My 6mth old gsd goes crazy at night. Chewing anything and everything she is not supposed to have. She has plenty of toys and will obey the NO command but at night she's' chewing my plants, pots and hoses in the garden. I go out and tell her off and she stops but a soon as I go back to watching the TV she's at it again. I have tried keeping her indoors at this time but she goes bannanas to get out and I'm scared she may go through the glass in the back kitchen door. I take her for walks twice a day. The first one around 11.30am and the second around 5.00pm.She has her tea around 7.00pm and from there on she is a little madam. Just when I want to watch a bit of TV.Maybe I don't have my day structured right. Can anyone advise as to a typical daily routine that they have found works?
She sleeps in her crate at bedtime but the only other time she is in it is when I have to leave her alone during the day. At the moment that is two and a half hours in the afternoon as my daughter is in hospital.
HELP!!!

What are you feeding her??as this could have some thing to do with it??

I feed her on Royal Canin. I have been told that this food is good and does not contain anything that would provoke hyperactivity.

The problem is you are expecting a 6 month old puppy to act like an older dog.   She's not going crazy at night.  She's bored, she needs attention and she wants to play.   If you lock her out in the garden, of course she is going to find things to do to keep herself amused. 

Stacey

Just a thought....you could try reversing her evening walk and dinner i.e. feed her at 4.30 and walk her at 6.30....this way, she might have used up some of her energy before you settle for the evening. Food is supplying her with energy that she is currently wanting to burn off after her dinner at 7pm. :)
At 6 months, our routine was: 8am - breakfast then garden, 12 noon proper walk, 4.30 - dinner then garden, 6.30pm proper walk and then at approx. 11pm we would take her for a walk round the block. In fact, at 12 months old, the routine has only changed in so much that the walks are much longer in distance now.
Everyone's routine is personal to them and their dogs needs, but HTHs by means of comparison anyway.
Take Care
Jo
:)

My pup is not locked out in the garden. As the weather has been nice lately the kitchen door has been open at all times and only closed when we go to bed. We only closed it (with her inside) in an attempt to reduce the destruction and to be able to see what she was getting up to without having to stand in the back with her.

I am quite happy to play for the rest of the day, but think I should be able to get a couple of hours to do my thing at night.   

Hiya

For that well earned rest that I also treasure around the same time of night as yourself, you could try and give her a kong with a bit of cheese stuffed in it....it keeps mine happy for my   'lazy' hour of soap watching each evening :D
Give it a try and put your feet up ;)
x

Thanks Jo for a helpfull tip. I notice in your regime there are three walks, one of them late at night. Unfortunatley this is not an option as it is not safe to walk about at this hour in my neighbourhood on my own. My husband works away from home Mon. to Fri. but I have noticed that she is not so hyper when he is at home. We only have the same walks but he takes her and at 6 foot has a longer stride than me. Maybe she is more worn out, or because there are two people to play with she is more amused. It is a great novelty for her when Dads at home and she never leaves his side. I have to take a back seat. Perhaps she is missing him (so do I) but this cannot be helped.

I think Jo maybe onto something with the reversing of the tea and walk.  We feed our boys when we come in at 5.30pm.  Then they pop out into the garden and then come back in for a play or whatever else.  We then take them out at about 8pm, well after their dinner has gone down for a decent walk.  We then find they come back and sleep as they have used up their energy.  Last night we couldnt do it this way and the 6 month old pup was hyper all evening so I really do think it works doing it this way around.

Originally we only changed our routine for our long haired BC as it is too hot for him at the moment to go for a walk at tea time so hence we went later but since we have started that they have both been a lot calmer.

Claire

Sorry Gaby....thats a good point...tend to take the area I live in for granted and my OH does actually do the last walk himself at the weekend when revellers are about :D
Instead, why not get a really bouncy ball she can chase and have a throw about in the garden for 20 mins or so at night. We started doing this during our Rosies' seasons when we didn't want to take her out on walks for fear of teasing the local dogs who would no doubt be feeling frisky
Hope you find a routine that works for you both ;)
Jo
x

