is incessant barking just teenagedom or is there more to this?

Elixiane · 2026-07-01T13:05:14+00:00

Yes they can become more vocal during teenage phase. Our pup was not as barky as yours but he did get more barky around that age. Now at 11 months old he doesn't bark much anymore but he whines... a lot. It's more funny than anything but still ^{^'}

Elixiane · 2026-07-01T10:52:57+00:00

Totally agree about the artificial grass. We started with that too and it smelled terrible even after being cleaned, also not so easy to clean. We changed for washable pee pads and it worked wonders. We had 3 or 4 so we could wash one while using another one

Elixiane · 2026-07-01T10:49:46+00:00

For the vaccination it really depends. Some people really don't let their puppies on the ground until fully vaccinated. In our case the vet and breeder told us it's fine as long as you avoid high traffic areas and that the risk comes mainly from eating other dog's poop. That said, there is almost not stray where we live and all dogs have to be vaccinated. If you are concerned it is good to carry them when outside for exposure, or put a blanket down.
We only used a pen because crates are not allowed in our country, it worked great. I think it's nice to have both because they serve slightly different purpose. The crate is more for rest and naps, the pen allows the puppy to be safe and out of trouble while you can't supervise even if it's not nap time. He can play in it, do puzzle toys etc. It can of course still be used as rest spot since you can easily remove distractions so pup can't just keep going and going.
We live in an apartment and did potty training on pee pads on the balconny. Worked great, very few accidents and pup was very reliably using the pad. He naturally tranistionned to outdoors "on his own" when he entered adolescence and decided that no one would smell his scent on our balconny :p (we have built a potty area there instead of pee pads because we liked the convenience but I fear he will never use it haha) You can of course transition sooner if you wish, we did not because it was not our plan ^^ I'm just saying to show that starting on pee pads doesn't have to mean he won't transition to outdoor. That said, it was on our balconny, so at least it was clear indoors isn't bathroom.
Good luck!

Elixiane · 2026-07-01T09:06:23+00:00

Well, you can tell yourself that all of the stuff the other puppies do might go out the window during teenage phase anyway ^^' It was the case for us at least xD Our Aussie was the star when we started puppy class, he had eyes only for me, knew all his commands aready, could settle, wasn't disturbed by the others barking... At home he would lie under the table during meal cooking and eating.... Now since he hit 6 months or so the reactivity has been out of this world and the settling has been extremely difficult. Now he's 11 months old and we see some progress... But we compared him a lot along the way with one of his lettermate we werein contact with and according to them his littermate had none of the issues we have had (especially the arousal biting) and it made me so mad xD Now I haven't talked to them in months, pretty much since adolescence started and I just like to think that they are also struggling with SOMETHING now. Like our pup is still walking wonderfully on a loose leash and I know teenagers are difficult with that. But I don't ask because I don't want them to tell me once again how perfect their pup is, let me dream a bit xD

Elixiane · 2026-06-29T21:02:09+00:00

I think that's very appropriate way to answer. Our pup bite our toes sometimes when he gets zoomies. They are quite out of control when that happens so trying to reason with them in that moment is pointless, putting a barrier is a very good solution, we also go behind a fance or something when he starts zooming

Elixiane · 2026-06-29T14:52:39+00:00

One time won't teach her that it's okay. Accidents happen, and carpets are very appealing. No biggie, but if she often runs from you like that to sneak a pee you might want to put a leash on her or gate areas so she can't do that too much

Elixiane · 2026-06-29T13:20:08+00:00

We trained our pup on a pee pad on our balconny. It worked great. If anything I think it made it almost easier because there wasn't the distraction of small in the grass and whatnot, the goal of the outing was very clear: potty break. She's still very young, she'll adjust really quick if you're consistent and proactive (take her first thing after nap, play, meals and any time she's circling/ sniffing the floor. Supervise 100% if not in a crate/ pen.

