PUPPY!!!!!!!

I'm already enrolled for a session on July 10. One disadvantage I think I have that you and KM didn't is that I'm on my own. It really does become kind of an extended Whatever Happened to Baby Jane mind game...I'm over-dramatizing. Zillions of people have done this; anyone with any knowledge would look at my first day and say I had it pretty easy. The problem is me--I'm the one with the daunting adjustment.

xp ok maybe more like 2 months? maybe even 7 weeks or so...I'm not sure, i lost my mind somewhere back in those piled up puppy pads. so much of it was just dealing with her fear issues around the time - she was a shelter pup and pretty much any noise at all would scare the crap out of her, and we lived brooklyn, so.

My dogs both really only fully emerged from the naughtiness of puppyhood--including erratic sleep schedules--around 3 years old. And we're still sometimes woken at 5:45 with a paw slap to the face

yeah, Birdie just turned 7 and she still can't figure out a bunch of stuff. i love her more than anything

Widget is now eight months old and finds new and innovative ways to destroy things. Today’s fun was digging up two massive, newly planted herb pots on my balcony. His specialty is gnawing the corner of a throw pillow cover just enough that it can’t be repaired. Woe betide you if you resort to spraying apple cider vinegar on an object as whiplet repellent - he advances, barking, because he hates it. He can now reach the countertops in the kitchen so everything has to be put away (no bad thing). Whippet puppies have a reputation for being dickheads until they’re two, which he definitely can be, but he has been easy to housetrain, loves riding the Tube and bus, is well-mannered with people and other dogs and his default setting is asleep right next to me.

https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780394800479-uk.jpg

The problem is me--I'm the one with the daunting adjustment.

It's tough to have dogs if you're a loner, because you either have to jump in at the deep end and get them socialized with other dogs and kids and all the things they could possibly have a negative reaction to, or you have to keep them away from those things FOREVER, which is then an absolute pain for anyone else who might ever have to look after them.

I used to know a guy who had a giant schnauzer. He never, ever spent a night away from this dog, in six years. He never let anyone else walk it. He never let the dog out of his sight. Then he slipped a disc and couldn't walk or move off the sofa for two weeks, and the poor dog nearly went crazy because it was too scared to let anyone else take it out or do anything with it.

That's exactly the situation I want to avoid; I want him socialized around other people and other dogs, and I want him to be comfortable with others watching him when need be.

I'm alone but definitely not (probably everyone says this) a loner. A bit more so since I moved out of the city in late 2019, but I'm always out and about. That's the adjustment: not being able to just head out. Pre-pandemic, I'd go see one-three movies a week. I constantly just head out to browse book or record or thrift stores. Going out to have coffee and read. Going back to the city to see friends (a two-hour drive). All of it breaks up the day, being retired. Right now, the day is 60 hours long, and I can't, till he's okay with alone time, do any of that. And then, come September, I'm supposed to go back to occasional substitute teaching, 50 days over the school year.

I know: "You didn't think of this ahead of time?" I did--I figured if I got it first day of the summer break, after a few weeks he'd be fine. I'm probably just prematurely over-worrying.

Sounds like you're doing the most important thing, which is getting him used to the car.

Have you heard of the magic blanket technique for getting dogs to settle? It seems to be the hot thing in dog training at the moment, and might be useful for you if you have to leave him in other places like a sitter's house, or if you take him with you to a cafe or restaurant and just want him to hang out and be happy without your constant attention.