How much exercise does he need

[whatwouldtheydo]

Hi all, I have an 18 month old Cavapoo. He has tons of energy. I try to walk him for at least an hour in the morning and half hour in the afternoon.

He is being a bit of a pain in the evenings now though. He barks incessently at the back door, especially when my neighbours garden light is on. It was bad to the point tonight that I had to take him out for a toilet walk (like I usually do) and put him to bed in his crate an hour earlier than usual. He calmed down almost immediately then and he is asleep now.

I was wondering if he is getting enough exercise or maybe too much and he is overtired? He is our first dog and we love him but he is a challenge at the minute when it comes to barking. I'm on the edge in the evenings and its miserable not knowing how to make him stop. I have tried treats and games but can't stop him going mental at the back door.

Any tips gratefully received! Thanks

Do you do brain training? Scent work? Play? What type of walks do you do?

You have to walk him in the evening too. It doesn't need to be a very long walk ( 20 minutes for toilet) but evening walks are must have

It sounds like a training and management issue rather than exercise.
Is his brain being occupied, do you give him things to chew and occupy the dogs need to chew (chewing relaxes them) and do they feel they are able to relax at home or are they always on the go looking to be busy. If so, you need to teach them to relax and establish boundaries.

It's really not a "must" to walk your dog in the evenings. It's totally down to personal preference, routine and what your dog needs and wants.

Brain games (we've got a snuffle ball which is great!), teaching a 'settle' on a mat and bits of training in the evening. Our dog used to bark when the kids came into the kitchen, so we've trained her to sit now instead. It's easier to train an alternative behaviour than to train them just to stop the unwanted behaviour.

Sounds more like a need for attention and bordem than under or over exercising! It’s ready hard with ‘busy’ breeds to get them to settle - takes consistent training and not slipping. Does he switch off and take himself to sleep somewhere quiet during the day?

That sounds like guarding to me, thinking the neighbour is in the garden. What happens if you let him out? Maybe he just needs to get used to the idea that sometimes the light is on and it doesn't mean there are dog beaters hiding in the garden.

I had similar issues with mine. Can you confine him a bit more? Having the run of the house was making mine more hyper and she was prowling around and getting wound up. Now in the evening if she barks and won’t stop I tend to put her in one room, ie the living room with me. Any further issues and the dining room on her own, she doesn’t like that so barking tends to stop. Sometimes I take her to the garden on a lead so she can see it’s all clear…

Thanks for all the replies. Since posting, he seems to be getting worse in the evening. Barking before I put him to bed but now also struggling to settle in his crate. Last night he slept for a couple of hours but woke at 1am. I had no choice but to go and get him out of his crate of he’d have woken then neighbours. I was up with him until around 5 when I could sneak out to have a nap on the sofa - I'm shattered!

Just to clarify a few points:

He is mostly confined to the kitchen but the back doors look out on to the garden. No problem during the day, just when its dark. I think its the shadows cast in the garden by my neighbours security lights.
I only let him in the front room when I'm in there too.

He has a bone every night which does help when he's calm enough to get stuck in to it.

I have tried snuffle mats etc but they really don't last that long. Minutes at most. I'm also conscious of giving him too many treats close to bed time in case he needs a poo of a drink in the nighttime.

His crate was in the front room but after last night I have moved it to the kitchen. I'm not hopeful but I'm so so tired. I'm praying it will work! Today I walked him for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. He does settle in the day and can sleep pretty much until the kids get home from school. Maybe too much sleep in the day?

It becoming really miserable for everyone and I dread the evenings.

When you say he is mostly confined to the kitchen - how long is he spending in there each day?

Most of our time is spent in the kitchen/diner as a family. He comes in to the front room whenever I'm in there which is less than half hour a day. The kitchen is the biggest room in the house with bi-folds on to the garden. Should I be letting him in other rooms more? I had read they should be kept to one area if possible. He is toilet trained but cocked a leg upstairs in my bedroom early on so limit him to downstairs only.

If he cocked his leg upstairs then he's not properly toilet trained - probably because he appears to be confined to the kitchen the majority of the time.

The idea of keeping them in one area is really only while they're young and accident prone - but at eighteen months old there's no real reason for it anymore. Obviously some people don't like dogs upstairs but a life confined to a kitchen sounds a bit...dull.

Aside from walks and when he's with supervised by you, does he really never go anywhere else in the house?

Is his crate covered over with heavy blankets so it’s like a cave?
Try different chews until you find one he really likes, chewing is very important for anxious or busy dogs.
Is he overtired? Over stressed from walks?
You could consider melatonin. My rescue girl gets it and it makes a huge difference to her sleeping and settling.

