How many of you have had that moment with your dog where you just don’t know if you will make it through the day because your adolescent dog is literally running circles around you? You are not alone! I have met many people in my life who deal with this issue and I am sure there are many more. The dog I took to dog training school with me was one of those dogs. Louie was his name (pictured here on the right, photo credit to my friend Tasha!), and he was the sweetest most lovable Golden Retriever I had ever met! At about two years old his life goal seemed to be to see how many things he could do at once (he also tried to hold as many things in his mouth as he could). He never stopped moving unless he was asleep and if a person was nearby, that was usually not the case. While I did not live with this dog, I did have to travel with this dog for school. Four to five hour car rides, nights in a hotel, and then working or sleeping in a class environment around other dogs and people (whom he thought he must play with at all times), and all with a farm dog who had very little experience in a crate, was highly excitable, and had not been on leash much due to his farm life lifestyle. Sometimes I still look back and think, “How did I do that!?” If you have ever had that moment, or maybe you are having one now, here are some tips to help keep you sane!
Understand What and Who They Are
First and foremost, you need to understand what and who your dog is. As obvious as it sounds, your dog is a dog. Many of us forget this, but this is extremely important because we need to be setting realistic expectations for our dogs. Dogs will be dogs, as they should be. In addition to understanding that your dog is a dog, you also need to know who your dog is. Is your dog outgoing? Is it a homebody? Is it a happy-go-lucky-nothing-can-possibly-go-wrong-in-life dog who loves everyone? Is it shy? What treats does it like? Does it like children? And the list goes on and on. You need to understand who your dog is because once again, setting realistic goals is a huge part of surviving life with a high energy dog.
So why are realistic expectations so important? There are many reasons I could come up with, but they all boil down to this: When we set unrealistic expectations, we set ourselves up for disappointment with both ourselves and the dog. However, when we set realistic expectations, we prepare ourselves for what the animal will do, and we respond accordingly. For example, if you expect your dog to sit calmly during your daughter’s soccer game but your dog is a high energy people lover, you will immediately be frustrated with your dog when it won’t leave other people alone. Standing there with your dog pulling you one way while you are trying to peak through the crowd of parents to see your daughter make a goal is not usually how most people want to spend their time. But when you know that your dog is a high energy, people lover, your awareness of this can cause you to developing simple solutions ahead of time like asking the neighbors to watch the dog while you are gone, bringing a longer leash to the game so that your dog can roam safely while you watch the game (make sure the dog is safe and always keep an eye on it, but long leashes can be helpful), or find another simple solution to the problem that will allow you to do what you want to do and allow the dog to be a dog and enjoy itself as well. By setting realistic expectations, you set yourself and your dog up for more success and less stress.
Remember that Exercise is Not Just for the Body
Exercising your dog is very important, but it is not as important as people might think. Most high energy dogs I know who seem to cause problems for their owners are mentally bored, not physically bored. They need mental stimulation rather than more walks or more fetch. Make sure you know the difference between mental and physical exercise and why each is used. Also, make sure you are not overusing both. If your dog wants to go for a run, you can do that, but if you are trying to get your dog tired, give it some mental stimulation. Dog trainer, Chirag Patel, pointed out in his video “Ten Things Your Dog Wishes You Knew” that running more with your dog will not necessarily make them tired enough to calm down and sleep the whole day, but it might just build more stamina and increase the frequency they will want to go out for a run! I completely agree with that! On the other hand, relying on work-to-eat puzzles to keep your dog entertained will not work if your dog is not getting enough physical exercise. The two go hand in hand and both are important, especially for high energy dogs.
To put things in perspective, below are some photos of Louie to illustrate my point.
This first photo is of Louie after a long play session with another dog. This was mostly physical exercise with little to no deliberate mental exercise. You can see he is definitely tired, but he is also still standing. As the person who was with him at the time, I can tell you he was still bouncy and playful when we left!
These next two photos were taken after a training session. Louie had plenty of mental exercise (we did some nose work games) and only a small amount of physical exercise. You can see that he is laying down (this was typical for him after hard brain work, but might not always be the case for every dog), but he is still moving around. In the picture on the left he was chewing very hard on his hoof chew and wiggling around in the grass with it. In the picture on the right he wanted to play with me, but he just wanted to do it while laying down. Note: While it is not pictured here, Louie tended to get mouthy in these situations. That is normal for many dogs as the dog wants to play but is tired and being mouthy is easier than being jumpy.
