Our Doodle's witching hour. Biting and humping. Humping and biting.

[Tom and Tab]

Beau just turned 4 months the other day and so far things are good. 

He's pretty good with the housebreaking. Although he sniffs for most of the time outside he does his business when needed. If we could get him to walk down the street instead of all over the yard it would be great. Leash training is in order. He yanks and doesn't take the hint when I try to keep him out of places where other critters may lurk.

Now the biting is a little rough. I'd say most of the day he is good and doesn't do too much biting on anything other than his toys.

Once 7 pm hits, he's the tasmanian devil. He tears through the house, jumps on the couch, bites the crap out of my or my wife's arm, and gets busy on it. Put him down and give him something to gnaw on, and about a minute later he's back at it. He will also have a stand off with me and bark. This goes for an hour or so. After that he settles and lays between my feet till bed. 

We use his crate to settle him down and he will hang in there and lay down. Once he;s out, it's getting it on time again. 

I don't want to use his crate as a time out but I think it's the only option I have. When it's bedtime he knows it and goes right in there with his stuffed dragon and he's off to la la land.

Not sure how to handle this. Are we doing the right thing by having him settle in his cage?

My hands look like I put them through a window with all the bites and scratches.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

This time of day, was called the ' zoomies " at our house. Every night like clock work. The good news is, it's another phase. We chose that time to start rolling the ball ( or throw down a hallway) to help tire her out. Biting was highly dissuaded and replaced with a toy.
Consider the bites and scratches an earned Badge of Puppyhood.

[Pam Lawrence]

I went through a horrible biting phase with my Doodle, Jamie. He would launch himself at me and bite so hard that I was bruised. I also had stand offs with him when he would bark and just be a huge brat. The good news is that it's a phase that will pass.... Hang in there. DO NOT give in to the stand offs. It's hard, I know!!!! I also found that if he played with other dogs during the day, he seemed to learn some manners. I also confined him when he started his biting rampages, but not in his crate. He likes the crate and I didn't want it to be associated with bad behavior. It will get better!!!!

[Emery & Watson]

Our pup would get zoomies most evenings, around this age.  We would let him run around as long as he wasn't completely out of control.  If he started to get out of hand we would give him a time out in the bathroom.  For him, we could usually let him out after a minute or two since he settled down really quickly in there.  We didn't want to use his crate for his time out, because we wanted his crate to be a good and happy place and the bathroom to be the place where he knew he was bad, and he'd be isolated and that its no fun.  

If he is barking at you, don't yell back, remain calm, try to ignore him as much as you can and just don't give in.   If you yell back, to him its like you're both barking and its so fun!  Or if you give him something to try to get him to stop, then he knows that he can get things by barking at you

[Tom and Tab]

He definitely has the zoomies. If I can occupy him for a little while I think we can get over this. The kids scatter when this starts. I'd love to take him out and toss a tennis ball to him till he tips over from exhaustion, but our yard isn't fenced and there are plans for an invisible fence soon but even then the yard is a still a mud bowl for another month.

Unfortunately he loves the bathroom. Not sure why because he hasn't really been in there and there's nothing for him in there. I'll just have to keep him in there and hope he starts to not like it. 

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

The idea is to close the bathroom door so he is separated from you. Not sure if your are closing it :-)

[Emery & Watson]

also when we put him in there the lights are off... mostly because I forget when I put him in there and close the door, but I'm sure it adds to the "this is not a fun place" vibe

[Tom and Tab]

Oh door is closed and the lights are off. He loves it. He actually got stuck in there one time and we couldn't find him for 5-10 minutes. He was very happy in there. Maybe when it relative to being in trouble that'll change.

[Dawn and Molly]

Our 9 wk old puppy was in our bathroom last night. I had everything up, but didn't think of the toilet paper roll. She had it all unrolled in seconds.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Our trainer used to liken this to an overtired toddler.  She said just put them to bed (we had two).  Like others have said, it is a phase.  Ours dont do it any longer.

[Diane D]

Thanks for sharing all this information. We are experiencing the same behavior with Roxy. She goes crazy just around the time we want to sit down and relax. I do play ball with her, but it's never enough. Some evenings we give her a chew stick to calm her down somewhat. She grabs the ball or wobbler and keeps rubbing it up against me and sometimes bites me instead of the toy. I think she is trying to get me to play with her. I often feel she thinks I'm another dog.