# Unlimited amounts of energy



## shaner (Oct 17, 2010)

My girl Cedar seemingly has unlimited amounts of energy. As much as I try, I can't tire this dog out, either physically or mentally. She wakes us up at 8 am every morning and doesn't get tired until about 9 pm. She has little naps throughout the day, but for the most part, she goes all day long and seems to get bored constantly.

Every morning (we're shift workers on opposite shifts, so one of us is always home) we take her to a large wooded area that allows dogs to be off leash. We probably walk for an hour, where we're hiking up and down various terrains. It's a good couple miles. There's also lots of other dogs there that she plays with. That last's at least an hour. Then throughout the day I'll work with her on commands and play games with her, hoping to stimulate her. Then later in the afternoon, we take her back to the trails to do more hiking and playing with other dogs. 

Despite all this, when at home she tears around the house and the backyard. She gets bored and destructive at times too (or at least tries to, but I stop her obviously). It seems like no matter what we put her through, she gets bored and restless. 

I'm not complaining as I like active dogs which is why I got a GSD, but just wondering if everyone else has the same experience with their puppies. She's about 14 weeks right now.

I had huskies before, and I thought they were active dogs, but GSD's are far more active, at least Cedar is


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

Do you play tug with her? Or have a flirtpole? Both will help wear her out. Taking her to puppy classes will also help not only tire her out at the time but the practicing you do at home will too. She sounds like a normal healthy gsd pup- mine settled down a bit when they were teething, but at 10 mos Stosh seems to be needing more exercise and training than ever.


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

I wouldn't be surprised if some of her behaviors are because she is actually OVERtired. 

Do you crate her for naps or does she sleep loose in the house?


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

I also hope you are crate training her. Great way to make sure she is able to rest up after exercising. And keeps her in a safe non-destructive place. Plus helps with the housebreaking....

PUPPY CLASSES too if you can find them in your area.


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## shaner (Oct 17, 2010)

BlackGSD said:


> I wouldn't be surprised if some of her behaviors are because she is actually OVERtired.
> 
> Do you crate her for naps or does she sleep loose in the house?


She sleeps in her crate whenever she's tired, although we leave the door open so she can come and go as she pleases. 

I have a very hard time believing she's overtired. When we get back from our walks, she'll run around the house playing with her toys, wanting to play tug, etc. I really don't believe that she's overtired, not for a second.


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## shaner (Oct 17, 2010)

Stosh said:


> Do you play tug with her? Or have a flirtpole? Both will help wear her out. Taking her to puppy classes will also help not only tire her out at the time but the practicing you do at home will too. She sounds like a normal healthy gsd pup- mine settled down a bit when they were teething, but at 10 mos Stosh seems to be needing more exercise and training than ever.


She goes to puppy classes every Tuesday, so she only goes out for one walk on Tuesday's, so that she's not too tired to focus. I play tug with her every day, she loves it. I have no idea what a flirtpole is, but she has dozens of toys. 

Like I said, I'm not complaining, just wondering if I have an overly active pup, or if most GSD pups are like that.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Have you tried something like clicker training to help mentally engage her?

This is clicker training with a puppy like yours, look familiar?


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## shaner (Oct 17, 2010)

MaggieRoseLee said:


> I also hope you are crate training her. Great way to make sure she is able to rest up after exercising. And keeps her in a safe non-destructive place. Plus helps with the housebreaking....
> 
> PUPPY CLASSES too if you can find them in your area.


She's already crate trained. She loves sleeping in her crate. We just leave the door open for her so she can come and go as she pleases. We even leave the door open at night, and she just wakes us up whenever she needs out. 

She was house broken within days, which is amazing. I had huskies before, and although they are smart too, they are far harder to train then Cedar has been. If she needs out in the middle of the night, she'll whine at the bedroom door until we put her out. She's very good that way.


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## Pattycakes (Sep 8, 2010)

When my dog was a puppy....she was the same way...always running around wanting to play. She wouldn't relax inside or lay down to take a nap very often so I started putting her in her crate and close the door. She would sit there for a couple of minutes watching me...then she would settle right down and take a nap.  

As she got older...she realized how to pace herself. LOL 

I agree...take her to an obedience class. The mental stimulation in conjunction with the physical stimulation really helps wear them out. 

Sounds like she is a puppy with lots of energy. LOL


Oops...you all posted while I was! LOL


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## shaner (Oct 17, 2010)

MaggieRoseLee said:


> Have you tried something like clicker training to help mentally engage her?
> 
> This is clicker training with a puppy like yours, look familiar?
> 
> YouTube - crazy tricks of crazy puppy - Le, 3 months


Yes, we do clicker training.


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

Pattycakes said:


> When my dog was a puppy....she was the same way...always running around wanting to play. She wouldn't relax inside or lay down to take a nap very often so I started putting her in her crate and close the door. She would sit there for a couple of minutes watching me...then she would settle right down and take a nap.


:thumbup:

Overtired puppies run around like maniacs and just generally are a PITA worse than "usual"(like chewing thing they know they aren't supposed to chew, tearing things up, biting you, ect...) and can't "settle". Put that overtired puppy in a crate and close the door, and they are out like a light almost immediately. (Providing they are crate trained obviously.)

She's your puppy, if you want her to behave that way all her life, that is up to you. Learning to settle and rest is a GOOD thing! If they can't do it on their own, they need help learning how to do it. Running around like a maniac all over the house might be cute when they are 14 weeks old. When they are adults and weigh 70+ lbs.... Not so much!


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

You can make a flirtpole by using a length of pvc pipe, running a rope up the center of it and tying some toy to the end- then use it kind of like a fishing pole, dragging the toy around, playing tug. There's a thread about them. I used to put our pups in the crate to give them a nap and for my sanity, I also taught them to lay in a certain place and 'settle' down.


