Too hyper, I need some help please.

Hi everyone, This is my first post.
I have a staffy that is 4 months old and I've been feeding her Acana puppy. She eats 1.5 cups a day now and I think Acana just gives her too much energy. She's almost always too hyper, especially almost all the time when I take her out.
Is there any other good dry food brands I could use that would provide a little less energy for her? Me and my wife we both work, Altough I wanna give her as much excersize as I can, I don't always have time for 2 hours of walking everytime I take her out plus she stays home alone with our cat all day long.
I would really appreciate good brand suggestions, but please keep in mind I live in Turkey so we don't always have all the brands that Uk or US has.

Most likely she has unused energy after being at home all day, can no one come round and take her out for a walk or play during day?

My girl goes crazy when i come home after 3 hours would hate to see what she would be like after 8 hours.

ColinW wrote:Most likely she has unused energy after being at home all day, can no one come round and take her out for a walk or play during day?

My girl goes crazy when i come home after 3 hours would hate to see what she would be like after 8 hours.

My mother could come take her out for a walk during the day actually, but since she's a little old it would probably be short walks.

Here is a link to some good foods. At that age walks should be kept to 20 minutes apiece. General rule is 5 minute walks per month of age

http://staffy-bull-terrier.com/dry_food

I agree - probably from being left alone all day. Also, the general rule for puppy exercise is 5 minutes per month - so she should only be having roughly 20 minutes of on lead exercise per walk to prevent damage to her joints anyway - off lead can be more, but I think you would benefit from getting into more of a routine with exercise - perhaps 2 walks per day instead of one long one. Your mum even popping in and playing who toys with her/letting her out for a wee would be better than her trying to occupy herself all day - even a 10 minute walk with your mum out of the house would be better than nothing.

I also agree, if Zeus doesn't get his walks, he turns into a nutter, regardless of whatever food he's on.

If you can't walk as much as you like, there are alternatives to tire them out:

1) Tug of war - 10/15 minutes of this a day and Zeus sleeps like a baby
2) Laser pen - we got one for a couple quid off eBay and Zeus loves chasing after it
3) Hide & Seek with treats - just hide treats all around the house and watch them try and look for it, mentally tiring.

Hi if your mum cant go and check on her could you find a dog walker/sitter to call round for say an hour a day just to play or break up the day for her... she's prob bored, pups do tend to sleep a lot but they also need some mental stimulation

Thank you all so much for helping out. I've always had a dog but this is the first time I adopted a larger breed. I love my girl and am trying to do the best for her so thank you so much!!!!

goldie87 wrote:Laser pen, now there is an idea!!!!  

I also don't have the time to spend 2hrs+ walking my dog Sky, so here are some of the things I do  

Sky gets big walks on my days off, but when I am working it is around 45minutes in the evening. I do try to give her a quick walk around the block if I can before leaving in morning, but not always guaranteed.

Whenever I get home and come in, got my shoes etc, she gets some ball time/tug a war in the house usually around 10 minutes.

I send sky on a dog day, where she runs around with a massive pack of dogs, plays ball all day etc. She loves it and I do that once every two weeks, costs me £15 a time, but so worth it.

Hiding treats like others have said is great too!

When I'm at work, my parents nip in and check on Sky, if they are busy my niece does it for me. But I pay her £5, family rates lol. Parents are free! There are some really pet sitters out there, I looked into it , but at £9/£10 a pop, I'd be broke after a couple of months. But the odd time they really are a life saver, and helped me out.

Mentally tiring games are the best if you ask me, If I play hide and seek with Sky for 10 minutes, she will sleep afterwards quite quickly. She seems more tired from this sort of thing then running about.