Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Forum:
Barking and acting crazy!

My 9 month old female wheaten is well behaved most of the time BUT it seems that once a day she goes crazy running frantically around the house - any suggestions as to what to do??? She also barks at me sometimes and jumps up on me and I dont know what she wants... I am losing my patience - PLEASE HELP!!!

How much training have you done with your wheaten? Idealy, she should have gone through two training classes already: puppy kindergarten and basic obedience. If not, its never to late to get started. The first thing you want to do is sign up for training classes. This will help A LOT and youll also have a trainer who you can ask questions of. Also, how much exercise does your girl get? A tired wheaten is a well behaved wheaten. My guy gets a short walk in the morning and an hour off leash run (we are lucky we have off leash parks here) every day. If he misses his off leash run, hell turn into a whole different dog.

Your Wheaten is doing what is known in the Wheaten community as "Wheaten Whirls." Although you can try more exercise, etc., this is a fairly typical Wheaten behavior. Most breeders will let homes that they place with know about some of the quirky Wheaten behaviors. If you want more info, consider joining the WHeaten-L (an e-mail listserve made up of great breeders, pet owners who share info, stories etc.). To join, send an e-mail to listserv@apple.ease.lsoft.com. Leave the subject line blank and for your message just type Subscribe, followed by your name (its free). Good luck.

Hi, Wheatens are known for running in circles and all around. If you go on the internet you can find descriptions of wheaten behavior and they describe just what you are talking about. Our wheaten puppy does the same thing once in awhile and we laugh. She will run around the house, up and down the stairs, jump on the couch run across and then run some more. When shes done she plops down and takes a nap. Its almost like she needs to expel some energy. Shelby does that too when she gets wet. If I find that internet site I will forward it to ou. Good luck

She\'s playing and asking you t play with her!!!!!