How much do they really change around 1 year old?

[mikail]

I’m exhausted and just looking for support I guess. I have a 7 month old girl who we rescued through the ACDRA when she was about 3 months old. The past four months have just been getting harder and harder it seems. Her energy level and reactivity are harder than I expected, and I tried to be pretty honest with myself going into this. I grew up with dogs but never had this breed and this is just way, way more than I bargained for. I keep reading about how they can mellow out around 1 year and I’m trying to hold out for that because I can see that she’s got potential but I’m exhausted and discouraged and I don’t know how anyone has a life of their own while raising a cattle dog. We’re talking about re-homing her and I’m feeling really down about the whole thing. How do y’all do it?

 

[rainysunflower]

@mikail It was HARD! Mine’s only half ACD (other half corgi, which is what I’m used to), and I have never cried so much over a completely healthy dog!!! Mine turned one in December, and she’s already calming down, thank goodness!

We played a LOT of fetch/frisbee/ball/bite the bubbles/bite the water out of the hose/attack the pumpkin. I finally got her used to walking on a leash, and we play fetch maybe once or twice a day, and we go on a 25 minute walk every day, and she’s pretty good now!

We have two ten year old dogs who HATED her when she was the same age as yours, so I took her to doggie daycare once a week to get socialized and learn some manners. They’re all fine now!

We had to work really hard on no biting. We’d say “no biting,” and stick a finger in her mouth and pinch down on her cheek, and when she started to lick instead, we’d change tone and say, “licking’s good.” It took forever, but we got her re-directed, and she’s much less “mouthy” or “toothy” now.

Re-direction is the big key, I think. Getting her off the bad behavior and distracted by something acceptable.

Best of luck!!!! I feel for ya!

 

[mikail]

@rainysunflower Right now we’re giving her at least 45mins of high energy play (fetch, jolly ball, flirt pole, tug, etc) 1-2x per day, plus afternoon and evening walks to sniff. And we do training and puzzles indoors throughout the day. We’re lucky if she sleeps for more than a couple hours total the whole day through. I tried a “rest day” thinking that we were overdoing it but it was worse: she was just more reactive and restless from the pent up energy. I think we can handle like 60% of what she needs physically/mentally. I just don’t know if that’s a reasonable thing to hold out hope for. Everyone says they’re the best dog ever once they’re three years old. That seems like such a long time!

 

[chaitealatte456789]

@mikail Try kenneling when she’s like this? Ours gets crazy and reactive when she’s tired but she seems like she needs to play. I’ll kennel her for an hour and she wakes up in a better mood. Sniffing is a great calming exercise too. Throw chicken in the yard or cheese. Also get bones they can eat through like beef cheeks or bully sticks. This helps them settle them.
Ours used to play frisbee at the dog park for an hour. Now she gets tired (1.5 years old) after 20-30 minutes of play. I never thought this day would come.

 

[mikail]

@chaitealatte456789 Tired after 30mins? Wow! My dream is morning and afternoon play time with a walk in the evening, and the rest be chill. I hope we get there!

 

[frankktess]

@mikail Look for a doggy daycare that does structured training during the day, going once or twice a week can really help

 

[mikail]

@frankktess We’re going to start going to daycare once a week! They don’t do structured training, but it’s at least a break for me. We have limited options because she’s still unspayed and I want to wait till she’s a year old before having that done.

 

[cloelace]

@mikail Tried the relaxation protocol? It's a standard recommendation on this sub. You gotta teach the off switch.

A few days ago someone posted a survey on how much our ACDs are exercising each day. Go there and compare the answers with yours. My guess is the level of exercise you provide isn't less than average. So again, it's the off switch that's missing.

 

[mousa]

@cloelace Whats the relaxation protocol?

 

[soulknight]

@mousa Here's my favorite link for it (the post goes through what it's good for and why it helps so much and then gives you a free link to a pdf of the actual protocol).

Essentially, what you are doing is training the dog in short, easy bursts (a given day's exercises will run you somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes to complete, tops) to lie quietly on a mat or bed and chill out while you do weird stuff that might excite the dog. It is incredibly useful and relies on treat training.

 

[mikail]

@soulknight I tried it before but didn’t find it that useful/helpful. Maybe I’ll pick it up again. I do try to work in long down-stays (with distractions like clapping and distance) during fetch. But I guess that’s different than just learning to relax.

 

[cloelace]

@mikail "tried it before"? Man... I get it it's a rather boring set of exercises to humans, but it's a long list of them, which, if practiced daily with dedication, could still take months to complete, depending on how quickly your pup can learn to relax. I doubt dipping one's toes in it counts as tried it enough to say yay or nay on the effects.

 

[elijah13]

@soulknight Our girl just turned one and gets obnoxious right around 2pm every day. It's like she doesn't know what to do with herself. If it's really bad, I've begun leashing her to my desk and she tends to calm down once she has a "purpose". It helps her with that switch from go go go must do to calm.

 

[nevamae99]

@mikail Get a fi collar or something similar

I have a pit/acd/husky/German Shepard mix and she is a handful.

I have another husky pit mix and he was nothing compared to her.

The fi helps me understand where she’s at activity wise. I know if she does under 30 thousand steps it’s gonna be a rough night or next day.

I know if she does above 40 she’s sleeping and being a good loving girl.

It worked for my husky pit mix as well. I can judge his behavior from his activity level.

We did snuffle mats too and those also help.

 

[mikail]

@nevamae99 We got one recently, and she’s consistently in the high 30s to 40k steps or above. I wish Fi let you see other dogs step counts cause I was wondering what our daily goal should be. It’s 32k right now and we’re on an 11 day streak. Broke only because I didn’t have the Fi collar on her when we boarded her a few days.

 

[dlovingbrother]

@mikail Are you crating her through the day? I found I had to enforce down time in the crate until she finally learned to settle on her own.

 

[mason08]

@mikail Nope not enough.

 

[likim]

@mikail As someone that was pretty fed up, be patient. The nipping, biting, and barking starts to slow down with routine. If you can focus attention on a set task with a hardy command, it will get her to tunnel that energy. It does take time, and encouragement…but that dog needs you to tell her what to do. ACDs crave direction

 

[mason08]

@mikail Um well we had one and I would say she mellowed out around 10 years. Sorry but that's a fact. They're not meant to be mellow.

 

[jerrykit]

@mikail It’s tough! But stick with it, that age is especially hard. Mine is a year and a half now and still rowdy, just a bit smarter and somewhat better behaved than when he was younger.

What worked for me, and I by no means have the best trained dog out there, was to just make things fun for both of us. Focus on training, learning new tricks, go on adventures, stick to a routine. And I also focus a lot on chill time so I can decompress from being human.

My friend said when I got my dog, “the first year is tough, but spend as much time as you can with them in the first year and they will be the most loyal dog you can have”.

It will get better and they are the best dogs. Good luck!