[nagdu] Improving house behaviors of ENERGETIC dogs

[Debby Phillips]

Hi Julie, well, first of all, you have my complete and total 
sympathy! I have had 2 dogs in my life with over abundant energy.  
One of the things I did with my second dog (the first with over 
abundant energy) was that I had a friend who was a runner take 
her running.  (I know this would not be school approved, but I 
just didn't know what else to do).  There were certain rules; the 
dog always had to be on my friend's left side, they had to stop 
for curbs, and there was to be no interaction with other dogs.  
It did help get rid of some of this dog's excess energy.  I also 
lived in an apartment, so although there was a large expanse of 
lawn, I couldn't let her run free there because it was not 
fenced.  I did allow her to run in the house.  She would run 
around and around, up the stairs and back down.  She did this 
several times, then would flop on the floor.  It didn't hurt 
anything, she did not knock stuff down or off shelves by doing 
this, and it did get rid of some of her excess energy.  I also 
tried to make sure I did obedience with her every day.  But still 
all in all, it was not easy and I did end up sending her back.  
(Not suggesting you do that, but there were other things going on 
in my life at the time as well).  I did try and work her more as 
well.  She was a black Lab.

The second dog that ow had that seemed to have an over abundant 
amount of energy was a female Golden Retriever.  She stole things 
like socks, destroyed toys, always seemed to need attention from 
everyone.  She would bug me to play.  When I was done, she'd go 
to my husband, who sometimes played with her and sometimes 
ignored her.  She would then bug my retired dog, and then she 
would bug the cat.  I sometimes did put her in her crate for my 
own sanity.  I don't think she viewed it as punishment.  I think 
sometimes she was almost relieved.  She would go in her crate and 
flop down.  Sometimes when I brought her back out, she was 
actually a little calmer.  I sometimes felt like that high energy 
stuff just fed on itself, and that putting her in her crate for a 
little while calmed her down a little.  (Or maybe it calmed me 
down).  I tried to do long walks with her, but she actually was 
intimidated by traffic in my area, and when an instructor came 
out, he was pretty straight with me that she wasn't safe.  So she 
went back to the school.  I just plain can't handle that high 
energy of a dog anymore, either.  So my advice: let Bill run in 
circles, it won't hurt anything; work him as much as you can; and 
it's definitely okay to put him in his crate sometimes.  I think 
maybe it is like giving the dog permission to mellow out.  I 
don't know, I'm just surmising here.  There could be other things 
you could train him to do (games, etc.) Take care and hope this 
long "novel" I wrote, helps, somehow.    Debby and the much 
calmer Nova