This is likely caused from a lack of stimulation and boredom and lack of mental and physical stimulation.
What is hyper behaviour?
High pitched barking or howling, jumping, running around or pacing.
Well, the first step is address the issue and look at your behaviour. Are you only encouraging this behaviour? By paying any attention to your dog when they are in this hyper state, you are only rewarding and encouraging this behaviour. Even if you are telling your dog to stop, by talking to them and showing them attention, you are still rewarding them. The best thing you could do is ignore this behaviour. Don’t touch, talk to or even make eye contact with your dog. They will quickly learn this isn’t acceptable.
Avoid getting your dog to this state. Even though we can be excited to see our dogs, to take them for or a walk or even to feed them – talking to your dog in a high pitch tone encourages excitement. If your dog becomes excited when they know they are going for a walk, prepare them with their harness or halti then walk away. Do not take them for their walk until they have calmed down and stop their hyper behaviour. This may take 10 minutes or an hour but it’s important to make sure your dog is calm before you they are rewarded with their walk.
This is the same for meal times and any other activities that may trigger high excitement with your dog.
Redirect your dog’s high energy by correctly walking them and burning off their built up energy. Firstly, it’s important that you are correctly walking your dog and confirming yourself as the calm, assertive pack leader. Without this, the rest of your work will be a waste.
Give your dog a job, this helps them to focus and stay on task, instead of being distracted by cars and other animals on your walk. For example, fit your dog with a Doggy Backpack. These are easy to use backpacks designed for dogs to carry a small amount of extra weight, such as water. Once wearing something your dog will go into work mode, it’s in their natural instinct. The extra weight will also make a half an hour walk feel like an hour burning more physical energy too.
Make sure you are being the pack leader with the right energy. We cover this in all our dog behaviour information and it is key! Dog’s pick up on our energy before anything else. We can be smiling and happy on the outside but if we feel different on the inside – they know! If you are stressed of frustrated and you are trying to calm your dog down, it’s not going to work. If you nervous or anxious and trying to correct them on a walk, they will sense this and try to take the leadership role. Make sure you are confident and calm, your dog will take your lead and you will get better results.