Day 6 - Rest, you teeth tornado

Sleep, eat, wee, bite, bite, bite, bite, crate.

Day 6 - Rest, you teeth tornado
Already starting to look like a real dog.

Today is a somewhat difficult day to write about; Tera has been in her crate for a large part of the day, giving her opportunities to sleep and stay out of trouble. She has been chewing on her chew toys on the place bed for a few minutes, until her energy level started to spike.
She settles quicker and sleeps longer than yesterday, so I see that as a big win.

Growing up

She has been clearly growing very fast the last few days, and suddenly today after a nap, both her ears were standing up! Now she looks like a real dog. I do feel that this growing is contributing to her behaviour. She is still mouthy as they come, and sometimes after an interruption when she chews on the leash, she flips out at me. I can't accept that behaviour– you do not snap at me, ever– but I do feel she is overstimulated at that moment. I know she can't help it, but it is becoming too annoying to handle for very long outside the crate– the only thing she has on her mind the last two days is biting things. Tomorrow I will see what happens if I give her some short periods in the back garden to blow off some energy and some chewing time on the place bed. A long enough toilet opportunity to give her time to wee and poo, but not too long. Then five minutes in the back garden, tops. To finish it off, see if she can calm down a bit on the place bed with some things to chew. Then, crate time to sleep for an hour or two.
I feel like by doing what I have been doing today is just setting her up to fail, since I am constantly correcting her for making bad choices in the heat of the moment. That does not feel fair.
I also see this as different from the standard 'puppy biting', where they communicate by mouthing; this feels more compulsive– like she just has to chew on something non-stop. Corrections don't really seem to work for this.

Due to her behaviour today, I did not get any obedience done. Not important. Getting a grip on this teeth-tornado is top priority now.

Blur

I am noticing that I am staring to mix the events of the last day or two up. Even though I feel like I have been sleeping better, I am still exhausted. I even dozed off behind my PC this afternoon.
I really had to think what events took place today, and which yesterday.
This morning she started to growl and bark at a very calm Golden Retriever. I corrected her for that and the meeting afterwards was just perfect. Tera was a bit playful, and did not seem fearful at all.
I have read that pups often display this behaviour– nothing aggressive, it is just how they think they should say hello. I need to look into this further.
I hope that on our last regular toilet break of the day, she finally takes a poo–she has not done that since 3:00 this morning. Knowing that is not a possible present in the crate in case I wake up too late does make me sleep better.

What is your best way to deal with this teething phase? Did it drive you crazy as well?