16-week-old Whippet constantly whining - what am I doing wrong?
Hi everyone! I have a 16-week-old Whippet (she has been with me since she was 9 weeks old), and I could really use some advice.
The first few weeks were extremely difficult. Figa simply could not settle herself. She would get overstimulated very quickly, and the more wound up she became, the more she would run around, destroy things, bite, and generally lose control. We had to constantly help her fall asleep by putting her in a dark, quiet room — that was the only way we could get her to take the naps she needed for proper development.
After about three weeks of fighting for every single nap, she finally learned to fall asleep on her own. I thought we had finally turned a corner… but then another problem appeared: Figa has absolutely no idea how to entertain herself.
At the moment, we are trying to follow a routine: wake up → 10–15 minute potty/sniffing walk → about 10 minutes of calm play → then she is expected to entertain herself for a while and eventually go to sleep.
Unfortunately, she was still destroying and chewing absolutely everything, so we bought a puppy pen and blocked off part of the living room for her. Basically, she now has her own little room where she can do whatever she wants without being able to hurt herself or destroy the house.
And now she has discovered Whippet Opera.
She whines. Constantly.
She whines in the pen. She whines outside the pen. She whines when she is on a leash inside the apartment. She whines when she wants to go outside. She whines when she is outside on a leash. (She cannot be off-leash because then she immediately activates her “destroy everything in my path” mode — and a human desperately trying to catch her is apparently the best toy in the world.)
She also absolutely hates being covered with blankets. She sometimes lies on them, but covering herself with one? Absolutely not.
At this point, I honestly don't know what else to do. I have been exhausted and sleep-deprived for the past two months, and by the end of the day the whining gives me migraines. She has a very specific, high-pitched whining sound that unfortunately is a huge trigger for me.
So please, any advice would be very much appreciated.
What should I be doing differently? What am I doing wrong? Is there something I should stop doing altogether?
I am also deliberately teaching her to be comfortable spending time alone and entertaining herself, because unfortunately she will soon have to stay home alone for around 6 hours. I simply cannot work remotely forever.
I know she is still a very young puppy, and I don't expect her to magically become independent overnight. I just feel like I'm missing something obvious, because right now I feel completely overwhelmed.
If anyone has raised a similarly intense Whippet puppy, I would be incredibly grateful to hear what worked for you — and what definitely did NOT.