Teaching teenage rescue to settle at night...

[wheresmymojo]

We have a teenage rescue pup (8 months GSD cross).

She settles really well in the evening and will snooze on her mat quite happily while we watch TV.

When it's time for bed she follows us upstairs to our bedroom (this is fine with us) but she doesn't settle...

She seems to have a good hour or so of really teenage behaviour. Wandering around looking for something mischievous to do.

This usually involves whining and pawing at the closed kitchen door, opening the kitchen door like a velociraptor and barking at the cats, opening the bin and taking the contents out, barking at any noises outside. Getting hold of anything that isn't hers that she can lay her paws on and ripping it apart. She's more badly behaved in this hour than any other time!

What can we do to get her to skip this hour of doom?

Her current routine is:
6.45-7.30am ish - 40 min walk and time to run around garden, then breakfast

8.30-12.30: napping, playing, the odd 5 min training session and/or Kong

12.30pm ish wee break to grassed area around the corner

12.45-6.30pm - napping, playing, following us around the house, the odd 5 min training session or snuffle mat

6.30pm ish 40 min walk, then dinner

7.30pm-9.30pm: Napping while we watch TV, often with a dentastick or chew

9.30pm ish: Wee break around the corner on a grassed area

I'm confused. You say she follows you upstairs but then raids the kitchen bin?

Can't you just shut her in your bedroom?

I trained two rescue dogs using a crate, the crate was in the kitchen, in my room or wherever I wanted them to sleep in in the long term. I just ensured they had their last meal at least 2-3 hours before my bedtime and went to the garden for a wee just before we went to bed.

The schedule I follow is

7am out for a wee, followed by breakfast and a poo straight after breakfast

8 am walk

9 am confine dog in safe area like kitchen, bathroom or your home office if you work from home (the problem with destroying stuff behaviour is that they can hurt themselves chewing the wrong stuff)

12 pm lunch and short walk/wee break

1pm confine as above

4/5 pm walk

6 dinner

7pm walk

Relax at home

10/11 last visit to the garden for a wee then confine dog until the next day (I started with a crate in my bedroom and moved her to a basket once she got the gist of it.

I'd be confining her in either a crate/ pen or your bedroom. She shouldn't have free run of the house to do all that stuff

Dentastix are like junk food and can cause hyperactivity in some dogs.Cut that out and swap it for some other way of looking after their teeth (Plaque Off, natural bones, other chews, etc)

@icedcoffees

I'm confused. You say she follows you upstairs but then raids the kitchen bin?

Can't you just shut her in your bedroom?

Sorry, she follows us upstairs for a cuddle on the bed but then 5 mins later is running downstairs for her mad hour.

We can't shut her in with us - we've tried but she goes mad at closed doors (possibly due to thinking of closed cage door at the rescue) and whines, pines and gets up on hind legs to scratch and eventually open the door.

@OwlSoup

I'd be confining her in either a crate/ pen or your bedroom. She shouldn't have free run of the house to do all that stuff

She won't be confined to a crate. We've tried and she becomes incredibly distressed, to the point that she is beyond any kind of crate training. She came with a crate and had actually ripped a hole through the bars trying to get out and then in her distressed state would try to force her head and body through the (much too small) hole.

She would never choose to go into the crate of her own accord even though we made it like a den and tried to make positive associations with treats.

She also can't be confined to one room (see above).

We would like to confine her to one room, any ideas on how to get her through her anxiety about shut doors? Especially when she's able to open them herself?

I thought she'd be okay if we were both in the room with her but we tried last night and she went mad and eventually opened the door.

@SmolCat

Dentastix are like junk food and can cause hyperactivity in some dogs.Cut that out and swap it for some other way of looking after their teeth (Plaque Off, natural bones, other chews, etc)

I didn't realise that. Think she had the last of them last night...she does also have natural bones and chews so will stick to those from now on.

Sorry, she follows us upstairs for a cuddle on the bed but then 5 mins later is running downstairs for her mad hour.

This is potentially really dangerous - you say she raids bins and becomes destructive - you can't just let her run free for an hour to behave that way. She could eat something toxic or swallow something she shouldn't and get really poorly.

We can't shut her in with us - we've tried but she goes mad at closed doors (possibly due to thinking of closed cage door at the rescue) and whines, pines and gets up on hind legs to scratch and eventually open the door.

What about a pet gate over your bedroom door to confine her? The behaviour you describe is probably at least partly attention seeking tbh - if she does something that causes you to change your behaviour (eg. open the door to shut her up) she'll keep practising the behaviour to get what she wants.

We adopted ours at 8 months too. She is also a GSD cross. She is 12 now, and lovely.

Have you tried moving her walk later? Does she need more exercise generally, or more mental stimulation? Ours needed lots more exercise at that age. Are you praising her for quietly settling down at other times?

She's a big dog, we got a pet gate but she just jumped over it.

