Overly Hyper??

[mgohr]

I have a 10 month old and 4 year old boxer. I know they are high energy breeds; however, even after I run them in a field for an hour and half, we come home and the 10 month old is still going strong. She's jumping, pouncing and biting at me and the older dog (who by this time is exhausted after his run). I crate her and she somehow knocks the crate doors down, I baby gate her and she jumps the 40" inch gate. She is also distructive chewing the couch apart and stuffed animals. I give her multiple chews daily and buy new animals weekly for her.

I have taken them both to training and she heels, sits, lays down and comes --most of the time. I have a fenced in yard and they are out running around hours per day in addition to our walks so she has lots of exercise. So I don't understand why she has this overly hyper, biting and destructive behavior.

Often times it takes over an hour at night to get her calm to the point where I can finally go to sleep!! My vet told me if needed give her Benedryl, which I haven't tried and it will be my last resort. Any suggestions would help.

 

[RockyCody]

Sounds like you are doing a lot of physical exercise with them - but what about mental stimulation? Like you said he knows a few things - sit, stay, come, etc. - but why not teach him other tricks or something new so he has to think about it.

There are toys that the dogs have to work the treat out of - not sure of the name off hand - I'm sure someone can help once they read this - but there are specific toys that "mentally" stimulate and Mentally exercise your dog.

We have the tree stump with three squirrels in it -I squeak each one, put them in and Rocky tries to get them all out. He's now mastered this so it takes less than 1 minute - but at first it took him awhile to figure out how to get the things out. the other thing we do is we put peanut butter in a kong and he has to lay there and lick it out, etc - that takes a lot of energy and he has to think about how to get it out so that sometimes calms him down as well.

Besides for just off leash stuff like at the park or in your back fenced in yard do you walk them ON leash? 2x a day walks ON leash will also help.

These are just suggestions...

 

[sueco]

We see a good amount of this with Ginger, too. She's 8 months old now. When she gets mouthy we get her to 'play a game' and practice her stays, leave it, go to your mat, etc. She gets her attention, we don't get chewed on, and she'll start to settle down.

This past week we just introduced bully sticks. Totally keep her occupied..

 

[nalabear]

another thought might be to buy a dog back pack and have your pup wear it when you go for a walk. put a couple water bottles in it, your keys, dog bags. nothing heavy but this may help to depleat some energy because this will give her something to consentrate on or work for.

i agree with the teathering her to you in the house. as soon as she starts to even sniff an area that she has been distructive with you must stop her and redirect her attention. maybe give the leash a quick jerk (not hard that will pull her off her feet or yank her around just quick jerk to get attention). it will take time but she will learn. but you have to be consistent all the time, everytime.

 

[magsash]

I feel your pain

Jack is now 18 months old and we work him with runs, walks, backyard play, kongs, busy toys that you put kibble in and they knock around, etc... Nothing seems to wear him out. I have to crate Jack when I leave his side (leave the room for even a second without him and he'll destroy something). I brought the Caesar Milan "Be the Pack Leader" book home from the library and made the mistake of turning my back on Jack. I found him eating it. "I'll Pack Leader you, Lady." Wish I'd gotten a picture of that.
I will say - he is slowly mellowing out, though. He used to be way worse.

 

[whiskers]

I think some less-stimulating exercise might be a good thing. There was a point last winter where I was bringing Juno to the dog park every single day (which would have put her at about the same age your girl is now). I thought I was doing the right thing. However, the longer this went on, the worse Juno got. I can only conclude that she was experiencing so much stimulation from the dog park, on such a frequent basis, that she was becoming increasingly difficult to wear out and was becoming rather hyper. She was so accustomed to the craziness that she needed even more and more craziness to tire out. I started reducing dog park trips, replaced them with on-leash walks, and she got better. You didn't mention a dog park specifically, but an off-leash run can bring out the wild side in them too.

Structured on-leash walks and more mental stimulation wouldn't be a bad thing. Kongs, Buster Cubes, Tug-A-Jugs.... anything you can put food in so she has to work to get it out will be great for her. Some toys are super easy and all they have to do is roll it around a couple minutes and all the food pours right out. The Tug-A-Jug, at least for Juno, was quite the challenge (I say was, because ours is now broken ). It's basically a rope in a plastic jug, and the rope plugs off the opening of the jug... the dog has to figure out how to maneuver it around so that the food can bypass the rope. This would usually take Juno at least 20 minutes to accomplish, and I would sometimes have to help her out.

Training games are great. You don't even have to teach anything meaningful. When Juno is bored and I just don't know what to do with her, I'll just set a cardboard box in the middle of the floor and reward her for any interaction with it. Looking at it, sniffing it, chewing on it, stepping inside it, etc. Or I'll try teaching her the names of her toys, weaving through my legs, pivoting around a book, etc. Silly things where it doesn't really matter if they ever master it completely, it just gives them something to do and think about.

Age has a lot to do with it, too. I believe that's the age when I wanted to ship Juno off to someone else to deal with. They do mature one day, though! Juno is 18 months old now and she is no longer a daily cause of anxiety.