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I rescued a 7 month old mutt (jack russel pointer?) about 3 weeks ago from the humane society. He's my first dog (I'm single and work a full time job). So far I couldn't ask much more from the him. He's had no house breaking issues. He's super friendly very cute. Seems to be a quick learner. Yes we've had issues like playing tug of war with the leash or stealing my bagel but he's an untrained puppy I expected this sort of thing and we're working on it (we're in training and the humane society behaviorist is working with us). Overall I can't say enough good about him.
Here's the issue:
He has so much energy and I'm no fun. I'm doing it but I don't really like playing with him and he wants to play for hours. I wanted an active dog to take jogging and hiking but much to my surprise my vet says that walks of that sort don't count as activity. People speed is just too slow. This seems to be true because a long walk only gets him more excited. Luckily he's not too hyper with it but I just don't know how to deal with his energy in a way we can both enjoy.
(Side note: I'm not happy with how the humane society downplayed my "serious concerns" about activity level during the adoption)
I also don't care for him being by my side all the time. Can't he have some fun while I wash the dishes? I know he wants to play. I found myself dreading coming home from the grocery just because I needed some time to myself.
Lack of leash training has made walks unpleasant so far but I can see small improvements that give me hope for the future which is sadly the only area I can see future happiness for us at this point.
He took the place of a cat that was my best buddy for half my life. I thought since I'm pretty active a dog would be better then another lazy cat but now I'm thinking my personality is better suited for a cat. My cat helped me chill out every day after work the dog just ups the stress.
I do love this dog. he's wonderful. I want to make this work but I'm afraid we're just a poor match.
Any tips on how I can get over these issues.
Here's the issue:
He has so much energy and I'm no fun. I'm doing it but I don't really like playing with him and he wants to play for hours. I wanted an active dog to take jogging and hiking but much to my surprise my vet says that walks of that sort don't count as activity. People speed is just too slow. This seems to be true because a long walk only gets him more excited. Luckily he's not too hyper with it but I just don't know how to deal with his energy in a way we can both enjoy.
(Side note: I'm not happy with how the humane society downplayed my "serious concerns" about activity level during the adoption)
I also don't care for him being by my side all the time. Can't he have some fun while I wash the dishes? I know he wants to play. I found myself dreading coming home from the grocery just because I needed some time to myself.
Lack of leash training has made walks unpleasant so far but I can see small improvements that give me hope for the future which is sadly the only area I can see future happiness for us at this point.
He took the place of a cat that was my best buddy for half my life. I thought since I'm pretty active a dog would be better then another lazy cat but now I'm thinking my personality is better suited for a cat. My cat helped me chill out every day after work the dog just ups the stress.
I do love this dog. he's wonderful. I want to make this work but I'm afraid we're just a poor match.
Any tips on how I can get over these issues.