it wasn't too long a post -- a very interesting one. Since I am inexperienced, I'm listening to everyone who's had more experience than me on dogs
Mine seems to have the Scenthound temperament -- she's very calm and patient and doesn't bark in the house at all, and only rarely when outside, mostly "play with me!" barks and sometimes "Stop nipping at me".
i've been working from home these couple of months to ensure I spend enough quality time as I've read that the first 6 months are crucial and I want to ensure we have a very good adult dog.
My dog loves to dig, which is not a problem as we have a lot of open areas around my house and an 18th century fort complex where she loves to run up and down.
Though, if, in the middle of play she finds a stick, she will pretty often just sit down and gnaw and ignore all her friends. I figure out that's because she's teething, but I'm not too sure
She doesn't gnaw any furniture, though we've lost a carpet and two mats :) but hey, it's worth it -- and she gives back all of that and more in love
We didn't actually pick the dog out -- never even saw her but my wife's cousin's husband found an abandoned pregnant dog in the woods (what barbarians to do that to an animal) and he adores dogs.
He brought them back home (they have a house and lots of open space) and she gave birth to 9. Wifey's cousin calls us up one day and says "congratulations! we have a pup for you!" -- we were hesitant, but felt that they didn't have room for all the puppies so we said "ok, we're on holiday for 2 weeks. if no one takes her, we will" -- and I guess they stopped looking!
So we got this unknown puppy when we came back and she was perfect! My wife and I say we are very lucky and I intend ensuring that we never regret this by having a badly trained dog.
And it's really true -- when our puppy listens to a command she is happy!
Good job — it's wonderful to save a life. That's what you did, and what your wife's cousin did (several!).
A couple hints about dogs and puppies:
1. A good dog/puppy is a tired dog/puppy.
That's one of those simple sayings that is easy to gloss over. What it means is: When dogs have excess energy, they can get into mischief. Excess energy can be physical or mental. If you properly exercise and mentally stimulate a dog/puppy, they don't have the energy (mental or physical) to bother with getting into mischief.
2. In the winter, or if you simply haven't had the time to give them the physical exercise they need, you can give them mental stimulation instead. This is a short-term band-aid, not a permanent swap. Mental stimulation might work for 1-3 days, but after that, they will need physical exercise.
For example, if it's stormy for 3 days and your pup has pent-up physical energy, spend some time indoors doing mental exercises like Obedience training, or even Agility training. 10 minutes of Obedience exercises, three times a day, does a world of good to keep the puppy stimulated and keep him out of trouble. You can train some Agility commands indoors too.
Put a Laundry Basket in your hallway, and teach your dog to “Jump” over the basket on command. This will give the pup both mental and physical exercise. There is the high jump and the long jump. With pups, don't overdo certain exercises until their bones are finished developing. So the height or the length of the jump is not important, what is important is teaching them to perform the command on demand.
Lots of other training can be done indoors: Sit, Down, Long Down, Stay, Heel, Come, Retrieve, Retrieve Over a Jump, Hold, Drop-it, Front, Finish, Off, Wait, Stand, Back, toy differentiation, putting toys away, Hide & Seek, Find It, Scent Discrimination, etc.
3. If you haven't already, look into Clicker training. You and your dog will love it.
Obviously I could type about dogs all day.