How to calm an excited dog on a walk

Dopeydapple

Dopeydapple

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 October 2017
Messages
518
Location
Wiltshire
Visit site
Well Tala is settling in really well but OH says the other day (after he'd been running with her), she went "crazy" and started charging at him, jumping up, mouthing etc, even on a short lead she was jumping on him and pushing him, trying to run circles etc. I told him he needs to keep an eye on her and not let her get that excited. This morning he messaged to say she had gone crazy without any reason. She has the odd crazy 5 minutes at home but if / when it gets too much she is separated into a different room and she settles back down quickly, his issue is he can't seperate her from him on a walk. I'm thinking that the initial response needs to be to stop the jumping so to redirect her to the floor scatter some high value treats, then use treats to get her to focus on sit / down / etc and then just get on with walking at a brisk pace with her to heel. Anyone got different suggestions for him, she doesn't do this with me. She has a really good sit / heal response but it just seems she goes over threshold a bit with him??
 
I would redirect her. Here the rule is "If in doubt, sit". If the dog will respond to that command I would tell her to sit, then reward with a treat. Then throw a few treats around for her to find. I wouldn't want to accidentally reward the unwanted behaviour by throwing treats around as she is jumping up.
 
I'm assuming ( and that may be the problem here), that he had enough sense to try to redirect her into a sit but maybe not, I'll need to check with him. If she gets to jumping up she's in a pretty high arousal state so might be that she is too far gone to respond to sit so I thought scattering treats might just take her attention away from OH being a "target" then he can redirect her from there. Will chat to him tonight about exactly what happened this morning.
 
Dopeydapple said:
I'm assuming ( and that may be the problem here), that he had enough sense to try to redirect her into a sit but maybe not, I'll need to check with him. If she gets to jumping up she's in a pretty high arousal state so might be that she is too far gone to respond to sit so I thought scattering treats might just take her attention away from OH being a "target" then he can redirect her from there. Will chat to him tonight about exactly what happened this morning.
Click to expand...
If that is the case, I would get her anticipating the sit, rather than the running/jumping. Stop every few minutes to sit and reward.
 
splashgirl45 said:
Even if he was just walking maybe she was anticipating a run so got excited … do you run with her as well or is it just your OH?
Click to expand...
I've done a little run with her here and there while she is still being kept on a lead and she was fine, last night I did a gentle jog to see her response after he said she had gone nuts the nights before and she started to get excited quickly, as soon as I stopped running and ignored her she was fine again, obviously I didn't let her run as long or as fast as he did so she was manageable still.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
If that is the case, I would get her anticipating the sit, rather than the running/jumping. Stop every few minutes to sit and reward.
Click to expand...
Maybe that's it, I do lots of rewarding check ins, sits, ignoring people / dogs etc with good treats. I think he practices check ins but I'm not sure she gets enough reward from him.
 
This is her normally lol, but like every snow dog I've known she likes the 5-10 minute zoomies, the other just haven't focused their attention on charging at OH as part of it lol.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20250608_132422_Editor Lite.jpg
    Screenshot_20250608_132422_Editor Lite.jpg
    339.1 KB · Views: 42
Well randomly she decided to do this to me yesterday morning. It really was out of the blue and lasted 2-3 minutes before she was under control enough to get her to sit. She tried it a few more times when we walked off but as she was on a short lead walking to heal then nothing happened. It's the fact that she's plodding along sniffing then she suddenly turns to face you and jumps straight up before you realise what's happening. It's all very odd, she doesn't bite, just mouths but it is something to nip in the bud so will call the behaviour team at dogs trust to see if they have any advice.
 
Instead of focusing on what she is doing and trying to suppress that, try to work out why she is doing it and start there.

Enforcing heel or sit isn't changing how she feels.

What is going on in the environment?
Does she have a high prey drive?
Is it frustration?
Is it over arousal?
Is she reactive?
Is it redirection?

Does she get any off lead time where she can relax and do dog things, like sniff and run?
 
skinnydipper said:
Instead of focusing on what she is doing and trying to suppress that, try to work out why she is doing it and start there.

Enforcing heel or sit isn't changing how she feels.

What is going on in the environment?
Does she have a high prey drive?
Is it frustration?
Is it over arousal?
Is she reactive?
Is it redirection?

Does she get any off lead time where she can relax and do dog things, like sniff and run?
Click to expand...
I think she just wants to play, she does it towards the end of a walk in an open space, like its her last chance to play before we get home. It's very much the "wrestly type" play you see dogs doing with each other. I've just enrolled her in a scentwork class so we can meet more dogs to socialise with in a sensible way and hopefully might make some friends we can walk with and / or hire a secure field to play with outside of the class. This heat wave is not helping as can't really plan any trips to a secure field as its too hot in the day to be out playing.
 
skinnydipper said:
Have you contacted the Dogs Trust behaviourist?
Click to expand...
Waiting for a call back, it's not a huge problem just don't want it to escalate. On average she gets 3 walks per day, more if it's not hot, so generally minimum 21 walks per week and she does this less than once a week and it lasts a few minutes so it's not a big problem.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Presumably because OP doesn't fancy wrestling with a big dog. I wouldn't either.
Click to expand...
Thanks PAS, she does have lots of play times in the garden but as a dog I can't comfortably let off lead on a walk it limits what we can do during the walk, she has a long line so gets lots of sniffing etc but to play with her when she's got to stay on the lead and be fairly close I think would just cause more of this behaviour. Dogs Trust emailed to say that they will call after 6 tonight so hopefully they will have some ideas. I think it will naturally get better after the heatwave any way as she can have more garden play during the day and hopefully the scentwork will give us things to do in the future when it's hot, along with hopefully introduce is to some dogs she can play with instead of using us as a substitute.
 
