Take her for a long - 1 hour - vigorous walk. This should be done with most dogs, each day. It gives them exercise, they get to spend time with you, and it should dispel excess energy.

She gets all the exercise she can handle around here. Her waking hours are spent running, playing freesbie, and lots of off-leash exploring (most of which is not walking!). She is with us all of the time.

Thanks for that - I agree. If a dog isn't part of the family and allowed to run and play, that family shouldn't have a dog. Any ideas of how to get her to settle down in the evening?

My little husky, Tatyana, is also a ball full of energy. I don't think she ever gets tired- she sleeps only to dream up more ways to get into mischief! *I* get exhausted just trying to keep up with her.

The one thing that helped me is to use the hour or so before bed as a calm petting time. I don't know if your dog is allowed on the sofa (Tatyana is), which would mean you spend time on the floor. But what I do is get her up on the sofa and lay down calmly while I pet her and watch an hour or so of TV or read or whatever. It's kind of training period- she has to be calm and lay down- and also serves as down time. Things like rawhides and special treats are just too exciting for her in the evening, so we just work on positive reinforcement. She stays still, I pet her. She gets wild, off the sofa and ignored. So it works out. We did this with our first dogs, who were not allowed on the sofa. We just sat on pillows on the floor.

Hope this helps. 4 month old pups are quite a handful!

That sounds like a great plan. We are trying to keep her off the furniture because she will be a large dog but I will sit on the floor with her this evening and see how that works. I don't expect immediate results, but it sure sounds like a way to start calming her down.

We are both in our 60's and having this little bundle of energy is already starting to get us into better shape!

Carmen - great that you have taken so much interest and care in your new pup. ely is right tho. On leash walking is different from off leash walking. It is a good time to establish yourself as the head of your dogs world. It is important to leash walk a dog at *LEAST* once a day if not more. PS - The most effecticve way to wear out a dog is to let it play with another dog. If you can find a playmate for your pup so they can play before going to sleep, you will be less frustrated with your puppies, puppy power surge. ALSO please remember, pups explore the world with their mouths, it is how they figure out things, if you have trouble with mouthing, gentle reprimand your pup, just say no, and then replace your hand or arm or whatever the pup is biting with a you which is okay to bite, soon enough your pup will get the idea of what is okay to chew on. If you replace what is okay to do with what is not to do, it is a more efffective way to train. Good luck with your new furbaby and I hope you all have a long and wonderful relationship.

I never looked at leash-walking like that. I sure will start walking her every day. We live in the middle of nowhere and there are no children or other puppies around for her to play with. I sure wish there were. It would certainly take lots of pressure off of us.

As far as the mouthing goes, she is almost perfect at all times of the day EXCEPT for the evening 'wild time' when she is determined to test us on all the stuff she has learned!

How about a short crating, then another period of time together before bed?

Our now 8 month old Toller has had an evening eruption of manic activity/toy playing/running around since almost day one, starting around 8-8:30PM.

We introduced the "Time Out" concept using the football handsignal, and then crating him for 20 minutes to an hour, until he's settled down and usually napping quietly. At first he moped and wailed and harumphed and sighed (and also sometimes shrieked and barked non-stop), but he eventually figured out that it just had to be a quiet time, and once he was quiet and calm, we would let him back out.

It gave us a chance to chill out after supper, gave the old dog a chance to cuddle uninterrupted in my husband's lap (as in, "before the new pup came along"), and allowed the new dog to learn to self-regulate. He seemed to quickly accept that we were all still together in the same room and he wasn't that far away, he wasn't being punished or isolated, and it wouldn't last that long.

We're not doing it every night anymore, sometimes not for a week or more, but when we need to, just the words "Time out!" and the handsignal will have him trotting off to curl up in the crate. He frequently sleeps in the open crate during the day (as does the other dog), so neither of them perceive it as a punishment chamber :o)

It may also help to round up the toys that your pup plays with most rambunctiously (or the ones that make the most noise!) and put them away (and out of sight) before the evening wild time begins. Maybe have one relatively "quiet" toy (like a non-squeaky stuffed animal) that only comes out in the evening, so it's special and interesting for him.

Good luck!

Susan

I don't think you should ever crate a dog as a mini-punishment. Crates should be rewards and happy time.

My dog likes to run in circles and chase her tail every night around 9 pm. Its her pre-bed time warm up.

elly, we don't use the crate as punishment. I don't think the dog perceives it as punishment either, since he uses the crate on his own frequently throughout the day, evening, and night. I know he objected initially, but he was never shut into it in anger.

I think "Go to your crate" is a legitimate option, even though the dog may prefer to keep on doing whatever it is doing, for example, annoying another pet, being too much dog for a visiting small child, insisting on adoring the non-dog lover, and so forth. My guy understands now that "Time out" means go lie down where it's safe and secure, and settle down a bit, and you can come back out in a few minutes.

Susan

Susan, I can't imagine anyone thinking you use your crate for any sort of punishment especially since the dog goes in to sleep on her own! "Time out" is not punishment. I would include being forced to settle down as a 'happy time'. A puppy is just like a little kid who just can't seem to wind down at bedtime.

And as far as chasing her tail to wind down, I would welcome that! I welcome anything that doesn't include me.