllly I don't know if you can get different ones but the ones I've seen seem to be as above and pretty shit for dogs.
Also, just be sure that the dogs you encounter are ok - or rather their owners are ok - with you feeding them. I presume that's what you mean? I would tell you not to feed my dog (for various reasons) but always happy if someone wants to give her a fuss, so long as they are sensible and she's happy with it obviously.

They're pedigree so I assumed ok!

Oh I always ask first!

Apart from the two next door who demand treats when they see me in the garden- but their owner has a blanket approval for all our sanity

Pedigree dog food and treats are just junk.

@Tilllly
Oh I always ask first!
Glad to hear, you'd be amazed how many people don't ask!

Well that's me ditching the GBs and schmackos then

That's crazy, they could be on a special diet!

I think you've gone overboard with the treats and inadvertently taught your puppy that the mite excited she is, the more treats come.

Our lab puppy is admittedly pretty chilled, by the accounts other people give of lab puppies, but we prioritised certain things as soon as we got her:

1. Her first job was to learn to do nothing. So settling and snoozing when we weren't interacting with her.
2. We didn't give her food unless we were training her, right from the start. So all her meals were training exercises.

We started with 'attention loops' - kibble when she looked at us. That soon developed in to kibble when she sat down, and kibble when she laid down.

Susan Garrett's 'It's Yer Choice' game - Holding kibble in a closed fist, then waiting until puppy stops pawing/nudging for it, then opening your fist slightly, repeat, gradually until puppy waits nicely for the kibble.
http://www.topsailpwds.com/uploads/7/9/9/5/79954766/iycsummitiyctrainingguide-.pdf

These two things mean that our puppy focused on us when food came out.

We also used Susan Garrett's Crate Games to crate train her, although we don't use the crate too much now that she's 5 months old.

Thank you all for your responses. I've read them all but replying to so many I find very overwhelming apologies. I'll look at the links in the previous post, thank you.

some good advice up there, I appreciate it very much 💐

Dogs are wolf's descendants. They have in their genes to run and run for miles. Unless overbred. Every dog I have ever owned was much better behaved in the day after 1 hour walk in the morning. And causing havoc if not.

@Kosenrufugirl She's a 3-month-old puppy ffs. Stop spouting nonsense please. It's not only wrong, it's dangerous.

@FiveRings take each day as it comes and take your breaks from.her like you would do with an.actual.baby.