Problems with our puppy...he just won't settle in the house.

[HaplessBoyLard]

This is Archie. A 15 week old cavalier King Charles.

First off, the positives as it isn't all bad, and I don't want to make out that we're not generally happy with him.

He's great on a lead, and loves his walks. He's currently getting about 30 minutes in the morning and about 40 minutes in the afternoon/evening. He happily runs around on a 5m lead doing his thing. Heels when told, and sits at road junctions when I stop.

He sleeps through the night in his crate with no toilet accidents.

He's fine when we go out. He might whine a few times when we put him in the kitchen, but always gets in his crate after a few minutes and then mostly sleeps.

He's more or less house trained. He has done a wee in the kitchen a couple of times hen we're out, and had a couple of other accidents when we didn't notice him circling, but nothing drastic. When we're in he goes and sits by the back door to be let out. He's far ahead of where I expected him to be.

He eats very well. He gets a small meal when he gets up before his walk. Another one in a feeding ball when we go out (or a late lunch if we're in all morning), then a bigger meal in the evening. He's on wainwrights dry food, with extra meaty treats for training purposes.

Now...the issue. He just will not settle in the house when we're in. It doesn't seem to matter how much exercise/activity he's had during the day. If my OH and I are in the house and he's loose he just become completely non compliant and charges around like he possessed. Yesterday, for example, he was walks for 35 minutes in the morning by my OH. I then played with him for about 45 minutes, then had to go out for about 9am so I put him in the kitchen. I got back after lunch and let him out, played with him for half an hour or so and left the back door open so he could coma and go as he pleased. I then took him for a walk for 45 minutes. Maybe closer to an hour as I got chatting. He was obviously knackered after that, so I put him in the kitchen for a kip while I picked the OH up from work. We come back after he been asleep for about 1.5 hours and take him out to his puppy class for a couple of hours. He crashes out in the car on the way home, but as soon as he's in the house he become restless and hyper, starts nipping us if we play with him and just won't settle down, despite the fact we think he's tired

I appreciate that he's a puppy and they're difficult, but it's hard for us to rest in the evenings if he won't give up charging around and getting into mischief, even when he's been well stimulated and exercised.

I guess what I'm really asking is if other people have experienced this, and if they have, did their pup eventually learn that when they're tired to sit and rest (as I'm sure Archie is at these times)?

Any comments/advice/experiences welcomed.

Edited by HaplessBoyLard on Friday 13th March 07:18

[chrisga]

Do you always play with him when he is behaving like this? Could he have associated playing up with getting your attention?

[HaplessBoyLard]

chrisga said:

Do you always play with him when he is behaving like this? Could he have associated playing up with getting your attention?

No. We usually play with him for a while, before this, then just leave him to it for a bit and mostly ignore him, hoping he'll just come and settle down when he realises he's tired.

The ONLY way we've found to get some calm (other than crating him) is to stiff a tripe stick, or similar, in a kong and throw it in his bed in the living room.

[PositronicRay]

I reckon he's a puppy and this is what puppies do. Sounds like he's coming along fine.

[ribiero]

Sounds like a puppy to me! could be worse, you could have none of those good traits!

[HaplessBoyLard]

So this is normal?! Everyone I've spoken to and most things I've read suggest that after a couple of hours activity a puppy will crash out and sleep for a while.

Oh well, hopefully he'll calm down. I certainly hope so as my GF is exhausted and it's causing friction.

I guess we'll just have to ride it out and hope he settles eventually.

I agree he seems to be coming on well. I'm quite surprised for the most part that he's doing as well as he is.

[chrisga]

Yep sounds like a puppy then and sounds like he's doing well. Our working cocker was a year old last week but he has what we call "mad 5 minutes" and runs round the house like a loony with our 5 year old springer in tow. We just leave them to get on with it and eventually they calm back down and settle on the sofa next to us.

[elephantstone]

All sounds normal! What i think you do need is another puppy, trust me its alot easier. My two as they are similar sizes both sleep at the same time.

