# Evening routine



## DrogoNevets (5 mo ago)

Hi all
Having a bit of an over whelm day again I’m afraid.

First day of 2 weeks off and feeling like being at work will be less stressful than looking after a puppy.

Whilst I totally get Vizslas are Velcro dogs, that’s why we wanted one, in the evening we have a block if about 3-4 hours where we are at a bit of a loss of what to do with Ziva.

We seem to be unable to sit down and watch tv or anything. Even when Ziva is tired.

We are happy her being with us, even on us. But she just doesn’t entertain herself, and we find ourselves going through chew after chew, and she doesn’t really want to play games etc.

So in the evening, how would you say we should act/what should we do to encourage her to play on her own/rest/relax.

This story is the same no matter how tired she is.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Heifer is a little older than your pup. Keep in mind weeks, can make a difference in a pups ability to settle. I took her for a quick trip to watch a dog show. She was absolutely distracted when walking her. Tons of people, other dogs, new sights, sounds and smells. When I sat down to watch the Vizslas in the ring. I put my foot on her lead. It gave her just enough room to move a few inches in either direction, but that is it. She at first she stood watching everything, and wanting greet people that got near was on her mind. When she would stand calmly, I would hand her a very small high value treat. Before long she was laying next to my feet, watching her surroundings. I would still periodically hand her a treat, without saying anything to her. We need to remember to treat good behavior ( settling), and not just when we are asking them to do something. It’s easy to think, leave the puppy alone, it’s being good for a few minutes. But it’s the perfect time to reward good behavior.


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

We noticed with Ellie from an early age that if we can survive until around 8:30pm, we were rewarded with a puppy sleeping on the couch with us. Ellie never really "settled" on her own until about 4.5 months, I celebrated when she laid down all by herself in my office while I was trying to work. Otherwise the evening was typically zoomies after dinner, more play, then crash on the couch when my wife and I sat to watch TV. What is your day schedule like, how much sleep is she getting during the day?


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## DrogoNevets (5 mo ago)

Dan_A said:


> We noticed with Ellie from an early age that if we can survive until around 8:30pm, we were rewarded with a puppy sleeping on the couch with us. Ellie never really "settled" on her own until about 4.5 months, I celebrated when she laid down all by herself in my office while I was trying to work. Otherwise the evening was typically zoomies after dinner, more play, then crash on the couch when my wife and I sat to watch TV. What is your day schedule like, how much sleep is she getting during the day?


Exactly this.
She can crash on sofa after about 19.30, but my question more was how do we fill up the zoomies time between dinner and then?

We are ok at it with moving from one chew to the next, with the odd game, but what games can we play with her?

She’s just turned 4m and will now sleep with us on sofa in evening eventually but only once we hit 19.15-20.00ish


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

Good question. We used to play the "try not go to insane" game hahaha.

Could really be anything. Once I taught Ellie to "stay" , she really loved and still does the "find the treat" game. I put her in a stay on a mat, then go around the house hiding small treats. Then I come back and release her to "go find the treats!!!". She then frantically sniffs around the house looking for all the tiny treats hidden about. Then repeat a few times. This kind of game where they need to use their sniffer and brain tends to keep them more busy and tire them out more quickly than just rolling a ball around the house. Any game or activity that incorporates the brain+physical will work 2X better at draining their battery.

If you haven't taught the "stay" command or whatever you would like to call it, this time is a great time to start training for that. It will unlock doors to additional activities.


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## DrogoNevets (5 mo ago)

Dan_A said:


> Good question. We used to play the "try not go to insane" game hahaha.


So it's not just us, that is good to know! Guess I am just a little grumpy my daily TV watching time has dropped so dramatically and had hoped she'd just curl up on the sofa with us and relax. One day....one day....


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## lw19 (10 mo ago)

DrogoNevets said:


> So it's not just us, that is good to know! Guess I am just a little grumpy my daily TV watching time has dropped so dramatically and had hoped she'd just curl up on the sofa with us and relax. One day....one day....