Does nobody else just have a bit of fun with their dog when they are out walking?! I do lots of recalls, Boop Snoot, The Claw!, asking for walking backwards, heeling, playing tug with a ball on a rope, chasing food etc etc etc. If the dog wants to interact with me during a walk, I oblige.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with humans playing with dogs, you're not a 'substitute', only letting her play with other dogs and not you will make the other dogs 10x more fun.
Play = engagement and if you don't have engagement you don't have anything. It's not just for the garden.
 
CorvusCorax said:
Does nobody else just have a bit of fun with their dog when they are out walking?! I do lots of recalls, Boop Snoot, The Claw!, asking for walking backwards, heeling, playing tug with a ball on a rope, chasing food etc etc etc. If the dog wants to interact with me during a walk, I oblige.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with humans playing with dogs, you're not a 'substitute', only letting her play with other dogs and not you will make the other dogs 10x more fun.
Play = engagement and if you don't have engagement you don't have anything. It's not just for the garden.
Click to expand...
I must admit I engage with mine on a walk. Not constantly the older ones now but if any of them look for engagement I offer it back. The younger ones much more so.
And I never wrestle with mine in any way, at home or out.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Presumably because OP doesn't fancy wrestling with a big dog. I wouldn't either.
Click to expand...
You don't have to wrestle to play, I certainly wouldn't do so with my GSD. But I do lots of interaction stuff on walks, mini recall, spin, nose to hand touches, quick ball tuggy, scatter bits of kibble in the grass etc.
Ets I see CC beat me to it.
 
CorvusCorax said:
A smaller dog might have been more sensible then ;) there are loads of different ways to play and engage with a dog. Anyway, the OP reckons it's not a big problem.
Click to expand...
Do you encourage your dog to wrestle with you? I stopped doing such silly things in my 20s when I realised that even with a Lab, I was coming off worse! Fortunately we have always had multiple dogs, so they could wrestle with each other. I don't play tug with Rottweilers either, because they are almost bound to win. Actually I don't play tug with any dog, when I.put my hand on a toy, I expect the dog to give it to me.
 
CorvusCorax said:
Does nobody else just have a bit of fun with their dog when they are out walking?! I do lots of recalls, Boop Snoot, The Claw!, asking for walking backwards, heeling, playing tug with a ball on a rope, chasing food etc etc etc. If the dog wants to interact with me during a walk, I oblige.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with humans playing with dogs, you're not a 'substitute', only letting her play with other dogs and not you will make the other dogs 10x more fun.
Play = engagement and if you don't have engagement you don't have anything. It's not just for the garden.
Click to expand...
Yes of course.
But OP asked how to keep her dog calm on a walk. A couple of ours like to play football. But they start off calm and stay that way.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Do you encourage your dog to wrestle with you? I stopped doing such silly things in my 20s when I realised that even with a Lab, I was coming off worse! Fortunately we have always had multiple dogs, so they could wrestle with each other. I don't play tug with Rottweilers either, because they are almost bound to win. Actually I don't play tug with any dog, when I.put my hand on a toy, I expect the dog to give it to me.
Click to expand...

I said there are loads of ways to play with a dog, not including wrestling, but it depends on the dog, one of mine loved physical play but wasn't OTT about it, my little female is not that confident so yes I do allow her to bounce and climb on me we roll around, it lets her elevate herself/feel more confident. If it gets too much I tell her to stop and we go on about our business.

Letting the dog win at tug isn't a bad thing, I let the dog win at tug a lot, with lots of verbal praise, my little dog gets told WOW! She is big and strong and brave! I want my dog to play with me and they won't if they always lose/all I do is take things off them. If I was a kid playing football and another bigger kid came along and kept winning the ball off me and running off with it, it wouldn't be very fair or enjoyable and would made me feel rubbish and I wouldn't want to play any more.
I have a breed of dog with an innate desire to grip, hold and pull things and I would not deny them that outlet. It's also a good outlet for dogs with high prey drive to let them chase a flirt pole or a ball on a string or chase food back and forth instead of cats and squirrels.
I love playing with my dogs and find it very enjoyable and they do too, it is never something I would discourage, it is very good for the relationship. And if I want something back I can take it back, the two things are not mutually exclusive.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Yes of course.
But OP asked how to keep her dog calm on a walk. A couple of ours like to play football. But they start off calm and stay that way.
Click to expand...

OK so it appears to me that three on leash, at heel walks and a bit of play in the garden may not be enough for this dog, she is frustrated by something and is venting on the handler to get some sort of reaction. Making her do more boring drills does not seem to be the answer, so I am suggesting the dog be allowed to express itself.
It would be nice to have a nice calm dog on a walk every time but this is a breed of dog that is used to running and pulling things out in front of the person and is not getting that sort of outlet.
Yes it is warm but the dog can be brushed out as much as possible and given other things to do to occupy her brain.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top