[Cindy311]

I have a 11 month old Aussie/lab/collie mix. He is so much fun but he is crazy! His energy levels are off the chart and I don't know what else to do! He goes to daycare once or twice a week. He also plays with a German Shepard at home multiple times a week. We take him on walks. I play fetch with him inside. No matter how much I do with him he just never gets tired. He is like the energizer bunny! It's too the point where we cannot relax. I come home from work and it's non stop. We have a hard time getting him to settle down for bed time too. Unfortunately he is not crate trained. We tried but he gets severe anxiety when he's locked up, to the point where I was afraid he would hurt himself. He does awesome when he's home alone while we are at work.
So my question is, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to deal with a hyperactive puppy like mine? As much as I love him, I want my life back! (At least everyone once in a while)

 

[mathilda]

you've got a mix of a lot of very active breeds and it is a puppy, so this is expectable.
herder are bred to work, work work, and some of them go over their limits with that, so you shoud try to teach him to settle down.
i don't know how much and how long you work, but if it is a full time job, perhaps the time without exercise is too long.
you could perhaps relax the situation when you do a training session and a long walk (~1 hour) in the morning before you go to work.
then he's probably a bit more tired during the day and not so extremely underchallenged when you come home after work.

 

[Shandula]

What kind of mental training do you do daily?

 

[augusta]

I have a 10 month old german shorthaired pointer mix who was pretty hyper. Everyone kept telling me that tired dog is a calm dog, so I just kept vigorously exercising him more and more. It barely helped.

His trainer advised me to actually avoid vigorous training TOO often because it generally leads to an excess of cortisol over the long term, and it will make it harder for them to settle. They are especially leery of too much daycare. Sometimes it comes down to preventing them from getting worked up in the first place.

I did see that Dorje was a lot calmer and better behaved when I was lazy and sitting around the house. So we switched from frequent vigorous exercise to two short (1.5-2 miles), calm walks a day. Then whenever he's getting a little antsy or I've skipped a couple of walks I do a "reset" and take him to one day of daycare. Instead of taking him to the dog park on the weekends to romp around for hours so he can tire out, I now just stop there on our walks for fifteen minutes.

It's worked pretty well for us. Now he's either in hyper mode when he's outside the house (except when on leash, where's he's improved a lot with loose leash walking) or couch potato in the home. And his hyper behavior outside is improving too. Walks end the second he gets worked up, and he's learned that over time.

This is what has worked for us. He was absolutely crazy at 8 months and now at 10 months sometimes I think he turned into the perfect dog.

 

[Cindy311]

Augusta my pup definitely gets overstimulated very easily so I think your approach might partially work!
I try do at least three run throughs of all the tricks he knows ever night, for mental stimulation. I have some challenge toys for him but he figures them out in two seconds so they aren't worth it.

 

[Cindy311]

And I do work full time

 

[cookieface]

You might try teaching new tricks and/or getting involved in training classes or a sport.