Do dogs chill out more in the evening as they get older?

[Teeh]

So I have an 8 month old puppy. She is quite good in the daytime. Gets a couple of walks. I play with her a bit and in between she does settle quite wel. But come evening she just does not seem to settle the same. We walk her sometime between 6.30 and 8.00 for about 40 minutes and after that she just seems to be up and down in and out to garden for ages before crashing at 10pm. It reminds me of toddlers at this age. Does this change as they get older? I feel at the moment that no amount of exercise in the day would give us a chilled evening. I read somewhere that evening is their natural hunting time of day, so when they are most active. So just wondering if this is always the case. Or it it’s a puppy thing.

@Teeh

How do you encourage calm polly? In the daytime I capture calm and reward it when she makes the choice to settle. But she doesn’t seem to make the choice in the evening

In your case if I was happy she had had enough exercise I would not let her outside and not give her the ability to rampage in the garden. Mine would if I let them

Give a chew on a comfy bed and little interaction.Occasional treats on the bed when she is calm.

Brain activity is better for tiring them out than walks. So maybe hiding a few treats around the garden for her to find would work if you think she needs a bit more evening exercise.

I've found a late evening walk just gets them excited again, so I don't bother with that. They get some run around time in the garden around 6 but nothing more than out for a wee after that or they're hyper. All mine crash about 7/8, with a quick wee at 10, then put themselves back to bed. Youngest is 8 months and he's been really good for settling from day 1, it's the 18 month old who's most restless as he's going through his 'teens' and a growth spurt too (large breed). My older 2 would stay in bed 24/7 if I let them!

I have an almost 9 year old and a 10 week old, both are usually very chilled in the evenings.
The older dog more so.

I don’t think exercise, unless literally done to exhaustion is the answer to create calm.

When I come in from the first walk, sometimes they’ll go straight to sleep but often both of mine are a bit wired and run around playing, they have until I finish making my cup of tea then they have to settle down.
Same after their second walk.

Once the kids have gone to bed they generally are quite calm

My old pet dog used to sleep all bloody day and as soon as we cleared up after dinner and settled down in front of the tv, the knobhead would keep asking to go outside (not to do a wee, just for fun and to annoy me) so no, they don't always get better with age.

You could try rewarding her to stay in her "place" (blanket or similar, in the same room as you) or maybe put some of her food into a kong or hollow bone and freeze it so she has something to occupy her.

My dog was out for 10 minutes this morning - the weather was so bad here we came home after that. He's no less calm than he would be after his usual hour walk.

He came home after his walk and basically (according to DH) snuggled under his blankets and slept all day, lol. He is older now but I agree with those who say that exercise isn't necessarily the key to calm behaviour.

We've never done evening walks (because I didn't want to be in a situation where I was walking in the dark and rain in winter for him to settle) and it's honestly fine. We do one walk a day of around an hour, sometimes two, and he doesn't need anything more.

Too much exercise just hypes him up and he doesn't settle.

I do feel that exercise is very important (especially when you see so many obese dogs around!) However timing, the environment and type of exercise is also important.

Most fit dogs medium size should be quite happy and benefit from 2 hours exercise a day and not get hyped. If your dog is getting hyped by the exercise look at what you are doing and what can be done to improve it for your dog.

Ball throwing, crazy dog playing will all increase the adrenalin and should be avoided.

However interactive walks with their owner, hunting (sensibly for toys not living things!) scenting, games whilst with their owner will calm , chill and be for healthy dogs.

Then if the dogs daily exercise and brain work has been achieved it is perfectly acceptable to ask for chill time from your dog and equally important.

Have a look at 'Dog training advice and support' on Facebook- one of their guides called 'the lounge is for lounging' deals with this - but yes, like toddlers, they do call this time of day the 'witching hours' for puppies!

My dogs like this, he's 2 now and a bit better but is still at his most active between 3pm and 8pm. I can't complain as he's very chilled (asleep) most of the rest of the time!

My 6 month puppy is exactly the same. I think she’s overtired. We’ve started getting back from the walk and leaving her alone completely, she settles in her bed instead of spinning around crazily for hours. Then we let her in to our living room and she will settle with us for the evening. Brain games are great to tire a dog out but ours got worse as it was just more stimulation that wound her up. Just thought it was worth mentioning so that if the brain games don’t work you have another Avenue!

Thanks. We did a long walk in the morning and a shorter walk at 5pm before tea last night. Then I took her in to the living room to practice “place” and gave her a chew. She did actually fall asleep initially but then the kids woke her which was annoying! But she was generally more chilled I think.

That's a great start Teeh. IME children make things about 50x more difficult.