How to calm an excited dog on a walk

CorvusCorax said:
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.
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Which is why I would take the dog to a secure field and let her off the lead.
It's also why we have 3 dogs, so that they can interact with one another, at home, as well as out and about. We have one Lab who loves to direct play, "it's your turn" with people. We think it's because that's the only time she gets to be bossy, as she is the bottom of the pack.
 
A scatter feed would likely be my first go-to with something like this - or a game of animating and chasing the food as you roll or throw it (this a great game for recall and orientation too). It sounds like her frame of mind in the moment isn’t really compatible with asking for obedience type behaviours. And a big expectation!

Tug and then (slowly) introducing the ability to change arousal level and add in self control with drops, sits, downs in between etc may be another approach.

As CC says, I’d look to satisfy what it is she’s expressing in the moment in a way that channels the desire into a more acceptable outlet than jumping and mouthing at you.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Which is why I would take the dog to a secure field and let her off the lead.
It's also why we have 3 dogs, so that they can interact with one another, at home, as well as out and about. We have one Lab who loves to direct play, "it's your turn" with people. We think it's because that's the only time she gets to be bossy, as she is the bottom of the pack.
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For me, I don't think running around a field with the owner an insignificant speck in the distance is the answer either, but I guess we'll have to agree to differ!
The OP only has one dog, so it's a bit of a moot point, and even with multiple dogs, the owner should be the most important person to play and interact with, IMO :)
 
Although I have lots of dogs they all prefer interacting with me to each other.
And (this is new to me as well) I do now play very gentle tug with the puppy. It means everything she finds she rushes to me so we can play with it. Sometimes she wins, sometimes I take it away (if it’s not ideal gift her to have it).
 
skinnydipper said:
What was their advice?
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Pretty much what we are doing, lots of check ins and sits on the walk. Wait out the bad behaviour and as soon as she's got 4 feet back on the floor throw some treats on the ground and give a " go find " command ( need to practice this more at home and on the walks) or a sit command and reward. They think the scent training classes will be good for her and the chance to get some off lead play with another dog to get some of these impulses out will help.
 
CorvusCorax said:
For me, I don't think running around a field with the owner an insignificant speck in the distance is the answer either, but I guess we'll have to agree to differ!
The OP only has one dog, so it's a bit of a moot point, and even with multiple dogs, the owner should be the most important person to play and interact with, IMO :)
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Neither do I which is why we don't have that happen. Our dogs are with us because we are playing with them. And because we call them back if they do get too far away.
 
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.
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I can take a toy off any of mine, but I play a lot of tug. During a game of tug they will also all let go on command even while I am still pulling.
 
Just a thought, but have you/did you change the feed she was having…One of our last dogs went from being sensible to being a handful and hard to control after we changed brand…other dogs not affected…it was suggested we change back and problem ceased…
 
Just a thought, but have you/did you change the feed she was having…One of our last dogs went from being sensible to being a handful and hard to control after we changed brand…other dogs not affected…it was suggested we change back and problem ceased…
 
Marshpiper said:
Just a thought, but have you/did you change the feed she was having…One of our last dogs went from being sensible to being a handful and hard to control after we changed brand…other dogs not affected…it was suggested we change back and problem ceased…
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Yes she's changed to supermarket mince and veg as she wasn't really eating the food she came with, dogs trust had trouble with her being fussy and leaving her food too which often resulted in her vomiting bile due to an empty stomach. She is super chilled most of the time, it's just these very sporadic spontaneous sessions that had me flummoxed.
 
Marshpiper said:
Just a thought, but have you/did you change the feed she was having…One of our last dogs went from being sensible to being a handful and hard to control after we changed brand…other dogs not affected…it was suggested we change back and problem ceased…
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Funnily enough though our last malamute did this the other way around, she came to us with a whole list of behaviour problems and we switched her from bakers to skinners and she changed almost overnight into the easiest dog you could meet lol.
 
Dopeydapple said:
Funnily enough though our last malamute did this the other way around, she came to us with a whole list of behaviour problems and we switched her from bakers to skinners and she changed almost overnight into the easiest dog you could meet lol.
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Going to be irritating now…but have you thought about trying chicken and rice…ordinary boiled rice, but obviously flavoured with chicken juice, boiled chicken not roasted…
Hope you get sorted…
 
Marshpiper said:
Going to be irritating now…but have you thought about trying chicken and rice…ordinary boiled rice, but obviously flavoured with chicken juice, boiled chicken not roasted…
Hope you get sorted…
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Could give it a go, she's on turkey mince at the moment as I thought it was the leanest of the meats if it was going to be her main part if the meal so not sure if theres much difference between chicken and turkey?
 
Marshpiper said:
Going to be irritating now…but have you thought about trying chicken and rice…ordinary boiled rice, but obviously flavoured with chicken juice, boiled chicken not roasted…
Hope you get sorted…
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Could give it a go, she's on turkey mince as I thought it was the leanest of the meats if its going to be the main part of her diet so not sure if theres much difference between chicken and turkey?
 
