Is it possible for a dog to be over-tired?

MrsAtobe

OH and I looked after his mum's Westie on Friday night at our house for the first time, we've previously done this loads of times staying at her place. The last time we looked after her there, she had us up about six times during the night, so we thought this time we would wear her out so that she slept, and let us sleep as well.

She had a whale of a time on Friday night, we took her for a short walk (as it was very hot), then once it had cooled off we were throwing her toys for her to fetch, she did the mad run that Westie's do, had numerous good sniffs round the garden, etc etc. We made her sit calmly for about half an hour before we went to bed, as by this point, she'd worn us out too!

The little minx still had us up five times overnight between the pair of us, grrrr. Could this be because she was over-tired, or are we just so much fun that she doesn't want it to stop;)?

purple.sarah

Maybe she was over excited by the new place and routine. When you say she had you up in the night, why? Did she want to go out? Was she barking? Don't come running when she barks or she will learn bad habits.

Person_one

I don't think its to do with her not being tired enough, its the fact that she's in a strange place with people who aren't her usual humans.

Why are you getting up? Is she asking to go out or just fussing? Sometimes, unless the dog is very distressed, it can be better to just let them settle as they soon learn that crying/barking/scratching achieves the desired result of humans coming running!

MrsAtobe

Thanks both. We went to bed at about 11, I was first woken up at about 3:30am, which I thought was probably about right for her needing to go out. What I didn't know at this point was that Oh had already been up twice with her by that time:eek:. She was in her own bed, btw, we brought it down as well as toys, bowls, etc so that she had as many familiar things around her as possible.

She would scratch at the bed clothes or us, no barking, and she would go to the top of the stairs. She won't go down them without a human with her as she normally lives in a bungalow. Without really knowing how long she can go without going outside, I thought it better to take her outside with no fuss made of her, rather than not take her and risk an accident.

This is different to her normal routine, OH's mum normally goes to bed at about, midnight or one, is up at about five, and then will have a long afternoon nap for about three hours. We spoke to his mum this morning, apparently the dog has slept a lot since we dropped her back.

MrsAtobe

Forgot to mention that she was scratching at the bed in exactly the same way that my spaniel used to,on the infrequent times when she needed to go out. Obviously my spaniel trained me too well .

krlyr

I know it seems like the obvious answer to a dog with too much energy is to up the exercise but sometimes you can find this makes things worse - the dog gets a build up of adrenaline, and long-term this extra workout can just end up building up its stamina and making it harder and harder to wear out! It can actually be just as effective to wear out a dog mentally as it is physically.
Interact with it in a way that makes it rack its brain - have you ever heard of clicker training? You don't necessarily need to go out and buy a clicker as it's not your dog, a simple word like "good" or "bingo" can be used in place of the click - or household items like the end of a biro clicking in and out, a push-top jar lid if it makes a popping noise, etc. Basically the idea is that you associate this noise/word with a treat, and once the dog realises click = treat, you have a much more effective way to mark good behaviour when training. From basics like a sit - dog happens to come over to you, you lure its head up with a treat, it puts its bum on the floor and click! You've marked the moment its sat on the floor, and reward with a treat. More complex stuff like teaching the dog to touch your hand with its nose - again, you can lure this behaviour (wipe the treat on your hand so it smells of food and hold the hand up so the dog sniffs it), and click! when the dog does the behaviour you want, followed by a treat. Once you and the dog both get the hang of it, you can progress to more complex tricks that really make the dog think. I've been teaching my mum's dog some silly little tricks, last time I visited I managed to teach her to go behind me, walk between my legs and put her paws on each foot, and we walk along with her keeping her feet on my feet - it's called "cop cop", if you look on Youtube then there are videos explaining how to teach it. I would recommend looking up Kikopup on Youtube as she has loads of instructional videos for clicker training.
As well as clicker training, you can do simple stuff like hide and seek - train the dog to get a toy on command and then start hiding it with the dog out of sight and then asking it to find the toy on its return. Simple places at first, like behind a door, but once the dog gets used to the game you can make it more complex, like behind furniture, up on a shelf, etc.
Rather than feeding its dinner in a bowl, put it in a Kong or a treat ball - make it work physically and mentally for the food (licking/chewing at a Kong, if you stuff it with wet food, realises feel-good endorphins which can help relax a dog too). Even just grab a handful of dry biscuits and chuck them over the floor or in the garden, so dinnertime takes 5 minutes instead of 5 seconds.
Just a few ideas you could try next time you're dog-sitting, for a bit more peace at night hopefully!

MrsAtobe

Thanks for the advice, krlyr, I can see I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on to wear her out mentally, she's funny with food and with hard objects. She won't even fetch a hard ball after one hit her head as a pup, so that kind of rules out the Kong. She doesn't do treats either, she'll chase a markie around the floor rather than eat it. As I said, thinking cap on, and a trip to Pets at Home.

Thanks again for the advice.

krlyr

She's a smart cookie avoiding Markies anyway - full of junk and cheap fillers! With any dog with too much energy, it's worth checking out what you're feeding them. Remember the old blue Smarties? Well, lots of dog treats are full of just as many e-numbers which can lead to hyperactivity. Same thing applies to their main food as well as treats - sadly many are marketed at owners rather than dogs and are full of colourings to make them appealing and additives to make them tastier (because they contain so little meat, they need sugars, fats, flavourings, etc. to make them smell appealing to the dog)