"The Zoomies"
"The Witching Hour"
"FRAP - Frenetic Random Activity Period"
Whatever you want to call it, it's chaos and sometimes downright scary if you're not expecting it.
What does it look like? It looks like your puppy is on fire. They're racing around at top speed, not very gracefully, growling, barking, jumping, nipping, bouncing off furniture, stopping momentarily to give you "crazy-eyes" in a play-bow, and then take off again.
You will be tempted to stop it, confine them, force them into a series of obedience-based behaviours like "sit" or "down", you might yell, and if you're the target of their teeth, you might yelp!
Puppies usually experience the Zoomies at dusk and dawn - the most active (hunting) times for dogs, but it can happen any time. Sometimes it's after the bath, or just after a walk, perhaps when they're really tired and are approaching over-tired.
What can you do about it?
Get up on a chair or out of the way and let your puppy do their thing. Make sure the kids are out of the way and your older dog is protected.
If you try to stop it, you'll be putting a lid on a pot of boiling water and it's going to blow. Stopping it is the worst thing you can do - you'll get bitten!
Channel this into something cool by giving them a toy to play with and run around with and you can play capture the toy, notice your need to use very little effort to get the game going or even keep it going, the other option is to move puppy into a safe space, take zoomies to the garden and let them go nuts in a safe space, open the door and watch them go!
Use it as a great way to let them burn up some energy with very little effort from you…. Watch as their bum wants to overtake 😂🤩
Help your pup to get their Freak on in a safe and controlled way, you move out the way, give them a toy or move them into a safe place, it'll be over in a min or 2.
Video-record it as well...because it's going to go away and you'll likely reminisce later and miss these silly moments.
Your puppy is not aggressive because of these Zoomies - they're just normal puppies.
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