Going mad before bed

[Frigg]

I've a 15 mths old Labrador. She is a very lovely dog most of the time. However, every time she go to bed she goes absolutely mad. It's a play but totally out of control and she is showing behaviour in this plays of hers she normally doesn't shows like jumping, nipping and running extra fast etc. And then, after about 15 minutes of this "play" she goes to bed.

It's like she feels she is having the last change of playing and has to overdue it.

What can be causing this?

Solution, please?

Cheers,

Frigg

 

[goldenbear2013]

I'm so sorry but I am sitting here chuckling to myself, as my Lab who is now nearly 2 was exactly the same with his outbursts in craziness. Still has the odd one to be honest! Thankfully for me it wasn't before bed, but his manifested itself at any point during the day. Total nightmare so I know how you feel. And before I start, this will stop so don't worry too much! I didn't think it was ever going to end!!!

Whatever you do don't bend over and go to grab her; all you will do is spur her on. Walk away from her and shut the door behind you leaving her in the other room. She will wonder what is going on and should make her stop. If she stops go back in and reward her, however you see fit. If she does it again, repeat the process until she ceases altogether.

Another option which what I had to do to control my dog when he acted up like this is to pop her lead on her when she is in the house. Just let it drag round next to her, you don't have to hold all the time. that way when she goes mad you just get hold of the lead and lead her into her bed. You don't look at her, you don't talk to her, you don't touch her, just the lead. This again should knock her out of the mental state she is in. This for me was to calm my dog down and then after he was calm in his bed (I have a crate but same thing!) then he was allowed out. This process was repeated until he was completely calm and gave up being naughty. The first time I did this he went into his crate over 40 times in the space of 1 1/2 hours before he actually gave up and settled down, so you must preserver, otherwise she will know that eventually you will give up and she can do what she wants.

You may have to adapt this method if you chose to use it slightly as your issue is only of a night time before bed.

Now; people may not agree with what I'm about to say but I have tried this on my dog and it worked. If all else fails and you do manage to get hold of her grab the scruff of her neck either side of her head (not her collar) and say very loudly and is a very stern voice "NO!!!" and then lead her off to her bed. You will scare her to death BUT this is brute force and a last resort without actually smacking or hurting your dog, as personally I don't think it gets you anywhere, it just makes them not want to come near you as much!

What I have just said I did only last week, as my trainer recommended I do this and to stop tapping my dog on his nose. He went ballistic in his agility class (the excitement had gotten the better of him!) and was acting out just as you have described, so when he behaved like this again I tried the method I was told and it worked. He hasn't acted like that since. He instantly became submissive and rolled onto his back and showed his belly to me, to tell me that I won basically!

So there you go! A few ways that you can try, some more gentle than others, but sometimes you do need to give your dogs a stern telling off as other wise they will never take your seriously and training will become increasingly difficult especially with the age she is at now.

6-20 months is always difficult with most dogs as they are still very much puppies and need to learn the way things should be done not how they want them to be.

I hope this advice helps you and please do let me know how you get on.

Sophie x

 

[6th Sense]

How about taking him for a quick walk just before bed. It can be quite nice late in the evening when all is quiet and you can walk beneath the stars

 

[eingana]

Yep, this sounds very much like a last chance to play boundary testing phase. Molly used to do similar when she was younger and would do it at any time we paid her attention before doing what we asked her to do, complete with leaping about, play bowing like crazy, like she just had to get all of this excess energy out of the way before she could pay attention and hear any commands.

The way we dealt with it (bearing in mind she was still doing this when she weighed 35kg and my living room is only 12' square) was to teach her a multipurpose 'no' command. Being a shepherd and being very good with human tone of voice I try hard not to shout at her. Her hearing is so sensitive that if she jumps at loud noises I don't want to cause her any pain- I do have a 'She who must be obeyed' voice but I save it for absolute emergencies and most of my instructions and requests are given in a quiet mutter or a very gentle happy voice, so if I do use a big voice it's a real shock to her.

For everything else I use my 'no' tone, which is a somewhere between clearing my throat and saying 'uh oh' in the back of my throat. It only ever gets used as an instruction for Molly so whenever it is used she knows it's for her even if I don't use her name or make eye contact. This tone is used any time she's had an instruction that she's ignored, any time I want her to stop what she's doing and pay attention to me, any time she's mucking around and needs to concentrate.

To enhance the concentration I often ask her to do one of her tricks, usually sitting motionless with a small piece of one of her favourite treats on the end of her nose until I tell her she can have it. When it's balanced on the end of her nose she knows that she can't move at all without it falling off, and that focus works the leaping about inclination out of her and brings her back to being a bit more sane

I'm all for a walk before bed if you can fit one in too- Molly is extra twitchy when she may want a poo soon, so a walk and the chance to have a poo and a wee are good ways of calming her down ready for sleep.

It's all about what things work for you and your dog really. It may come down to a combination of things or a rising scale of things to do when she's having one of those outbursts.

Good luck on finding which ways she can find her focus when she really wants to run around

 

[Chatterdog]

Haha just read this and made me smile, it's frustrating isn't it.

I had it for ages with mine lab, bedtime zoomies. The only way we found was to take her for a short and focused quick walk before bed and a 5min game with her rope toy, she would then trott off to bed with it. She eventually grew out of it so hopefully it is just a phase. (although she is 15 years now and still likes a patrol of the garden 5 mins before bed)

Good advise already given so I will just say good luck.

 

[Raven oaktree]

Ohh the dreaded zoomies..yep we have the zoomies in our house too. Willow does it straight after a 2 hour walk then collapses in the deepest sleep for about 3hours . I'm hoping she will grow out of it

 

[gypsysmum]

What about producing a stuffed Kong before the zoomies start?

The basis of stopping unwanted behaviour is -

Give them something else to do and reward it.

So, a stuffed Kong or a tasty chew or a bit of obedience training using high value rewards would all come under this banner. You will have to start it before the zoomies begin!

If you get involved with him when he is being silly he may regard it as fun even though you do not!