Rescue getting skittish from early evening

[Lucyloo29]

We adopted a lovely 18 month old JRT about 9 days ago, and he is truly a delight (though definitely in need of some training and socialisation.) He was a surrender, and the rescue stated that it was because the owners were having to leave him for long periods.

We are both WFH, and he has a morning, lunch and early evening walk. Between this, he generally sleeps next to us whilst we are working. If we can tell he is getting restless, we play (or set up) games with him, and he can go out into the garden whenever he wants.

The last few days, and only from 5pm/6pm, he becomes really on edge, skittish, and tries to nip us constantly (and anyone he sees.) He will jump and run upstairs if he gets startled by anything (this includes us moving a small cardboard box, he will quiver away if we try put his lead on etc.) He is not like this at all during the day, only ever in the evenings.

We had an appointment with the vet, and they cannot find any health/pain reason. They said that it is probably some sort of anxiety, which seems to trigger mostly in the evenings.

Has anyone ever had anything similar? If so, how did you help your dog to get over whatever it is that is making them this way?

Thanks in advance :)

Instead of playing games with him, can you give him some calming/enrichment activities to get on with?

Things like lick-mats, chews, snuffle mats, frozen kongs or scatter-feeding are great ways to calm them down without too much arousal.

Is there something that changes in your house at that time ? You move from home office to kitchen for example?
can you vary the routine a little so you maybe stay at your desk longer or leave earlier? Take him straight out for an elk around 5 ?

They have very strong inner clocks, I suspect he’s anxious about a routine action that happens then which is unsettling him.

It could also be a hangover from his previous owners - maybe that’s when they came home / went out? It’s not been long so I think if he gets reassurance that your routine is fairly settled he will calm down.

9 days is an absolutely tiny amount of time for him to adjust! He needs time to settle and decompress. It sounds like the stress (however good a home you are providing, there WILL be some to start with) of a new home is coming out in the evening due to tiredness - he is doing one heck of a lot with you and was used to doing next to nothing before.!
Back off a bit on the stimulation and see how his he is in a week or two. Rehome dogs generally take about 3 months to fully integrate into their new families. Kindly put, you are expecting too much too soon I’m afraid

Thanks all for your suggestions, and (rightfully) pointing out that it is still early days and he is settling in/getting used to things.