Why is my dog suddenly not sleeping at night?
Your dog may be suffering from environmental allergies, contact allergies, food allergies or dry skin caused by low humidity. Try laundering his bedding in detergent that doesn’t contain any dyes or fragrances.
Giving time for your dog to settle and relax allows Glutamate, which is linked with brain development, cognition, learning and memory, to rise. It also releases Dopamine, which makes them feel good.
Build up some duration for lying on the mat, do this by delaying reward for a couple of seconds initially and then increasing this at your dog’s pace. Don’t go too quickly or your dog might get up!
Teaching a dog that won’t settle to lie down when asked on a mat or dog bed gives them and you time to “switch off” and chill out.
Once the dog is comfortable to stand on the blanket, ask the dog to lie down and then reward them.
Download these seven steps as a handy advice sheet and use it as a reminder to train regularly:
See if a Thundershirt works for your dog
When Kepler was around 8-9 months old he started going through a mega ‘fear’ phase.
This is obviously quite common with dogs of that age, but as he was already pretty reactive to people moving and doing ‘strange’ things, so this was a pretty intense time for all of us.
With 4th July coming up, we were particularly worried that experiencing loud fireworks during a time while he was so fearful would be pretty traumatising for him, so were willing to try anything to reduce the stress he could feel on that day in particular.
I was pretty skeptical about whether the Thundershirt would actually help, but as it didn’t do any harm to try, we bought him one and got him used to wearing it each evening.
The way the Thundershirt works is to provide a mildly compressive ‘hug’ around the dog’s body, which they find comforting (plus, he looks cute in it – I call the Thundershirt his pajamas, as it’s made out of a similar soft fabric to PJs!!).
We noticed a clear difference in his behavior immediately – it was actually quite amazing!
When Kepler wears his Thundershirt we can tell from his body language that he relaxes more easily and dozes off much quicker than he would otherwise, so I often put it on him after a long run, to help him relax after all the excitement of trail-time.
While the Thundershirt may not work for everyone it is definitely worth a try if you need to calm your dog down after exercise or generally help them relax more easily.
US online stores selling the Thundershirt:
UK online stores selling the Thundershirt:
This would be the subject of an entire post in its own right – it is a huge myth that Border Collies can be satisfied by tons of exercise alone.
Apparently, all that achieves is a very fit (and possibly amped-up) dog wanting more and more exercise.
Of course, he also gets physical exercise, but not tons. On days when he doesn’t run with us, he gets a 15 minute structured walk and/or a frisbee or recall session, for example. 15 minutes, not two hours!
Instead of over-exercising our dog with lots of cardio (which he is probably perfectly capable of doing for hours), we are very intentional about ensuring he gets a good amount of structured mental training every day, which is rewarded with his daily portion of food.
Some examples of how we do this are:
We all know how tiring learning new things can be – and conversely, how it can be hard to sleep after a lot of exercise if your brain is still thinking about ‘stuff’.
It seems Kepler is the same, as he can sometimes seem to have MORE energy after a run or frisbee game than on days when he doesn’t get to do those things.
These mental games have proven to be a great way to calm our dog down after exercise, as they allow him to focus on the tricks/sniffing to earn his meals.
US online stores selling the regular-size Fitbone for dogs:
Why won’t my dog go for a walk anymore? (What to do)
In this post I’m sharing a variety of techniques and methods we have found helpful to calm our dog down after exercise and help him to engage his ‘off-switch’.
These are also useful in general to calm down our dog and help him relax in the house. Some have been the result of working with dog trainers, and others are tips we picked up from experience, research and other dog owners since bringing Kepler home.
We have no doubt these tips will also help calm your dog down if he is similar to our energetic Border Collie!
We had a steep learning curve in ensuring we are helping Kepler learn to be a happy yet calm and relaxed pet dog at home and on the trails.
Border Collies are famous for being highly intelligent and highly energetic dogs, and our dog loves to do energetic activities such as trail running and dog sports such as his current favorite, frisbee!
These sports help him satisfy his need to burn off some energy and ‘work’ – the work being running with us, or chasing, catching and returning the frisbee as a reward for doing dog tricks and obedience.
While it’s great that Kepler loves to go trail running and play frisbee, but while it does get him some exercise, it also pumps him up on adrenaline and we’ve found that a short game of frisbee can actually make him MORE herdy and energetic when we get home, which he exhibits in trying to do things like chase the cats or barking at people running on TV, or simply just milling about and not settling down.
These tips have all been helpful to us in learning how to calm our dog down at times when he is overly excited, as well as generally helping him learn and develop into a calm and composed adult, rather than a reactive overly-alert one, both at home and when we are out in public or on the trails.
If you also trail run with your dog or have an energetic dog like Kepler, then hopefully these will be helpful for you, too.