Hi Gaby,

I agree that a stuffed Kong or a treat ball can be a great thing to buy a bit of peace and quiet. I have a 7 mo old Great Dane puppy and she is completely obsessed when she gets those two things. Another thing I do is wrap up dog cookies in successive layers of paper (like pass the parcel), which she then has to unwrap and eat a cookie at each layer...works very well too. It's also stimulation for her mind, which I find tires her out as much as physical exercise. That's often something that's overlooked because just physical stimulation may not be enough, especially if she is quite an active, energetic dog. A bit of brain work can be very exhausting! You could do a bit of training after dinner (just 5-10mins is enough) or play a game like hide-&-seek which my puppy loves and gets so worked up and excited by it that I just have to play it 2 times and she is worn out! We play it with one special "teddy" only and I take her out into the hallway and put her into a sit-stay (bit of training included!). Then I go back into the living room and hide the teddy somewhere (start somewhere easy). Then I go back to her and in a high-pitched, excited voice, tell her "Fetch! Where's teddy! Where's teddy!". She goes rushign back into the living room and runs around like a maniac trying to find it (it's very funny to watch). When she finds it, I go beserk, screeching and jumping around "You found it! You found it! Clever girl! Good girl!" which she loves. I just do this twice and she has to flop down and have a sleep! You do need your puppy to know the sit-stay (or wait) and then to fetch a toy - but I think that's fairly easy to teach. Especially if you make it really easy to find the toy the first time.

I totally agree, though, that you are entitled to your own time in the evenings and that dogs must learn to amuse themselves and that you are not their "play-slave" all the time. So I don't think you're unreasonable at all to want her to settle down when you watch TV. My puppy is quite good in this respect (although she is a Great Dane so she may naturally be more placid) - her routine during the week is: breakfast at 7:30am and then out into garden at 8am, where she stays until I come home from work around 4pm (she has access to the laundry shed and her bed), then she comes indoors and we usually take her for a 40min walk, during which I try to do some training. I also play with her a bit when I first come home, like fetch and tug-o-war. She has her dinner around 6pm and then pretty much crashes out on her beanbag by the sofa, while we have dinner and watch TV. She wakes a few times in the course of the evening and sorts of potters around the house, plays with the cat a bit but generally, she sleeps. She goes back out to the laundry shed at around 10pm and generally goes straight back to sleep. (I have to say, I have never seen a dog sleep so much! But that's one reason we got a Dane, as they're not high-energy dogs. We only have to do one walk a day and very rarely, if we really need to, we can even skip that and she isn't really that much more hyper).
She's naturally settled into this routine since around 5 months. Before that, she was more hyper and would sometimes be a real pain in the evenings, although nowhere near as bad as your puppy (!) :) - she would sometimes do "zoomies" around the house, which is pretty scary with a 50kg Great Dane. But now she's very easy to live with. Maybe it's an age thing too. One

Also, - although I know it's difficult - have you tried ignoring her? Because maybe she's acting up to get your attention. Maybe if you could ignore her attempts to get out to the garden and just shut her in and sit on the sofa and ignore her, she might eventually settle down (as soon as she shows any sign of settling, praise her quietly). I do this a lot with my puppy - I sit on the sofa and never give her attention until she is sitting quietly in front of me. Then I pet her and praise her. Now she automatically comes over and sits quietly when she first sees me in the mornings or after work.

Anyway, hope some of this helped.  One of the best pieces of advice I got when we first brought our puppy home and was getting really stressed about things, was to make her fit around OUR lifestyle, not fit our lifestyle around her. She's only a dog - she'll accept the routine you set, if you're firm enough - especially at this puppy stage. Good luck!

Hsin-Yi

She may be acting up because I'm putting her in her crate for a couple of hours in the afternoon to visit my dayghter in hospital. If this is the case she will soon get used to it as it looks like my daughter will be in hospital for another 5 weeks (vicitim of a hit and run). My pup used to be great just waking now and again during the evening for a play. The periods of being awake have somehow developed into all night. Maybe she is sensing my guilt at leaving her alone in the afternoons and is taking advantage. I'll try the ignoring bit (but hard to do when she chewing the place up)and see if this works.

Gaby,

If you can find something to keep your puppy amused then you certainly can have the evening time to yourself.  However, just like a young child, you give up the "right" to have time for yourself exactly when you may want it.  If you can instead resolve yourself to giving her about 30 minutes of active, engaged play with you in the evenings you will probably find that she will gnaw on a chew or settle down for the rest of the evening.  Play does not have to be physical, although throwing a ball or kong in the garden would be great.  (And at 6 months, you need to limit the amount of exercise like walking or running for a GSD anyway.)

By the way, I am sorry to hear about your daughter.  Do you think the stress from this is affecting your tolerance for your GSD?   I know it would for me.

Stacey