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

I may have missed it, how old is she? I tend to agree with Tracy, altho I have a definite energizer bunny myself, she has learned to 'settle' as she's matured. 

When she was younger and would NOT STOP, I knew it was because she was just way over stimulated / overtired, and needed some time to chill out because she certainly wouldn't do it on her own


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## BlackGSD (Jan 4, 2005)

JakodaCD OA said:


> *I may have missed it, how old is she?* I tend to agree with Tracy, altho I have a definite energizer bunny myself, she has learned to 'settle' as she's matured.
> 
> When she was younger and would NOT STOP, I knew it was because she was just way over stimulated / overtired, and needed some time to chill out because she certainly wouldn't do it on her own


*14 weeks.*


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## JustMeLeslie (Sep 15, 2010)

How about playing ball with her. Is she ball driven? I have a tennis racket and hit the ball pretty far for my male shepherd. I make him bring it all the way back too. I give him some commands to before I hit it again. This tires him out pretty good. He is energetic and this works great for him


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## 48496 (Sep 1, 2010)

We have a Chuckit ball and launcher. With that I can throw Dakota's ball extremely far. She plays fetch like that and after a while she is very tired. Jackie, our five month old will chase after Dakota and that tires her out. I think I'm going to ask my hubby to make a flirtpole too.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

I can't imagine raising a puppy anymore with other dogs to play with them and help wear their little butts out. Walks, fetch, flirt poles, mental stimulation (training, treat toys, etc) are great. But nothing beats tiring out Dante than a few hours playing with the big dogs. By evening he is SACKED OUT on one of the dog beds.

I let him play one morning before class for almost 3 hrs with them and got to training class and he was pooped! I didn't even think about it and commented to my SO half way through class that he was acting kind of out of character and a little lethargic and he reminded me that he'd spent 3 solid hours wrestling, playing, running with the big dogs. Next class I kept him away from them that morning!!

The GSD puppy next to us had asked how we kept him so calm and I confessed he had played for 3 hrs with the other dogs before class. The next class, I told him I kept him up from the others so he'd be his usual self, and he laughed and said he did the opposite and took his for a long walk to tire him out because he was such a pistol.


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## bocron (Mar 15, 2009)

shaner said:


> She sleeps in her crate whenever she's tired, although we leave the door open so she can come and go as she pleases.


You need to regulate her down time, not her. When you've taken her out and given her some good play and exercise time, then put her in her crate and lock the door. I would also be closing the crate at night, at 14 weeks she is plenty old enough to hold it overnight and needs to learn to do that now.

I do dog daycare at our place and we used to just allow all the dogs to play the entire day. Most of the dogs will lay down and take quick little naps throughout the day, but we noticed we were getting a lot of problems with short tempered, frantic, slap happy dogs in the afternoon. I talked to a few friends who also own (much older and larger) dog daycares around the country and they all said I needed to enforce a specific nap time, at least an hour, maybe 2. We started crating all the dogs at noon and shutting off the lights and leaving them to sleep for at least 90 minutes every day. By the end of the first week we noted we had NONE of the afternoon squabbles or the crazy zooming into walls behavior we had been dealing with previously.

As to something to do to challenge him, look into tracking.


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## shaner (Oct 17, 2010)

bocron said:


> You need to regulate her down time, not her. When you've taken her out and given her some good play and exercise time, then put her in her crate and lock the door. I would also be closing the crate at night, at 14 weeks she is plenty old enough to hold it overnight and needs to learn to do that now.


I'll definitely start making her rest more during the day by closing her in the crate if need be, although I'm not going to lock her in at night, I simply see no reason to. She sleeps through the night just fine, and she wakes us up at 8 am every morning like clockwork. Whether she is locked in or not she'll wake us up at 8 am. There's simply no reason to lock her in when she goes in on her own and sleeps all night in there.


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## bocron (Mar 15, 2009)

shaner said:


> She sleeps through the night just fine, and she wakes us up at 8 am every morning like clockwork. Whether she is locked in or not she'll wake us up at 8 am. There's simply no reason to lock her in when she goes in on her own and sleeps all night in there.


Oh, then absolutely. I thought she was getting you up during the night to go out. Sorry, I misread something along the way.


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## shaner (Oct 17, 2010)

I gotta say, I never knew I had to regulate her downtime. I've had dogs all my life and they simply slept when they were tired. I am used to huskies, they would run miles and miles every day, then sleep, then do it all over again when they were refreshed. I just assumed puppies would sleep when they were tired, but I guess not all of them will. 

I'll have to make sure she has a big nap in the middle of the day from now on, at least until she gets a bit older and learns to relax on her own.


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## VegasResident (Oct 4, 2006)

Mine was same way. Could not wear him down.

At 16 weeks he entered doggy daycare and our energy problems were solved!! He does not even want an evening walk! WEEEEE! He is 5 months old now and chills around 6:30 pm.

On weekends we drag his butt all over town with us on our errands and take him somewhere he has never been before. We went and sat at Starbucks the other day. Seems if he goes somewhere new his mental stimulation wears him out.


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## fkeeley (Aug 31, 2006)

HMMM and I thought I had a problem with mine being too laid back but maybe I'm doing something right. The last couple of days I've been working from home and she goes out, plays rope/ball, go for a short walk, comes inside, plays (attacks) the cat, and then takes a long nap. She's not a "spaz" like my friend's dogs (who is like the energizer bunny) so I wasn't sure what was going on. Please believe me, I love that she's so calm and very confident. I guess i was expecting her (while I'm home) to just not leave me alone, but she is! So I feel that, by the posts on this thread, that she's getting proper balance of exercise and rest! That makes me feel better.


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