My dog just won't settle

My female gsd who is 10 months, is so unsettled she just won't quit, she has a long walk, does her toilet but then lays down and whines the whole time, she won't sleep, she won't amuse herself with a toy, she's just so restless, and I can't train her to go into her crate for a time out, she just hates it, I give a bone and she just whines the whole time. Please help I'm worried that she's unhappy.

Have you took your dog to the vets? she may be in pain?

It`s a German Shepherd. They do this.
Seriously - GSDs are notoriously vocal and tend to whinge a lot.
I agree about the pain thing - it might be an idea to have her checked over.
Do you have a regular routine? This can help.
I have just noticed where you said `a long walk`. A young GSD may suffer from growing pains (panosteitis) so keep an eye out for her limping? Try splitting the excercise up a bit more?

One of my GSDs used to do this whenever she was in the car, or on our boat for the WHOLE JOURNEY! A sort of high pitched whine and she was panting and overbreathing too steaming everything up.

I tried various things suggested to stop her but never managed to. But she never did it at home.

It did drive me nuts - it was years ago now but I remember it clearly!

Many young dogs are at their 'worst' so to speak around the 'teenage' phase, which starts any time after they hit 6 months. They tend to grow out of it - eventually.

My Slovak was absolutely awful for settling at that age. She would throw herself around like a wild thing and literally NEVER sleep during the day. At night she would get up several times and I'd be lucky if she wasn't barking to get up at 5am. I think I resorted to actually taking her for a run at night (I don't run!) in some desperate bid to get her to sleep.

Good news is that after she hit 18 months she got much better at settling and actually sleeps during the day when not doing stuff, which is nice.

Do you give her mental exercise? Her body may be tired but her brain may not be.

Good point. GSDs are working dogs and they get bored easily. Never happier than when being given a task and getting it right!

GSDs are renowned for being talkative dogs
As long as there is nothing medically wrong, at that age, whilst they are still on fairly limited exercise and have bounds of energy I think you need to spend loads of time doing mental exercises.

Things like:
Impulse control; stay, leave it.
General obedience; Sit, lie, stand, heal, stop, recall
Tricks; Spin, Paw, Bow, targeting, crawl, rollover, find it etc.

Giving food in things that require a bit of brain power; Tug a jug, Food Balls, Kongs, Nina Ottoson games, big cardboard box with shredded paper and kibble inside etc.

Good luck

I also agree with trying some training. Sometimes Cain (GSDx) has had a great long walk, a nice big dinner and a good chew on his bone and even then sometimes will not settle and all his does is whinge and whine until he drives me mad!

I do training with him, Find It games with treats and toys, practise agility in the garden, Nina Ottoson puzzles. Currently I'm teaching to put shapes in a baby shape sorter. 20 mins of hard thinking and he's knocked out for hours