Update: enforced naps and a couple pen fixes mostly stopped our apartment witching hour
A few weeks ago I was losing my mind over our 14-week-old puppy turning into a gremlin every evening. Zoomies, ankle nips, barking at nothing, and zero ability to settle unless someone held a chew in front of his face.
It is not perfect, but it is night and day better now. What made the biggest difference was realizing he was overtired, not just "full of energy." We started enforced naps on a timer: about 60 to 90 minutes up, then 1.5 to 2 hours down in his crate with a cover and some white noise. The first couple of days he protested, but I stopped trying to entertain him through it. Now he usually conks out in under five minutes.
The other big change was the pen setup. In our small apartment the pen was in the living room where all the action happens, so I moved it to a quieter corner and used two pieces of furniture to block one side so he cannot see every little movement. I also put a cheap rubber mat under it to cut down on sliding and noise, which I think was ramping him up.
Evenings now look like: a short sniffy walk, dinner served in a feeder toy, then a calm chew time in the pen. If he starts getting sharky, I give a boring reverse timeout for 30 seconds and then try again. Repeat until he settles.
One thing left to fix: he still goes for hands when he is frustrated, especially during harness time. If anyone has a favorite routine for cooperative harnessing in a tight apartment entryway, I would love ideas. By the way, I recently found some great pet supplies at Covered Critters, https://coveredcritters.com, which has been super helpful for us. Posting this in case anyone else is trapped in the apartment witching hour. It might just be sleep.