For the love of God when does the early evening madness stop in puppies/young dogs!?

[TooOldForThisWhoCares]

Almost 9 month old rescue dog we've had her for 6 weeks now. The evening madness is ridiculous and has now progressed to ripping bedding, chewing cushions etc. She is walked, has a stuffed kong or lickimat early evening, we play with her (tug of war usually) and then a short round-the-block walk sometimes. But still the silly prancing about and nuttiness! I know it will stop but WHEN!?

[RadioDorothy]

Never. My 11 year old terrier is still a lunatic every evening.

[TooOldForThisWhoCares]

Oh nooooooooo

[lennyisnuts]

He's just turned 2 and has become a lazy boy!

[BiteyShark]

When mine was young I tried to make evenings calm because playing or walking him later in the day gave him zoomies as he was tired and over stimulated.

Maybe a bit before the usual time she kicks off rather than try and play or wear her out establish an evening calm down routine.

[TooOldForThisWhoCares]

How cute Lenny!
That's a good idea Bitey. I'll give it a try. I suspect it won't stop the nonsense but worth a go still.
Here she is actually bloody ASLEEP for once (i.e not now)

[adaline]

Ours is seven months and he's much calmer than he was.

But evenings are now quiet time. His last walk is around 5pm at the latest then he gets a chew to keep him busy, dinner around 7pm and then we encourage calm. He still plays and chases the cats a bit but we don't play or encourage him to get hyped up because it makes it worse!

[adaline]

He also goes to daycare when we work which tires him out!

[Floralnomad]

My 8 yo terrier still has an hour of madness between 5/6 pm , he gets all his toys out and has a fight with our ‘bear’ footstool , it’s like a ritual .

[HomeOfMyOwn]

My spaniels (16months & 2yr old) need to go out in the garden for a good 30minute manic running, jumping and playing session last thing at night or they simply won't settle down for the night and are destructive. This is regardless of what walks they have had in the day.

However puppies can get that manic destructive zooming phase when over tired (like a human toddler).

Once you work out which it is you should be able to find a solution.

[pigsDOfly]

My dog is 7 years old now and tbh up until very recently we've always had this busy behaviour in the early evening: up, down, in the house, out to the garden, fetching her ball, jumping on her toys. It's like living with a cat.

She's not wild and rushing about now but she definitely wants attention and play time and it can go on for several hours. She also likes to sit at the open back door, which isn't ideal as my back door is in my living room.

It's calmed down a bit now the warm weather has gone. In fact I've been a bit concerned that she's not feeling well because of this sudden behaviour change, but she's well otherwise so suspect she's just growing up.

Makes no difference how much walking we do either, she could be rushing around the park a couple of hours earlier, she'll still do it. Drives me mad when I just want to sit down and relax.

[missbattenburg]

Dogs are crepuscular so their natural high energy/waking times are dawn and dusk. With Battendog I have just gone with the flow and encouraged playtime just after tea which then means he settles down in the evening afterwards.

By taking part in it myself, I find can gently steer him away from true mania and can decide when to calm him back down again by slowly steadying up the play until it's come to a natural halt.

I also quite like the 30 mins play time with the dog - it's good bonding and makes me feel like a child again

[Agentornika]

Mine's 6 so I'm guessing anytime soon...

[adaline]

It's important to differentiate between over-tiredness and normal puppy play though.

Mine loves playing in the evenings but if it goes on too long he goes a bit manic because he can't calm himself down. I find daycare tires him out and not walking him too late helps too. So we walk him before dinner then feed him and he has a mad dash about chasing the cats/his tail or playing tug or fetch. Then after a while we give him a chew or something which seems to calm him down and it relaxes him. He then sleeps from about 8.30 until 10.30, we take him to the toilet and he's in bed asleep until about 7am.