Clarissa....your baby sounds like a typical puppy. Most of them are pretty crazy. If you want a mellower dog, you should adopt an adult. Maybe 4 years old or more - you'll be happier. Laura - yours looks like what I expect from Buster. He cracks me up the way he climbs around on things like a cat.
Attention is definitely not a problem in our house. He's only been with us for 3 weeks, but so far he's a breath of fresh air, as far as puppies go. He's very affectionate, but a tiny shy at first, playful but not too destructive - not any more than either of the others were when they were puppies. Duke, in fact, chewed a hole in our sofa cushion, ate the stairs in the kitchen and destroyed more shoes than I can remember, when he was a puppy. He eventually learned what was his and what was ours. Cricket is definitely getting better there too, though I will find teeth marks in my shoes on occasion.
Buster has a multitude of acceptable things to chew. Lots of Nylabones, puppy plush toys, ropes, kittens...oops...did I say that? His favorite thing it seems, though, is my piggy slippers. He pulls them right off my feet - while I'm standing! He hasn't gone after any furniture, so I guess that's a good sign he's not bored.
He is never alone - while we're gone, he and Cricket are gated in the kitchen area. Which is actually 2 decent sized rooms with laminate flooring, so I don't worry about accidents. Housebreaking is usually a challenge when you work outside of the home. I don't want to crate him for the whole day. It took Cricket until she was about 9 months old to be housebroken, and she still has accidents once in awhile. She's 2 1/2 now. I need to give him a break too, because he got a case of diarrhea about 10 days after moving in. I wasn't sure what caused it...could be stress, new food (even though I transitioned), the cat poop he ate, the compressed rawhides, the dog poop he ate... anyway, he made many disgusting messes on my carpet. I eliminated all the possible causes, then gave him some medicine I got from Petsmart and added some butternut squash to his food. His stools were solid again....so hopefully housebreaking can progress now.
Two walks a day (weather permitting) and lots of affection and playtime. I need to throw training in there too, but it's such a buzz kill. I taught him "sit" so far.
Oh...FWIW...I found the BEST stuff at getting poop out of the rug. It's called Kids & Pets. Non-toxic and works great, better than any other thing I've tried.
