He's got the zoomies

Every night. EVERY night. After dinner Duke gets what I can only describe as possessed.

It starts the same way. He finishes his food, licks the bowl clean, takes a drink of water. Normal dog stuff. Then he stands there for a second looking at nothing. His eyes get wide. And then he just... goes.

Its like someone flipped a switch. Hes running laps around the living room, into the bedroom, back to the living room. His back end cant keep up with his front end so hes kind of curved while he runs. He does this thing where he play bows and then takes off again. The sound of his nails on the hardwood is like a drumroll. My downstairs neighbor probably hates us.

Tonight he knocked over the floor lamp. Just barreled right into it. Didn't even slow down, just kept going. The lamp is fine but I moved it to the corner. Lesson learned I guess. Weve already moved the coffee table twice because he kept clipping it on his laps. Theres only so much furniture I can relocate.

The thing is hes not graceful at all. For a dog thats all muscle he has no coordination when hes in zoomie mode. He slides on the rug, almost wipes out on corners, runs into furniture. Its like watching a bowling ball bounce around a room. A very happy bowling ball with a wagging tail.

Sometimes he grabs a toy and runs with it. His favorite is this squeaky bone that hes had since we got him. He grabs it and shakes it while hes running which honestly looks dangerous but hes so happy I just let him do his thing. The squeaking combined with the running sounds like a very small very chaotic circus.

This goes on for like 10-15 minutes and then he just stops. Collapses on his bed like he ran a marathon. Heavy breathing, tongue out, looking at me like 'that was good' and I'm just standing there wondering what happened to my peaceful evening. My girlfriend and I have started pausing whatever were watching when the zoomies start because theres no point trying to hear the TV.

My girlfriend times it now. Her record observation is 14 minutes of continuous zoomies. Fourteen minutes. Do you know how long that feels when youre trying to watch TV and your dog is losing his mind in the background? She wants to see if he can break his record. Im not sure I want him to.

I looked it up and apparently zoomies are a way dogs release pent up energy. Makes sense I guess. He spends most of the day napping so after dinner his body is like 'okay time to USE some of this energy we've been saving' and off he goes.

I wouldn't trade it though. When he finally settles down and passes out he looks so content. All that energy out of his system. He sleeps good after zoomie time. Like really sleeps. The deep sleep where his paws twitch and he makes little noises.

Currently hes snoring on his bed. The chaos is over for tonight. Until tomorrow.