How to walk an overstimulated dog?
Lloyd Abshire
2025-07-23 02:17:41
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If you think your dog is simply over-stimulated and not anxious, the best thing to do is to try and change the environment, go to a calmer environment to help set your dog up for success, and start walking them on a longer leash. A calmer environment coupled with a longer leash will allow them to explore, sniff, and let loose a bit more than a restricted 6 ft leash in a highly over-stimulating environment. It might seem counterintuitive, but giving your dog more space and time will help to calm their nervous system. Personally, with dogs like this, I will use a 25-35 ft long line and walk at their pace to let them get what they are looking for from their environment. If you can’t change the physical environment, try changing the time of day or duration of the walk. Sometimes we walk our dogs at the worst time for them, when it’s especially crowded, noisy and over stimulating. If you have to take your dog out during those times, go for a shorter period of time. Use treats for a sniff break If your dog is starting to act too over-excited, find a patch of grass, grab a handful of small but high-value treats and scatter them into the grass for your dog to sniff and eat. Sniffing helps to lower the heart rate and provides your dog an outlet for normal behaviour that we’re often suppressing. Take a break from fetching during walks If part of your walk routine involves throwing a ball for your ball-obsessed dog, you might want to take a break from ball throwing. Finally, teaching your dog some loose-leash walking skills will ultimately help them focus more on you and less on what is over-stimulating them.
Charley Schroeder
2025-07-23 01:05:05
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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?
When we are stressed, stress hormones are released into our brains. During this time we can’t concentrate properly, our tolerance levels drop, and our sleep is affected, as is our behaviour.
The answer isn’t to force downtime on your dog, but to consider how you can introduce some calming activities into their life so that they are less stimulated.
Reduce overstimulating activities for your dog Where possible, reduce activities that cause your dog to be overstimulated.
If you feel your dog’s brain is overstimulated, and they are displaying excitable behaviours that frustrate you, consider their mental health and improve it in the following ways:
Enrichment feeding: Make meal times last longer and more interesting by utilising enrichment feeding.
Sniffing walks: Allowing your dog to stop and sniff when on walks provides them with an opportunity to know about other dogs in the area without getting them over-excited.
Felix Romaguera
2025-07-23 00:37:38
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Decrease exposure to stimuli.
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.
Socialization should occur in a controlled setting under close supervision, ideally with a handler for each dog.
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.
BAT trainers will expose the dog to their trigger from a distance and gradually move the dog closer to their trigger, watching for their response and rewarding the dog when they disengage.
Over time, this will train dogs to disregard specific stressors rather than fixating on them and becoming overwhelmed.
Gaston Daniel
2025-07-22 22:06:04
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To walk an overstimulated dog, consider their exercise needs, are they getting adequate exercise for their needs, some dogs will need more exercise than others. If a dog is running around consistently this can make it harder for them to listen as they’re over stimulated. Body language signs of an overstimulated dog can include dilated pupils, hackles raised, lip licking, poor impulse control, barking, panting. Spotting these signs can help you take steps to lowering your dogs arousal levels back to baseline. You can try free work, a low impact activity that all animals can try, as well as being an activity that can be calming, it can help you spot areas that your dog may avoid. Using an activity budget – looking at the amount of exercise, sleep and enrichment can help you spot any areas that may be missing or need tweaking. Think A, B, C, think antecedent, behaviour, consequence – what environment does the behaviour happen in, who or what is around, what behaviour can you actually see.
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