We don't leave her downstairs unsupervised - I go downstairs with her, trying to get her to settle down until she has calmed down and then I go upstairs to bed. This almost certainly has reinforced the behaviour but I can't ignore her because of safety issues.

That being said I will be more conscious tonight of just keeping her safe and not interacting with her.

Opening the kitchen door is the worst part as that is our cats 'safe space' to sleep overnight. Last night I think the poor cats ended up going outside and sleeping under a bush because she kept letting herself in and then barking at them because she wanted to play and they didn't.

I can't have the cats sleeping outside in the winter 😭

@IkaBaar

We adopted ours at 8 months too. She is also a GSD cross. She is 12 now, and lovely.

Have you tried moving her walk later? Does she need more exercise generally, or more mental stimulation? Ours needed lots more exercise at that age. Are you praising her for quietly settling down at other times?

40 mins walk at any one time is the maximum recommended at her age due to joints, etc so that's why we do 2 x 40 min walks.

Plus after one walk we go to PILs very large garden for her to run around and 2 x walks around the block.

I do think she needs longer walks to be tired out but we can't do that until she's older.

We tried moving walks later but then she had accidents in the house as this was the time she was walked in her previous home. Also we eat dinner at 7.30pm and there are no streetlights where we are and she's quite afraid of the dark so not sure later walks would be better.

She's completely chilled at night until she has her evening walk and it's bedtime. Part of me is wondering whether the evening walk is waking her up too much and she'd be better off just being let out into the garden for her final wee...

That sounds really tough but maybe you do just need to shut her in the bedroom with you, even on a lead so you have more control, and go through the really bad bit without letting her out and then treat her and fuss her when she eventually calms down. As long as you are sure she is fed, watered, toileted and is tired enough to sleep then she just needs to learn to calm down. A high value chew like pigs ear or beef trachea helps mine settle.

Ours is a teenage rescue pup too and he does some of this but not quite as bad. We could not crate train him either. I think it was too late by the time we got him. He will voluntarily go in it but he gets very upset if shut it so we just shut him in a dog proof room instead with one of us present but ignoring him even if he is scrabbling etc by turning our backs until he lies down then he gets attention and a treat for that behaviour. This is what our trainer suggested and it works pretty well although has to be repeated for new environments.

I don’t think she needs more activity just firmer rules.

One thing that my dog trainer said is that it is better not to have a rule than breaking it regularly. Be consistent with your dogs, if they know what are the rules and they are enforced consistently, they just learn them very quickly and respect them. No way I would allow a puppy to run around at bed time while I sat and watch it. Puppy goes to bed and you as well. Puppy is only running around at bed time because by allowing it you are showing your dog the behaviour is permitted.

And also, don’t over psychoanalyse your rescue dog. As with foster kids, they need rules and consistency to feel secure otherwise they get anxious and stressed.

She's a big dog, we got a pet gate but she just jumped over it.

Get two. Hang one normally and the other upside down in the same space. It doesn't look great but it doesn't need to be permanent - just until she's calmed down a bit!

I would be teaching settle in the bedroom for short periods throughout the day and only let her in there when she will sit in her bed or on a mat. Bedroom = chill.

So have her bed and put a treat in her bed say nothing, she eats the treat say nothing but put another treat in the bed. The important thing is that she choosed to go into the bed and is not cued to do so.

She will begin to stay on the bed waiting for the treat if you delay the treat she will sit down on the mat from this point on only treat her for sitting on the mat.

Occasionally throw a treat away from the bed and release her to the treat. This will eventually lead to her only leaving the bed when you release her.

Do this for short sessions in the day and then it will build up to conditioned behaviour at the night time.

Our rescue didn't like a closed crate at all (whining etc) but now happily rests/sleeps in his den-like crate as long as the crate door is open. We put it in the downstairs loo with a basket alongside it so he has options for where he can sleep & then we close the cloakroom door. He can get up in the night, stretch his legs, get a drink of water, sleep in his basket or on the floor if it is hot. It is now 'his' room. It was being shut in the crate & not being able to get out that he hated. Obvs we had to dog-proof the room (no bins or things he could destroy or get hurt with). I hope you find a solution that works for your dog x

Okay, so tonight we are starting a new routine.

I am downstairs in the closed lounge. I have her lead with me if I need to put her on a lead until she calms down and have some small natural venison training treats for when she is calm and quiet.

We don't have a 'puppy proof room' (other than a downstairs loo I don't know what rooms would be puppy proof from one that will happily chew the dining room table legs and our loo downstairs is too small).

So I'll be staying here on the sofa...she's already unusually calm as she normally goes mad at closed doors but tonight she's being okay (so far, we are only 5 mins in!).

We moved the finally wee to an hour earlier to give her time to calm back down.

Fingers crossed I can do a couple of nights on the sofa and then she will be in a new routine!