What does it look like when a dog is overstimulated?
Destini Thiel
2025-06-12 06:27:22
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Overstimulation refers to a range of behaviours that dogs display when they feel overwhelmed and are struggling to cope with certain triggers. Overstimulation often looks like excessive mouthing, jumping up, and tugging on clothes or the lead. Your dog could display a range of behaviours when overstimulated, including excessive jumping up, humping, mouthing, nipping, grabbing, and ragging on the lead, your clothes and other equipment. When a dog is overstimulated, it can be hard to calm them down, and this can escalate to aggression if not dealt with appropriately. Monitoring your dog’s body language will help to understand when they are approaching their ‘threshold’. If we cross this distance, they’ll be ‘over-threshold’ and no longer able to do those things.
Meredith Homenick
2025-06-04 22:21:23
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These can include:
As you can see, many of these signs can also be indicative of boredom, so it's crucial to determine the underlying cause of these behaviours to effectively address the issue.
If your dog is exhibiting signs of overstimulation in a chaotic or unfamiliar environment, such as a busy park or during a loud thunderstorm, it's likely that they are overwhelmed by the stimuli around them.
Overstimulated dogs may appear tense and agitated, with a stiff body posture and dilated pupils.
If your dog is experiencing overstimulation or boredom, and to know what to do when your dog is overstimulated.
In these situations, it's important to understand whether your dog is experiencing overstimulation or boredom, and to know what to do when your dog is overstimulated.
However, there may be times when your dog seems overly excited, agitated, or just plain out of control.
Cheyanne Schimmel
2025-05-24 05:15:51
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Socialization is crucial for dogs who get overstimulated around other pets. However, pet parents should be cautious when socializing a dog prone to sensory overload — especially if the dog becomes reactive when they feel overwhelmed. It's important to keep interactions calm and low-key since high-energy interactions can cause can intensify a dog's response and increase the likelihood of sensory overload. A simple way pet parents can reduce the chances of sensory overload is to ensure their dog gets plenty of exercise and mental stimulation throughout the day. Mental and physical stimulation help dogs relax and may make them less likely to become overstimulated when exposed to external stimuli. Dogs with severe reactivity or very low thresholds for external stimuli may benefit from Behavioral Adjustment Training (BAT), a more advanced behavior modification method. BAT encourages dogs to ignore sensory information that typically elicits a negative response. BAT is a good option for dogs triggered by specific stimuli, such as being around strangers.
Alex Wolf
2025-05-24 04:13:21
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If you are struggling with their behaviour, consider what an average day consists of for your dog. How much repetitive ball chasing is your dog doing? How much rough-housing and playing with other dogs is he doing? How busy and noisy is your household? Does he practice barking and ‘seeing off’ postal workers and passers-by? Essentially, how much of the average day does your dog spend being active, alert and over-excited? We commonly associate stress with negative things that occur in our lives. However, over-excitement, high levels of stimulation and endurance exercise can have the same physiological effects, owing to the stress hormones being released into our brains. If they are not getting close to this amount of sleep due to an over-stimulating lifestyle, then you may start to see some behavioural issues. When we are stressed, stress hormones are released into our brains, our tolerance levels drop, and our sleep is affected, as is our behaviour. This is exactly the same for dogs.
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