Dog Community

Bedtime!

Posted : 7/18/2006 10:13:49 AM

OK, question for you all. Our dog is perfectly fine by herself during the day - no destruction, no accidents, no anything. Most of the time when my mother's come to check on her she's just lounging and being good. At night? Yeah, kind of a pain in the butt.

We take her out every night for a looooong walk in hopes that she'll get tired and then just want to sleep when it's time to go to bed. Unfortunately, we get one of several scenarios:

1. We let her follow us upstairs. She paces in our room nervously and refuses to sleep or lay down...she'll even cry when we're right there in the room with her, and she doesn't want to sleep with us or next to us even when we offer.

2. We attempt to crate her. She goes in willingly and then either walks right out or, if we close her in, she flips out until we open the crate.

3. We leave her gated on the first floor like she is during the day, thinking this is the area she's most used to anyhow. She sits at the bottom of the steps, cries/howls, and tries to pull down the gates until eventually something falls down and/or she makes so much noise we get worried about her or can't sleep.

We've tried leaving the downstairs TV on, we've given her night lights, right now we're running out of ideas (other than sleeping downstairs with her, which she seems sort of OK with but is not a long term solution.) We spoke to our trainer about this and she said what we sort of already knew, dogs are pack animals and want to be by you, some especially at night, and that she's probably still getting used to our house. But, we do eventually need to go to sleep! Any suggestions or ideas would be great - we're sort of new at this dog thing so we may just be doing something stupid! [

]

fizzlbriches

Posted : 7/18/2006 10:47:54 AM

My first thought would be that the long walk is not enough. The dog has been confined and probably sleeping most of the day...it is going to have tons of energy. Perhaps fetch or other more active things would help.

Good luck.

Firestorm

Posted : 7/18/2006 10:55:29 AM

Yes, you need to tire that doggie out. Whether it is fetch or running with the dog.

April

Posted : 7/18/2006 1:39:46 PM

Yeah, we will definitely have to try stretching the evening exercise out a bit...(too bad it's like 100 degrees outside today! [:@])

The only problem with this is that while she loves her walks, she is not big on play time. As in, she either never had toys as a pup or she had some kind of trauma with them - she literally will not play with anything! I know it's also possible she's just not into them, but since she won't fetch/etc, it makes wearing her out much more difficult. (She actually slinks away when you squeak a toy at her, it's sad! [

])

We also try to just have her out in the yard when we're home in the late afternoon, hoping she'll run around, etc (we have a decent sized suburb lot,) but it's like she knows she isn't out on a walk, so instead of running, etc -- she just lays down in the grass! Lazy girl. [

]

We'll have to keep working at it!!

tashakota

Posted : 7/18/2006 2:19:43 PM

Your dog looks like a husky mix. They can have lots of energy and some dogs just don't dig toys. 3 of my four will not chase toys, play fetch or anything like that. We walk and we play agility. You need to play WITH her. Dogs don't normally play by themselves unless it's chewing and then it's not really exercise. What about training him/her to run along side a bike? This would be low impact for the human but great running exercise for the dog.

Games also would help. Hide treats and play the find it game. Teach clicker training and then do "101 Things To Do With A Box", Google it. This will metally tire her out and help with the restlessness.

jones

Posted : 7/18/2006 2:45:58 PM

I agree with the games idea. Mental exercise can be very useful in spending some of that pent up energy.

At bedtime, try bringing her into the bedroom a little before it's lights out. Hang out in there for a little while and praise her for any amount of time that she is just relaxing and settling down. Ignore any fussing. When it comes time to actually sleep, you could use earplugs to help you out in the "ignoring" department. Our dog is good about going to bed, but nevertheless, if we just go straight to sleep at night, he will sometimes stay up for a bit pacing or chewing - even if he was just snoozing away in the living room! If I go watch TV or read in bed for a while first, with the dog, he settles down and goes to sleep. I think it helps to have that transition time.

April

Posted : 7/18/2006 5:44:39 PM

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. My thinking going into this was that it had to have something to do with energy - she seemed to be doing better on Friday and Saturday nights when we had had more time to be with her, etc.

