My family has a fourteen week old beagle pup who is attentive, loving, sweet and fun loving - most of the time.

He gets walked during the day and regularly roams around our fenced off garden with plenty of toys and things to keep him stimulated. He eats appropriate puppy food following a diet plan and on rare occasions receives the treat of egg or goats milk as proposed by his breeder. He is very nearly house trained and will sit, stay, come and give his paw on command of a clicker.

However, at some point between 7pm and 10pm he has his "mad hour" where he is completely infuriating and disobedient. He becomes distructive, aggressive, barks loudly at nothing, bites and is completely unresponsive to any of the family- he doesn't make eye contact or respond to vocal calls to or at him, it is impossible to have any kind of connection with him during this phase.

He scratches to go outside but when let out runs back in, he goes to the kitchen but when offered food or water refuses it, he lies down stands up lies down stands up repeatedly and worse still during this mad hour he regularly soils inside the house.

After this hour he goes to bed and sleeps as if he is out cold.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be bringing on this behaviour or any suggestions for how to keep him from being so distraught/ so utterly infuriating?

Dad of the family is becoming infuriated and I worry he is a fee more mad hours from being cooked into a steak pie.
HELP!

Mine both did it as pups, plus I have heard a lot of other people say the same thing too, it always seems to be at night awhile after the evening meal,
almost like they have some sort of wild adrenaline rush. As you said they seem to get so hyped up its like they are not in charge of their faculties. Almost like they are not capable of calming down.

I found the best way with mine, was to enforce them to rest and calm down.
Has he got a crate? If not and he has a bed in another room, just pop him in the crate or the room where his bed is and give him a chew or chew toys. Chewing is a good destresser and wind down for dogs. You should find he will calm down after awhile and maybe even sleep.

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Is it possible to take him out for a walk during this time? I take Kali and Flynn out around 10/11pm for a short walk and when they come in they have a bowl of goats milk, collars off and know it's bedtime.

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Flynn - Kali - Britches - Bruce - T-Bo - Marty



"For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack"

Sounds like the evening zoomies to me when our beagle got really hyped up and began chewing tv and sofa I ended the "game" and popped her in her crate.

When does he eat his lat meal?
Whens his last week or the one prior to the zoomies?

They do grow out of it and actually I do miss it now as all mine does is snore v loudly on the sofa xx

Oh how I remember those days with Harvey when he was a pup He went thro this stage and he used to actually run from room to room at high speed and then around the sofas like a lunatic. He kept repeating this for about an hour every night, the only way to describe his antics was that he was like one of those motorcycles that used to go round & round the walls of death!! It was like someone had flicked a switch and he went from lovely pup to maniac in seconds & then back again.

Best thing to do is try to calm him down and divert his attention, don't turn it into a game. If you have a crate for him pop him in there with a chew to keep him occupied whilst he chills out again.

He will grow out of it, it is only a stage they all seem to go thro. As Sarybeagle said it will then turn into the loudest ever snores (& I mean loud!) on the sofa and you'll wonder where the manic nights have gone.

Believe it or not but the pic below is Harvey waiting to go for his walk. Hubby had put leads on both and was putting his coat on so Harvey decided to jump back on the sofa to grab 40 winks before he went out!

Attached Images

SDC10064.jpg (72.7 KB, 13 views)

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Harvey - Beagle 4.5 years old
Willow - Old English Sheepdog x - 2.5 years old
Merlin - African Grey Parrot - 6 years old

RIP our Beautiful Girl : Zoe (Collie x) 1992 - 2006....Gone but never forgotten xx

yep i agree with the others, have been through the puppy stage with our beagle lexie who is now 11mths and going though her teens.
i would enforce quiet time with a crate, we didnt crate lexie at the start but soon realised that its best for dog and family, now she knows. even still after a walk she goes straight to her run for some quiet time in her kennel as they just dont know how to cope when all the adrenaline is pumping through them or when they are overtired and it just manifests itself as bad behaviour!
at christmas lexie was watching my dad snoring on the chair looking at him as if to say where is that noise coming from and now its her, her snoring can be heard over the TV!!!

Oh no my spaniel puppy did this around 6pm last just darting from room to room like a maniac and darting under and out of the sofa like a maniac!!!!! She is only 8wks looks like im in for some more fun!!!

Kinda reminds me of my daughter as a baby who used to play me up something rooten as a baby/toddler between 6 and 7 pm till daddy got home and she would turn into a little angel... we used to call it her witching hour

I asked the same question on here a few months ago - they do grow out of it so be patient.

Firstly - a nice walk after dinner will help calm him down a bit.

Secondly, I used to get a treat - some chicken for Charlie - to get his attention (to stop him running round like a maddog - DO NOT CHASE). Make them sit and wait for the treat and very calmly stroke them in between. Sit on the floor and try to get your puppy to lie down with a rawhide chew or something that'll occupy their attention in a calm way.

Basically you need to try to ignore the mad dog, don't chase him and if you think he needs to go toilet then pop him on his lead so it's only a toilet trip and not playtime. And reward his calm behaviour.

If he bites you either walk out of the room, pop a soft toy in his mouth, or put him in his crate depending on how bad the biting is. Again, we used to get Charlie to sit and stroked his chest calmly to stop any nipping.

Also Charlie tended to be a nightmare when he was tired. They don't look tired dashing round your house but they might be - so trying to get them to settle in bed for a nap will be a good idea.


You have to teach him evenings should be interesting but calm. And create a timetable you stick to with dinner, a walk, a nap, calm playtime, and then bedtime...with toilet breaks of course.

Most importantly, you need to be calm and analyse your own behaviour that could be contributing to the problem.



Sorry for the long post
Good luck

Haha 'evening zoomies' going to have to call it that from now on.

Yup Lucy's 8 months now and has always had zoomies and continues to have them, usually just before her morning walk she has a mad 5 mins of doing circuits around the living room, attacking the cushions then the same again at about 8pm.

Zoomies. That's a great name for it!

I had a beagle puppy in college. The 'zoomy' stage was his downfall (he ran out the door one night and was tragically hit by a car right before my eyes). I wish I'd had this forum way back then!

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