My puppy's "witching" hour???

[Sue]

Hi, I have an 11 week old F2B goldendoodle. She is a great puppy all day but really goes through what I call her "witching" hour between 8pm-11:30pm.....During this time, she gets extremely nippy, jumpy, growling and often has a zoomie or two.....It can get pretty scary for my kids as they are usually the ones she "nips, bites, jumps on first.....Has anyone gone through this and what advice or help can you offer....She does eventually tire herself out but I wish it did not cause so much stress as we sort of see this behavior coming so would like to curb it......As a note - she is exercised 1-2 walks per day plus some play time with balls in backyard.....

Any thoughts, recommendations would be greatly appreciated even if it is just to say "she will outgrow it"......I feel that our days our great and then when we are going to bed ( obviously when we are more tired as well) she starts up....

Thanks

[Missy]

I am not sure why these pups have a 'high burst of energy', but it is apart of their makeup I believe.  We always just made a pathway and let ours run.  It is almost like they want to stretch out their legs. I always corrected for the nipping behavior, by giving him a toy he could carry on his run. and then we would just cheer him on! 

I have found that no matter how many walks or yard play time was given, our pup just loves to RUN.  We plan for RUN times outside and this helps cut down on the inside runs. 

we do our brushing at night time and this encourages a more relaxed evening, but our pup loves to be brushed. He also love massages! 

maybe plan depending on your yard boundaries, or park to free run?

[Mary ann & Lincoln]

The witching hour is unfortunately normal!  The good news is that they do somewhat outgrow it.  Lincoln is 10months old and still night time is his crazy time, but not all the nipping etc.  It helps to give them a chew toy or bone of some kind. Playing ball so they can run helps too.  Nothing to rough to encourage the biting, especially with your kids.  We also used ice cubes, Lincoln still loves them.  He could play with it and then eat it.  Now in the hotter weather he really likes them.  Hang in there it does get better. 

[Lori, Winnie, Bob and Indie]

She'll outgrow it! Winnie used to do that from 7pm-9pm like clockwork- right when my husband and I wanted to be relaxing. If she couldn't nip on us, she would nibble on furniture (which she never did otherwise) just to get our attention. It was VERY stressful and frustrating. This would be the time when we would bring out a new chew toy, bully stick, etc. Put them up during the day so that by evening they are extra enticing to her. Or, sometimes I would take her for another impromptu 15 minute walk. 

I think it also seems to happen more so when they are overly tired. Just like how kids get ornery when they need to rest! :-) So, we did more "time outs" during the evening as well. We used her crate, but you can use any other safe place where you just put her there for 5 minutes to cool down a bit. 

But, that being said, TIME more than anything will take care of it. You will likely notice a huge difference by Christmas time- you just have to get through these ugly evenings.

[Helga, Nimbus, Sierra, Clooney]

Yes, it is perfectly normal, but I also think they need way more exercise than 2 walks and a little ball play. They can run so fast for so long, you wouldn't believe that they still have energy left. Do you have a dog park nearby where she can really run?

[Sue]

She has not had her 2nd set of vaccines yet so I cannot take her out. Also with the heat, she does not seem that interested when I do go out to play with her....her favorite thing to do is pull grass and eat it....I am out of ideas as to burn her energy before "witching hour".....any suggestions are welcome but cannot take her very far or interact with other dogs just yet...

Keep the ideas/suggestions coming....I am feeling overwhelmed.....and get stressed thinking about what is to come every evening.
thank you again

[Helga, Nimbus, Sierra, Clooney]

Do you have a pool? Maybe she'd like to swim. Or maybe you have a friend/neighbor with a healthy dog that you know is not going under other dogs that she could have a playdate with?

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

If you have stairs throwing a tennis ball down the stairs and making them run it back up to you makes all that energy disappear quickly, with both my boys when they are going nuts I just head over to the stairs for twenty minutes and then I have two tired doodles :)

[Sooner Mom]

Great advice.  We put a small child size plastic swimming pool from Wal-Mart on our porch.  We dump in all the waterproof toys every night at this time and let her bring them down the steps out in to the yard.  It wears her out.  I agree with the advice here for more meaningful interaction with you that involves exercise.  Think of things that don't promote nipping or get her overly excited and aggressive.  This gives our pup a purposeful task in her mind.  Get creative and find something that works for you.  We all look forward to it.  Plus it cools her down before bed too.  

[Jenny and Cooper]

Our Cooper is a little over 6 months old and he still has those crazy hours in the evening. He is quiet all day long, but like clockwork 6:30 pm comes and he will start barking! It can get annoying but we learned to ignore and turn our backs or walk in the house and leave him be. He will then stop. We help him burn his energy by playing fetch, that only last about 10-15 mins with treats but it helps! Then my husband takes over and chase him around the yard. This is the hour where he becomes naughty and want to dig. When we try to stop him, he'll get the zoomies. This also helps tire him out. We will then either walk him for 30 mins or take him to the dog park. I find that regardless of how much Cooper exercise during the day, he will still be hyper in the evening. Chew treat really helps. We give him one every night at 9 pm before he goes to bed. You'll at least have 30 minutes to breathe and relax. Hang in there, I'm also waiting for the "witch hour" to be over. Lol

[Sheeba Daniel]

She will grow out of it! And I'm saying this as a owner of a doodle who is now only 18 weeks. Things have significantly gotten better for us in just the past 3 weeks. Tessy still has spurts of a lot of energy and "not listening," taking shoes when told no, nipping, and just acting naughty but this is soooo much better than when she was 11/12/13 weeks and had the zoomies daily at about 5-7pm. She would literally zoom around in circles chasing her own tail, dash under tables, jump over stuff on the floor, attempt to jump on the couch (which is a big no-no) - she just was nuts - and with the constant nipping, it really stressed me and worried me. This group has been wonderful in reminding me that it will get better and now I can say, "It does get better!" I mean we still have to have our eye on her, are diligent with training her and watch for her signals to go out (stands at the door but still doesn't bark - ugh), but she is just more regulated now - still puppy energy but more predictable. Also, as soon as she got her second set of shots (and the vet gave the go ahead), walks really helped! Keeping her mentally worn out helped too - like using food puzzles,  or carrying her around to pick kids up at school really wore her out - the new sights, smells, sounds. Also, chew toys, chew toys, chew toys! Especially edible chewies that she really had to work at/long lasting kind that we could present to her over and over. These didn't really provide her as much food as it did a work-out (mental and physical). Lastly, I started using the word "relax" by advice from people on this site. When I would say "relax" I would also just hold her calmly and rub her belly and then eventually say, "it's time to relax in the crate" calmly and put her in the crate. I get her out several times and put her back in the crate the same way several times during each "zoomies episode." Hope this helps.

[Katie]

I don't have much advice but I can assure you my puppy is doing the same thing from 5-8PM.  

My Luna is 12 weeks old.  

Good luck and please share if you find anything that helps.  The nipping is getting out of hand for me.

[Marie + Marshall]

That describes exactly how our 1 year old Goldendoodle Marshall used to get like. Never that late though-9pm bedtime. But from 6-8pm we would go through the same thing. Although, I agree with exercise, I also totally agree with it being worse if they are over tired. We got a soft inside ball and would toss it down the hall. And we would work on training (run through commands) with treats. In fact I saved any treat times for the evening-it worked great. Something would click in his head during training time and calm down. We also used puzzles at night as well. Will they outgrow it? YES!! He just turned 1 this weekend and although it does still happen to a small degree, nothing like before. Hang in there. I kinda miss the craziness :-)