[PositronicRay]

If you can find a friend with a dog you're puppy will divert it's energy or keep an eye out for dog walkers with pups. They'll have a riot and then flop.

[Jasandjules]

Puppies play. You have a fairly high energy pooch. So what he is doing sounds normal enough.

[essayer]

Yeah other dogs were by far the best way to tire ours out. Can you find anyone local with a dog who's willing to play well with a puppy?

We found a 30-40 minute walk wasn't really enough to satisfy a young dog with lots of energy. You aren't supposed to walk them loads at a young age either so it's tough. Try doing more 'puzzle' type of interaction; get their brain working too! That's a good way to tire them out.

[Jasandjules]

Also teaching them tricks can tire them out. Ideally another puppy to play with...

[HaplessBoyLard]

I don't think he knows when to flop! That's the thing.

The day before yesterday he was ion the go from 2pm until we went to bed about 10pm. Including a 45 minute walk and plenty if play time. I don't know how he does it! I can't keep going for that long without a snooze!

[bexVN]

Bet he sleeps well once he does crash though . Cavvies esp pups can be surprisingly high energ.

As long as he is happy, healthy, sleeping (when everyone else does does) etc, he is doing fine.

Try some mental exercises for him (seek and find treats) walking to heal, tricks etc, that may drain him bit more!

[HaplessBoyLard]

bexVN said:

Bet he sleeps well once he does crash though . Cavvies esp pups can be surprisingly high energ.

As long as he is happy, healthy, sleeping (when everyone else does does) etc, he is doing fine.

Try some mental exercises for him (seek and find treats) walking to heal, tricks etc, that may drain him bit more!

Oh yeah. Once we put him in the kitchen or in his crate for a bit he just lies down and falls asleep pretty quickly, providing he gets peace and quiet. It's when there's distractions or the opportunity that he won't give up!

I do plenty of training. He seems to have more or less got the hang of sit, down, come, heel, roll over. As long as there's food involved of course!

[AdiT]

Got to agree with the others... He'sjust being PUPPY.

All normal but I'd question whether you should be feeding him before his walk. After is more normal. Puppy with a full stomach will sleep it off. Normal predator day goes Exersize (find/chase/kill prey) - Eat (untill stuffed)- Sleep (until hungry) and somewhere thats still stored deep in the primative bit of his brain.


On the plus side... He'll grow out of it in about 18 months.

[Gargamel]

Does he have command for bed ?

I can send mine of to her basket with a quiet word.

I would suggest putting her in the crate for a break if its getting a bit hectic. Then perhaps having a dog bed near the crate and bringing in a command word (and a treat) to send the pup off to the bed.

Calm dogs are generally better house pets.

[bexVN]

Gargamel said:

Does he have command for bed ?

I can send mine of to her basket with a quiet word.

I would suggest putting her in the crate for a break if its getting a bit hectic. Then perhaps having a dog bed near the crate and bringing in a command word (and a treat) to send the pup off to the bed.

Calm dogs are generally better house pets.

This was something I was going to add, it is an important command to learn and useful!

Also re: feeding, as mentioned definitely better after walk (better for digestion aswell) you could always give him a v small amount food before (then wait 30 mins before walking) feed the rest on return.

[HaplessBoyLard]

AdiT said:

All normal but I'd question whether you should be feeding him before his walk. After is more normal. Puppy with a full stomach will sleep it off. Normal predator day goes Exersize (find/chase/kill prey) - Eat (untill stuffed)- Sleep (until hungry) and somewhere thats still stored deep in the primative bit of his brain.

Makes sense.

I'll give that a go. Cheers.

[HaplessBoyLard]

Gargamel said:

Does he have command for bed ?

I can send mine of to her basket with a quiet word.

I would suggest putting her in the crate for a break if its getting a bit hectic. Then perhaps having a dog bed near the crate and bringing in a command word (and a treat) to send the pup off to the bed.

Calm dogs are generally better house pets.

I'm trying to get this one drilled into him, and getting him to go to his bed with the aid of a treat is easy enough. It's getting him to stay there that's the problem.

Think I'll have to work on "stay" next.