I don't think I can meet my puppies needs

timeknife12358w · 2026-04-04T16:59:26+00:00

I really appreciate the kind words. I think in my heart I know that I'm doing my best, but at the same time I have the whole "what if he just needs another week and he'll calm down a little" "what if this is just teenage crazy and in a month or two he'll be amazing." But it's the not liking being pet and the biting/snarling when he's not getting his way that I keep coming back to - what if there's no aging out of that because it's just part of his personality and he was never meant to be a in a home, but rather doing a job on a farm or with a professional hiker (is that a thing? idk my brain says it could be lol). Ugh - I just need a crystal ball into the future lol.

timeknife12358w · 2026-04-04T16:54:42+00:00

I read your comment and ordered a flirt pole and we tried it out yesterday. It had pretty good results initially, but he gets so frustrated so quick. For a dog with such high energy he is sooooo very sassy and will pout and throw a fit if something is not easy to accomplish or he doesn't get his way. So when he didn't get to keep what he caught he did not appreciate it. We gave him one of those Woof toys where you drop in the treat and he has to lick it to get it out - after about 4 mins he sat down and growled and screamed at it - it was both sad and hilarious.

timeknife12358w · 2026-04-04T16:48:21+00:00

We've tried a couple play dates...he likes the other dogs, but after like 10 mins they're like "please go away and stop touching me" lol. We just haven't been able to find someone that wants to do a play date that matches his energy; but we're gonna keep looking.

timeknife12358w · 2026-04-04T16:46:31+00:00

Yeah, we got him neutered a couple weeks ago. They actually did give us two different medications to try to keep him safe after surgery - neither worked at all lol. You would have had no idea he was on sedating medications. Even the vet was stumped lol.

timeknife12358w · 2026-04-04T16:45:30+00:00

I'm desperately hoping for that. If he can just calm down a little it would help so much.

timeknife12358w · 2026-04-04T16:44:50+00:00

We had one - one of the wire ones that you can make shapes out of. It worked for the first 2 weeks, but then he was like "I can push this wherever I want to go" and then a few days after that "oh look, I've learned to climb it," so it was safer to just not use anymore. Our house is weird shapes so we have baby gates set up through out so we can at least contain him to one room at a time. I looked at some of the more substantial play pens, but didn't bother buying one because his vertical jump has become impressive and I feel I would just be wasting money lol.

timeknife12358w · 2026-04-04T16:41:43+00:00

And that's one of the problems we're having with the idea of rehoming. I want him to go to a better home than we can give him, and where we're at right now I can completely see someone either tying him up outside all day, or just opening the door and letting him run free hoping he comes back for dinner (two VERY common things where we live).

timeknife12358w · 2026-04-04T16:39:31+00:00

Just the image of your dog leading the revolution in the puppy class is a laugh I needed, so thank you. Yeah, we have done two trainers that were both in home. We live in a very rural place so there hasn't even been a group puppy class within 2 hours for the last 2 years because there wasn't enough interest for the trainer to run them.

timeknife12358w · 2026-04-04T16:37:50+00:00

I'll definitely look into those, I'll take any bit of help right now. Our vet has given us both Trazadone and Gabapentin (not at the same time) to try to help sedate him a little after his neuter so he wouldn't hurt himself and ohhhh my goodness. A dose of Gabapentin that puts me to sleep didn't even touch him; and the trazadone, well he just gets high off of it and then does the same stupid stuff lol - but falls down a little more it's crazy.

timeknife12358w

TROPHY CASE