New rescue dog is demand barking
We adopted a rescue dog less than a week ago and are looking for some advice on settling and bedtime.
She’s a young, very affectionate, very excitable dog, they think around 1/1 and a half (technically not a puppy but she’s a rescue dog who hasn’t been in a stable home setting so still exhibits lots of puppy behaviour) During the day she’s actually making great progress. She’s cuddling with us, settling more often, chewing bones, sleeping for periods during the day, and sleeping through the night once she’s finally asleep.
The challenge is the evening…
She seems to get into a very overexcited state, especially when both of us are sitting on the sofa or when we’re getting ready for bed. She’ll jump on the sofa, stand on us, get in our faces, bark for attention, mouth sleeves/hands (playfully, not aggressively), and generally act like she’s incapable of switching off. Our approach has been to ignore her or leave the room when she jumps on us (she’s 21kg but thinks she’s a puppy)
At bedtime it’s even harder. We originally planned for her to sleep in her own bed, but because we were all exhausted during the first few nights, she ended up sleeping on our bed. Once she’s asleep she’s great and sleeps through the night, but the hour before that can be chaos. She’ll jump on and off the bed, bark at us, steal things, stand on our heads, demand attention, and generally treat bedtime as a party.
We’ve bought her a soft bed initially, but she just ragged it and humped it. We got her a raised bed yesterday and are building positive associations with it, but she isn’t choosing to settle there yet. If I have a treat and point near the bed and say get in your bed she will do it.
A few questions:
Would you focus on improving her ability to settle before worrying about getting her off our bed?
Would a baby gate and bed just outside the bedroom be too big a jump at this stage?
For context, she’s only been with us a few days, lives in a flat, gets multiple walks/sniffing opportunities, enrichment, chews, and training throughout the day.
Would love to hear from anyone who’s been through something similar.