This post is all about teaching your dog to be calm. Maybe you’ve got an overexcited puppy who is having wild ‘witching hours’ in the evening, or an adult dog who just can’t settle after a walk. We work with A LOT of dogs like this! Read on for our tips for having a calmer, more relaxed dog.
Teaching your dog to be calm – Exercise
Firstly, let’s talk about exercise. We all know that every dog needs two walks a day every day, right? Wrong! When it comes to exercise, it’s really important to look at what your dog actually needs. Some key factors to take into consideration are your dogs age and breed. Also think about your dogs current level of health and any potential stress triggers there may be in the area you’re planning on walking.
If you’re struggling with teaching your dog to be calm at home, here’s some things to try changing up on your walks.
- Leave the ball and flinger at home. It might look like your dog is loving it and tiring themselves out. However, dogs often get so pumped full of adrenaline with all that chasing that they struggle to relax afterwards.
- Slow down and let your dog sniff as much as possible. Sniffing is like meditation for dogs!
- Less street walks, more time in nature. It’s not always possible, but giving your dog more walks off lead or on a long line in nature is a game changer for calmness at home.
- Avoid your dogs stressors. It might seem counter intuitive, but if your dog is reactive to other dogs then taking them to the dog park everyday is not going to help. Same goes for busy streets if they hate traffic, the local park if they’re scared of kids and so on. Give them a break from all that stress and get in touch with a force free trainer for proper help.
- Bring some treats and scatter a handful on the ground throughout your walk and encourage your dog to ‘Find it!’ This is a great little game for encouraging sniffing and handy for distracting your dog if a distraction/stressor goes past.
Mental Stimulation
Let’s talk about training. Unsurprisingly, I think this is the best form of mental stimulation! Teaching your dog a new trick, working on their recall or training them to retrieve a ball (using force free, rewards based methods of course) are all fantastic ways of getting your dog using their brain. If you and your dog haven’t done any training in a while, start with something easy and fun (Check out Kikopup on youtube for some inspiration https://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup.) Adding some one to one training into your dog’s day is a great way of boosting your relationship.
All dogs can benefit from more training. If your dog is from a working line or a highly energetic breed, regular training is especially important for teaching your dog to be calm. Local classes can be a great way of boosting your dog’s training. Look for activities and sports that you think you and your dog will both enjoy- Flyball is a high speed, fun team sport, but a scentwork class might be better for a super sniffer who is anxious around others.
Then there’s enrichment (another one of my passions!) Canine enrichment is any activity that gets a dog engaging in their natural instincts and behaviour. These could include sniffing, digging, destroying and dissecting stuff, tugging, licking and many more. Giving your dog opportunities to do these activities helps them learn new problem solving skills and prevents them getting bored.
Sniffing, licking and chewing in particular are calming behaviours. If your dog is struggling to relax, try offering them their dinner in a snuffle mat (for dry food) or on a Lickymat (for wet food). Check out our blog post here for a list of our favourite enrichment toys you can buy for your dog. For fantastic DIY doggy enrichment ideas, check out the facebook group ‘Canine Enrichment’. Long lasting chews are great for helping dogs relax too, Duke particularly loves a Pizzle- though they are a bit smelly for us!
Beware of overstimulation when teaching your dog to be calm
We’ve discussed how appropriate exercise, training and enrichment are key parts of teaching your dog to be calm. But what about if you’re already doing all these things, and your dog is still giddy in the evenings and struggling to rest throughout the day?
If this is the case for your dog, it’s worth considering if they are experiencing the wrong kind of stimulation or they are actually overstimulated. Every dog is an individual and some will find too much training and enrichment to be overwhelming. Remember, puppies need up to 20 hours sleep a day and even adults need around 12 hours sleep a day too.
You might expect your dog to be a bit out of sorts after a trip to the vets, but it’s worth considering how other common daily experiences can affect their behaviour too. Taking your dog to busy environments like town centres or dog parks can be overstimulating for dogs, particularly for those that aren’t used to it. Not sure whether to bring your dog somewhere? It’s probably best just to leave them at home to rest (assuming they’re happy to be left. Not sure? Have a read of our post about separation anxiety here). Overstimulation can cause as many issues as understimulation, so try to find the happy medium for your dog.
Our 4 year old Spaniel Duke is a sensitive soul. He’s happiest and calmest when he gets a walk, a short training session and a little enrichment activity most days, plus at least one rest day a week. People are often shocked when they hear Duke isn’t out with Dan on our group walks all day everyday-surely he would love that? Well actually, no, Duke would hate that! Don’t worry about what you think you should be doing with your dog. Find what actually works for them-and you!
Everything is very open with a really clear clarification of the issues. It was definitely informative. Your site is extremely helpful. Many thanks for sharing!