Restless!!

[Shelliannkramer]

I've been waiting for my 14 month old male BC to settle down but am wondering if that is ever going to happen. He spends all day, that's ALL DAY pacing around the house. He does not sit or lie down on his own accord. What is up with this?!!!! And what do I do? It is starting to drive me nuts.

 

He runs with me 2-3 times a week, 5 miles, goes to the dog park every other day to chase the ball, goes on walks 3 times a week and does agility once a week. We have a younger female BC that he plays with constantly (until she has had enough of him). He does sleep through the night though.

 

I have been trying to teach him to settle down by putting him in his crate for a few minutes after activities and by having him lie on the floor with me in the evening, but he still doesn't seem really relaxed. Advice?

[Falon's Mom]

Sounds to me like he needs more mental stimulation. Have you tried teaching him silly "pet" tricks?

[gcv-border]

I agree with trying more mental stimulation - teaching tricks, teaching the names of objects and the canine mental stim toys (although a BC can sometimes figure them out pretty fast . Luckily, my boy still loves his Nina Ottesen toy even though he can 'solve' it in 20-30 seconds.)

 

Have you tried putting him in a crate with a frozen Kong partially filled with ... PB, canned food, veggies, cream cheese, or anything tasty? Since it is frozen, it should keep him occupied for a while. I have a friend who taught her dog that once he got his Kong with PB, he had to calm down.

[G. Festerling]

I suppose a lot of it depends on why he does it. If it is anxiety, misplaced energy, excitement, boredom etc. With a dog here that has a ton of nervous energy, I put him on lead, took a clicker, some treats and a book to a chair, sat down and read. When he got bored, being he could not get far, he would quiet, reward. Quieting quickly became sitting expectantly, then lying down and before too terribly long he figured out that if there was nothing going on, he could chill. Add crate when busy times and it all sorts itself out.

[G. Festerling]

I forgot to mention he was on a 6 foot line. So no going off and finding things to get into.

[Tilly's Handler]

I have found with my Bc she seems to get more out of mental stimulation then physical the kids will take her out and run around for an hour and she is till wound but do some obedience with her and she seems to tire out i try to add a new command ever couple of weeks so useful some not.

 

I have talk to others that have pups from same litter and they are seeing similar things I really beieve that more mental and less physcial keeps them out of trouble

[Liz P]

Did you teach him to settle in the house?

 

1) Teach a lie down command.

 

2) Expand the lie down into a down stay.

 

3) Ask for and enforce a down stay for longer and longer periods of time while you are just hanging out. Offer stuffed kongs, bones, etc to keep him occupied. Use a crate if you need to relax and don't want to worry about enforcing a down stay at that moment.

[Laurelin]

^^^ I do that with my dog that can get in frantic moods. What really helped was to actually have a specified spot for her. You go there and stay until you calm down and I will release you. Cleared up a lot of confusion in my opinion about what I wanted from her.

[Liz P]

Yes, my dogs have a "go to bed" command. It means find a dog bed or crate, lie down and stay there. Makes life so much more pleasant with an entire pack of dogs living in your house.

 

I rotate who comes to work with me. My dogs maintain a down stay under my desk for an entire work day unless given permission to come out. I once asked a tech to go get one of my dogs to use her for a demo. My dog refused to budge until I went back there and told her to come out.

[Oko]

Agree on the teaching of a place/settle cue. If my puppy won't relax and she's getting into trouble rather than doing something appropriate to entertain herself, she gets told to get on her bed. Feist actually enjoys it a lot, and takes staying the 'job' of staying on her bed very seriously, and I toss her a treat every 5 minutes or so to keep it fun (she's just learning it).

[Beach BCs]

A place to settle is crucial. Faith can be running around to house like a lunatic and I will tell her to go lie down. Within moments, she is not only lying down, she is fast asleep in her bed. Not monitoring the immediate neighborhood is actually quite a relief.

[rushdoggie]

FWIW, my male was like that at his age and occasionally had to be crated or be put on a down stay to settle. It stopped when he matured a little.

 

Now hes almost 4 and he seldom does it, and if he does I know he is uncomfortable. He has a chronic leg injury and some anxiety and if hes pacing theres usually a reason.

[BCjetta]

Tess was very busy when she was younger and would not willingly settle in the house if she was loose. She would settle in her x-pen and chew on a bone etc, but not if she was free to roam around. She was fine in her crate overnight. She ended up having to spend a moderate amount of time in the x-pen as my old female was a bit intolerant of things in her space (and her space was fairly large). Once she matured more - around 2 years old (and my old dog passed away) she's graduated to more free roaming around the house and if there are no toys anywhere she will settle and rest or chew a bone. If there are any toys she will not stop pestering you to play with her. She's actually really only in the pen now if she's wet or dirty.

[Gloria Atwater]

I'll second (or third or fourth) the idea of teaching him a place and time to settle down. If he's never learned how to chill out, then he has to be taught. Giving him a certain place to stay and be quiet may be what he needs.

All my dogs have their favorite "chill" places: Nick is usually in his crate (door open) in the bedroom, Gael has the corner under the dining table and our Aussie, Ash, has a spot under the side table between our two easy chairs. They chose these spots, but only because I insisted on calm and quiet from an early age. If they got too busy, they went outside to the dog yard, When they came back in, it was time to relax with a chewie and not be a pest.

So, giving your boy a specific spot and directing him to it, rewarding him with special treats to help him stay there may be the ticket. Plus, it never hurts to just give him occasional time-outs in a crate. Do you have a crate in the living room or wherever you spend your quiet time? That plus a high value treat may also help him learn how to relax indoors.

The trick, however, may be in patience and perseverance. He may not be willing to relax easily, but you can't give up. Just keep after him - and don't hesitate to put him in a crate for half an hour or more, if he really is driving you nuts. Best of luck!

~ Gloria

[GentleLake]

 

 

The trick, however, may be in patience and perseverance. He may not be willing to relax easily, but you can't give up. Just keep after him - and don't hesitate to put him in a crate for half an hour or more, if he really is driving you nuts.

 

I'm also firmly in the dogs-should-be-taught-to-chill camp. I start it as soon as a dog enters my home, whether it be at 8 weeks or as an adult.

 

At your dog's age with his restless habits firmly established, it's probably going to take longer than it would have had you been doing it all along. You're going to be working against something that you've allowed and that's habituated, so both the difference in your expectations for him and his normal behavioral pattern is going to present some initial confusion and probably resistance from him.

 

The key will be, as Gloria says, patience and persistence. Once you've started the process, you must be consistent. Don't let him get away with returning to the restless behavior when you've told him to relax, as the business is somehow self-reinforcing to him.

 

You might want to do a search for Dr. Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol, and also may want to see if anyone's offering a Click to Calm (based on Karen Pryor's methods) class. Both would probably be quite useful.

 

Good luck.

 

ETA: Forgot to mention that any time he voluntarily lays down and relaxes you should take the opportunity to reward that behavior with quiet praise and maybe a chew toy. The trick here is to keep things low key; you don't want your praise to trigger a new burst of activity, but you do want to positively reinforce the quiet behavior you want. This is something I think people forget to do.