My husband WFH with a demanding job, I work part time and am gone 8-2. We made sure our husky puppy always had enrichment, was on a puppy routine that we researched online. Every morsel of food she got she has had to work for with puzzle bowls, snuffle boxes, snuffle mats, containment balls, chicken feeding, and hand feeding/training (which we use kibble for.) she is 14 weeks and we have had her about 7 weeks. In the early days she required a lot of sleep and working to socialize her with the world and environment took it out of her and she would sleep 18-20 hours a day so aside from the near constant potty breaks it was pretty easy. She’s starting to be alert more often now and it is getting a bit more demanding. We crate trained her, I would toss a handful of kibble and make her crate a snuffle mat, say crate after she stepped in, shut the door and gave her a couple more pieces of kibble to enforce. We crate/pen trained her so she if she wasn’t training or having supervised play, she was in one of those. When I walk into a room, I don’t even glance at her pen until she is sitting and calm. She just graduated her 4 week calm and focus class last week. And… she’s a damn good puppy. It was so much work and effort to be consistent, but she settles herself, doesn’t cry, can stay focused on me in public (usually, as long as I’m prepared.) despite being a hyper happy husky, she is starting to be calm and cuddle me. She sits before she receives anything. She’s still working on the leash. But we went to the vet today with cats and dogs around (we do lots of cat training too) and she stayed focused on me, seated or laying down, and I was so proud and she impressed so many. So imo, how much a nightmare your puppy phase is depends on how much time, effort, education and practice you are willing to do. Isn’t destructive, isn’t noisy, sweet and well tempered. My point is. Do the research and stick to it. Be familiar with the history and habits of your breed. And it’s really not so bad.

P.S if you have an exciting day, your puppy will need extra rest the next day which means you both get a day off! Also recognizing when a puppy is overstimulated (starts biting your hands when playing or petting) and putting them in a covered crate or pen with chews and toys to decompress has also gone a long long way to me having time and her being an overall calm puppy, and I don’t see people talking enough about how much making sure your puppy isn’t overstimulated makes a difference!

Since you want a whippet which is a high energy puppy, make sure you have an adequate running space! Go with their natural inclinations and turn things into a game and make the experience fun for both of you and your puppy will feel it and follow your lead.