Originally Published in The Good Shepherd.

You wouldn’t wonder, to look at Max, that he was an active dog from a breed known for being high energy and high drive. His brown coat was taunt over bulging muscles, he moved gracefully from one game to another in the small kitchen of his owners home. As his owner walked close to the sliding glass door that led to the back yard, he bolted barking towards the glass, jumping up until he reached the door frame, only to land, spin, and repeat, like a massive muscle bound tornado.“You see, he’s just SO active, (yelling now) WE JUST CAN'T GET ANYTHING DONE.”  

Indeed, I could see and hear!
“Does he ever calm down?” Speaking loudly, over the barks,
“YES, BUT HE WAKES UP AS SOON AS WE MOVE AROUND AND STARTS ALL OVER AGAIN”.

But, she assured me, it wasn’t because this happy bouncing chocolate ball of muscle wasn’t given proper exercise, you see her husband got up at 5:00AM every morning to run with Max for an hour.  Then three days per week Max attends dog day care for a full day, and the other two days, a dog walker comes to take him walkies and play fetch with him. Then, in the evening he’s off to dog training classes, or to practice, at least two times per week. If there is no class, they hit the dog park instead. OH! And the first family member to get home each evening plays fetch with Max with his favorite Chuck IT for 30 minutes in the back yard.
“BUT THE PROBLEM IS, THE MORE WE EXERCISE HIM THE MORE EXERCISE HE SEEMS TO NEED, WE ARE AT OUR WITS END”. She expressed, and she looked every bit the harried dog mom.

Max was the classic “arousal junkie” and his family was caught in a never ending cycle of increasing exercise trying to calm him down. But all that intense exercise was taking it’s toll, not only on the family’s time and patience, but on Max’s body and mind.  Max was having problems with pain in his rear end, x-rays had showed some arthritic changes in his spine, hips, and knees. He had a history of soft tissue injuries, all the sprains and strains one typically associates with high intensity exercise done without moderation, warm ups, cool downs and etc. His vet was concerned about his back, wanted him to “take it easy”.

But Max couldn’t “take it easy,” his owner lamented. He was too “High Drive”!  

"Can you train him to be calm?" she asked me, already sure the answer would be no.

 But that’s not what I told her, not at all…

What we know about Max is that he spends a disproportionate amount of his time either pacing, playing, or actually being exercised. Almost all of the time he enjoyed in the company of humans was engaged in high intensity activities. Aside from falling into a deep exhausted sleep, he rarely could be seen resting unless he was crated. 

The reasons that a dog might exhibit hyperactive behaviors often relate to what behaviors are reinforced, or “work” for the dog, and so become habit. Too much exciting exercise, too little calming exercise. The overabundance of reinforcement for aroused behaviors produces more arousal and that become the dog’s habit, and habits are hard to break.

 Because of his breed Max was often called “high drive” as if that explained his hyperactive behavior.  But many dogs described as high drive can relax, why some but not others? It often comes down to genetics, reinforcement and habits. While you can't change your dog's genetics, you can help your dog prefer calm behavior and to learn to be calmer by carefully considering the effect activities have on your dog’s behavior.

This plan worked for Max, and hundreds of other dogs from high to low energy, from young to old, and it can help your dog prefer calm behavior too.

If you have a puppy, this plan can help your puppy grow into a calmer adult dog as well.  

This is the plan we used for Max. This plan has two main parts. The first is redesigning Max’s exercise plan to reduce the number of exiting activities, and to increase the number of calming exercises. The second part was to actually teach Max how to relax and to prefer a relaxed state.

Before you start, define your goals. This plan is written for a dog whose family desired a calmer dog. Max had a history of ACL strains, hip dysplasia, and intervertebral disc disease - all exacerbated by the running and fetch games. His vet had advised a significant decrease in these activities.If you have a sport dog, who needs a hair trigger arousal gun waiting to fire off high intensity obedience, protection, or agility scores you may want to play a bit with the ratios, they were designed for a companion dog.

First, realize that exercise, both physical and mental are a required for a dog’s health and welfare, but that there are arousing, soothing, and neutral types of exercise. To create new habits our goal will be to divide exercise up as follows.

1/2 of all activities will be “calming”
1/4 of activities will be “exciting”
1/4 of activities will be “neutral”

Exactly what that will “look like” depends greatly on your dog’s life stage, interests and passions, and your access to activities and spaces. You will need to learn to observe your dog's behavior during and after exercise to determine if your dog found an activity calming, exciting, or neutral because each dog decides for itself. Adjust accordingly to suit your dogs needs.

Here are some examples gleaned from Max’s life.

Exciting Activities:

1. Fetch

2. Tug

3. On leash walks in crowded areas.

4. Treadmill (all paces)

5. Dog park or Dog day care play.

Neutral Activities

1. Kibble Nibble for dinner

2. On leash hike in a moderately crowded area

3. 1 on 1 dog play with familiar dog friend In own yard.

4. Jogging on leash

5. Long walks, on leash, neighborhood.

Calming Activities

1. Kibble scatter in back yard.

2. Kibble trails In front yard or local park.

3. Long line hikes on trails with low traffic

4. Stuffed Kong, shank bones, chews.

5. Snuffle walks on leash in neighborhood.

At first Max’s owners were very concerned that swapping out calming exercise for exciting exercises would cause Max’s restlessness to increase. To prevent this we began feeding all meals either as kibble scatters in the yard, or stuffed and frozen in Kongs/Squirrel Dudes. His owners also collected a variety of chews, shank bones, cheek rolls, and XL diameter bully sticks.

They were very pleasantly surprised when Max’s pacing, attention demanding behaviors, and over arousal when anyone went with him into the back yard immediately began to decrease.  Max was 7 years old, his owners worked hard for 6 months to teach him to calm himself and to prefer calm behavior.

Very soon after that he became a much calmer dog, a happier dog, a healthier dog, and a better companion for his devoted family