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Witching Hour


Rhi*Jak*Ed
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This might seem like a strange question, but do pup's have a "witching" hour?

The reason I ask is that lately come 8pm Jak goes NUTS. Biting, jumping all over me, biting. Did I mention the biting? She is home alone from 8am til 6pm during the week, and when I get home at 6 she is very excited to see me (which is understandable). She sits down and waits for her good 5 minute scratch and we tell each other about our days (haha). Then we play chasey or fetch or hide and seek until 7 which is when I start to prepare dinner. She eats hers whilst I get mine organised. She then tends to play by herself until about 8.

But once 8pm arrives the devil in her seems to come out. Is she just telling me that it's time for more play? Should I play with her for yet another hour before she is likely to settle down?

I must admit I'm confused and not much enjoying her behaviour after this time. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Rhi

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My pup does too!!!! I work all day too.....and he goes nutes about 8pm also!

I wonder if it has to do with the food giving them a boost........after he eats, he has a little rest, plays by himself but come 8pm he goes feral and bites and runs around so silly he runs into things and bites and steals socks and shoes and runs and bites.....yep the biting is a common theme!

He even wears out the other two dogs and I am exhausted running after him turning the chairs back up the right way, taking the sock off him that he stole or that bit of something he found to chew.....

I call it 'feral hour'......

Any advise you get I will greatly cherish also!

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I call it 'The Mad Half Hour'.

My lad is in bed by 7pm but he usually just has a burst of energy and flies around the living area at 100mph. How he manages to dodge all the furniture in a very small space is beyond me. I just sit perfectly still hoping he won't run into me. Luckily he falls in a heap of sleepy spots afterwards :thumbsup:

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Jak only seems to have eyes for me after 8pm - toys or bones etc just don't cut it. She wants my blood ;-)

She can now jump up onto the couch too, so I can't even sit there or she's jumping up all over me and just biting me wherever. ARGH!

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Jak only seems to have eyes for me after 8pm - toys or bones etc just don't cut it. She wants my blood ;-)

She can now jump up onto the couch too, so I can't even sit there or she's jumping up all over me and just biting me wherever. ARGH!

Yes they have a witching hour, and yes you need to work through this.

But if your dog is on your couch and doing things you don't accept (now or when she is grown up), then you need to look at your leadership and get her under control.

There are lots of threads on leadership, NILIF etc that may be of use to you.

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I've read elsewhere that crazy, hyperactive or even aggressive behaviour can be associated with food allergies (not true 'allergies', more like intolerance of some ingredient(s)). Not sure if this is true for your case, or pup just wants play, play, play. Does she do the same after her morning food?

You have to start as you mean to go on.... i.e. do you want an adult dog jumping all over you and biting you? If not, train her and the sooner you start the better. You use food/ bribery to begin with, then go on from there. It doesn't take away from your dog's character, but gives you and her a way to communicate. Dogs have a great time training as you're giving them lots of attention. You can join a club or there's lots of advice on giving your dog leadership on DOL. It's SOOO nice to have a trained dog :love: .

Addit: Every day, you're training your dog whether you realise it or not. Best of luck :) .

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Ours is similar. Has a nutso time at some point before bed. Is not ususally like that in the day.

She is a 13 wk old airedale and has plenty of company during the day as my OH is a stays at home with our youngest. I cant wait till her training starts.

Never had a dog before so I hope I have been doing the right thing till now. Trying to teach her to stay down and not bite. It seems to work ok with me most times but she does not listen to others in the family as much, especially the kids.

I aqm looking forward to training and her settling down.

Dogfish

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Well tonight I decided to mix things up a bit and try something different. Between 8 and 8.15 I sat at the dining table and completely ignored her. She was happy to do her own thing. At 8.15 I initiated a major game of chasey, which she just loves, and come 8.30 she was tired enough to just lay down on the couch. This lasted 15 minutes when she was up again.

So I put her on the lead - she at one end of the couch, me at the other. She soon realised that she couldn't come to the other end and so gave up and laid down again.

She's now in bed. A good night you might say! Much better than yesterday :-)

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Oh my god ShellyBeggs that is just spooky haha. How old is your pup and what sort?

Jak is driving me crazy with it, not sure what to do.

He is 18 week kelpie..........we call him crazy, feral or schizo.....his real name is Anzac as I got him ANZAC day.

MMMMM maybe my idea to wear him out now so I can sleep later....isn't the best idea.

It seems to have worked with Jak so I might give the dining room table a go tonight too!

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Oh my god ShellyBeggs that is just spooky haha. How old is your pup and what sort?

Jak is driving me crazy with it, not sure what to do.

He is 18 week kelpie..........we call him crazy, feral or schizo.....his real name is Anzac as I got him ANZAC day.

MMMMM maybe my idea to wear him out now so I can sleep later....isn't the best idea.

It seems to have worked with Jak so I might give the dining room table a go tonight too!

Yeah, I think I might have been wearing Jak out a tad too early. She is very well behaved when I first get home from work, so switching our play time to her witching hour seemed like a good idea, and so far so good.

I am actually away all next week with work and I have a friend coming to housesit whilst I'm away - I'm hoping her time isn't too traumatic and that Jak doesn't run her completely ragged, she's certainly a handful! haha.

I find that if I'm higher than Jak - like at the dining room table - she can't jump up all over me and therefore I immediately have the leadership. It's when I'm down at her level that we both need to work on. One thing at a time though :-)

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Leah also has her witching hour around 8pm. It's not that she's home alone during the day either, I'm home pretty much 24/7, but the only time she gets a bit feral is the evening. Fortunately it wears her out for a good nights sleep. :love:

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as its getting colder i am wearing stockings to work.. the fact that there is only 5 days in the working week and i have gone through 6 pairs this week indicates what an ankle biter i have....

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Mine seem to start at 7am and keep going right until about 10pm at night :rofl:

Oh dear...that is very funny. I must have got lucky - my lad's a sleeper. If you keep him awake for more than 2 hours, he starts to whine and frown and carry on. I only have to say "time for bye byes" and he runs with glee to his crate, waiting for his Kong and a snooze. Such a baby :D The resident feline princesses are grateful at least :)

Edited by The Spotted Devil
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Mine seem to start at 7am and keep going right until about 10pm at night :rofl:

Oh dear...that is very funny. I must have got lucky - my lad's a sleeper. If you keep him awake for more than 2 hours, he starts to whine and frown and carry on. I only have to say "time for bye byes" and he runs with glee to his crate, waiting for his Kong and a snooze. Such a baby :D The resident feline princesses are grateful at least :)

Wow - yes you are lucky! haha. I wouldn't know how many naps Jak has during the day time, there's a big 10 hour period there where I'm not home so for all I know she could actually be sleeping all day, which would explain the nuts behaviour of a night time!

Tonight I have continued on with what I did last night, and we didn't start playing until 8.30. She's now quite tired :-) I won't put her to bed just yet though, will wait until she starts to doze off instead I think. I haven't seen her do that in a while! haha.

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