The kitchen is where we all spend the most amount of time and he naturally just follows us around. He follows me if I go to the front room/bathroom etc but he doesn't go in the front room if no one else is in there.
The wee upstairs was about a year ago so I just haven't let him up there since unless I need to give him a bath. He hasn't had any other accidents in the house so Im assuming he is toilet trained.

Yes, his crate is covered with blankets and has a bed inside. He has his favourite antler to chew each evening.

Does your dog get some off lead time on walks? Our puppy is slightly younger but also a mixed 'poo' breed and has a lot of energy. He really loves being off lead and chasing his ball. 15 mins running after his ball in the park wears him out more than an hour walk. It's taken us a while to get to the point we were confident to let him off but he loves it.

We tend to do a 15 min walk first thing, longer if we're going out and he needs to go in his crate for a few hours. If we're working from home he gets another 15 min walk at lunch time and then a longer walk where we try and go to the park when we finish work or after dinner.

I think it's fine him being in the kitchen most of the time if that's where people tend to be. We work from home on different floors so ours tends to go between us, sometimes sitting in the landing as he can't decide!! He can always have access to hall, stairs and kitchen in our house, other rooms are closed unless someone is in them. We have cats as well so we've always done this.

Can you block out the light somehow if you think it's that? Definitely put blankets over his crate.

He might need some kind of calming activity in the evenings: slow sniffy walk, finding hidden treats around the house, a long lasting chew.

My ddog will chew his antler and Yak chews if no other option but he massively prefers chews he can consume stuff like lamb braids or pizzle sticks. He loves those and it definitely calms him. A licky mat is also good.

It sounds like he peed up there because he was never trained not to - when you toilet train a dog you have to teach them that the entire house is off limits.

Dogs find it very hard to generalise behaviour - so while he may have learnt not to pee downstairs, he doesn't understand that the same rules apply to upstairs because he's never allowed upstairs, if that makes sense.

Not that keeping a dog downstairs is a problem, but it may just explain why he only does it upstairs.

It does like you need to look at his overall routine and what you do with him - so consider things like training, mental stimulation, socialisation, off lead exercise, lead work; taking him out to new places etc.

Good tips, thank you.

Our day today will look something like this:

6:30: up
8am: walk
9am: breakfast

Nap while I pop out for two/three hours

Quick play and some training when I get in. He hangs out while I work/potter. Sleeping on and off.

4pm: kids get home and have a play for around 30mins

5:30-6 walk

6: dinner

Then it gets darker and I'm already anticipating the barking starting. I will pop to pet shop today and get some chews. Have avoided edible ones because they have made him sick/upset his tummy before. I am also going to get a temporary curtain for the back door. Perhaps I need to put in some more structured training.

Can you make the evening walk longer or do something more stimulating with him? If he's not been out since 8am and has basically been sleeping all day, I'd say he needs more input than a half hour walk.

At night, you need to look at covering the windows so he can't see anything that's going on in the garden.

What training do you do with him? What do you do on walks?

I think your dog is basically bored and is finding "entertainment" in barking at shadows etc which can become a really ingrained issue if allowed to continue.

Does your do do anything like agility, scent work, obedience/trick training? If not I'd suggest doing those to engage the brain and it absolutely exhausts them. I do gundog work and an hour's class involves my dog doing very little "exercise" but he's shattered when we come back because he's had to think.

Have a look at trick spaniel online or other trick training, the kids could do that with the dog too.

I'd put a curtain or similar over the door, he sounds overstimulated/overanxious. Reducing the visual/audial stimulation, combined with 'settle' training and a bit more focussed mental stimulation (training, snuffle mat, licky mat, sniff/go find sessions), should solve the issue. Poodles and cocker spaniels are/were both originally bred to do a job and are very bright dogs.

My dog (a working 5 year old golden retriever) would get really anxious and stressed if she could see outside into the dark all evening, with lights going on and off. We have thick curtains over all windows when it's dark outside because she also reacts to slight outside noises (such as a hedgehog in the garden!). We expect her to tolerate a certain amount of noise and lights, but it's unfair and unreasonable to expect a sensitive working breed to ignore constant unpredictable stimulation when trying to settle. Especially yours, who is still an adolescent dog. Working breeds are, after all, specifically bred to notice and respond to sounds and visual movement.

We've never done regular late evening/dark walks with our dogs, but we do play in the garden with a glo ball for 15 minutes if they seem to need a bit of exercise after supper.

Our cavapoo puppy barked at his reflection in the kitchen door when it started getting dark in the evenings as the nights drew in. He rarely barks. Could it be something like that rather than being something in the garden?

Thanks so much for all of the advice. I've just been to dunelm and bought some temporary curtains for the back door and to pets at home for lots of heavy duty chews!
I will take him on a longer walk this evening and do some extra training. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!