My Puppy Goes Crazy Sometimes! What Do I Do?
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Guess what? My puppy goes crazy sometimes too. Does this sound familiar:
Puppy springs across the room, runs into the wall, jumps up on you, bites your hand, pulls on and tears your pant leg, dives under the couch, sprints back, and runs into the screen door…repeat for 30 minutes.
Yep! Those are our pup’s exact actions this morning!
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Not to worry folks, you’re not alone.
Every puppy we’ve raised has had these momentary lapses of craziness before reverting back to that calm, sleepy puppy lying on the doggy bed.
A sleeping puppy is a good puppy. 🙂
QUICK RECOMMENDATION: Speaking of dog beds one of our favorites is this Portable Dog Bed by Carlson. It’s raised off the floor and great for travel and outdoors especially if you like taking your dog camping.
My Puppy Goes Crazy Sometimes!?
We recently got an email from a reader asking us if we thought her puppy might be the spawn of Satan…
…I wanted to ask you if there could be a serious issue with my puppy.
I think she is the spawn of Satan or at the very least possessed. When she is being corrected or is extremely tired she turns into a vicious out for blood puppy.
She is 9 weeks old…she will not submit for over half an hour till I give up.
Then she passes out (not without one last lunge at the face). She makes god awful noises also during this time…is this normal?
I’ve been praying to God more the last few weeks than I have in my whole life!!!! –J.C
Spawn of Satan…Vicious puppy…Out for blood…
Our assessment? She could be:
- Vampire – after all puppies do have little dagger-like teeth.
- Zombie – the zombies that sprint like in Zombieland. Not the slow Walking Dead zombies.
- Spawn of Satan – according to the Omen that would make her puppy Damien. UPDATE: Do you watch American Horror Story: Michael Langdon Puppy.
- Puppy – with a case of the zoomies.
Yep, she’s just a puppy, not the Spawn of Satan.
Since I started raising puppies for Guide Dogs of America way back in 2006 I’ve only had one puppy that may have been the spawn of satan…not naming names, but it was quite the Journey…
The problem is what do you do when your puppy goes crazy?
We have a few answers that might help save your favorite pair of jeans as well as help you avoid a few puncture wounds to the hands, legs, and feet.
What Do I Do When My Puppy Goes Crazy?
So what do you do when your puppy goes crazy?
- Give Your Puppy His Favorite Chew Toy – A favorite chew toy can get a puppy’s attention off of craziness long enough to calm him down. Plus we’ve heard the chewing motion helps to relax a puppy. We usually leash our pups and let them sit by our legs with a favorite toy. Some of our favorite chews for puppies are
- Bully Sticks – One of our favorites and it takes a puppy a while to gnaw on these things. The packaging says odorless, but these things do have an odor just not as bad as some of the other bully sticks I’ve tried
- Hide-Squirrel Toy – One of our favorite plush toys. It entertains puppies a little longer because they are busy removing squirrels from the stump.
- Deer Antlers – we only use these with our pups and not the older dogs because we’ve heard many stories of cracked teeth.
- Nylabone Double Action Chew Toy – Adelle’s favorite toy! Be careful if your pup drops this on your foot it’ll leave a mark.
- Classic KONG Toy – Some dogs love them (Dublin). Some dogs can care less (Linus). We love its simplicity and durability plus you can fill it up with peanut butter and freeze it to keep your puppy busy for a while.
- Cradle Your Puppy – We had the luxury of raising our Golden Retriever, Bear and his siblings since birth and started cradling these little guys when they were one week old. One thing we do when Bear gets the extreme puppy zoomies is cradle him between our legs for a good 5 minutes. This calms him down and usually, when we release him from the cradle he wanders over to his doggy bed for a little nap.
