Puppy Blues Hitting Hard (8 Week Bernese)
Hey all,
I really like the posts in this community and I have read a lot of them. I'm posting this now after a morning cry just mainly to express my feelings.
My wife and I have wanted a dog for some time and we landed on a Bernese Mountain Dog. We picked her up literally two days ago, but man is it already rough on us.
It's mainly just night time. The dog is well behaved otherwise, handles simple commands well, doesn't bite more than a simple play nip and is good with redirection too. We know we don't have it as bad as many other puppy owners.... But the night is so stressful. We're crate training and our girl wakes up every 1-2 hours whimpering and whining. We always go to her, take her outside to pee/poo just in case and bring her back in, let her settle and then put her in her crate. But it just repeats... I know this is normal and I'm sure it's a combination of a new environment, missing her siblings/Mom, not having been in a crate before, etc... but man the sleep deprivation hurts.
I broke down yesterday morning, and my wife broke down this morning. I feel so awful and weak.
If there's any tips on crate training that I can incorporate please let me know. We have been putting treats in her crate, but when she naps during the day it's just been wherever on the floor... not sure if we should be moving her to her crate for all sleeps or not.
We'll be starting training ASAP too.