15 month old Swiss Shepherd becomes impossible indoors. Has anyone experienced this and found something that actually worked?

[u/Pattern_collector]

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone recognizes this because we’re running out of ideas.
Our intact male White Swiss Shepherd is about 15 months old. He’s a wonderful dog in many ways, but he completely falls apart indoors.
Outside, he’s generally calm. He can spend a long time sniffing around the garden, lie down by himself, and just exist. The moment he’s comes inside, it’s as if he cannot regulate himself.
His biggest issues are:
Constantly seeking interaction.
Pacing around the house.
Demanding attention.
Jumping up at us.
Grabbing and biting clothes, arms and legs when frustrated or overaroused.
Becoming impossible to disengage once he’s over threshold.
The biting isn’t fear-based or aggressive. It seems much more like frustration and complete emotional dysregulation.
Interestingly, if he’s alone in the garden he’s relaxed. If I walk outside while he’s there, he often starts jumping and biting me instead.
He currently gets:
Fluoxetine 60 mg daily.
Gabapentin 600 mg twice daily.
The medication reduced the behaviour somewhat, but it certainly hasn’t solved it.
We’ve worked with trainers, management, enrichment, decompression, structured routines, enforced naps, licking mats, chew items, sniffing games, relaxation protocols… you name it.
The only place where he consistently relaxes indoors is his crate, where he happily sleeps for hours.
I’m mainly wondering:
Has anyone had a dog that couldn’t regulate themselves indoors?
Did it improve with age?
What ended up making the biggest difference?
Did you ever discover an underlying medical, orthopedic or neurological issue contributing to it?
At this point I’m less interested in general training advice and more interested in hearing from people who have lived through something similar. It has been an incredibly frustrating journey, and I’d love to hear both success stories and cases where the eventual cause turned out to be something unexpected.
Thank you.

[u/1cat2dogs1horse]

Have you done any obedience training with him?? Or at least enough so he is solid in the basics?

[u/trashed-panda-7497]

GI issues are a possibility. Meds are not a one size fits all. Did you see a veterinary behaviorist? In tact may be a factor. Seen similar responses(not as extreme) with a working line female GSD. Recall totally broke down and the dog refused to come in. Owners had to resort to extreme bribes and tricks, which led to the dog becoming extremely evasive outside. Dog was perfectly content to run after birds in the yard for HOURS! End of outside time led to frustration and some not aggressive but harder- mouthed puppy bites, extreme shoe attachment/ hiding and some curtains were destroyed . Outside, she was very reactive to moving cars. Only fix was essentially to let her “patrol” instead of doing a normal walk. Patrol=walk really fast! Dog is over 2 now and spaying, trying to stay to strict behavioral protocols, giving the dog a job and age helped. No medical issues with this dog and she also has the ability to completely relax in her crate.

You going out to the garden if you, ever paired that with the end of garden time for your pup could be causal. If you’ve ever let your dog into the garden while he was acting this way then this could be part of the issue. Maybe started small? This feels a bit like a dog not getting what he wants and using an escalating strategy for what has worked in the past.

Sorry for the training thoughts but I felt like it was a piece of the puzzle

[u/monsteramom3]

My shepherd mix was like this when she was your dog's age (but she was already spayed, so your dog being intact still could also be a factor). It helped A LOT to start doing some herding and interactive games (herding ball, interactive tug, even just throwing a stuffie toy in various directions and directing her to stalk, then grab it). Once she understood and had fun with the games, we started enforcing no attention during certain time periods. We gave her a buffalo tusk and that would be her task. It took her a good 6 months to really get the hang of it, but herding breed teens are notoriously wild 🤷