Dog gets very excited when he goes to doggy daycare

[SuzanneMelton]

We take our almost 7 month old Lab/Golden mix to doggy daycare once a week. The only reason he goes is because we want him to be used to place so when we have to board him, he won't have separation anxiety. He absolutely loves it and I  am told he does really well while there. The problem is when drop him off he is so excited we can barely contain him. Due to Covid, they come outside to get the dogs instead of my taking him inside. They would come to the car and he would so excited, I could barely get him out of the car. Now when we get there, I walk him a little bit to calm try to calm him before she comes outside. It doesn't work. I can even get him to sit but as soon as he sees her, he jumps and lunges at him. I have talked to her and asked her not to pet him unless he is sitting calmly. He never calms down but I do get him to sit till she gets her leash on him and I take mine off, Then he pulls her to get inside. He is pretty well behaved except for this and know all of his obedience commands normally except when he is overly excited. Any suggestions to get him to calm down? 

Thank you

[Adrienne]

Hello and welcome to the forums,

This is a very common problem often seen in dogs going to dog parks and day cares. Your dog is young, so this place is super exciting to him and he's just very over threshold. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/

It doesn't help that this daycare employee may give him attention and allow him to pull her to get inside. But I am sure his arousal is already getting over the top starting from the car ride (or even earlier like when you go grab his leash at home) and building up more and more as you approach the daycare. 

The problem with this is that this requires work and the daycare staff may not have the time or will (or even the proper educational skills) to do it. Unless your daycare is ran by dog trainers who are willing to help with the problem, I am afraid it would be hard to see any progress if this continues.. This because there's not much you can do once your dog is in full super-duper excitement mode (his brain is just not there) -BUT, there may be some things we can do on our own although they may be quite inconvenient and time consuming if we don't have much time, however the return in investment may be worth it all in the long run, considering that, if your dog keeps pulling like that, the behavior will likely be destined to generalize to other occasions, such as him wanting to pull to meet and greet other dogs or people on walks . 

Firstly, it may help to invest some time in making the car ride less exciting if the behavior begins once he's in the car. An astute strategy to tone down a dog's excitement is to take him on several car rides without going to places your dog loves. In other words, take your dog on frequent car rides where you just ride around the block-destination nowhere. Take different routes every time, but never go anywhere exciting for some time. Do this until your dog starts acting calmer in the car (make sure to praise your dog for being calm, but use a calm tone to avoid exciting him!). You want to obtain a neutral conditioned emotional response where your dog thinks of car rides in terms of "Meh! Nothing special happening here!"

After ward, once he's calmer you can start taking some roads that lead to the daycare but then turning early and going back home. Rinse and repeat several times. Now, some dogs need baby steps before they can go on a full car ride around the block being calm. So if your dog's excitement gets over the top when he hears you turn on the car, turn it on several times a day without taking him anywhere. Wait for him to calm down. Next, turn the car engine on and walk your dog toward the car and then take him back inside the house. Do this several times, until he grows bored of this too.

Then progress to turning on the car, walking him there and then letting him climb inside. Let him stay there with you until he calms down. Then take him back inside. Then once he's calm start your destination nowhere trips.

Couple of Tips: Once your dog is calmer in the car, start providing him with calm activities to engage in while being in the car. For example, try providing him with a stuffed Kong, Licki-Mat or long-lasting chew to gnaw on so he focuses on this rather than pacing back and forth.

-Sometimes, your best bet is to simply manage your dog's environment so that your dog doesn't get to rehearse the problem behavior (like pacing in the car excitedly). In this case, you can crate your dog and possibly place a blanket over the crate so as to reduce visual overstimulation. A crate is also important considering that a dog who moves freely in a car can pose a big danger to drivers or in case of an accident can become projectile.

Dogs like yours benefit greatly from the Premack Principle: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/premack-principle/

The Premack Principle is therefore at its core a method where you reward your dog for exhibiting desired behaviors. The Premack Principe is also known as Grandma's Law, simply because it's based on the philosophy of "eat your broccoli first, and then you can have ice-cream."

So how does it work in this case? After your dog has grown bored of going on trips around the block, start increasing the length of his trips (always ending nowhere) and then at some point start approaching the day care, but be ready to turn (until safe to do so of course) the moment he acts hyper again. Repeat several times until you can park at the location and let your dog out only if he's in a calm state of mind. In this case, you are telling your dog "we can have fun (ice-cream), but only when you act calmer (broccoli)."

So you finally got to the day care  parking lot with your dog in a calmer state, congratulations! At this point, a nice walk can help drain some energy and I suggest letting the day care know in advance that you'll be practicing for some days in front of their building-just so they know why your walking by so often. 
I would practice walking towards the building on a loose leash and doing attention heeling. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/

If he pulls, you stop walking or even turn and walk the opposite way. It may take a long time initially to walk a few feet, but if you are consistent, you'll start seeing results. I would also practice walking around the building several times and walking back and forth by the entrance. As often as your pup's excitement starts wearing down because he never enters. Once he's calmer, you can praise and then reward him with some long-lasting treat to eat on the car ride back home.   

Then, on the big day do the same thing. Let the staff know that rather than having day care come get your dog you'll be standing just out their building so at least he won't have to drag the daycare attendant all the way. He might just pull a bit inside but at least he didn't get to rehearse the whole excited behavior in the car, then to get out and then when he's walked all the way to the building. You can always work more on that component once this whole COVID19 ordeal is finally over. 

