# Extreme Hyperactivity



## L2druid (Nov 24, 2009)

If you have a hyper dog how do you calm them?

My female is a year and a half old and slightly anxious ( Heavy, deep panting like she is stressed and different than the traditional hot panting. ) during many activities, she never just relaxes unless directly after a strenuous exercise and she's about to sleep. 

If I move around the house she follows and tends to spin and rocket around, knocking into things and being a complete spaz. This is ESPECIALLY bad if I come home from somewhere and she's trying to greet me. Her hyperactivity skyrockets. Usually, she is in a crate at this time but ocasionally she is out when I walk in. Ignoring her doesn't work, she will end up sitting and waiting and her patience is endless. She will be stock still and staring or looking around and the instant I begin to move again it's back to the explosion. I stood just inside the front door for 10 minutes not even glancing at her once and she eventually laid down, just to erupt again when I took a step.

This dog gets anywhere from a 45 minute to 2 hour walk each day, plus ran on a bike. I recently even bought her a backpack she takes on one or the other( LOVING the way it tires her out ). Been advised elsewhere to increase her mental stimulation with training and it doesn't seem to be working. She has been marker trained and knows all the basic commands. Her down-stays and sit-stays are almost flawless under any distraction. 

What I've been trying is making her down ( she downs or sits until released with an 'OK' ) if she begins these hyper behaviors but like I mentioned earlier her patience is seemingly endless and she will jump back up and rocket back to insanity when released. When sitting or downing she is perfectly still and very focused. 

I am always sure to stay very calm and not get angry though it is tough sometimes when something or another gets broken. 

She isn't always horribly hyper, but I see alot of the panting and hyper/anxious behavior even if it isn't a total explosion throughout the day. She does alot of pacing as well.

How can I show her to be calm when she never reaches that point?


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## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

Have you tried enrolling her into any type of classes? Tried doing some sports with her such as Schutzhund? Agility? Obedience? Tracking? Herding? Flyball? Etc.?

It sounds like your girl needs a job to do, she needs to be busy and to keep her mind from getting bored. 

I would enroll her in some type of classes. 

She sounds like a normal GSD to me, always needs to be right there with you, always on the go, always needs to be part of the action, etc..

She is still technically a puppy so this behaviour may change in time, but in the mean time to keep you from loosing your mind, keep her busy.

Good luck!


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## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

I would keep looking for solutions that don't necessarily increase "activity" but increase the amount she has to do mental work. 

I always make stuff like hiking and playing fetch in the backyard a bit of a chore. I'll bring a tennis ball along hiking, throw it into a pile of leaves when Elsa isn't looking at then tell her "where's the ball?!" and she tracks it down. I'll do this in the house and the yard too. I have her "at home" agility trained. On hikes, every tree stump, fallen tree, or bench is turned into some kind of agility excersice. I'll make her do down stays and I'll go a few hundred yards down the trail and hide out of site and call her (obviously only works if your dog is reliable off leash. I keep a 30' training lead on just in case, and only do this on trails I know are not populated where a group of people and their dogs might pop out at any time). "Creep" is her command for crawling under things, so I'll set up patio chairs in the backyard and point at stuff and tell her "creep" and she'll crawl under it. We'll make a whole course out of this. On nasty days I do this with the diding room chairs. 

I think you just have to get creative! Elsa took a long time to settle in the house and the ONLY time I ever see her tired is after multi-day backpacking trips when we're doing 3000'+ ascents/descents. Then the tired, lazy puppy routine lasts about a day.

And I second trying to get her into formal classes for a "working" dog.

Elsa doesn't sound as high strung as your girl, but she's up there and is always on the go.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

What does she eat? Diet can sometimes play a part in hyperness.

I would feed a qualilty grain free or at least corn free kibble if you don't want to feed raw.

Agility would be a great outlet for her energy, I bet she would excel.
Can you get her anywhere to swim?

With maturity, she may calm a bit, Onyx was more anxious when she was younger, but with age has calmed some.


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## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

Beau was like this as a young dog too, we enrolled her in agility (not for titles, just for fun) and she excelled. She probably would have done well in the competition ring, but my parents never thought to do that with her at the time.

She is almost 13 years old and has just started to settle in the last year or so.. lol.

I love a good old high energy dog, makes life a little more interesting. Stark is so laid back, I got lucky with him.


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## Zisso (Mar 20, 2009)

You described my Nadi to a T. I can tell you that if I do not maintain a routine with her she gets even more hyper. I have to play a good 20-30 min game of fetch before I can even take her for a walk. It helped to get her into herding. Gave her a job. I challenge her mentally as much as I can. Sometimes I get stagnate on ideas or just plain burned out, and have found that if I ignore her she will calm down the best. So when I am online, she is mellow, however ready to bounce if I so much as stretch. Also a solid routine helps her as then she Knows what we are doing and when.


