Help! my dog has become a lunatic

Ok that might be a bit of hyperbole. But not that much.

No its not the 4.5 month old puppy. He is adorable and delightful (and other than some issues with potty training has been a dream puppy)

Its Dekka. The nearly 10 year old Dekka who has decided she is going to try for the stereotypical JRT role in her maturity. Sadly she is doing this, like she does everything, with great enthusiasm.

She really came out of her shell after Quest left. It was part of my worry about getting a second dog. Nope she still plays.

Dekka is hardly ever crated, she gets lots of chewies, I try to take her for a good walk (~3k) most days. We do some training and games. I take her for car rides when I take my BF to work. I took her visiting to Maf's house etc.

Its not enough.

After a good long walk Schen comes home and promptly falls asleep. Dekka is still in my face wanting attention and to do something. She barks whenever I stand up as if we might be off on some wonderous adventure. She goes ballistic if I say 'walk' even if we have just came back from one.

What do I do with this adorable needy monster?

For those who dont' know her she is NOT a dog park candidate in anyway shape or form. Off leash is not a regular option for us living down town Mississauga.

I can't think of any trick to train her that I would want her to do that she doesn't already know. She heels like a champ (both sides) and knows all her rally stuff. No room to work on agility. She knows the find it game (doesn't matter the scent. I just show her what we are looking for, she sniffs it, I hide it, she finds it..)

Help?

Get her some conditioning equipment like an egg or a peanut and make her work. That can be pretty physically exerting.

Not sure what you mean by an egg or peanut. Is it something she would balance on?

Yep. Look up the FitPaws website. They have all sorts of equipment. It's for balancing, but it's great for all sorts of conditioning exercises.

We do have a balance disk (which she says is no biggie) a harder one could be good. The only issue will be putting it where she can't reach it in an apt... she pops soccer balls, I am sure she would try to pop that.

Nosework?

She does that and does it well. Doesn't seem to take any edge off. She loves it and we have fun. But we have been playing nosework games for years (I would show her a toy then go hide it) The other day I couldn't find my wintergreen scent, and just used a spritz of perfume on a bit of tissue. My apt is so small its not hard for her to find it lol.

Funnily enough I started that game when she was younger and it was too cold to do things outside.

Bodhi - exercise her and she will happily sleep all night.

Fred - the more exercise he has during the day, quite often means the more ramped up he is at night.

Perhaps she needs to slow down a bit?!

Do you ever take the nosework on the road? We often bring nosework on walks and set up station in interesting places and do a few hides. To wear them down more you can do multiple hides, hides up high, or over a large area. For my little dogs a lot of hides involve them climbing. We've searched whole fields and courtyards... 5+ vehicles, office buildings, etc. One of my favorites was at Easter when we searched a soccer field that was scattered with easter eggs and 3 had the odor in them.

There's a lot to do with nosework.

You can order nosework kits too which could 'spice it up' a bit with multiple odors, magnets to hide things up high, etc.

But that said I'm not sure what breed Hank is but his energy level is very reminiscent of my aunt's JRT. He doesn't sleep unless it's night or he's crated OR he's done 4-5 hours of structured activity.... which doesn't happen except weekends. I try to spend a large portion of the weekend getting him exercise. He seems to need to sprint hard daily for at least 15-20 minutes and on weekdays it means donuts around the house. On weekends he has playdates with other dogs and they sprint and sprint and sprint. But weekdays since I work he's pretty much just active the entire time I'm home. I'm ok with that since he's good about powering down at night and while I'm at work.

Does she like to tug? That helps Hank some too.

Lots of chews too.

Its dark by the time I get home. And I live in the middle of a very large metropolitan area. Think sky scrapers and malls with pockets of upscale housing (where no one seems to have dogs..) Its possible and sounds fun, I like the easter egg idea!, but would likely be the sort of thing I could only do on my day off.

She will find pretty much any scent as long as I show it to her first.

She does settle well as long as I am not doing anything. Its not that it is constant but it clear she wants more to do.

I am thinking of going to value village and seeing if I can get a bunch of stuffed toys she can disembowel. That will keep her happy for a day or two.

She likes to tug but its not something she will do for long periods of time.

Dizzy has a point that I have seen happen.

You have taught her a ton of stuff and you appear to have focused on making sure she has an outlet for her energy and her mind. But I have seen it happen before, you have taught her so many wonderful things that she never learned to have an off switch.

With this breed, everything they do is with great enthusiasm as you said. I call my Parsons 100% dogs. Mine do absolutely everything 100%. They play 100%, they eat 100% and they sleep 100%.

It is possible that you have taught her, by accident, that you do not want her to rest, you want her to be ON all the time. So she is doing exactly what she thinks you want her to do.

I have 5 PRTs and I know exactly how demanding they are. Bandit became so incorrigible with a ball that he would run up when I was cooking supper and standing close to the stove and he would balance a ball on the stove handle or wedge it between me and the stove handle and step back and whine at me to get me to throw it. I would wake up from a nap to find that he had shoved 5 tennis balls under me. He would drop them on my face when I was in bed.

