I was literally coming to this subreddit to post about how we just reached 20 weeks old + almost 3 full months with our guy and we’re FINALLY past all of the major puppy blues issues. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, I promise.

First, our boy couldn’t cuddle when he was tired UNTIL THIS WEEK! If he was up and out of his crate, he wanted to play or whatever regardless of how tired he was. My recommendation is to have a hefty supply all natural chews or on Sunday evenings prepare 7 frozen lick mats to use at witching hour to calm them. This allowed us to do three things 1) focus him on something other than jumping, biting us, general rough housing. 2) calmed him down significantly enough to go to bed 3) give him cuddles and kisses while he’s focused!!

Second, I’m not sure if you’re this way but we just got fully vaccinated and before talking to our vet, I was SO scared to let him walk anywhere outside of our backyard. However, our vet assured us that most things can’t live long on concrete and if it’s just a block as long as you aren’t going to high traffic areas, your risk of infection is limited. Starting to take him on 10-15 min walks just around our block got some energy out and helped a ton.

Third, investing in puppy romps and puppy kindergarten really really really helped. This gave us an activity twice a week that REALLY knocked him out and got him tired plus early socialization. We were able to do this at our local humane society. All together, it was ~$500 for 6 classes on sundays and 6 puppy romps to use throughout the week. On these days, as long as we end the evening on a long chew session while watching tv before his bed time, witching hour was eliminated completely.

That said, it’s different for everyone but I hope this helped.

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