Case Study: What to Do About an Overexcited Dog
Learn what to do if your dog gets overexcited because he’s so eager to meet other dogs.
The stars of this week’s article are Squid, a 16-week-old Jack Russell Terrier puppy, and my friend and colleague Bob Ryder. Bob worked with Squid as part of a 6-day behavior seminar held by the eminent trainer Pat Miller. Squid had been picked up as a stray when he was about eight weeks old; Pat was fostering him because some of his behavior would make him difficult to place without a little extra help. One problem was that Squid got super excited around other dogs, pulling toward them, whining and barking, and ignoring cues from his human handler.
How Can You Tell When an Excited Dog Is Friendly?
We often see dogs bark and lunge at other dogs in an aggressive or threatening way. But Bob saw that Squid play-bowed while pulling on leash. Squid’s tail wags were wide and low, not high and tight. And the muscles of his face were soft, not tense. Squid needed help learning to attend to his handler in the presence of dogs, but he didn’t have a problem with aggression.
Is It Normal for Young Dogs to Be Excitable?
Bob also put Squid’s behavior into context: Play is fun for many dogs, and especially for puppies. Even though Squid’s interest in other dogs was intense, it was normal; only he hadn’t yet learned to find people equally enthralling. His behavior was pretty typical of a young, energetic, untrained dog.
Most of us would say that a dog who acts like Squid has trouble paying attention. Bob reframed the situation with this elegant insight: Squid had no trouble at all paying attention—it was a question of what Squid paid attention to. Get that laser intensity working for you, and you’ve got quite a canine partner.
Good Trainers Plan Carefully
Bob was to work with Squid two or three times a day for five days. Each work session lasted 30 to 45 minutes, depending on how well Squid was doing and how tired he was or how frustrated he got. Point to notice: Bob was careful to work within the limits of what Squid could handle.
Bob set a short-term goal: By the end of the week, Squid would learn to hold eye contact with Bob for 3 seconds and respond to the cue “Down,” 20 feet away from two people who were also working on Down with their calm dogs. Notice how modest this goal is? TV shows, and I guess our own wishful thinking, lead us to expect that we can solve our dogs’ training and behavior problems in an action-packed session or two. In real life and with a competent trainer, progress is careful, systematic, and, yes, slow. Hare, meet tortoise.
Good Trainers Work in Small Steps
Bob started with Squid and one other dog, keeping about 50 feet between them. They worked in Pat Miller’s fairly quiet barn, so that Squid wouldn’t be additionally distracted by the 500 bajillion other things in the world that fascinated him. Bob clicked and treated for a split second of eye contact in 3 sets of 5 reps each, then moved 3 feet closer to the other dog.
And here are the next points to notice about how really good training works: Bob didn’t ask for much at first–that “split second of eye contact” comes straight from his own writeup of his work with Squid. Bob also used food treats that Squid adored–Squid’s favorite was tiny bits of meatball. He gave Squid plenty of practice at each level of difficulty, and he upped the ante just a little at a time. If Squid couldn’t succeed at least 90 percent of the time, Bob went back to an easier step and practiced some more.
Good Trainers Adjust for Real-Life Complications
Real life got in the way of Bob’s systematic plan on the third day.
The other handler’s dog got scared when the barn timbers creaked in high wind. Working outside, in less controlled circumstances, Squid outdid himself. He was even able to respond to Bob’s cues to perform other simple behaviors that he already knew well. For my money, this is a great example of why good trainers won’t rush progress at the outset. Start slow, and you might be surprised by how much you can speed up later.
On the last working day of the seminar, the class took a field trip to a local mall. Squid had been adopted and was about to move to New York City. The mall was about as close an approximation as Hagerstown, Maryland, could get. Squid did well with those 500 bajillion other distractors I mentioned earlier. And he could work at long distances from the other dogs, but he couldn’t manage to work up close as he had been doing in the familiar environment of Pat’s barn and premises. Because he wasn’t quite ready for this challenge, he earned fewer food reinforcers. And because he earned fewer reinforcers – and also didn’t get to engage with the other dog – he got tired and frustrated. He whined, he barked, he pulled. Bob wisely took this as a cue to give Squid a break and then practice easy behaviors that he knew well.
Good Trainers Are Flexible
We need to be flexible in working with our dogs. Bob set his original goal for Squid expecting that he could control all the conditions under which they worked together. When the situation changed and they had to work outdoors, Squid did just fine. But the other new context, the mall, turned out to be more challenging for him. Bob well stated the point to take with you here. If your dog isn’t quite ready for a particular situation, “slow down and work more systematically again to set him up for success.”
Why Do Dogs Sometimes “Blow You Off”?
Over the course of the seminar, Bob also noticed that Squid learned more easily and had more success early in the day. Several factors could be involved. The first daily training session came after a long hike on Pat’s farm, so Squid came to work relaxed and hungry. But he’s a young and bouncy dog, so the effects of a morning hike wore off as the day went on.
Also, because Squid got so eager around other dogs, he couldn’t just hang out with everybody during lectures and discussions, but had to be kenneled instead. That kept him from getting amped up but probably also left him lonely and bored and made it harder for him to focus on Bob. Yet more take-home for you: If your dog is having trouble with a training lesson, think about what might be getting in the way. Dogs have reasons for what they do, and “blowing me off” is waaaaaaaay down on the bottom of the list.
Good Trainers Have Lots of Tricks Up Their Sleeves
Since this was a behavior modification seminar, there was a shortage of calm, relaxed dogs on the scene. With a placid helper dog, Bob could have worked with Squid using the “Premack principle.” David Premack was the scientist who first pointed out that you can use the chance to do a more likely behavior as a reward for doing a less likely behavior. For instance, if your dog loves to play Tug, then grabbing the Tug toy is a very likely behavior. Lying down is probably somewhat less likely. So you can use permission to grab the Tug toy as a reward for lying down on cue. In Squid’s case, Bob could have rewarded eye contact by taking a step toward the other dog. Good trainers have lots of tricks up our sleeves.
Bob had some recommendations for the future: A puppy socialization and good manners class, lots more systematic attention practice around other dogs, and plenty of the vigorous exercise that made it easier for this little ball of fire to learn. By the way, Bob worked on another problem behavior of Squid’s–hard mouthing during play, and a shark-like way of taking treats. Bob was able to report that “on his last day, Squid’s mouth manners were nearly perfect.” If you’d like to know what Bob did, well, it’s a lot like what I suggest in my article on puppy nipping.
If you need training or behavior help anywhere near Normal, Illinois, you can contact Bob through his website, here. Pat Miller sees private clients and offers trainer seminars at Peaceable Paws, in Hagerstown, Maryland. Squid is now a proud Manhattanite. Me, I’m in Brooklyn. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a wonderful time with your dog. Send your questions and comments to dogtrainer@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email, and I may use them in a future article. I Twitter as Dogalini, and you can also find me on Facebook, where I post links to articles and videos and respond to your questions. Thanks for reading!
Note
Thanks to Pat Miller and to Bob Ryder, who generously shared his notes and records about his work with Squid. And thanks to Squid’s trainer in Manhattan, Lydia Desroche, and his adopter, Claudia, for their kind permission to link to the video of Squiddy climbing a tree in Central Park!
Image courtesy of Shutterstock