Over-excited dogs can be identified easily. Most of these dogs wiggle around a lot and can be easily distracted with almost anything. They have a difficult time trying to settle down even though they are staying in calm and quiet environments.
Some of these dogs are so hyperactive that they will even drool, whine, pant, bark, and even a variety of these actions especially in novel events. In simple words, these dogs have an unlimited energy.
How do you understand hyperactive dogs?
First, you should understand that dogs which get over-excited sometimes is normal. Excessive exuberance usually happens on most dogs at times. However, this increased excitement could become inappropriate and disturbing if your dog can not lower down his excitement on his own.
One solution that could help with hyperactivity is exercise. It is recommended that there should be 20-30 minutes of walk every day, but even with these, it is still not the cure.
Even with the exercise, it would just end up with a fit dog, but it is still not going to make your dog calm down during hyperactivity. This is why your dog would still need to learn how to settle.
Calming Games For Your Dog
To help your dog calm down, you can introduce calming games. These games should serve as a physical and mental stimulation for the dogs. The stimulation will help your dog deal with hyperactivity on his own.
You may start to prepare by having lots of small sized treats. Try to save a pack of these treats in areas around your home. This makes it more convenient for you to do games in almost every part of the house where your dog is currently staying.
Below are some games that could help your dog overcome hyperactivity on his own.
1. “Leave it” game
This game allows your dog to be taught to ignore something that they like to have. This will make your dog learn to control his behavior.
The first step is to hold a piece of treat in your closed fist. You approach and place this closed fist to your dog’s mouth. He might smell the treat at first, then he will try to get it out of your hand.
He might lick it at first and even try to gently bite your whole hand. Wait for your dog to stop licking and turns his head away from your hand. After he turns away, give him the treat.
You will discover that in time, you will see your dog staying over for a while and wouldn’t touch your hand. This means that he has learned to ignore your hand enough to get him entitled with a treat.
2. Resting game
Dog owners that tried hard to relieve their dog enough to be calm tend to stay quiet, afraid that they might wake their dog again! So, to exploit the idea about how your dog manages to stay put at times, you can reward your dog.
This method will allow you to reward the behavior while it is occurring. Observe your dog, wait until he is lying quietly at your feet. Stroke your dog’s back using your hand. This makes him relax even more. After the stroke, slowly give your dog a treat.
It is also recommended that you place the treat near your dog’s mouth. This makes you reward the good behavior of lying down without disturbing your dog.
Reward as much as you like, as long as your dog continues to stay down quietly. It is now overdone if he stops lying down and stands up. Once this happens, do not reward him with anything. Wait until he lies down again and once he is settled, reward him another treat again.
Once you have observed your dog to lie down more frequently, then he has learned to be calmer and quieter!
3. Reading game
You may have known about programs that allowed children to improve their reading abilities by reading to shelter dogs. Aside from the improvement in the children’s reading skills, it also helps in calming the dog.
With the idea of reading, you can also try to do this with your dog. Make him stay with you in the way you can. In this part, you may use a short leash to make it easier. Go to a quiet and comfortable spot where you can read aloud for a while.
At the beginning, your dog will most likely be distracted. He might whine, pace around, and would have difficulty in settling. Ignore these and continue reading to your dog. After a while, you may observe your dog continuing to settle down and successfully controlling his hyperactive behavior.
Doing this every day will make it ideal for faster learning, but less frequency of even a few readings per week will also work with your dog. Don’t forget that if he quiets down, reward him with a treat.
The critical thing to remember is, always reward calm behavior. As long as it happens, reward him. Trying to make your dog calm while being hyperactive before rewarding him could be counterproductive. It might make him misunderstand and discourage him from being happy and excited.
The thing is, you have to reward calm behavior by teaching your dog what to do and reward him properly every time he is successful in keeping himself quiet.
Another thing to remember is, do not punish your dog. Some dog owners frequently punish their dog because they get pissed off easily with their hyperactive canine companion. This is also counterproductive to the dog’s training and will just waste the current progress instead.
Also, as a dog owner, you have to be consistent and persistent with your training regimen. There are times when the timing for the reward will not be ideal since the action to be rewarded might have passed already. Or even the reward was given too early and might make the dog misunderstood the situation even more.
Thus, always stay consistent with the frequency and patterns of giving out rewards.
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