Excited to go outside

[KeriPollock]

I need help. We have a year old German Shepherd who has a very high pitch excited voice. When you let him out whether it’s noon or 5am his high voice comes out from the time you go to open door and for about 45 seconds after he’s outside. He jumps on our two other dogs with the excitement he has and it is very annoying to them and frustrating for us. Not sure how to get him to stop doing this. 

[Adrienne]

Hello and welcome to the forums,

It sounds like your GSD perceives these outings as fun opportunities to play. The vocalizations sound like excited play barking and then he tries to engage your other dogs in play, but it sounds like your other dogs are rather annoyed by his behavior. Of course, these are just assumptions, since I cannot observe the behavior. 

 

This sounds mainly like a management issue, but it would be helpful as well implementing some training which your dog/dogs should receive anyway. 

 

Management-wise:

 

- Prevent rehearsal of the problem behavior. By allowing him out to behave this way (barking and jumping) he gets to rehearse the problematic behavior which allows it to put roots and establish. Dogs are routine-oriented animals, so the more this is allowed, the more it turns into an annoying habit that becomes more difficult to eradicate.

-Take your GSD out separately. This will make your neighbors happy so that they won't have to deal with the barking at 5AM, and at the same time, it will prevent your GSD from engaging in the troublesome behavior and your other dogs will be more relaxed knowing that they won't have to protect themselves from your GSD's excited play.

 

The above are management options. They are meant to prevent rehearsal of the problematic behavior and can be used as a short-term or long-term solution. To tackle the issue directly, it would be important implementing some training/engaging the dog in an alternate activity that the dog chooses to engage in because it is more reinforcing than the problematic behavior.

 

On top of this, it also helps to ensure that this young dog's need are met so to decrease the saliency of being in the yard and training better impulse control to reduce the chances for engaging in overly excited behavior. So here are some other tips/ideas.

 

-Provide more exercise/mental stimulation/training. Your GSD is now an adolescent. More on the adolescent stage here: 

 https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/survive-dogs-adolescent-stage/ This is challenging time when they need lots of guidance and activities. Take him on walks, organize brain games, do clicker training, provide chew toys and offer food puzzles. Provide these activities in a separated area from the other dogs . 

-Teach him better impulse control and frustration tolerance. This will help him learn to be calmer and control his impulses, gradually increasing his tolerance of frustration. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/

 

-Establish a new routine. We want to establish a new routine that prevents him from thinking that these outings mean time to act overly excited and play. We can do this by providing activities that become far more rewarding than the behavior he is engaging in. Following are some ideas. You can see what works best for your dog based on his response and individual preferences. 

-Organize a treasure hunt. You can keep him on leash and encourage him to do a little treasure hunt in the yard away from your other dogs (avoid if your dogs are prone to resource guarding). Here is the guide on the treasure hunt game: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-treasure-hunt/

-Organize a muffin game. You can keep him on leash and encourage him to do a muffin game in the yard away from your other dogs (avoid if your dogs are prone to resource guarding). Here is the guide on the muffin tin game: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-muffin-game/

-Let him carry something.  If your dogs don't resource guard toys, you can try to see if he'll be willing to carry a toy in his mouth. With his mouth busy, he won't be able to bark and this can keep him occupied. 

-Encourage a game of tug/play with flirt pole. If your dogs don't resource guard toys, keep him on leash and try to engage him in a game of tug or play with a flirt pole. 

-Teach the leave it command. Practice with low level distractions and then around increasing distractions. This is an important cue that will be helpful in many other settings such as when there may be squirrels around the yard, cats, or when your dog is about to grab something he shouldn't. Here is the guide to train it:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/take-leave-it/

 

You will  have to take him out with you on leash initially  at a distance from your other dogs while your other dogs are out to ensure he doesn't make a mistake and starts rushing towards your other dogs and jumping on them. Then you can progress on a long line, and once he is more responsive and reliable, you can move on to doing the new routine with him off-leash.

 

I hope this helps!

Happy training,

Best,

Adrienne