What to Do If Your Dog Is Hyperactive

You there, with a puppy or an adolescent dog: if I ask you whether he or she is hyperactive, your answer might well be an exhausted, hair-tearing “OMG yes!” And I feel for you. Fortunately, the odds are that your dog is normal. This week, I’ll describe canine hyperactivity and hyperkinesis, explain how they differ from normal young-dog bounce, and talk about how to deal with whatever your Dogalini’s got going on.

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What to Do If Your Dog Is Hyperactive

Ah, the vocabulary of canine bounciness! I’ll use words like “energetic,” “active,” and “bouncy” for normal dogs who have a lot of steam to burn off. We often call those dogs “hyperactive,” but in veterinary behavioral medicine, hyperactivity is a specific diagnosis. And just to confuse us laypeople further, some veterinary behaviorists treat hyperkinesis as a different diagnosis, even though “kinesis” means movement–you know, activity. To top things off, hyperkinesis is the dog diagnosis that corresponds to the human disorder most of us call hyperactivity. Oy. I’ll keep these categories as straight as I can.

How Much Exercise Do Dogs Need?

The normal drive-you-crazy high-energy dog may have the zoomies all day long. But she gets easier to live with when you supply plenty of exercise to tire her body and reward-based training to tire her mind and improve her manners.

We humans in the industrialized world have gotten more sedentary in the past few decades, and maybe that’s why we tend to underestimate how much exercise is “plenty.” A mile-long leash walk won’t cut it except maybe for the smallest dogs. I’m talking serious romp-and-run. Play fetch for an hour every morning. Find a safe place for an off-leash ramble; if you walk two miles, your dog can rack up five or six as she runs and trots and pokes around. That’s more like it.

Why You Should Train a (Slightly) Tired Dog

Trainer proverb: A tired dog is a good dog. Well, sort of. A dog who’s had a chance to blow off steam with exercise will have a much easier time learning manners and self-control. But exercise alone won’t make your dog mannerly; if you don’t pair exercise with training, you’ll wind up with an ill-mannered, out-of-control, athletic dog. So take your slightly tired dog and teach her the skills that will make her easy to live with: walking politely on leash, greeting people without jumping up on them, resting in her crate, waiting for permission to go out an open door, remaining relaxed around your kitten instead of chasing her … whatever matters to you and your household.

How to Tell If Your Dog Is Hyperactive

The diagnoses of hyperactivity and hyperkinesis exist because you can exercise and train some dogs till the cows come home and find yourself getting nowhere. Bear in mind that for certain individuals and certain breeds–and especially for dogs bred for hard work–the normal level of energy is extremely high. The difference between those dogs and hyperactive or hyperkinetic dogs is that the latter have trouble learning and don’t seem to get used to new stimuli and new situations. They’re restless, on edge, and always moving, no matter how much exercise they get. Their heart rates are high. They pant and salivate a lot. Some show aggressive behavior. The one such dog I have met in my work could hold a down-stay for half an hour (she was an exceptionally good learner in spite of her condition), but she seemed to vibrate the entire time. I stress, she was getting plenty of physical exercise; this wasn’t normal adolescent pent-upness.

How to Treat Your Dog’s Hyperactivity

You’ll remember that at the beginning of this article I said that some veterinary behaviorists consider hyperactivity and hyperkinesis as different disorders. Yet I’ve been lumping them together as I describe their symptoms. That’s because–you’ll love this–“the clinical presentation of hyperactivity is exactly the same as that for hyperkinesis.” (1) Veterinary behaviorists may classify hyperactivity and hyperkinesis as separate because they respond to different medications. Hyperactive dogs are treated with tranquilizers. Hyperkinetic dogs often respond to methylphenidate–the active ingredient in drugs such as Ritalin. (2) Like children with ADHD, they respond to the stimulant paradoxically, developing better focus and the ability to calm down.

How Common Are Hyperactivity and Hyperkinesis in Dogs?

Whether hyperactivity and hyperkinesis are common or rare or something in between seems to depend on whom you ask. At a guess, I’d say most trainers believe they’re rare–we see a lot of underexercised, undertrained, bored adolescent dogs who have nothing wrong with them. At least some behaviorists agree. (3) The veterinary behaviorist Bonnie Beaver considers that many people mistake the symptoms of hyperactivity and hyperkinesis for normal dog behavior; they don’t like it, and they may send the dog out to live in the yard, but they don’t realize that something’s actually wrong. Dr. Beaver thinks hyperactivity and hyperkinesis are underdiagnosed. (4) Other vet behaviorists disagree. Who’s right? We don’t know. Nobody has data.

What If Your Dog Has Symptoms of Hyperactivity or Hyperkinesis?

Symptoms such as panting and a rapid heartbeat can have many medical and behavioral causes – anxiety, for one. Hyperthyroidism can make a dog act “hyper,” too. And a nonmedical possibility is that the guardians have accidentally trained their dog to behave excitably and restlessly, perhaps by paying attention to her only when she acts up.

If your dog’s main symptom is that she jumps around a lot, first ask yourself honestly whether she gets enough exercise and whether you have worked patiently and consistently to teach her good manners.  But if you nodded frantically while you read the symptom list a couple of paragraphs back, then whether she’s hyperactive or hyperkinetic or has something else entirely going on, it’s time for medical help. Ideally, consult a board-certified veterinary behaviorist, who will have extensive specialized training in the field. A dog who has medical problems will find it easier to learn once they’ve been treated. At that point, or if medical problems have been ruled out, a competent trainer can help you refine your skills so you can build an easy-to-live-with pet.

You and your well-mannered, relaxed dog, or for that matter your rude and bouncy dog, can visit me on Facebook, where I’m The Dog Trainer, follow me as Dogalini on Twitter, or write to me at dogtrainer@quickanddirtytips.com. I read all my questions and comments, and I may use them as the basis for future episodes. Thanks for reading, and if your dog is being quiet and mellow, go give her a treat!

Notes

1. Beaver, Bonnie B., DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVB. Canine Behavior: Insights and Answers (Saunders Elsevier, 2009), p. 81. I’ve drawn heavily on Dr. Beaver’s book in my discussion here.

2. For more information about methylphenidate and its use in people, see this page on the website of the National Institutes of Health.

3. See, e.g., Hetts, Suzanne, Ph.D. Pet Behavior Protocols: What to Say, What to Do, When to Refer (American Animal Hospital Association, 1999), p. 307, and Bowen, Jon, and Sarah Heath, Behaviour Problems in Small Animals: Practical Advice for the Veterinary Team (Saunders, 2005), p. 56.

4. Beaver, op. cit., pp. 79, 81.

Other Sources

Landsberg, G., W. Hunthausen, and L. Ackerman, Handbook of Behavior Problems of the Dog and Cat, 2nd ed.(Saunders, 2003), pp. 319-21.

Lindell, Ellen. “Control Problems in Dogs.” In Debra Horwitz, Daniel Mills, and Sarah Heath, eds. BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Behavioural Medicine (British Small Animal Veterinary Association, 2002), pp. 69-79, esp. p. 71.

Luescher, U. Andreas. 1993. Hyperkinesis in dogs: six case reports. Canadian Veterinary Journal 34 (June), 368-70. The full text is here.

Stiles, Enid K. 2010. Physiological and behavioural effects of dextroamphetamine on Beagle dogs: a placebo controlled study. Master’s thesis, University of Montreal Veterinary School.

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