Dopeydapple said:
Wait out the bad behaviour
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This stood out to me as continents will have moved and empires risen and fallen in the time it takes some types of dog to spontaneously stop doing something they find fun and fulfilling. Unless there's a back story of incredibly nervous dog or similar, it really is ok to just tell them to knock it off. Although with the caveat that this assumes the dog's needs are otherwise being met and it has a healthy outlet for whatever it is trying to communicate, which is only fair.

Others have covered the importance of play and many good suggestions for this already but I just wanted to emphasise again how different this is to a walk. You can walk the nordic type dogs three hours a day and not physically tire them out (ask me how I know 😉) but also have them sides heaving, brain cogs whirring and then spark out with 15 minutes of play and engagement on a 5m line.
 
skinnydipper said:
Where is she getting her calcium from?

If you are going to try raw feeding, best to look for one that meets FEDIAF guidelines.
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Sorry I should of added she also gets hard boiled eggs and salmon added in 2-3 times per week, snd has raw bones from the butcher for when we are out, I did consult a dog nutritionist when we made the changes to make sure she was getting everything she needed as she wouldn't eat the commercially prepared one I bought her ( only tried 1 brand though, but it's more convenient to pop to aldi and the butchers regularly and pick it up as I need it)
Anyway, somehow I'm turning into a phone addicted teenager on various social media sites and I don't think it's healthy for me so thanks to everyone for all the replies and help, I'm going to give myself a digital detox for a bit x
 
Marshpiper said:
Just a thought, but have you/did you change the feed she was having…One of our last dogs went from being sensible to being a handful and hard to control after we changed brand…other dogs not affected…it was suggested we change back and problem ceased…
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Well worth investigating for any content or preservative which could be causing an unwonted edge. Only got to see what orange flavourings can achieve with susceptible children!

Isn’t this dog bred for draught? not a house pet, but dragging loaded sleds for miles? Thinking: Jack London, ‘Call of the Wild’....Buck surviving the Alaskan gold rush....

Three runs per day aren’t going to touch the sides, altho might be as much as most owners can accommodate.

We have working collies, and if young ones don’t work (which totals many miles, uneven ground, fast speeds, twists, turns, listening to a handler who couldn’t possibly keep up - that’s why we have herders), I would expect them to start looking for other outlets for their energy.
Bored collies sometimes start worrying stock, which sadly would be the end of them.
 
CorvusCorax said:
For me, I don't think running around a field with the owner an insignificant speck in the distance is the answer either, but I guess we'll have to agree to differ!
The OP only has one dog, so it's a bit of a moot point, and even with multiple dogs, the owner should be the most important person to play and interact with, IMO :)
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Laughing nervously in 'greyhound owner' :oops: 😂

Eta - apart from when she is running directly at me at high speed just for the lols.
 
I've recently found a game to play with Ivy on lead, inspired by a recent conversation in the pub about improving recall. The suggestion was hiding from her but that's tricky with the long line and I don't think we're at a stage to drop it on the ground yet. Instead I tried randomly changing direction/turning back on myself and it was interesting how quickly that caught Ivy's attention, and that was without using any food! Off lead at the secure field we used to hide behind the shelter and wait for us to realise we'd gone (sometimes took a while).

We're recently started handfeeding and suddenly her hearing has improved too 😂 Not sure I would do it with a new rescue dog; Ivy was nervous and underweight so it felt important to let her have her meals in peace.

Tug doesn't really do it for Ivy but she likes to run, chase, and sniff, so we do our best to find her things that fit with this.

I can't remember how long OP has had this new dog but I found the 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months for rescue dogs thing so helpful. Interestingly it's tracked along those timescales both time we have moved house with Ivy as well so we'll notice a difference in her behaviour a few days in, then a few weeks, and then again at a few months. I know I posted on here a lot in the early days thinking 'oh heck what's going on with this dog, have we ruined her?!' but patience and trying to see things from her point of view seems to have helped.

Also if we've been somewhere else to stay she can often have a funny five minutes when we get home. I guess her way of decompressing after being on her best good dog behaviour. I wonder if OPs dog is holding it together then bubbling over?
 
CorvusCorax said:
For me, I don't think running around a field with the owner an insignificant speck in the distance is the answer either, but I guess we'll have to agree to differ!
The OP only has one dog, so it's a bit of a moot point, and even with multiple dogs, the owner should be the most important person to play and interact with, IMO :)
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Not even one-man-and-his-dog Trials??
Gathering off the high fells?? The dog’s nearer to God than its owner.
 
Also, collies derive enjoyment and engagement from being 'worked' by a handler from the other side of a field, it is genuinely fun to them. But if a breed like a terrier or a whippet (generally speaking, I'm sure there are some exceptions) is having marvellous time on the other side of a field you can be fairly confident that that good time has naff all to do with a handler way off in the distance or what they may or may not be saying/doing.
 
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