Same experience here with my vizsla at that age. That 2-3 hour stretch in the early evening was tough for me. 

But just you wait, it will get to the point where she will be expecting cuddle time once the TV turns on at night. Recently, there was a solid 2 weeks where I was doing home improvement projects in the evening and that took Penny some getting used to, which she wasn't thrilled about. As soon as I finished up those projects you could just sense how happy she was to finally have the snuggle time in the evening. She's not even 1 year old yet, so just know that years of TV watching snuggles are just around the corner if yours follows a similar timeline. Just keep going and you'll soon look back at those crazy evenings fondly


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## DrogoNevets (5 mo ago)

lw19 said:


> Same experience here with my vizsla at that age. That 2-3 hour stretch in the early evening was tough for me.
> 
> But just you wait, it will get to the point where she will be expecting cuddle time once the TV turns on at night. Recently, there was a solid 2 weeks where I was doing home improvement projects in the evening and that took Penny some getting used to, which she wasn't thrilled about. As soon as I finished up those projects you could just sense how happy she was to finally have the snuggle time in the evening. She's not even 1 year old yet, so just know that years of TV watching snuggles are just around the corner if yours follows a similar timeline. Just keep going and you'll soon look back at those crazy evenings fondly


How old is yours? And how did you train this?

At present we feel there’s no point even trying to get cuddles with the tv so don’t try. Perhaps we should be trying?


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## lw19 (10 mo ago)

DrogoNevets said:


> How old is yours? And how did you train this?
> 
> At present we feel there’s no point even trying to get cuddles with the tv so don’t try. Perhaps we should be trying?


She's 11 months. I'd say she consistently settled down in the evenings with us at around 8 months. I wouldn't use these ages as a benchmark though. Based off reading this forum I feel like Penny is less energetic than the average vizsla. But basing the breed off this forum probably isn't fair either, so who knows haha. 

The main things I focused on were good off leash exercise first thing in the morning and then when I finished up work. 

The second best thing I did was train the "place" (or whatever you want to call it) command. "Place" for Penny works for whatever I designate as her "place", but 95% of the time I use her dog cot. She's learned that she is not allowed to leave her "place" (cot) until released. In my eyes the biggest benefit to this is teaching the dog the art of doing nothing. I would never put any treats, toys, or anything with her on the cot. Just reward her with high value treats periodically if she is calm on the cot. At your V's current age I bet realistic expectation of holding place is not very long. So keep expectations and duration low to start. I didn't start place training until mine was about 7 months (for no reason. I could have started it earlier). 

Lastly, I do everything in my power to always be a calming presence with Penny. So even if we are engaging in play, I do not try to fire her up. From my experience, firing her up while playing does not seem to expend more of her energy and it just takes more time for her to get into a calm state of mind.

But I think the real reason Penny is settling down in the evenings is just age, unfortunately. 4 months is SO YOUNG. So keep expectations very low, but stay consistent and it will come. You can try and train your dog to have an "off switch" at that age, but I don't think it's a fair expectation. So do what you can, but just persevering is probably the real answer.

Sounds like you are doing a great job


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## Poppy'sHooman (6 mo ago)

lw19 said:


> I didn't start place training until mine was about 7 months (for no reason. I could have started it earlier).


This is super reassuring! We only started the place command when our trainer introduced it to us around 16 weeks. She's at 20 weeks now, and while she took to it initially she has been really fighting back with it the last couple weeks. I was worried we started way too late. I think we struggle with our expectations of where she should be. "oh well now she knows "bed" she should just stay there and settle down" and we're probably keeping her on it for too long. 

We started snuggling with Poppy on the couch in the evenings very early on, but she always had a very heavily shifted energy for the morning and became much more manageable around 3pm every day. Lately though her energy is evening out throughout the day, so when we really want to hunker down and have a tv or movie night it usually takes a really enticing (read peanut butter) frozen kong to ensure her participation.


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