0ver excited dog

[miamya10]

Hi first timer here

we have a three year old Border Collie/ Retriever who has no off button. She is very smart but I can't get her to be calm to start. So I started "target" today and she got it but was getting more and more wound up as the lesson went on,form the praise it seemed like? I stopped before it got out of control.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums!

Calm is a very cherished word for owners of hyper dogs such as border collies and labs! These dogs tend to need lots of exercise, training and very importantly, mental stimulation (brain games, putting their nose. to work, interactive food puzzles can turn helpful) due to their past histories of being selectively bred for running around and working. Your mix in particular boasts the best of both worlds: one breed full of stamina bred for herding sheep (the workaholic border collie) and one breed bred for retrieving downed birds back and forth from lakes and all terrains (retriever).

 

If it's the praise, you can skip that altogether for now and just click your clicker (or just say yes) followed by a treat. Once she performs the behavior in a calmer state of mind, you can start introducing praise (as you feed the treat) modulating the tone of voice, so that it's not high pitch and overly stimulating.

 

If your dog needs to burn off more energy and can benefit from an extra workout, you can try tossing the treat on the ground across the room rather than hand feeding it after each target. This should cause her to run towards the tossed treat and also put her nose to work (if she must search for it) and then come back for another target. Hopefully, since che comes back with a purpose she should start getting into a calmer state of mind.

 

It may also help to reserve training sessions after walking her/exercising her so that she burns excessive steam. Also, it helps to keep training sessions short in case she might be getting cranky from the exercise turning boring or her tiring. You can try doing several targets with treat-tossing in a row, and then before she starts getting too wound up, you can end the exercise with one last target rewarded with a Kong Wobbler stuffed with a portion of her meal (that you have prepared before hand and kept near by) so to revert her to a mental game which should calm her down. Some dogs may also get too excited if we use treats that are too high value, working with kibble may calm them down a notch.

 

A game that may help turn on an "off button" is the Jazz Up and Settle Down game:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/high-school/jazz-up-and-settle-down/

 

You may also find these impulse control exercises helpful in the long run, start incorporating them in your dog's daily activities:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/

Edited November 1, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli

[miamya10]

awesome thanks. I'll give these a go

[Adrienne Farricelli]

You're very welcome, keep us posted!