Witching hour for around two hours every night in 5 year old rescue - please help!

[Cinnabonbon]

We rescued two greyhounds just over three months ago. One eight yrs who is calm and placid, and the other five. The five year old is the one with the issue. I’ll call her Max. Let me preface by saying that Max is such a sweet girl but for around 90 mins-2 hours in the evening (always then, maybe a small kick off in the morning but always evening) when we sit down to dinner she is uncontrollable. A licking mat will give us time to eat our dinner but then it continues. She barks at me. Barks at her greyhound friend (who doesn’t react at all). Barks at DH. Leaps about, barks. It’s like she desperately needs something and we don’t know what it is. Her pupils get huge and there is no stopping her. We’ve tried enrichment with licki mats, kongs and chews, zoomies in the garden, more mental stimulation through training, segregation (of me and her!) and nothing seems to work.

We have spoken to a vet who put her on a pain relief trial. We are also speaking to a behaviourist who is just as baffled as we are and is giving us variations of the above to try. Max may need to go on anxiety meds or anti depressants apparently. Has anyone else experienced the same? I am really hoping there is light at the end of the tunnel without putting her on meds.

My partner is almost at the end of his tether, he has a trapped nerve just now so it’s making things so much worse. Any advice or help would be so appreciated!

Was it the trainer that suggested the meds?

Are they ex racers?

Food firstly - as a pp said with deep chested breeds you need to consider bloat, so don't feed an hour before or after exercise.
How many times a day do you feed them?
How do you feed then- bowl/scatter/slow feeder?

What does she do if you shut her away when you eat?
What happens if you eat in a different room/outside/not together

It was the behaviourist who suggested the meds, yes. They are ex racers, though we can’t find their history from their tattoos. We feed them three times a day in bowls. When we shut her away, she barks/whines and scratches the door. Haven’t tried not eating together or in different rooms we can try and vary that.

Last night when she kicked off I sat beside her and patted her and gave her undivided attention for the duration and that really seemed to help. When she did kick off we did some training and got her to lie down on her bed.

That sounds an improvement already hopefully she continues to improve.

Ex racers are notoriously sensitive, we've never shut our dogs in another room 😢

Surely that would be upsetting for them? Even when my dh goes to a concert it upsets our boy, he's only really happy when we're both at home.

They are sensitive little lambs aren’t they?! We only popped her in the kitchen for five mins, it didn’t appear to improve the behaviour so probably not something we will do again.

I agree with others about longer walks, teaching settle, and trying out whether she’s any different if you eat at a different time/place.

I sometimes put dogs or animals on tv to keep mine occupied in the evening. I do think there is something about a witching hour for dogs!

Can I suggest Retired Greyhound Owners on Facebook. You'll get a wealth of information. Best of lucky with your beauty

Personally then, I would change the dog trainer- recommending medication for such a specific issue would tell me they didn't know how to do their job.

I think @Pointynoseowner has the best advice, I think Greyhound specific page is a good idea, much better than here

But this is a forum so my ten pence worth is that she is overstimulated/excited.
Greyhounds spend large amounts of time in kennels, doing nothing. I would increase the walks and increase the time of her doing nothing rather than more stimulation. I know of a RGH that has an outside kennel which is used like people use crates- it willingly chooses to rest in there because it was all it knew for years.

I would also be wary of encouraging the behaviour by responding to it positively (runs like a loony- gets undivided attention)

I have 3 Greyhounds . My 7 year old female Breagha is exactly the same as you describe -Murphy (7) and Kat(3) are totally calm. I’ve tried everything mentioned in replies and asked greyhound behaviourists/welfare as I volunteer with a greyhound rehoming charity etc and so far ( 2 years in) nothing other than using likimats etc for 2 hours (6pm-8pm!!) makes any difference what so ever -so I’ve just decided to accept that is the solution as she’s calm /engaged and it seems to work when everything else has failed!!.The term “witching “ hour has been used to describe her behaviour bless her but outside 2 hours she’s fine!!