Our puppy (GSD - 9 weeks old last Friday) is a lovely puppy. In the daytime, she naps, and plays in a very gentle and calm way, and is very easy to manage. However, in the morning she is wired. We crate her at 12 midnight, get up at 3am to take her to the toilet, crate her again, get up again at 6 am to take her to the toilet, crate her again and then get up just before 8am to take her to the loo, feed her etc. The problem is, when we get her up at 8am, she gets so excited and so full of energy she will barely eat her meal because she is so intent on play. I know this is normal for a puppy to want to play, particularly after not seeing us overnight, but she is driving us to distraction - she is deaf and dumb to us, snaps, jumps and is pretty much uncontrollable for just over an hour, and we are finding it hard to cope with this hour. Any play we try to begin quickly degenerates into her snapping/play biting, much harder than she knows to do (usually she very gently mouths at hands). If you try and reprimand her with a stern 'no' or 'off' this just fuels her to react worse by snapping at legs more, running off etc. Now I know she is only 9 weeks old, but the contrast in this hour or so to her usual behaviour is really stark - usually she listens to the commands 'sit', 'down' etc (with a treat incentive), she interacts gently, and we can play with her and she is a real sweetheart (dry all through the day, dry at night etc.) We fully accept that this behaviour is part and parcel of her being a puppy (particularl one crated over night), however, both myself and my partner are wondering what coping strategies we can use to get ourselves through this hour. Would doing some training be usefull (i.e. working more on her 'sits', 'downs' and 'stays') to try and utilise all the energy into something constructive? Some advice would be greatly appreciate before we both prematurely age before our time!

LOL my Roy is also fully charged in a morning ! I'm lucky that my GSD(who is 10)occupies him whilst I get the breakfasts etc done.

You could try teaching her to retrieve with a tuggy or similar so that she can end up winning it & carrying it off as a trophy & so that she has something else other than you in her mouth

LOL anyone hearing me with my pup must think I am nuts(which is probably true)we have Mr Tuggsie, Bally on rope, Mr Ted & Mr Seal lolololol

I'm basically knocked over in the morning from all the "Daddy your awakes!". I think it's normal but if its to much to handle give him a timeout in he crate for acouple of minutes and see if he cools down.

Play tug-of-war with her , that seems to always tucker my boys out quick plus its focused energy!

Mine are still delighted to greet us every morning! I go out into the garden with them and have our morning play and chat out there before we do breakfast.
:)