Alfie is now 14 weeks old,we walk him for about half an hour morning and evening, but when we get home after the evening walk he runs around the room like a mad thing and if you try to calm him down he starts biting you everytime you go near him.Any ideas anyone? Does he need a longer walk? he seems to have so much energy.
A lot of pups and young dogs seem to have a bit of a 'crazy hour' in the evenings, where they turn into whirling dervishes, or become hugely attention seeking, or try to simultaneous nick every sock in the house... I think it's a bit of a case of a tired body but a brain that hasn't stopped for the day. What I'd try doing is making both your walks shorter (say, 20 mins each) but adding in 10 mins of mental stimulation including training and things like hide and seek games (you can hide people with treats or just hide treats to be sniffed out). Wearing out the brain before the crazy hour hits seems to help in many cases. Training sessions (especially where something new is learned) wear out the brain better than anything.
Are his walks on lead or off? I ditto what Rachel has said about mental stimulation being important step this age.
We walk to a green space where we let him off the lead an let him follow me around and trying to call him which hes quite good at.Iwill try the games and more mental stimulation.Thanks for the advice,its much appreciated.
They do grow out of this! Mine was really hard work in the evenings for a while. Can still have a bit of a mad half hour! I found a bit of training helped and settling him with a chew helped too as the chewing seemed to tire him and after that he slept. Sam and Mole
I think half an hour twice a day at that age is too much. Try some scampers for shorter periods. It sounds to me as if he is overtired hence the mad runs around the living room. Though pups do tend to have mad evenings, but they do grow out of it
Have been out this morning to a place where we let him off the lead andplayed hide and seek which he loved, I bought a chew toy which we gave him a little while ago.He has been carrying it around and chewing it fir ages and has now fallen asleep! I will try this again this evening. Thank you so much for the help.
Millie did the same thing, she got too overtired so I shortened the walks and when we got home from the walk in the evening I gave her a frozen carrot to chew on to get her to calm down. Since I did this from when she was 13 weeks until she was 15 weeks she now don't race around in the evening and I only give a frozen carrot when she's teething these days, instead I usually throw some kibble on the floor she can sniff up or give her a banana. Millie's limit is a 35/40min walk in the morning with a 10min break in the shade along with drinking a lot water (I poor it on her too if it's sunny). Then in the evening we go for a snooze walk I call it for 20/25 mins where I let her just sniff around a lot and do some training. She's now 17 weeks old. (Time goes too fast I wanna keep my small puppy longer ).
