Hyper excitable dog

[sarapreston]

Hi Everyone,
I have a 9 month old beautiful Golden Retriver. He is a very rambuntious soul, with lots of spirit and one of the most loving dogs, I have ever known. However, here's the problem, When we go to take him for a walk, He is absolutley manic. He gets so excited, (jumping about) it's very difficult to put his leash on.Once his lead is on, he has to take him and leash to the door, he won't let us take him. Once outside, He has mainly good calm walks with the occasional naughty (doesn't want to listen, and pulls) walk.We tried him both with his regular collar and a choke chain. (there's no difference). He gets walked every day and played with both indoors and outdoors. I try to use the rewards training with him, but unfortunately, not sure what to do about getting him calm before the walk. By the way, Mozart is about 75lbs.

[Fundog]

Victoria has a fantastically wonderful method for helping a dog to get a grip on himself while getting ready for the walk. I've tried it, and it works!

Step one: Call doggy over to his "getting ready spot," and have him "sit."

Step two: Get the harness (a lot of us here use the harness, to help prevent injury to the windpipe and neck of dogs who pull) and leash from the place where you keep them. (We have ours hanging on the coat rack in the front entry).

Step three: As soon as the dog even hears you getting the leash out, he will no doubt begin springing up and down in excitement. Immediately turn your back on the dog, drop the leash on the floor, and stand there quietly waiting for your dog to calm down.

The first few times, you may have to lead him back to his "spot" and have him "sit" again, since he doesn't yet understand how this new "game" is played. After a few days of this new ritual, the dog will realize that he has to go sit quietly to get the leash on. You can very discreetly peek over your shoulder to see when the dog sits in his spot. At that instant, pick up the leash (quietly, don't make a fuss or give excited praise in this case). If the dog loses his composure again, repeat this step. The dog's reward for behaving calmly to get ready is the walk itself. Victoria has even told people that if they run out of time for the walk while teaching the dog to stay calm, then you put the leash away and go sit down, and there is no walk. I have not employed this particular consequence-- my dogs always get the walk, once I have "promised" them one, as skipping it would only make their behavior unbearable.

One more thing: I get my dogs ready at the door. However, in your case, you can handle the situation in one of two ways: 1) drop the leash and turn your back on the dog, waiting for him to come back to you, or 2) you can drop the leash and let him walk himself to the door, only picking it up before you open the door to go out. It depends upon what you want and need from your dog, and what suits your circumstances.

[Sally123]

Thanks for the advice. I have a Labrador x Border Collie who, despite his age (almost 9) gets extremely excited and exhibits similar behaviour.

However, my dog doesnt calm down once the lead is on or we are out the door. He continues to pull very hard, walk around in circles, and bark/yelp at nothing. This then gets much worse if we approach any dogs. I have resorted to walking him after dark to avoid other dogs.

Can you suggest what I can do once me & my dog get out the door to have a nice calm walk? I realise the issue of approaching and passing other dogs is a separate issue to be dealt with, but I would at least like to get him to calm down so I can have a nice pleasant walk.

[Mattie]

sarapreston, What are you feeding him on? Most cheap dog foods are full of additives and like many children on food with additives it makes them hyper, a change food can make a big difference to how a dog behaves. I go for food which has the least ingredients, these usually have very few if any additives and also try to get one without any cereal in.

You say he is exercised every day but how much does he get? How much playing and training.

Throw that choke chain in the bin, it can do a lot of damage to your dog's neck, the flat collar can as well if you continue to let him pull or leap around, a harness is best, it doesn't do the damage that collars, choke chains or head collars can do and helps you control the body and not just the head.

For teaching him to walk on a loose lead, have a look at viewtopic.php?f=20&t=858, there is lots of information in that thread.

Sally123

It would be better if you started your own thread, we could then tailor our replies to you and your problems but I will reply to this but also have a look at the threat I have put above.

However, my dog doesnt calm down once the lead is on or we are out the door. He continues to pull very hard, walk around in circles, and bark/yelp at nothing. This then gets much worse if we approach any dogs. I have resorted to walking him after dark to avoid other dogs.

I have never found walking in circles to help, all it did was to make me dizzy

[bordercolliexlab]

Sally123 I have the same kind of problems even the same breed and cross. One thing is he castrated? I had my dog spayed and it helped her, I also walk her at least once a day and play with her outside for a while. I'm still trying to get her calmed,but this has helped a lot. Hope it'll work as well for you as it did me.

[jumpin_jack]

my mum has a collie x retriever who gets very excited wen the leads and collars come out so about half an hour before she is plans to take her out she puts the collar and lead on her and then sits down has a cuppa or something, walks around, goes near the door but doesnt go out a couple of times and by the time she actually goes to take the dog out she has calmed down!

hope this helps xx