u/kiwirette

Hello! I have a 16 week old pup (mini dachshund & pom mix), and I was wondering if any of you had some ideas on how to handle his over-excitement when we're outside. Whenever we come across basically ANYTHING (people, animals, cars, bikes, lawn mowers, you name it) he gets so excited and happy and wants to rush to whatever has caught his eye, that he nearly strangles himself on the leash. So I've been trying my best to avoid situations where we would have direct contact with people (that being said, the neighbors tend to not listen and still come to us and oftentimes even do their stupid little noises to get his attention, as if that was even necessary in the first place!), I pick him up and wait for them to pass (and do my best to keep him on my arms, wiggly little tornado pup) or stand still with a foot on the leash so it's short and he can't jump into it too much. His leash manners besides these situations are pretty good for his age so I can't complain, just really out of ideas on what else to do about him getting so worked up when he sees anyone or anything that excites him so much. I know he's a crazy toddler basically right now so I know it's not anything out of the ordinary but I'd still like to help him be calmer if at all possible.
As a sidenote, we don't go on actual walks, just small potty rounds every 2h around the green parts behind our parking lot of our building. Since he also deals with getting hyper stimulated easily, I try to keep our outside times as uneventful as possible, and when we come back in I let him play a little before he goes into his pen for enforced nap times.

Hello all, I am a first time puppy mom, and I'm facing some challenges (who would have thought lol). My little guy Lenny is now 15 weeks old and has been living with me since he was 10 weeks old. He is a miniature dachshund & pom mix, so quite the character already. He is curious, confident, happy, very sweet and silly and absolutely lovely. However, after the first week with me, he started to become incredibly overstimulated all of the time. He has a pen (with an open crate that he sleeps in) that I use for enforced nap times, and at first he would even settle outside of it and sleep during the day, but after that first week it changed. As soon as he gets out of the pen now, he's in turbo mode, as I like to call it.

I have a small one bedroom apartment that I puppy proved thoroughly before he came here, there aren't too many "distractions" around, but he still finds them and gets fixated for a minute or two, then moves on to the next. I should also mention that he does not have access to the entire apartment (hallway and bathroom he can come into with me, but kitchen is blocked off by a baby gate). He chews everything (which I guess is normal for his age) including wall corners, chair legs, shoes, me. Sometimes he just stares at an area on the ground or the heater and barks at it for a few seconds. When we go outside to potty he sometimes is so distracted that he doesn't even care about me giving him treats so potty training has been slowish. Some days it's really just outside for potty and then back to the pen because he starts landshark mode right away when we're back inside and I feel bad about it, but it seems to be the only way for him to settle down or even sleep during those days. When he's in this mode his heart is racing, he jumps up my legs, bites my pant legs (which has gotten better to be fair), and makes it hard for me to even move around. A few days ago we had our first session with a trainer which already helped a lot with leash behavior and we're going to a puppy group training thing tomorrow for the first time. With his constant struggle with overstimulation the past weeks, we haven't really had much opportunities to socialize as I would have liked to (when he sees people or animals or bikes or even cars he gets soooo excited it's hard to hold him back on the leash or keep him save on my arms) or even start some basic training besides potty training and the pen and leash outside.

The trainer said basically all puppies go through a phase like this, some just more than others, and that there isn't all too much I can do in the meantime, and that keeping him in the playpen a lot during the day is a good idea so he gets enough sleep and downtime. Frozen kongs and carrots sadly do not keep him busy all too long, sniffing games make him go even "crazier", so all the typical things I've found online so far have not been too helpful.

So I would just like to ask for your experience with puppies like this. I've been around a lot of dogs in my family and puppies too (never raised one by myself though) and I've never experienced any puppy that was like this almost all the time. I know he's going through a crazy phase right now with teething and growing and getting used to many things, and I wish I would just do a bit more to help him with all of it but it seems like the less I actively do the better. Did you ever have a puppy like this? How did that go, and how long did this phase last? Did it ever really go away? Did you manage to help your puppy somehow?

I love this little dude so much and I feel a little helpless sometimes with his overstimulation so I'd be happy to read some of your stories. Thank you!