If you want to further work on this, if you have a friend that you can enlist for help, you can have her pretend being the daycare attendant and practice her approaching your dog with a leash. You'' have to brief her ahead of time to know what to do exactly. So ask your dog to sit and if he sits, she can place the leash on. If he fails to sit she says "whoops! and turns away and pretends to leave." Rinse and repeat several times until he understands that he'll get ice-cream only after eating broccoli (sitting). Once the leash is on, your friend will apply your same rules. If he pulls, she makes an about turn, if he walks nicely he gets to get closer to the building. 

Then you can see if your dog is able to apply this to the real daycare attendant and maybe you can ask her to do the same routine for a little bit-hopefully so! 

Some other tips that come to mind:

-To prevent frustration, split the exercises in smaller, attainable steps and reward each little piece of progress. These small, short sessions help your dog succeed and build tolerance as you progress.

I would also suggest working more on his impulse control frustration tolerance at home. Many times such overly excited behaviors generalize to other situations such as acting impatient upon seeing the leash, acting impatient upon seeing other dogs on walks and acting impatient upon being fed etc.  Here are several impulse control games:

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

-At 7 months, your dog is now at the adolescent stage, a time when they have boundless energy and needs for mental stimulation. Keep that body and mind busy (brain games!). https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/survive-dogs-adolescent-stage/

-Train your dog also to be less excited at the sight of the leash. Grab the leash several times of the day and just place it next to you as you watch TV or read a book. Do this several times a day. When your dog relaxes, give him a treat.

I hope this helps,

Happy Training!

Best wishes,

Adrienne

[SuzanneMelton]

Thank you for your suggestion. My dog is great In the car because he goes quite often with us. We went out of town a couple of times , almost 4 hours one way, and he does great. He is so used to the car. The excitement at the day care starts when we pull in the parking lot. We have started walking him in front of the day care on days he doesn’t go so we will continue that. It is tough since we don’t have a lot of time on the actual day we go to day care since the day care worker is working. She has been awesome by not petting  our dog if he jumps, she does wait till he sits. I am hoping with time and repetition of just going for a walk there, it will get better.  We also have been practicing Impulse control as part of his training at home as well. Looks like we are doing all we can and to just continue what we are doing. Thank you For your help. 

[Adrienne]

It's great that he's behaving mostly well in the car. In many dogs excited to go to dog parks/day cares, the excitement tends to gradually generalize to other situations preceding the excited event sort of like dogs with separation anxiety who go from getting anxious when the owner leaves to getting antsy the moment the owner gets ready to leave, even several minutes prior.  It certainly helps that you are taking him often on car rides, even if to some boring places. 

If the overly excited behavior starts when you're pulling in the parking lot, then you have a little less to work on, which would mean getting ready to park only once he's calmer. In a case as such, I would therefore drive several times around the parking lot until he's calmed down and stop and park only then. If he gets excited when I park, I would start the engine again and go around a few more times. Then, I would also wait to get him out until he's calmer. I would practice pretending to opening the door. If he rushes towards the door as soon I approach, I would move away from the door. I would rinse and repeat until he's calmer and not approaching. 

I would then open the door slowly, ask him to sit as I clip the leash on. Now that he's safely leashed, I would practice keeping the car door open (telling him to stay) and having him jump out only when told so. This is an impulse control exercise that can be practiced already at home in a calmer setting. It's good to have dogs jump in and out of cars on cue. I like to have them also sit when I open the car door, and hold a stay as I unclip the leash and then tell them "ok" to jump in the car. And then I  ask to sit and stay as I put the leash on and use the cue "out' when they need to jump out. 

Then I would follow with the leash exercises, walking him around and "Premacking " the leash: loose leash makes us walk closer to the building, tense leash makes us go the opposite way. If he would take treats despite the excited state of mind, I would also provide those on top of moving closer to the building for a double whammy of reinforcement (if I walk on a loose leash, not only will I get closer to the building where there are all my friends, but I will get some tasty treats along the way too!-Pulling?That gets me nothing instead. " Of course, dogs don't talk rationally like this, but they go by associations. 

Yes, walking him on those days he doesn't go is excellent as you have less pressure and more time to dedicate. A popular saying among owners of dogs competing in sports is "practice as if you were competing and compete as if you were practicing. " In other words, if you put in the effort and time on those days he isn't going to day care but pretend as if he really has to go there walking nicely (preferably even with the help of a friend acting as a daycare employee), that day you need to really take him there, you should have most work cut off for you. 

Other ideas that come to mind:

-You can try different walking gear if he is very strong and the type of dog that pulls a lot. For instance, you can try using a front-attachment harness (leash that clips to the front ring or double-ended leash that clips back and front -like Perfect Fit harness) or even a head halter (although this may require some acclimatization) and see if that can more quickly reduce his pulling along with your training. 

--You can try parking close to the facility so that he's not dragging him/her all the way. 

-You can try to ask if the facility is OK in letting you drop your dog off in front of the building. He may pull indoors, but at least he's not rehearsing excited behaviors from the car and you can then take over training the indoor portion once this COVID19 thing is finally over. 

-You can try walking him to a back door of the building so that he associates this door with a more composed entrance. Dogs live by associations, so a back door has a less strong reinforcement history attached. 

I feel tough that ultimately training him is the ultimate best option starting from when he gets hyper in the car. These are impulse control skills that will turn handy in many other areas, making our life easier e.g getting dogs to go in and out of cars calmly and not pulling under distracting environments. Although ideally, we want to work in low distractions areas at first and gradually increase the level of distractions. Going to daycare ranks probably highest on your dog's hierarchy of distractions, so this is why practicing in other areas and on days he's not going, can work as an advantage.