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## emilyk042987 (Apr 5, 2009)

Oh this sounds so much like Meega. For coming in the house the best thing I have figured was to tell her to go get a toy. I read it on here sometime ago, but I can't remember who did that with their dog. Meega is a jumper and that kept her mind busy enough that she quit. Now she will run around in circles with her toy, but it calms her down. It's almost like a pacifier in fact when she gets overly excited in the house she has started to get it on her own. 

For outside since I couldn't afford to take her to some lessons I made an agility like hurdle for her. I trained her how to jump over that. She will jump over it and then I throw her chuckit and that tires her out significantly. Along with that I will switch it up with sits, downs etc. Finally I know most people aren't fond of dog parks, but it has helped quite a bit in general for her. I go during off times where there are a few people that come everyday. That way they know their dogs and they know her. If we can't make it to there I try to grab my parent's 9mo border collie mix for her to run with and that helps. Having other dogs they can play with helps a ton as it socializes them as well. 

Meega is now almost three and we have gotten to where we can calm down in the house as long as it hasn't been to long since we have had a run. The one time it's hard is when Tucker (the parents puppy) is with us.


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## L2druid (Nov 24, 2009)

Thanks for the ideas everyone! Glad to know I'm not alone.

I bet she'd do awesome in agility, I just wish I had my own course here at home.

Might look into building one, we have a huge backyard and the objects I need aren't terribly expensive, just might take awhile to build up to a full course. Or..I could have the Mr. build me something from scratch.

As for getting creative...I'll look into that. I try little things, like downing her before releasing her to fetch an object etc, but maybe I'll start surprising her.

Both my GSD's have been fed a strictly raw diet since about 4 months old. They are fed a wide variety of meats: Chicken, turkey, rabbit, pork and occasionally beef. Chicken and rabbit being their source of bone. Eggs are given about twice a week. Supplemented with salmon oil and vitamin E.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

I agree that it sounds like you have a young dog with a work ethic and high energy. And since you haven't found the way to work with it and engage it to 'do good' you pup is doing the best it can and finding it's own way.

You said you did marker training, but did you go to CLASSES for this? Or merely train at home.

The 'point' of classes isn't just what the dog can learn. It's where and how a dog can learn also. PLUS the car ride and socialization. PLUS throwing new things at the dog to challenge it and then set handler/dog up to succeed. This is engaging the brains of our dogs in many more ways than just training at home.

Herding, agility, schutzund, tracking, more/longer car rides with the socialization at the end. Your dog doing weekly things like click here and (click here) 

Rumor has it, it takes a villiage to raise a kid........I found the same for my puppies! Specially when I have a problem, taking the pup OUTSIDE the home to trainers, friends, and even strangers is big help.

Along with OFF leash activities and exercise.


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

One of my girls is exactly like yours...minus the panting/pacing although she will whine if she gets bored. It can get very frustrating when you are just getting up for a drink or to use the bathroom, and the dog is off to the races 
I have found that giving my dog a toy will keep her mind occupied for the most part, especially when I let her out of her crate or kennel. It's a lot easier than getting bowled over every time. 
I will say that putting your girl on a down might actually be having the opposite result - you are building up the excitement so when you release her she really explodes. 
I have taught mine to go to her bed which is in the corner of the room. I tried to keep it a very calm exercise without an exciting release and it helps out a lot. 

I have to keep my girl very active, and that includes going to the schutzhund club several days a week, obedience or tracking on a daily basis, herding once a week, hikes as often as I can, and lots of swimming when the weather is nice.


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## GSD07 (Feb 23, 2007)

I would get her evaluated by a good trainer/behaviourist and then proceed from there. High energy not always comes along with high drives and sometimes just means nervous energy and weak nerves. I don't want to say that it's the case with your dog that's why I mentioned evaluation. Nervous energy won't go away with increased exercise or even mental activity and high expectations may actually make the things worse. You can build an athlete with an incredible stamina and then what? The hyperactivity, pacing and anxiety still won't go away and you'll have to start from scratch. I think you are actually heading this route right now.

If she's pacing then the best way is to tell her what to do, in my case in was down stay in a comfortable place, and wait until she relaxes and stays in that place for an hour or so. With time she'll learn. For Yana it was 'down stay', enforcing for 15 min, than 'settle down' when she relaxes, then 'good girl, good settle down'. When Yana figured out that she has to relax when told I stopped being dependent on crate to get a break from her anxiety.
Here's a picture I took of her after she was told to settle down. Just minutes before that she was pacing around reacting to every sound, she's not happy to be on the mat but she knows there is no way around it.