These last two photos were taken in the hotel after class. Louie had plenty of mental exercise in class and he had just finished playing with my friend's dog (her and her dog were attending dog training school as well) and had also gone on a short walk. In the photo on the left he is just chilling and enjoying being close to me, but he is doing his own thing and remained there for about a half an hour before we went outside one more time and then went to bed for the night. The photo on the right was a different day but the same situation, plenty of both mental and physical exercise during and after class. He was asleep like that for so long I didn't know if he would sleep through the night, but he did!
Every dog is different and will respond differently to both physical and mental exercise. Some need more of one and less of the other, while others need both equally, and still others need varying amounts of each at different times. But overall, all dogs need both mental and physical exercise as part of their daily life. If you give your dog opportunities to exercise both its body and brain, your dog will be much happier and so will you!
The Energy Exchange
Many dogs feed off their handler’s energy. Being calm and easy going yourself can be a huge help. When I was in class with Louie, if I got to worked up about something, he would pick up on that energy and he would get worked up. Being calm will not solve all your problems and will not train your dog. However, being calm and offering the energy level that you want to receive from your dog helps set your dog up for success. If we get frustrated and tense, it is not a good idea to expect our dog to calm down. Instead, we can remain relaxed and calm to help promote that level of energy in the dogs we interact with at home and in public.
Understand What A Calm Dog Looks Like
Many people might get frustrated with their dog and their dog suddenly starts moving slower and stops jumping. This does not mean that your dog is calm. Most of the time when I see this, the dog is scared and trying to figure out what is wrong with the person while also trying not to add to the tension. Just because your dog is not jumping does not mean that it is calm. If your dog is tense all the time, outbursts of jumping or barking could become more common. For high energy dogs, and the people who own them, this can become really exhausting as the dynamic can either be constantly grounded in stress or even start to bounce back and forth between a slow moving, stressed out dog and a fast moving, excited dog, making for a roller coaster of a ride throughout the day. Educate yourself on dog body language and get help from a positive reinforcement trainer to help you and your dog learn and develop a strong bond.
Management is a Must!
You must be managing your dog’s behavior. Management is not training per say. It is a tool that you can use both within and outside of training sessions to help set your dog up to succeed as much as possible. Training must be happening in order to change behavior. But management is just as important. Some examples of management include the following: We give our dog something to do while we make dinner. We train them at certain times of day. We set up the house in ways that will keep them in certain locations and allow them to be jumpy and funny but not chase the cat. All these things are part of the management system that you can use in daily life. With Louie, I used an extra-long leash when we went outside the hotel or out to use the bathroom during class. I would shorten the leash when I needed to keep him close, but then let him out at the end of the leash when we had room to roam. This helped me be able to manage his behavior, keep him safe, and follow the leash law, but it also allowed him to feel a bit more like he was off leash (which is what he was used to), which helped him relax and not pull when we were not actively working on leash skills (we were working on leash skills during training and I had a solid recall for him so I could bring him back to me when needed. Remember that management is not training, it is a tool that you can use both within and outside of training sessions to help set your dog up to succeed as much as possible. Training and management are both important). Another management tool we used was sound. At night, my friend would play rain sounds on her computer so that Louie could sleep better. He was an outdoor dog and being in the hotel while people drove up to the building throughout the night was not easy for him (it would startle him and he would bark) until we turned on the rain sounds (something he heard a lot as we live near Seattle). These were management tools that helped a lot during travels with Louie!
Learn to Laugh
Louie was always working to get to other animals and people. The biggest problem I had with him was keeping him out of other people’s space towards the end of the day when he just needed a break and wanted to sit in someone’s lap. While there were moments that were frustrating, I let myself laugh at our mistakes. I made sure to focus on keeping both him and other people and dogs safe and following guidelines for keeping dogs separate, but I also let myself enjoy life. I didn’t stress about it. I simply took care of it as best I could; I gladly excepted people pointing out if he was too close and worked on increasing distance when they pointed that out. But, at the end of the day, we had fun! Make sure you are following rules and guidelines, keeping people and dogs safe, and being conscientious of what people and dogs are comfortable with and not comfortable with, but also make sure you let your hair down! Have fun, relax a bit, and enjoy your dog!
Closing Thoughts
Dogs will be dogs. That is very important to remember. When we bring a dog into our home, we are not bringing in a person with impeccable manners. We are essentially bringing in a four-legged predator that just happens to be bred to love us to no end. So, we need to set realistic expectations to start, then we need to train and manage the dog throughout its whole life. But don’t be discouraged! If you begin with a foundation of a great relationship and good training, you are off to a great start! In addition to that, your dog will most likely not be high energy forever! Most dogs calm with age and once you both settle in and get to know each other, the hard stuff becomes worth it as you walk through life as companions!
Comments