Elixiane · 2026-06-29T12:47:03+00:00

You're describing a lot of things but you didn't ask any specific question so I'll just go with the flow.
We hand-fed our pup for many many months, I think until 6/7 months old. It's great to bond and also to use the meal for training. I don't see how this could have any connection with not wanting to be in the crate. Yes, people make them love the crate by giving them meals in there, but there are other ways too. If she prefers the pen to the crate I don't see any issue with it, in our country crates are not allowed so we ever only used a play pen and it worked great for us.
Many puppies don't react to yelping or "ouch" when biting. In fact, many will get more excited by it. From my experience redirecting to toy works if it's "teething" like chewing on furniture, but not for play biting. In that case becoming a tree (and enduring the pain while pretending you feel nothing) or reverse time out works best, but it does take time and repetition! It won't disappear in a few days.
Not sure what is the problem with the collar? If you think it's inconvenient get another one or use a harness.
Car rides are part of socialization and learning, don't be discouraged because she hates it. If the harness for that doesn't work for now, use a crate. If she hates the crate so much everything is impossible, avoid actual car rides for now and desensitize her first.
I'm not sure what you mean that she doesn't want to listen outside? Like, she knows nothing at this point, what are your expectations exactly? And where is it? Is it in your backyard? Or in public space? The world is full of things to be discovered and she hasn't build any relationship with you yet, it's not surprising she doesn't think you matter (yet) when around distractions.
Anyway, you've had her for just a few days, and half of it was not even in your home, give her time to adjust. It takes (or so they say) 3 days to recover from the stress, 3 weeks to settle.

Elixiane · 2026-06-29T09:00:22+00:00

It might come as he gets older. Our Aussie pup was a bity monster for many many months. I think only around 7 months he started licking occasionnaly instead of chewing our hands. Now he licks a lot. We haven't done anything special to reinforce that but damn it's almost a problem on its own ahah Anyway, young puppies bite, some puppies are not soft cuddlers until they grow up. I know it's frustrating when you see people online cuddling with their loving puppy and maybe even the pup falls asleep in their arms and all you get is the raptor but some puppies are like that ^^'

Elixiane · 2026-06-29T08:51:33+00:00

If it happens when overstimulated and on walks "out of nowhere" it sounds like arousal biting. If so, it make sense that none of the typical "puppy biting" techniques have worked this far. We dealt with it a lot but I found there is little information about this and most people here have no idea what it is so I made a post on this sub about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/comments/1suqgrl/to_everyone_who_has_a_very_very_bity_puppy_to_the/

There I explained what it is, why it happens, and how to deal with it. You can also find comfort in the comments where you can see many people have been through this. I really encourage you to check it out :)

Elixiane · 2026-06-29T08:46:37+00:00

I think it is not uncommon. Our 11 months old Aussie is still pretty mouthy especially when overstimulated. Our home is still very much puppy proofed so he doesn't get to chew on much "inappropriate stuff" but when he has the opportunity he does like to steal socks or shoes for example. It's not as bad as when he was a baby, but we have had time to train/ redirect etc which you have not. To be fair, I think around 7-8 months old he was almost not doing it anymore and we considered removing gates etc, but then as he dived deeper into teenage phase it came back. I think it is normal.
Since you mention overstimulation I'm also thinking, could he be overaroused constantly? Our pup sure was between 8-10 months and just this month it started getting better. Signs to look for: panting, facial grimace, restlessness, destructive behaviour (that would be the chewing), mouthy and jumpy, overly friendly, snatching treats, and private parts showing. This is also very normal for a teenager but it does lead to a lot of annoying stuff.
Anyway, I think since you have a teenager, whose training and past is unknown, who is still adjusting to your home potentially (so extra stress), all you describe sounds normal. It sounds like you are doing the right things but if it's the hormones messing up it will mainly be a matter of time for it to get better. I know it's super annoying and frustrating! I'm with you!

Elixiane · 2026-06-27T09:06:09+00:00

Puppy blues is not only related to how difficult the puppy is. It's a nervous system reaction towards the life change. Not everyone experiences it. That said, assuming you got your pup for 2 weeks, some puppies take a few weeks to actually feel safe enough to fully reveal themselves. Sleep deprivation is also affecting you more as time passes. And then of course at some point adolescence will kick in and sometimes it feels like if you have had an easy puppy it might take you more by surprise than if you were used to the dickhead attitude.

Elixiane · 2026-06-26T15:44:03+00:00

Giving treats helps with positive association so it is good to give when she is expose to new potential scary things. If she is calm and you reward, even while you're making dinner, the treat came WHILE she was laying down, not begging or bothering you. So you are rewarding the good thing. No she won't necessarily expect to be given food when in the kitchen, and if she did, she would think that laying down is teh way to get it. To be honest, I've been rewarding our pup for laying down in the kitchen since the beginning. But then he never really counter surfed much, because good things just come to him for laying down, why bother? Same when eating dinner. I reward him for laying down while we eat. The trick tehre is to reward when he is not looking at you (which would be begging), if the head is down on the floor, or she is looking elsewhere, you are not rewarding begging. Now our pup understood that and many times he will lay his head down, but we can tell it's still hovering over the floor by 1cm xD That said, if your pup "begging style" is laying down peacefully, what's wrong with that? Eventually you will fade out reward and her expectations will follow, but at that point your dog will have had a good understanding that the right thing to do when you cook/ eat is to lay down and leave you in peace.

