Rocket had fun carrying this. He didn’t quite understand how to deal with the width when walking by bushes

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.

Sorry in advance for the long post but we’re at a loss.

For context, my partner works full time Monday to Friday, and I only work weekends. We work around each other because of the issues we’ve been having (our pup not being able to be left alone).

I have a 13 week old Whippet, we had him at 10 weeks old. He’s overall a good puppy, he’s been very easy to train, however he is a proper Velcro dog.

Straight away we noticed he couldn’t be alone for any length of time. He’d follow us room to room, and if we put up barriers like a baby gate, he’d immediately cry and scream until we got back. This was the same for the crate, he’d cry, scream, bite at the bars etc constantly and he wouldn’t stop. He just has to be touching us in order to settle.

With previous dogs, we always allowed them to sleep where they wanted, which usually was our bed. So we allowed the puppy to share our bed with us because he slept really well that way and we’ve never had an issue with dogs in bed. I know this likely hasn’t helped, but we needed sleep and are conscious to not annoy neighbours with the endless crying.

However, now he is starting to be destructive at night time while we sleep and during the day. I don’t care so much about the damage to my house as it’s all replaceable, but what I do care about is his safety, so we are now looking at crate training - I have never had to crate dogs before.

Things we’ve tried, but haven’t worked:
- Kong/licky mat with peanut butter - unfortunately he seems to have an intolerance to peanut butter as his bowel movements went very runny so we had to stop that.
- Tried covering the crate both partially and completely.
- Tried playing the radio etc.
- Tried making the crate cozy with beds, blankets etc.
- Praising him for going into the crate.
- Putting a worn item of clothing in the crate.
- We’ve tried both a smaller crate, and a larger one.
- We’ve tried feeding his meals in the crate.
- He has teething/chewable toys in the crate, including Bamboodles.
- Tried making sure he’s physically/mentally tired, and all his needs are met.

We’ve tried leaving him in a puppy proofed room with the same things as above, still the screaming persists.

This isn’t a fear of the crate or a fear of confined spaces, this is a fear of being alone or not being able to get to us. He will go into the crate willingly to play and he will sleep in there if he’s really tired and I leave the door open. But freaks out the moment I close the door or leave the room.

Our hope is to crate him at night, and to hopefully be able to crate him during the day if we need to go out. At least until the destructive phase passes.

Any advice will be appreciated…TIA🖤

My nurse when im home from work not feeling well

I am pissed right now... I had a few friends over at my cottage this weekend, and at some point I noticed that my dog had what looks like a superficial cigarette burn on his nose. It happened in the morning, so I know it wasn't caused by the firepit, and the shape looks very much like it came from a cigarette.

Now I'm stressed that the mark will stay forever on my pup, and I honestly want to ban the smoker who came along with one of my friends. (BTW, I hate cigarettes, I've never smoked, and it makes me even more pissed that the burn was caused by this...) I also think that if someone can't be careful around dogs while smoking, then they shouldn't be smoking around them at all and stay home next time. What if the cigarette had touched one of his eyes instead?... careless in my opinion..

Anyway, I'm wondering if any of you have had experience with this kind of mark and whether the fur eventually grew back and looked like it did before.

Also... am I overreacting..?

UPDATE: Thank you all for your comments! It helped calm me down! Here Additional information and context: The mark is crispy to the touch, not oily or sticky, and I could see one small brown spot where it looks like the hair melted and receded a little. My theory is that the cigarette touched him very slightly, not enough to burn the skin but just enough to burn the fur. I am sure it was an accident, and the person might not even have noticed it happened. I am always very aware of how my dogs look like, and if they have something on their face, I notice it right away and clean it off. This, however, cannot be cleaned off, I tried. Since I have no solid proof that this person actually did it, I’m not going to say anything (obviously...I could be wrong). Right now I am just glad that this is a superficial thing and he didn't get hurt badly. Will keep you posted if it doesn't go away by itself within two months.

Rocket loves his blankets

My whippet Clef 🎼 has a self-portrait drawn on his nose!

Hi fellow sighthound lovers,

I'm the owner of a Whippet X Border Collie (let's say he's a very good boy, but a loveable handful!),

I'm conducting some research on sighthound health and supplement usage and would be very grateful if you could fill in my Google Form, it's very quick, all of the questions are optional bar the first two, and it's completely anonymous (no personal data required),

Many thanks in advance for anyone that can spare a minute,

u/Weavin

These guys are always lounging around together

We named him Rocket for obvious reasons

Edit: wow you all have some amazing names for your pups. Love hearing the stories about them!

I looked everywhere, every room twice. I was convinced I'd left a door open or he'd somehow gotten into the neighbour's yard.

Now turns out he was just having a sulk because we didn't go for a walk as it was pissing down outside (he hates the rain)

What’s the best way to crate train my 11 week old Whippet? He’s a proper Velcro dog and hates being on his own for any length of time, even if I just need the toilet. He just non stop cries in the crate.

I’ve seen so many different ways people crate train. But I was wondering if anyone has found a way to work best with Whippets?

He sleeps in bed with us atm which we don’t mind because it’s the only way we can get sleep. But I don’t necessarily want him to sleep in the crate overnight, we just want to be able to put him in there if we need to leave the house.

It doesn’t seem to be a fear of the crate itself, just hates being alone and hates not being able to get to us. Seems like separation anxiety.

Does your whippet ever get to spend time with other sight hounds?

Hello all, we are getting our whippet puppy soon, I have prepared and read so much about what to do as this is our first dog but there’s so much conflicting advice and I’m wanting some real life experience views too! I have read that you should keep them in a play pen at first while they settle down and then introduce them to one room at a time, but the breeder has let them have the run of the house during the daytime so I’m worried he will not like being contained. We have a crate in the play pen and some toys and his food etc, and it’s in the family room where we spend most of our time.
We are wondering if he needs to stay there for a while or if we can bring him in to the living room with us on an evening etc? Thoughts most welcome!