Okay, so I preemptively apologize for how long this post is going to be, but I wanted to include as many details as I could.
My fiancee and I currently have a wicked smart herder mix (shelter says ACD mix) that we have had for about 3 months. We adopted him at about 5 months old. Training him has been great. He's so smart and tackles shaping exercises with incredible enthusiasm. He has trouble focusing around other dogs (extreme interest) but we're working on it.
The only problem I can't figure out is what we've dubbed his "crazy time." At about 8:00 pm every night he goes insane. Running, jumping, hair standing up, CRAZY time. I had heard that it was common for puppies to have a last burst of energy, so I usually take him out to run around during this time, or we play a rousing, intense game of fetch. He has this "crazy time" even when he has spent 8 hours hiking/playing with a dog friend and doing obedience and disc work. I don't mind it, it's pretty easy to deal with, especially if it will sort of die off with age.
What I can't stand is the fact that for the last two weeks every time we go to bed he has decided to stand at the side of the bed and bark in our faces. Loudly. I can't figure it out. He can be dead asleep with us in the living room and when we go to bed he will bark in our faces. If we shut him out, he will bark outside the door. If we crate him, he will bark in his crate. He is allowed to sleep in the bed and usually chooses to, but it's like he is stressed out by the fact that we're going to sleep. Unfortunately we can't just totally ignore him because we live in an apartment.
I thought at first that maybe he was sleeping all day and his cycle was thrown off (he is left alone for 8 hours on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and on Friday he's alone for 4 hours, taken on a 30 minute walk and then alone for 3 more hours).
It's killing me that I can't figure this out. Partly because I feel bad that there is some kind of communication error between up and partly because I have to be up at 5 in the morning to take him on a walk before work... I need my sleep!
Does anyone have any ideas as to why he could be behaving like this? Any suggestions on what I should do?
My fiancee and I currently have a wicked smart herder mix (shelter says ACD mix) that we have had for about 3 months. We adopted him at about 5 months old. Training him has been great. He's so smart and tackles shaping exercises with incredible enthusiasm. He has trouble focusing around other dogs (extreme interest) but we're working on it.
The only problem I can't figure out is what we've dubbed his "crazy time." At about 8:00 pm every night he goes insane. Running, jumping, hair standing up, CRAZY time. I had heard that it was common for puppies to have a last burst of energy, so I usually take him out to run around during this time, or we play a rousing, intense game of fetch. He has this "crazy time" even when he has spent 8 hours hiking/playing with a dog friend and doing obedience and disc work. I don't mind it, it's pretty easy to deal with, especially if it will sort of die off with age.
What I can't stand is the fact that for the last two weeks every time we go to bed he has decided to stand at the side of the bed and bark in our faces. Loudly. I can't figure it out. He can be dead asleep with us in the living room and when we go to bed he will bark in our faces. If we shut him out, he will bark outside the door. If we crate him, he will bark in his crate. He is allowed to sleep in the bed and usually chooses to, but it's like he is stressed out by the fact that we're going to sleep. Unfortunately we can't just totally ignore him because we live in an apartment.
I thought at first that maybe he was sleeping all day and his cycle was thrown off (he is left alone for 8 hours on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and on Friday he's alone for 4 hours, taken on a 30 minute walk and then alone for 3 more hours).
It's killing me that I can't figure this out. Partly because I feel bad that there is some kind of communication error between up and partly because I have to be up at 5 in the morning to take him on a walk before work... I need my sleep!
Does anyone have any ideas as to why he could be behaving like this? Any suggestions on what I should do?