High Energy Dog

[Anonymous]

We adopted anew dog in August (20ib mutt) and turns out she is VERY high energy (not something the rescue shared). We take her for a long-ish walk in the morning (2.5-4 miles), and she is farily quiet after that until 1 or so when she turns into a total spaz. She will start nosing around for whatever she can find to distract her - sometimes it's her toys, but also socks, shoes, tissues, her own dog bed, a table leg, whatever happends to catch her eye. We've gotten her a bunch of puzzle toys which keep her distracted a bit but if they're easy she finishes fast and if too hard she'll just walk away. We've frozen treats into kongs which work but she gets therough them in about 10 minutes and is then getting into mischief again. We try to take her for another 1-2 mile walk midday but between work and school it's tough sometimes, and doesn't even really work to get her to chill out. No fenced yard. Any ideas for other things to try? TIA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We adopted anew dog in August (20ib mutt) and turns out she is VERY high energy (not something the rescue shared). We take her for a long-ish walk in the morning (2.5-4 miles), and she is farily quiet after that until 1 or so when she turns into a total spaz. She will start nosing around for whatever she can find to distract her - sometimes it's her toys, but also socks, shoes, tissues, her own dog bed, a table leg, whatever happends to catch her eye. We've gotten her a bunch of puzzle toys which keep her distracted a bit but if they're easy she finishes fast and if too hard she'll just walk away. We've frozen treats into kongs which work but she gets therough them in about 10 minutes and is then getting into mischief again. We try to take her for another 1-2 mile walk midday but between work and school it's tough sometimes, and doesn't even really work to get her to chill out. No fenced yard. Any ideas for other things to try? TIA!

Dog play dates. When they run around and wrestle. Dog park or meetups with puppies/high energy dogs.

[Anonymous]

We have a high energy lab puppy (we knew what we were getting into), anyway, we do 2 long walks a day plus a shorter lunch walk. We play fetch in the house with chuckit indoor balls. The main thing we do when the dog starts getting into things because of boredom is training drills (they only take a few minutes, but thinking also wears dogs out), so we get some small training treats (or plain cheerios) and run through obedience commands (sit, down, stay, leave it, shake, shake with other paw, etc.) and that has helped a lot because it reminds the dog that you are in charge, but also wears them out mentally. You have to ramp up the difficulty of the commands periodically, or mix up the order, but it helps.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like she needs more possibly shorter walks rather than the very long one in the morning that exhausts her, causing her to sleep and re-energize.

I have the same issues with my dog so I take him for 3 walks over the course of the day, he's tired enough to not be a loon but not always totally asleep.

[Anonymous]

Doggie daycare a couple times per week? A dog sport like agility? Something like nose work would also be a good mental activity to get the energy out (mental activity can be just as important as physical activity).

[Anonymous]

Dog park near you?

You could bring your laptop and let the dog run off extra energy.

[Anonymous]

A young dog who is taken on a morning walk and needs another walk again midday is not a "high energy dog." Did you find nothing out about dogs before you adopted. They are living beings who need exercise and to relieve themselves (urinate, defecate) regularly through the course of their days.

You don't give the age of your dog, or the breed, but when we adopted our dog at age 1, we gave her up to 5 walks a day. Not an hour each, but for example, she got a 10 minute walk upon awakening, then an hour walk midmorning, a half hour walk after lunch, another good hour late afternoon or early evening, and a final 20 to 30 minute walk before bedtime.

Now that she's older, one hour walk is enough, but OP, you can't adopt a dog and expect that dog to just think, oh, okay, I'm only going to pee and poop at 8 every morning and hold it all day.

Toys can't possibly fix this problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A young dog who is taken on a morning walk and needs another walk again midday is not a "high energy dog." Did you find nothing out about dogs before you adopted. They are living beings who need exercise and to relieve themselves (urinate, defecate) regularly through the course of their days.

You don't give the age of your dog, or the breed, but when we adopted our dog at age 1, we gave her up to 5 walks a day. Not an hour each, but for example, she got a 10 minute walk upon awakening, then an hour walk midmorning, a half hour walk after lunch, another good hour late afternoon or early evening, and a final 20 to 30 minute walk before bedtime.

Now that she's older, one hour walk is enough, but OP, you can't adopt a dog and expect that dog to just think, oh, okay, I'm only going to pee and poop at 8 every morning and hold it all day.

Toys can't possibly fix this problem.

NP but the OP didn't talk about toilet breaks they were talking about exercise. OF COURSE they take them out for that or their house would be one enormous potty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A young dog who is taken on a morning walk and needs another walk again midday is not a "high energy dog." Did you find nothing out about dogs before you adopted. They are living beings who need exercise and to relieve themselves (urinate, defecate) regularly through the course of their days.

You don't give the age of your dog, or the breed, but when we adopted our dog at age 1, we gave her up to 5 walks a day. Not an hour each, but for example, she got a 10 minute walk upon awakening, then an hour walk midmorning, a half hour walk after lunch, another good hour late afternoon or early evening, and a final 20 to 30 minute walk before bedtime.

Now that she's older, one hour walk is enough, but OP, you can't adopt a dog and expect that dog to just think, oh, okay, I'm only going to pee and poop at 8 every morning and hold it all day.

Toys can't possibly fix this problem.

OP here - No need for your condeseiontion. As I said in my original post, she is a mutt (at least 9 different breeds according to her wisdom panel). And no, the rescue did not give us much information other than she was coming from a high-kill shelter and was good with other dogs. We 'think' she's about a year old (according to vet and our own observations) so definitely sill puppy, and we knew that going in. As a longtime dog owner I am well aware she is a 'living being' I can't expect to just take her out once and call it a day. She gets multiple walks and potty breaks throughout the day. I am not worried about her level of enegy since I know she'll calm as she gets older, I was looking for thoughts from people about how to best manage her energy now.

I define her as high-energy becaue if she does not get that long morning walk she has zoomies and is destructive in the morning as well. During her afternoon active time we will often play tug with her, fetch in the house, train her, etc, which is AFTER the midday walk (that I did mention in my first post) and she will still get zoomies, run up and down the stairs, eat shoes or furniture, etc.

Thank you so much to the folks who have responded with useful feedback - I really appreciate it!

[Anonymous]

Could you hire a dog walker to add in another walk? You also can hide treats around your house so she needs to sniff around for them.

[Anonymous]

A few things that worked with my high-energy dog:

Two one-hour Cesar-style walks. I know people on here don’t like Cesar, but I do like his philosophy on walks, which is that the dog stays right next to you and is just walking briskly until YOU say it’s time to stop to pee or poop. No retractable leashes, no constant sniffing, just walking as you are.

Treasure hunts. Take the dog outside or to another part of the house. Hide bits of treats around, then say “Find it!” And let the dog run around and find the bits of treats.

[Anonymous]

add some training - teach your dog tricks.
Anything goes - sit, stay, paw/shake, roll-over, spin, army crawl, so on and so forth
mental exercises are as tiring as walks for dogs

[Anonymous]

I had a high energy dog when he was a puppy until about 3 years old when he calmed down.

What worked- dog park for about an hour every day (not sure if this is an option bc COVID), doggy playdates with other high energy dogs, taking him on long hikes/runs- at least 3 mile runs.

[Anonymous]

OP ignore the unhelpful comments. There's always one loon on the pet boards at least.

We also found these helpful if you have bad weather and a zoomie dog :

https://zestypaws.com/products/calming-soft-chews-for-dogs

[Anonymous]

good suggestions above. you can also try biking with the dog if you need to tire them out but don't have time for a long walk.