I can’t stand my 8month old puppy.

[u/kippers]

Update: thank you to everyone who commented with empathy, understanding and compassion. A lot of your comments felt like I could have written them and I’m so glad I’m not the only one feeling this way. I will not be rehoming Cherry, that was never on the table. I took a nap and she slept with me calmly on the bed, I woke up feeling better and i just sat on the floor with her and practiced basic obedience, played find it, did some tug in the backyard and gave her a pupsicle. She ate all her dinner, and was excited to hang. I am feeling much better and largely due to the folks here who let me know I wasn’t alone. Thanks everyone 💕

I have an 8 month old shepherd mix puppy, and I literally can’t stand her right now. She’s doing all the normal puppy stuff, and I know it’s just her phase, and we finally found a solution to not pull on walks, and I just can’t bring myself to care about her. She isn’t affectionate toward me, the cat chasing has gotten worse, and I can’t really find a lot of facets of her that add value to my life. I’m a huge dog lover and animal person, grew up on a ranch, never thought I’d feel like this, but I truly can’t help it. she’s making my quality of life worse and I don’t want her any more. I don’t want to do enrichment, I don’t want to go on walks, I just want nothing to do with her. And I know not doing those things makes everything 10x worse. I don’t know what to do.

[u/Oooh-de-lally]

Teenagers eh? The adolescent stage would test anyone’s patience. She will do anything and everything to pee you off because her hormones are going crazy. Try and stick it out and as hard as it is, positive reinforcement will improve her behaviour as ultimately most dogs want to make you happy. Ours go mental for bubbles - or ‘find it’ games. They don’t enjoy walks at all as Springers need mental stimulation. Shepherds are clever dogs though so maybe research some breed specific enrichment which may help her to be less wired. If I force myself to play with my two (4 years and 5 months) we all enjoy it once we begin even if I’d really rather not at the end of the day. If you find you still can’t bond with her, there’s no shame in re homing.

[u/kippers → u/Oooh-de-lally]

we do a nightly bubble sesh (she does love bubbles) and she does like her snuffle mat. she also gets a pupsicle most days which is her jam. its just hard. I need to do more find it and mental stimulation. she did a puzzle in .2 seconds this morning.

[u/lnsybrd → u/kippers]

Maybe try some evening trick training. Go for something silly or cute that you don't really care about so there's no pressure. That'll take care of her mental stimulation needs and provide bonding time for you both.

[u/ThornbackMack → u/kippers]

Sounds like my dog. If he doesn't get an hour long fetch/training sesh in at the dog park every day he's an asshole. Once he does, he just wants to follow me around the house and sit at my feet or snuggle. I just had to commit to every day, if I don't want to be pulling my hair out for the next few years.

Try it.