Too much energy!!!!

[Paully]

My Paully is 6 month old, I have her since she was born, because my brother has her mom Uma. I brougth her home when she had 1 1/2 month old.

She is doing great and I love her!! but I begin to loose my energy, I take her for a 30 minutes morning walk every day, and I leave her alone when I go to work. When I return home I take her again to walk and do some exercise almost for an hour but when we come home she is hiper hiper, she doesn't lie down, never, she is always after me trying to be over me, and I have to spend all the time we stay together doing something with her.

My routine at home has changed because I have to play all the time with her. what am I doing wrong? She just calm down when it's time to sleep in the patio alone. I want to have her near me because she expend too many hours by herself, but I will be very happy if she just laid down and calm form time to time.

I want to mention that I live in El Salvador, Central America and here we don't have people who take care of dogs (like nanies) when you are at work, or that help you to take your dog for a walk.

[spidey]

Your dog sounds totally normal, she is excited when you come home and wants to be with you. How much training do you do? Dogs need physical AND mental exercise. If you do not have a good obedience club near you, there are plenty of book and videos available online to help you train your dog. I train with my dogs (not Rottweilers) for at least 15 minutes every day, including some fun work on walks, and my dogs work for at least one meal a day more often than not (I clicker train, so "work" is fun for my dogs - they would rather work with me than do almost anything else). Plus I go to classes with them at least once a week. Working dogs need to WORK!

[Nishasmom]

Welcome to puppy hood .

A "walk" just wouldn't do it for my puppy; she had to RUN to get out her energy. We took her to the dog park EVERY DAY to play ball or frisbee with her. She would flat out sprint after the ball for around an hour a day...then she was tired . When at the dog-park (city park that is leash free) she also swims; this really gets them tired . She will retrieve balls out of the lake until I call her out! I heard on TV yesterday that a dog swimming for 1 minute = a mile run !!! So Nisha swims for around a hour a day...I guess that means she could run 60 miles (I however, could not).

Training is also very important as Spidey mentioned; we train in 10 minute sessions about 6 times a day.

On a side note...it isn't really fair to leave a 6 month old dog home alone without exercise for 8+ hours. You should change your whole "routine" for your dog. You did after all CHOOSE to get her right??? On my way home from work all I think of is how I can't wait to see my baby! No matter how tired I am or how bad she behaves, I am ALWAY happy to spend time with her. I would rather take my dog to the park for a hike or swim than sit at home and "relax". I love seeing her happy, spending time (quality) with me and my husband makes her happy. If you wanted a dog to sit on the couch with maybe you should have gotten a maltese.

I promise; if you take her out for a some HARD playing as soon as you get home for 1-1 1/2 hrs, SHE WILL SLEEP . Also, they dont start "relaxing" until they hit 1 yr. (at least that was my experience).

[Paully]

Spidey, I train her 30 minutes in the morning and one hour at night, but sometimes is just a walk and not running, and as I can see this is not enough, I knew that they were working dogs, but not that they work more than me :)
Thanks a lot for your advice, I will look for some videos but can you tell me what do you do for fun work on walks?

[Paully]

Nishasmom, thank you very much!!, now I undestand what is happening with Paully, I think that she has her energy accumulated that hasn't get out. The fresbee is a good idea, I will work on that.

I really like to be with her, and I run home to be together , but I was a little confused and didn't understand why she wasn't satisfy after we spend time at the park. But now I am clear and know what to do from now on.

[Nishasmom]

Good! You will see a huge improvement after you start letting her burn her energy. Once you get home from a Frisbee game, she will most likely sleep the rest of the night!

[CanadianRotts]

Hi Paully

Sounds like you have a normal, active puppy! I was wondering how Rottweilers would adapt to the heat of El Salvador. :) I just returned home from a 2 week vacation to Sonsonate, El Salvador and I was in your area when I climbed the San Salvador volcano. I didn't see any Rottweilers but saw one black/tan mix. Planning to return later this year. Beautiful country.

Dog Nannies ~ Sounds like a good idea to possibly start one, especially with tourism. :)

Dianna

[Paully]

Hi Dianna, it will be nice having you again in El Salvador.

There are some rottweilers here, but you don't see them often. I have heard that in Santa Ana (near Sonsonate) there is a breeder but I haven't been there. Maybe the one you saw was a 'aguacatero' as we called when you don't know what kind of dog is
:-).

They adapt nice to the weather, althouth where I live is not that hot than Sonsonate.

You are right with the Dog Nannies, I will do some research about it.

[lengel]

Does she like to play fetch? There's something here called a "Chuckit". It's an inexpensive plastic stick with a cup on the end that a tennis ball fits into. It lets you throw the ball over twice the length that a normal person would be able to without it. I can wear out any enthusiastic fetch dog with this in less than 20 minutes.

As I was told many years ago, a tired puppy is a good puppy.

She is a typical puppy but it sounds like you're trying really hard to give her a great life.

[Paully]

Hi Lengel: thanks a lot, I was going to ask, after finding out that I have a hyperactive dog, what can I do for settle down, but as you say I will find out about 'chuckit'.

It was really a relief to know that other people has gone trought the same problem, now I am triying my best to work out harder with her.

[Paully]

To all of you, I want to share that today Paully and me went to the park and we played soccer, I was throwing her the ball and she followed it all the time. We played almost for 45 minutes, and when we came home it took her almost and hour to settled down, right now she is just smelling around looking what to do but with a lillte bit less of energy. She laid down for 5 minutes, and for me it is a success, something that was hard to do, and stood up again, she is tired but she looks like an angel!.

[Nishasmom]

Does Paully like to swim? You may find better success if you take her swimming.

[Paully]

Nishasmom: I have to find out because I hadn't taken her to a pool yet. Here we dont't have public pools where we can take our dogs. It will be great if I can do that.

One month ago I took her to the beach, and because it was her first time I just let her apreciate all the new environment, she got wet with the water, and played with the sand, but I didn't take it inside the water. Next time I will try out! and I think she will enjoy it because the weather near the coast for us is hot, so the temperature of the water is warm.

[Nishasmom]

Paully: Nisha has never been in a pool either . It is also very warm where I live, we often go to the local lakes and rivers to swim. I'm sure Nisha would LOVE the beach; you have a lucky dog to live close to one .

[Paully]

Nishasmom: I think I misunderstood about the pool :-) I went to read agian your first answer and I read lake! NExt week we will have vacation for Labor day and we are going to the beach, so I'll tell you how we went.

In the meantime, Paully had improved a lot, I do more exercise with her, we run, play with the freesbee, play soccer and when we are at home I play tricks with her, like putting my hands in front of her and she point me out with her foot one of my fist where I have a treat, if she choose the wrong fist I do it again and she choose the other fist, the first time we did that I was very surprise!!!