- Channel Your Puppy’s Energy In A Positive Way – Instead of letting your puppy go nuts running around the house uncontrollably try engaging in a game on your terms by teaching your puppy to fetch. Our little Bear is a Golden Retriever so fetching his toys comes naturally and he enjoys playing the game. Even if your puppy already knows the game of fetch we’d suggest using a leash or long line to make sure your puppy always comes back to you. This could also be a good time to work on your puppy’s recall and teach him his name. Getting your puppy’s mind on track can often time break him of the crazies.
- Manage Your Puppy With A Tie Down – Tie downs are a great tool to manage your puppy. When our pups are showing a little bit of their satanic side we will sometimes put them on tie-down (always supervised) with a toy. This is very similar to #1, but instead of keeping our puppy near us, we have them on tie-down away from us. QUICK RECOMMENDATION: Our tie-down is essentially a wire cable similar to this one: Tie Out Cable except ours is only 4 feet long. You can use a leash instead of a cable which we have, but we have had puppies gnaw right through the leash if you’re not paying close attention.
- Let Your Puppy Take A Break In His Crate – As J.C. mentioned her puppy goes crazy sometimes when he is “extremely tired.” If this is the case we will sometimes use our crate to calm down our puppy, but be careful because you don’t want your puppy to have a negative association with his crate. When our puppy is extremely tired and doing the “crazy thing” he will go right to sleep in less than 60 seconds after being put in the crate. Our trick is we will usually lure him to and into the crate with his favorite treat then once inside the crate we’ll give him a couple of treats and in under a minute our puppy is snoring away.
- Stimulate Your Pup’s Mind With Interactive Puzzle Toys – There are several dog toys that will stimulate your pup’s mind rather than their zoomie bodies. Here are a few we’ve tried and liked:
- KONG Wobbler – Stetson loved the KONG Wobbler when he finally figured out how to get the treats out of it. Check out our video of Stetson playing with his Wobbler.
- Dog Brick Puzzle Toy – I’ve been working with dogs at a boarding facility which has given me access to tons of puzzle toys. This one is one of our favorites for working our dog’s brain.
And that folks is how we solve the puppy crazies.
Every puppy is different so one of these methods will undoubtedly work better than the others.
So, if you try cradling your puppy and it doesn’t work too well to calm your puppy may be a good chew toy, or a supervised tie-down will work best for your little guy.
QUICK RECOMMENDATION: As we previously mentioned we sometimes use the crate to help calm our crazy puppy. We love and recommend the MidWest Life Stages Double Door Crate w/ Divider. We still use the first MidWest crate we bought for Linus over 13 years ago. Can you say durable!
Now back at you. If you’ve ever raised a puppy what do you do when your puppy goes crazy?
Tell us about your experiences in the comment section below.
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I have a yellow lab, 9 weeks old. This a terrible situation with her. Twice a day and I have repetitively tried all of the above mentioned solutions except for putting her in the crate. It is super bad, she is destructive , bites constantly, pees everywhere etc.I really have to find an answer….
I would try the crate then for sure….
Our bichon frise puppy loves to chase us and for us to chase him in our backyard in the morning, evening, or both. Rest of the time he’s resting in his playpen. He incorporates tricking us by quickly zooming between our legs or around us quicker than we can turn around without falling and also by taking random routes to attempt to lose us. He’s been very fun to be with.
We have a 3 month old akita inu, which goes crazy at times. The only thing that helps is giving him a treat to chew on, which calms him down. But man, going to find that treat can be hard at times, with him biting at my ankles. Cant wait until those vampire teeth fall out and grow into the less pointy teeth. 😅
We have a new puppy that came from the shelter. She is about 5 mths old and they say she is a terroir mix. We have a few issues that we need help with.
1: She is a very sweet puppy but in the morning she is a monster. She gets very excited, pees and franticly licks the face of our 5 year old GWP. Our older dog really does great with it but she is out of control until we feed her.
2: Feeding is also crazy. She jumps at us and eats super fast. We have to feed her away from our older dog only because she will get in his bowl which he is really good about.
3: The last issue is she plays very rough with the older dog and this get him worked up as well. They are contently chasing each other and biting at each others necks. My older dog is getting over stimulated and I am afraid he will hurt the puppy.