I realized that in my desire to make sure he has plenty of exercise, I taught him that I want him to do nothing but play ball ALL DAY LONG. He still really wants to play ball all the time. That came natural to him. But he is less demanding now.

Maybe now is the time to teach her to settle. She may hate it at first, but it could also be turned into a training game.

Good Luck, if not send her to my house and she can play with my boys and run around the farm.

If she'll do some tugging, you could rig up a springpole in a doorway and let her hang around by her teeth. It's good core muscle exercise and something you could either leave up or put away.

There's definitely something to this IMO. Also working a dog physically builds more stamina which means you have to work the dog more which builds more stamina and it repeats. I think you already know that physical exercise isn't really what she needs, it's some kind of mental stimulation. Payton isn't worn out by physical activity (I wish!), it's using his brain that wears him out. The trouble comes when you have dogs who are smart as a whip and things like puzzle toys don't really work because they are too easy...

I think the FitPaws idea is a good one, not really for the physical work involved but because it does use brain power to keep on the ball/peanut/whatever, and also you can do so many different things with them. I think for Dekka you could get one of the FitPaws bones and use your existing balance disc and then combine them together for a bunch of stuff. The peanut and balance balls are HUGE and trying to stash them somewhere is a pain if you don't have a lot of storage space (I don't... ugh!) A set of the balance pods might work too. Together you can build a bunch of different things to challenge them mentally beyond just "stand on this thing and don't fall off," so I think that might be worthwhile.

I dunno if all JRTs or terriers in general are like Hank but he has a lot more physical energy than most dogs I've been around. You can't avoid the complete wildness with just mental exercise with him. He seems to really need that hard sprinting. Good training sessions can help but not as muh as past dogs.

Mia loves bein allowed to shred boxes as another idea.

If she likes food, what about using interactive or food dispensing toys to occupy her when you cannot? You might have to make it tough for her to get if she's already good at figuring out kongs and such.

Dekka is now less active then she has been.

LOL let me give some more context. (for those who haven't been on chaz for ever and ever lol)

Dekka and I lived on a small farm with many other JRTs (and some whippets) Not that she ever played with them but I think it will be significant. She could trundle around the farm and we had a full field of agility equip.

3 years ago my Husband and I separated and Dekka and Seren and I moved into an Apt in town. Dekka took the change well Seren did not. Seren found a home more to her liking and I took Quest (Seren's daughter) in. Now these are all JRT bitches...

Dekka was pretty good whilst living in an apt in Peterborough. So what has changed?

I think no longer living with JRTs has helped greatly. I think the constant low level stress of living with other bitches and occasional fights took a toll on her. Now that she is living JRT free her weight is good and she started to play with people (other than things like tugging, which is very serious work. She would never play with a tug toy that was not being held by a human)

Also she is now on a new joint supplement. I wonder if that is playing into it too.

So she is getting less exercise and stimulation than when we lived on the farm but about the same as when we lived in Peterborough, just minus the JRT bitch roommate factor. She is a lot less fit than she used to be too. I miss her little muscles.

I agree that she needs mental stimulation most of all. She will chill nicely for long periods of time as long as I am on the computer, reading or sleeping. As soon as I move she is there staring at me, flinging herself at me, barking or screaming. Physical activity doesn't fix this (though walks are good for her).

I will look into donut type ideas cause that could be fun and it would make her work on something completely new. Which I think is also the problem, with knowing so much so few things are challenging. We did do a set of agility classes, which were amazing. But I can't afford the indoor winter price. My 10 year old dog can still be one of the fastest dogs on course we just have impulse control issues and requires very careful handling lol. Its good for both of us.

Destroying things is good but she actually gets over that if its done too much.

I was thinking of trying to train a handstand as she doesn't know that, but I worry at her age if that is a good idea. thoughts?

ETA she destroys food dispensing toys. chewed through one of those genius leo things and a ball that drops treats. She decides the one at a time is too slow and just makes a big hole in the side. Smart dog and very efficient

I bought a cheap human exercise ball on clearance and it works great for the cattle dogs..

Also, flirt pole. Will she bike with you?

No room for a flirt pole (and not an off leash dog..) She loves flirt poles though. I don't own a bike and I am not sure faster is the right idea. Being such a small dog when I am walking along at a good clip she is 'cantering/loping' along. Even my slow walk is a brisk trot for her. So a 3k walk IS good exercise for her. Hooray for tiny dogs!

I agree with the posters saying she needs mental help I will see if I can find a used exercise ball or something. That way if she finds it and pops it it won't be a huge loss.

If she knows a lot of tricks, how about putting together little mini tricks "courses", like a rally course but with 5-10 random tricks she knows? You could use flash cards so the tricks and their order would get mixed up, and you wouldn't need much room.

I agree with the exercising which may help, but maybe talking to your pet doctor, they may be able to give you some good tips or ideas, maybe theyve seen similar cases with other dogs? Hope things get better!