Hi everyone,
We’ve had our male Eurasier puppy for 12 days now, so he’s 10 weeks old, and we’ve been really struggling with him every evening for the last few days.
I should mention that at the start, the breeder told us to keep him in a 3ft crate at night and for 2 hours after his meals. But since he was barking his head off every night, and I was worried about whether he could actually hold it in all night, I eventually started taking him out every 3 hours or so. I figured he just couldn't hold his bladder. But as soon as I put him back in the crate, it was the same thing again—barking for at least 10 minutes. We finally reached breaking point with the crate when he started barking every 2 hours. We couldn't just ignore him like the breeder suggested, especially since he was covered in pee by the morning. I called a dog trainer who told me to ditch the crate (she’s not a fan, I should add) as it seemed to be stressing him out. She suggested starting from scratch: letting him sleep in the living room (he prefers the floor tiles to his bed) and sleeping in the room with him for a week to reassure him. We’ve done that and he’s lovely; he doesn't even wake up during the night and manages to hold it from 11pm until 6am.
But here’s the problem: for several evenings now, after his dinner and a quick toilet walk, Cosmo gets really hyper once we’re back inside. He jumps on us, on the sofa, and bites us quite hard. Nothing works: not saying ‘no’ (which I don't think he understands anyway), not trying to redirect him with a toy, nor ignoring him (which is hard because he goes for your feet and calves). Even leaving the room doesn't work, as he just starts again the moment we come back. We’ve tried putting him in the downstairs loo (since we’re not using the crate anymore), but he just goes right back to it as soon as he’s out. We’re at our wits' end, and my husband and daughter are actually starting to get scared of him because he’s so persistent with the biting. We read that we should tire him out, but since these ‘episodes’ happen right after his meal, we’re worried about the risk of bloat. Other than that, we take him out regularly during the day for toilet breaks, plus two longer walks in the morning and late afternoon around the block (about 20 minutes each time, at his own pace).
So, that’s the situation. We really need your advice because we’re struggling to cope. This is our first dog so we’re not used to this, and with the lockdown, there are no puppy classes or home visits from trainers available...
