[Clydehhi]

Hi! Our 7 month old male Vizsla, Clyde, is a HANDFUL. I’ve always had dogs, have trained puppies in the past, and all around have a lot of sense and patience when it comes to dogs.
However! Our guy is “spirited” in the words of his trainer and “batshit crazy” in the words of his loving vet who watched him while we were out of town recently. He trains well in the moment and picks things up easily, but has so much energy that at times he has a hard time remembering his training. I work with him everyday and he sees his trainer weekly.
We live on the beach and he gets an hour and a half of off-leash time everyday running wild - and then at least 1 other 45 min leash walk. He also goes to daycare with a very large enclosure to socialize and run with friend le once a week for 5 hours.
He will NEVER voluntarily nap, so I have to put him in his kennel in order for him to settle down. He naps about 5 hours on and off throughout the day with walks or playtime in the middle. I hate that he has to be kenneled so much and isn’t able to be with the family in the evenings relaxing watching tv.
Long story short - I am utterly exhausted. He runs me ragged and makes me cry almost daily with his crazy eyes, nipping and antics. When does this phase end????

 

[Sophie01]

I wonder if a homeopathic vet could help. Maybe he is reacting to an intolerance to some food or environmental factor. Homeopathic remedies can work miracles. Vizslas are really active but not as bad as you're describing, I don't think. Although they do grow out of the "zoomies" which I think are hilarious!

 

[texasred]

Most of mine have been busybodies at that age. If not crated they will be into something, if you take your eyes off them for a second.
Heifer is prone to start a wrestling/chase game in the house late evening. The other dogs give in and play it with her. It’s not like they really have a choice, as she doesn’t take no for a answer.
I work with her daily. She has hunt training, goes to show handling classes, and just started novice rally classes. Even with all the work, and training, she still very much has puppy brain. She is just a little older than your pup. I expect her to slowly have a longer attention span over the next year. Take a deep breath, exhale, give your pup a hug, and keep training.

 

[BellaVT]

Long story short - I am utterly exhausted. He runs me ragged and makes me cry almost daily with his crazy eyes, nipping and antics. When does this phase end????

Yeah, that sounds about right. The bright part is that memory fades quickly. We're approaching 2 years old now, and basically have a calm indoor dog at this point. I don't know when the transition was, but it should be coming sometime soon for you. If I were to guess, maybe peak energy was at 9 months, definite improvement by 12-14 months, and we had a reasonable indoor dog by 18 months? We still crate her if we are leaving her alone for more than an hour, but as long as she's had an hour or two of running we basically no longer worry about having her unsupervised in the house.

I think you in the right ballpark for exercise. It is possible to tire them out at this age. Even if it might be impractical to do every day, you could consider increasing the exercise occasionally. My guess would be that if you did two free-running sessions on the beach plus the dog park in the same day, you might have a calm evening. My impression is that while the leashed walk is good for training, it doesn't burn off any signficant amount of energy.

The few times we actually tired her out at that age involved many hours of running through very thick grass or deep snow. I'd think running and tussling with other dogs might be similar, but we didn't have compatible playmates. I'm not sure it's good pedagogy, but we found that "tug games" helped to redirect the nipping at more appropriate targets. Combined with strong "drop it" training, I think it can be safe.

Good luck! If you can get past the exhaustion, it sounds like you are on the right path.

 

[tiki and stormy]

I’ve had two Vs and I would say you need to hang in there for another year. It’s worth it in the end but it is hard.