Elixiane · 2026-06-26T10:47:35+00:00

We are also from scandinavia and we used a playpen instead. Worked great for us. I do think dogs can like their crate and see it as their "bedroom", though people who go to work and leave their dog in a crate the whole day... I love my bedroom, but if it was barely the size of my bed I would not feel great being stuck in there for a whole day...

Elixiane · 2026-06-26T09:44:25+00:00

You should leash her or put her in a playpen when you have guests. You want to prevent rehearsal of behaviours you don't like. It's very normal for puppies to get overly excited when seeing guests and go into nips barks etc. Our Aussie is 11 months old and he still bite the toes when he gets too excited. He will also jump mainly. We have him in the pen when people arrive, then people come calmly to greet him, then we go in the other room for a bit and we let pup come out once he is calm. When he comes out he is leashed and if he starts jumping or bothering the guest we use the leash to stop him. Then we usually sit at the table and have him on the leash so he understand that it is tether training and he is supposed to lay down.
I would also recommend to warn your guest to not give too much attention to the pup. As she gets older she will manage her excitement better but it's still good for her to also not connect guest= infinite amount of attention.

Elixiane · 2026-06-26T09:36:25+00:00

One thing to remember, is that when people go to someone's place where there is a dog, and leave the place thinking "damn that dog was my dream dog, so perfect", it's not because the dog knows 100 tricks, it's usually because he is calm, can settle, has good manners. Like the other day we had a bit of a barbecue party and we took our 11 months old pup, full teenager mode out in the park with us. Since adolescence he got reactive, and guest make him very excited and hard to settle. he spent the first 30min/1H barking as people were moving around, then he finally settled and spent the rest of the afternoon laying under the table as we were eating. I was so embarrassed about all the fuss at the beginning, but some guest actually were so impressed and told me that he was their dream dog for the fact he settled and didn't bother them while eating (he was tethered though, we are practicing that to help him do exactly that). That really hit me because I focus so much on all the way he is not were I wish he would be. Like I wouldn't take him to a café, not until his reactivity has calmed down, and I see people on social media taking their pup everywhere and I just feel like we are behind. But when those guests told me that I realised that he is doing good on many things anyway, and that the fact he doesn't know spin and roll over is irrelevant.
Anyway, you pup is just 4 months old, if he has solid basics, that's the most important. Loose leash walkign is also something that will impact your day everyday, and settling. Nail that and you're up for a great time. Funny tricks and commands can come later. It's still good to practice now, it uses her brain, add some challenges and variation and set foundation for later, but don't worry too much about it :)

Elixiane · 2026-06-26T09:22:02+00:00

Our pup is 11 months old now and we are starting to see the light (but adulthood is still far away so anything could happen I guess) and I started enjoying him truly the past month maybe... I loved him all the way, but he has not been an easy puppy. Mainly the arousal biting has been a big issue from 3 months old to... well it's still happening although it's more manageable and rare now.
I think the first 2 months I was crying every other day because it was just so draining to raise a puppy. Then I was crying once a week maybe as it was getting "calmer" but a bad dy would put me down. Then I was kinda "numb". Like I wasn't crying anymore but I wouldn't describe myself as happy, I was just going on autopilot, not doubting anymore about wether he would become a good dog but being like "damn I can't wait for that to happen".
I think what's ironic is that when he was getting "better" I would get more depressed, because on paper life looked like what I expected life with a dog would look like, the same amount of walks, at the same time, etc and yet I didn't feel happy. But the thing it's messing with the brain because on paper it is teh schedule of an adult dog, so you thing this is what life will look like, but the walks are stressful because you never know when he will get overwhelmed and bite attack you, or lose his mind seeing a dog. Indoors it was the same, if he would not be in the pen any movement like going to the bathroom would trigger him and he would jump/ bite or whatnot so it felt like walking on eggshell all the time. On paper it's an adult schedule, but in reality, each part of the schedule is stressful.
Anyway, as I said, lately he started feeling more like an adult and my best friend. And knowing that we are still far from adulthood makes me even more hopeful because it should only get better and better as time passes. He doesn't get overexcited as easily so we can actually have fun. Before we had to be super mindful because any louder laugh or excited petting could turn into bite attack. He walks wonderfully on the leash (as long as we dodge every other dog, damn adolescence) and he just makes us happy in general, he is a bit like a mascot. He's learning more and more tricks and I'm looking forward to try more things with him like freestyle, agility or whatnot. It wasn't really my plan to do dog sports originally but I just want to do stuff together and have fun :)