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## Melgrj7 (Jul 5, 2009)

Have you tried doing Karen Overall's Protocol for Relaxation?


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## L2druid (Nov 24, 2009)

We train at home or on walks or wherever I decide to at the moment. She's taken to pet stores and to events when we go. She gets very anxious in the car, no matter how long the drive. It worsens if she suspects we're about to stop and reaches a peak when we do stop. She'll act frantic, darting around panting hard and whining some. I'm thinking maybe I should double her car ride experiences and just drive and drive until she calms or something of the like.

I don't like to take her to really crowded public places too much as people can't control their children and she doesn't like them. As much as I'd love to get her around kids who will listen and teach her not to be leery, they all seem to act hyper, screaming, shouting or running at her and she gets frightened.

As a pup I took her everywhere, used to walk around school time and she'd wade into masses of little kids licking and wiggling but that changed with her age.

As for classes/behaviorists, I'd like to but I am short on money with the holidays coming up and some bill issues. I see videos of people distraction training with all their dogs together and I'd love to get her around other dogs like that and proof her. Maybe I could hang around outside the fence of a local dog park and do it there. 

I wonder about that nervous and weak energy...with the panting and pacing and her darting glances everywhere it seems exactly how she acts. There's a difference between days I exercise her and days she hasn't had any at all and the excitement is different, my WGSD is excitable sometimes, but there's no odd panting, fast frantic head movements with the whites of his eye flashing. Just a wiggling butt and then after a bit it's over. She acts like she doesn't know what to do and is desperate and anxious.

I have made her down stay for long periods like 10 minutes to a half hour until she is calmer, if I remind her occasionally with a "Good down." she will lay there until she goes to sleep, then I'll release her after a bit. 

The settle down command seems like a great idea. I will definitely be trying that from now on.

I don't normally leave toys down on the floor but if it will help her cope I will leave tons around the house. She does love visiting my mother who leaves stuffed animals all over for her pups. She will always grab one and start tossing it around.

I also have a kong I should give her more often. I've frozen peanut butter in there and she'll go after it for an hour or more.

Is there any other ways that could possibly help lessen her anxiety?


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## SuzyE (Apr 22, 2005)

Paige is eleven yrs old-I can barely keep up with her.: )


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## GSDElsa (Jul 22, 2009)

> Originally Posted By: L2druidShe gets very anxious in the car, no matter how long the drive. It worsens if she suspects we're about to stop and reaches a peak when we do stop. She'll act frantic, darting around panting hard and whining some.
> 
> I don't like to take her to really crowded public places too much as people can't control their children and she doesn't like them. As much as I'd love to get her around kids who will listen and teach her not to be leery, they all seem to act hyper, screaming, shouting or running at her and she gets frightened.
> 
> ...


Hmmm. Now that you describe things a little more in detail it does some like more of anxious behavior rather than hyper. I mean, Elsa jumps up ready to go when we so much as stretch on the couch, but it's more of an EXCITED "we're DOING SOMETHING!" type attitude then an "oh my god what is happening" attitude.

I agree about the evaluation....when the holidays are over I'd consider that. It's sometimes hard to see "see" what's going on when you aren't "seeing" it.


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## L2druid (Nov 24, 2009)

Well, she doesn't seem terrified, it seems like she's extremely hyper but with a bit of anxiety thrown in. Her tail is up and wagging when she is acting this way, but she has a nervousness about her. 

I'm trying to think back for things I might have done to cause this behavior and I do remember several months ago she was being hyper and slammed into my xbox 360 causing it to tumble to the ground( I don't know if any of you know but a 360 can't be tilted when it's playing or it risks ruining any disk inside ) well it gouged up one of my game disks that was currently playing, I got upset and took her by the collar and dragged her to her crate and she was frightened.

..Maybe I caused this behavior for loosing my temper on such a sensitive animal.... She wasn't always this way but for the life of me I can't remember when she switched over.

With her, all it takes for most corrections is a stern voice...I'm sure it was my fault somehow and I feel horrible for it. I want her to feel comfortable and not worried whether she is doing something right or wrong all the time but I don't know how to build her confidence.

Hm...she LOVES her tug. Maybe if when I get up to head somewhere I can always hide it on me and whip it out and have a few seconds of tug along the way so she associates moving around with something positive? Then again...that could just amp her up more every time I move. Food maybe? She's more into toys but her food drive is great too. She's always willing to please and enthusiastic praise can even be too much of a distraction sometimes.


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## middleofnowhere (Dec 20, 2000)

This is what I hear - you have a drivey 18 mo dog. My advise? WORK WITH IT. When they come around, they come around big time and you will have an amazing dog. Yes, physical corrections only seem to build these dogs' drives at this stage in their life. Your patience will be tested for another 6 mos minimum and possibly another 18.


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