omg I have way too many questions about this dog. I'm sorry. lol. I should have picked an easier breed.
I posted a while ago about Juno's constant whine whine whine. And she's still horrible about it. However recently I have been thinking, maybe it is possible she is just OVERstimulated? I don't think it really explains why she would whine during her class (but maybe it does?), but it does seem like a logical explanation for why she wanders around the house whining, or when she finally does lie down and chew on a toy, she's whining during the whole thing.
If she's not sleeping, she's doing SOMEthing. During the day when I'm gone, she's at home with my mom running around the house with my mom's daycare. I take her for walks, we go to the dog park, we do training sessions (and this one has increased since the Dog Trick blog!), we play fetch. If she's awake, she needs that constant interaction. Very very rarely does she just grab a toy and chew on it quietly. She drops it in my lap 100 times and then finally, after being ignored each time, she very NOISILY will lay down with it. I know this has been brewing since she was a wee pup. From the start I've always felt that the only way to tire her out and keep her calm was to keep providing her with things to do. I've always felt guilty crating her for even short periods of time (for a while after we first got her, my mom would BEG me to go to a friend's house or just mosy around Target, ANYthing to get me away from the dog for a bit). I'm starting to wish she would have been crated more as a pup, and maybe she'd be more used to just relaxing.... I'm thinking there is a fine line between being understimulated and being overstimulated, and I just may have crossed that line... I know the energy the breed has and so I've always tried to give her an outlet for that energy, I didn't want to be that owner that does nothing with their dog. And now I feel so bad when all I want to do is relax for a bit, and Juno wants someone to do something with her. I mean I can't even sit down and watch a movie or a hockey game unless it's later in the evening so I know Juno will sleep.
I guess another thing to maybe "prove" my point. We used to go to the dog park just on the weekends, maybe an extra night here and there. And 30-45 minutes would be enough to wipe her out the rest of the day, and she'd even still be pretty mellow the next day as well. The past few weeks, we have been going Every. Single. Day. For 1-2 hours at a time. At first I thought it was a fabulous idea and I thought this would keep her mellow. But, and I should have known this because I've seen this caution about physical exercise... now that we've been going so frequently, even 2 hours at the park does not tire her out the same way that 30 minutes used to. We get home and she might sleep for an hour or 2, but then she's up again waiting for more to do.
Basically, Juno will not turn OFF. She certainly has an on-switch but I can't seem to find an off-switch with her, I don't know how to fix this. And I know that anything I do now will make me feel even MORE guilty than I already do, because now she is sooo used to constantly going.
I posted a while ago about Juno's constant whine whine whine. And she's still horrible about it. However recently I have been thinking, maybe it is possible she is just OVERstimulated? I don't think it really explains why she would whine during her class (but maybe it does?), but it does seem like a logical explanation for why she wanders around the house whining, or when she finally does lie down and chew on a toy, she's whining during the whole thing.
If she's not sleeping, she's doing SOMEthing. During the day when I'm gone, she's at home with my mom running around the house with my mom's daycare. I take her for walks, we go to the dog park, we do training sessions (and this one has increased since the Dog Trick blog!), we play fetch. If she's awake, she needs that constant interaction. Very very rarely does she just grab a toy and chew on it quietly. She drops it in my lap 100 times and then finally, after being ignored each time, she very NOISILY will lay down with it. I know this has been brewing since she was a wee pup. From the start I've always felt that the only way to tire her out and keep her calm was to keep providing her with things to do. I've always felt guilty crating her for even short periods of time (for a while after we first got her, my mom would BEG me to go to a friend's house or just mosy around Target, ANYthing to get me away from the dog for a bit). I'm starting to wish she would have been crated more as a pup, and maybe she'd be more used to just relaxing.... I'm thinking there is a fine line between being understimulated and being overstimulated, and I just may have crossed that line... I know the energy the breed has and so I've always tried to give her an outlet for that energy, I didn't want to be that owner that does nothing with their dog. And now I feel so bad when all I want to do is relax for a bit, and Juno wants someone to do something with her. I mean I can't even sit down and watch a movie or a hockey game unless it's later in the evening so I know Juno will sleep.
I guess another thing to maybe "prove" my point. We used to go to the dog park just on the weekends, maybe an extra night here and there. And 30-45 minutes would be enough to wipe her out the rest of the day, and she'd even still be pretty mellow the next day as well. The past few weeks, we have been going Every. Single. Day. For 1-2 hours at a time. At first I thought it was a fabulous idea and I thought this would keep her mellow. But, and I should have known this because I've seen this caution about physical exercise... now that we've been going so frequently, even 2 hours at the park does not tire her out the same way that 30 minutes used to. We get home and she might sleep for an hour or 2, but then she's up again waiting for more to do.
Basically, Juno will not turn OFF. She certainly has an on-switch but I can't seem to find an off-switch with her, I don't know how to fix this. And I know that anything I do now will make me feel even MORE guilty than I already do, because now she is sooo used to constantly going.