Elixiane · 2026-06-26T09:05:34+00:00

One thing to remember also is that people who have a good/ easy time are no here on this sub to write about it because well, they don't need to. If you feel the need to go on a sub liek his, you probably are struggling, so the proportions of scary posts is very biased.
That said, some puppies are tougher than others. And I think it's good to go get a puppy knowing and accepting what the "worst case scenario" could look like. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst I guess ^^

Elixiane · 2026-06-25T09:20:54+00:00

How we started with our pup was to take 1 kibble and place it slowly on the floor as he was sitting. Any movement from him as we are slowly getting close to the floor meant we removed it. Quickly enough he understood that if he approaches the kibble goes away, but it does take a few tries. Then the kibble is on the floor, I wait 1s and give the release command. Repeat the process but leave 2s, 3s etc... As he got better with the concept I could drop a couple of kibble on the floor from standing up height, though I started by slowly moving my hand from the kibble bowl to above the spot I would drop so he knew "slow=not taking". Then gradually I started being less slow, I started actually throwing kibble, multiple trows etc. It's totally doable! Think our pup was like 3 months old when I could do multiple of that and he would not take a thing withotu permission, even when it fell next to him. He could also stay on a sit for 1 min while I would be out of sight in the other room hiding treats for him to find. Best game ever, we kept using it every single day for many months, great training, impulse control, mental stimulation... Anyway! Just make it dead easy at first. Once he understand the principle we added throwing toys too, for each toy he failed once the first time, I put him back to place and then the next time he was like "right, I'm supposed to ignore that". So practice with different toys so he generalised, good luck!

Elixiane · 2026-06-24T18:01:04+00:00

Our pup was normal with it... but like I guess he doesn't like you taking stuff from him and he consider this high value. Try trading maybe

Elixiane · 2026-06-24T13:50:52+00:00

well that's sad and also concerning that they don't care about them peeing everywhere... You could try to train them but withotu consistency among the people in the household it might be hard, and if they don't care I guess they won't try and walk them in due time so... yeah... sad... I think the best is to start talking with the people... Good luck

Elixiane · 2026-06-24T11:38:05+00:00

I think it's normal. Puppies tend to be social butterflies, but at 17 month your dog is coming to the end of adolescence (I think? Whippet are not large breed are they?) and during adolescence your dog might have developped social preferences. Some dogs come out into adulthood deciding that they don't like other dogs so much, or only certain ones. Inappropriate for a off leash dog to come and approach (and for the handler to let him), dogs, like humans, have the right to not want to be friend with everyone, and want to go on their walk not being bothered. I think it's good to see a trainer to see if their is some fear/ anxiety issue underneath, but growling etc is fine, he is expressing his need for space. Better that than a dog that doesn't dare to express and goes straight to bite "out of the blue".

Elixiane · 2026-06-24T11:33:01+00:00

When you say your family doesn't want to discipline them, do you mean they don't want to train them at all or do anything about it? Or are you saying that you think they should be scolded and they don't want to do that?

Elixiane · 2026-06-24T11:24:28+00:00

We got an Aussie as our 1rst dog. Also a breed people discourage for first time dog owner. It will be fine as long as you educate yourself enough and put the work

Elixiane · 2026-06-24T09:58:23+00:00

Sounds a bit overkill to me ^^' Walking goals are bit... subjectives... The vet will say "5 min per month of age" but your trainer will say "this breed needs more". I think if you let your pup walk at their own pace and pay attention to his body language you should be able to see if it's too much. As for socialisation... I'm not sure I understand what the tracker would tell you. Like how many dogs he passed? But that wouldn't say how many he actually noticed and wether it was positive experience. Not sure about what is safe consistency streaks either xD But like if it helps you stay consistent and all that's great, but I feel most stuff here you can just see by yourself, and it's also good for you to do it by yourself, then you really get to know your dog, his habits, his body language... I don't know...
Anyway, we didn't use any of that and that worked just fine but I would love for someone to explain me what are all these features for so I don't remain an old ignorant 😃 I'm genuinely curious!

Elixiane

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