Congratulations on your new puppy!
1. We keep our puppy on leash most of the day so she doesn’t bother our older dog.
2. We teach our puppies to sit and wait for their food. It takes patience, but you can try not putting her bowl on the ground until she sits and waits. You can also try standing on her leash to keep her from jumping up. If she eats too fast you can try a slow feeder dog bowl.
3. We let our puppy play with the older dog, but only in short, monitored play sessions. If either dog gets over stimulated I’ll first put the puppy on leash and if the older dog is too worked up then I’ll put her on leash as well.
Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your training!
What is a puppy tie down?
We use a 4 foot wire cable similar to this Tie Out Cable (except ours is 4 feet instead of 10). We then attach the cable to the couch or wall (we put an eye screw in a stud in the wall). We then attach the tie down to our puppy. It gives our puppy room to move around, but they can’t venture out more than 4 feet away.
Also, you can use a leash instead of a cable, but if you’re not paying attention your puppy will gnaw right through the leash. We’ve had this happen a couple times.
My puppy is 10 weeks old and goes crazy for around 5-8 minutes at a time at least twice a day. She often launches into the crazy mode when she gets excited, during interactive play, chasing after a ball, or seeing a bird or other animal. It always starts unexpectedly. Once into the crazed state she runs around almost aimlessly, often running into trees, brick walls, and tripping over herself, sometimes doing several flips or tumbles before regaining her footing. But, never stopping for a second until she is tuckered out. The real problem I have with this is she often becomes aggressive, growling, barking, and lashing out at people and objects when in this mode.
As a result, my wife and I have both been victim to her biting, often just at the beginning of her crazy fit when it isn’t expected. The dog is also a jumper, quite capable of leaping a into the air several feet and for a yard or more in distance, which she does repeatedly when in this crazed state. As she runs past she often flies through the air taking a nip at at hand or object, often sinking her teeth into whatever she grabs. Unfortunately, it usually seems to be a persons hand and it often ends badly with a lot of blood, because she locks on while flying through the air. Tonight she sliced through my finger which was holding a ball. She came up from behind silently and I didn’t see her coming. It was a long deep gash and took almost an hour to get the bleeding to stop. This will be one of several scars that I have endured over the last week from her while in this state.
My wife wants to put the puppy down, because she feels the dog is dangerous and might seriously hurt one of the children. I am not sure what to do. It would be nice to know how long this will last or if there is anything that can be done to prevent it from happening. I prefer not to keep her crated all day, because she seems to need the physical release.
You might consider having a certified professional dog trainer come out to evaluate your puppy. It’s tough to tell if your puppy is being aggressive or just being a puppy based on what you’ve written. Good luck with your puppy. Here are a few resources for finding trainers:
https://www.ccpdt.org/dog-owners/certified-dog-trainer-directory/
https://karenpryoracademy.com/find-a-trainer/?source=kpctnavbar#!directory/map
Hopefully that helps. Good luck with your puppy.
I do hope you didn’t do anything drastic. He’s just being a puppy.
Like a toddler – they get over exited & just can’t slow down. All wound up & have to release the excess energy. Use toys to distract him from your hands etc.
If you and your family don’t feel safe I think it’s fine to surrender the pup. Biting that causes blood is much too serious.
We just got a Mini Golden Doodle 3 weeks ago. He is 12 weeks old now. Id like to say he is somewhat potty trained in that he will quietly go to the door and sit…. I put the leash on him and he does his thing. He does pretty good on a leash in the house… but when I take him for a walk he goes completly crazy.. he pulls and jerks, flips so hard he chokes himself and starts coughing. I can pick him up and calm him down, but when I put him down.. he’s possessed again so I end up picking him up and taking him back home. I’ve tried to distract him with his favorite treats, and toy…. nothing works.. its like he’s possessed. What can I do?
I probably should add that he does this when he sees another dog, or children, or people.