We have a just over 1 year-old female golden retriever, and we have really been struggling to get her to settle, particularly in the evenings.
For some background, I’ve noticed she is quite sensitive to getting over aroused, but she is getting so much better at listening and redirecting her attention when asked amidst exciting things, like when my partner gets home, meeting a dog on a walk, getting a bully stick etc. I’ve noticed this sensitivity also extends to the amount of exercise and mental stimulation we give her each day - I find I need to be quite carful to not overdo these things or else she gets overaroused, but also can be restless if I speculate she hasn’t gotten enough exercise/stimulation at the end of the day. I find it’s a very fine line with her.
What we are doing right now:
Exercise:
- morning walk - 25 ish minutes with lots of sniffing
- lunchtime walk - 15 ish walk break to sniff and stretch (I wfh but I break with her mid day here. She is either outside or with me chilling when we aren’t on our way for about 1.5 hours mid day)
- evening walk around 6pm- 25 ish minutes with lots of sniffing
Enrichment
- 2x 7-10 min training sessions including sniff work
- a bully stick and a toppl or pupsicle frozen treat
- anywhere from 20-40 mins total a day of bird and people watching outside that I know mentally tires her
Sleep
- 3 hour nap 9-12pm
- 2-3 hour nap from 1:30/2 to 4-5pm depending on when my partner gets home (I work till 5)
When she and I are home during the day she settles fine in between walks and enrichment, but once we get home from our evening walk around 6pm and we feed her dinner, it’s like she can’t switch off from then until we put her to bed at 9pm. She will act out to get our attention when my partner and I are cooking dinner or eating (ie. not paying attention to her) and pace around and pant once he and I are settled to watch tv at the end of the night around 8pm.
Does this sound like she is not getting enough of something to be able to settle at night? Or perhaps are we doing too much? I’ve considered upping our walk time to closer to 45 mins morning and night to see if she might not be getting enough exercise, but I am tentative about overdoing this and getting an overstimulated dog.
Unfortunately we’re finding this happens almost every night except for the nights she is home from daycare and is completely zonked. I know it’s hard on her because she can’t seem to relax, and we are finding our evenings are often trying to redirect her and get her soothed, which is becoming tiring for us as well.
Any advice or experience from something similar would be greatly appreciated!