We are currently working on clicker training and so she will definitely be getting more of that...she seems to be a shiba inu/cattle dog/something-ish mix (how's that for a definite description? [

]) so maybe agility would be something she likes to do...we've not had her very long of course so there's still lots of options to explore! I will have to get myself to the bookstore and get Googling as well.

Thanks much!!

Christi

Posted : 7/18/2006 6:10:12 PM

Since your dog isn't really into toys, I thought of a game that we play with both the cats and our dog. We bought a laser pointer and they all go crazy chasing the light. We even play it out in the yard at night and Wrigley has a blast running full speed all around the yard and we can be as lazy as we want [

]. We bought the light at office depot for about $9 and we have had a ton of fun watching them chase it back and forth through the house and now in the yard. It really does wear the dog out though.

jennie_c_d

Posted : 7/18/2006 8:04:29 PM

Laser pointers and light chasing in general has been known to triggor OCD in dogs prone to it (particularly very drivey dogs), so be wary.

I won't risk it, with mine.

whitewidow

Posted : 7/18/2006 8:11:25 PM

what is ocd?

Christi

Posted : 7/18/2006 8:13:56 PM

obsessive compulsive disorder? Is that what you mean?

agilebasenji

Posted : 7/18/2006 10:19:48 PM

I know a lot of people who have had great success with a DAP

[linkhttp://www.dog.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=270184+001&Cat]http://www.dog.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=270184+001&Cat[/link]=

It's not expensive. I'd get one and try plugging it in an hour or so before bedtime. If it doesn't work, you haven't invested much.

Toys:
[linkhttp://cleanrun.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=677&CFID=974923&CFTOKEN=88112830]http://cleanrun.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=677&CFID=974923&CFTOKEN=88112830[/link]

My dogs aren't/weren't very toy driven, but these toys can be stuffed with food. I actually clicker trained my dogs to play with them and to play tug. With the food-stuffed toy, just click when your dog shows any interest and then open the toy and let the dog eat the "yummy bunny guts" (which is usually meatballs in this household). Then toss the toy, just a little ways. C&T for the dog sniffing/chasing/nosing/touching the toy. If/when the dog opens her mouth near/on the toy JACKPOT! Put the toy up when she's still interested. Aim for her to pick up the toy and for you to hold it. In her case, I'd let her win the tug game. Bring this special toy out only during designated play time. I have several toys that the dogs only see when we're doing agility. They now get excited about those toys. Sometimes they will play with their everyday toys, but the 'gility toys are special.

loveukaykay

Posted : 7/18/2006 10:46:09 PM

Mental stimulaion can be way more tiring for some dog than even a really long walk. They have books on tricks that can help you think of some you would have never thought of. You can go on a walk and then work on training for a while. If this is at night you may want to use pieces of green beans for rewards. I would think the best place for going bedtime (or from the way it sounds) would be with you in your bedroom.... but he needs to be tired first[

]. Sometimes at night Bailey isint quite sleepy enough so DH and I will get one of her toys and pass it to each other and hide it under the covers and just generally make her look for it and think for a while... (kind like making a moving ump under the covers and make her chase it... then lower it and pop up somewhere else..) as we think this is playing I have learned is actually helping to tire her out. Very fun for us too lol.

spartanpele

Posted : 7/19/2006 1:16:08 PM

My wife and I have a set routine for our two dogs (both 1 yr old) that works pretty well. About an hour and a half before bedtime we play with them heavily for an hour. We then let them out to go the bathroom for the last time. We then barricade them down in the main living area (kitchen, dining rm, living rm) so they can't get upstairs. (3 ft high plywood with a chair propped up against). We put out a long blanket for them in the living rm, turn on a small fan on high pointing towards their blanket, and tell them..."night, night". We stay up for about 30 minutes after we start that routine. We don't play with their toys anymore, and if they bring them out, we tell them, no, "all done"..."time to go night, night". If they need soothing, we will carress them for a while to get them to lie down and relax. When its time for us to go to bed, we turn off all the lights, leave the small fan on for them, and go to bed. Typically by the time we go to bed, the dogs are already wiped out and sleeping. The key to this routine, or any routine, is consistency.