It is in the nature of puppies to be energetic irrespective of their breed. Thus, pet parents who have adopted an energetic puppy will need to devise means of calming it down as allowing the pup to display a high level of activity may lead to some unpalatable behaviors like chewing, digging, and lots more. Here are some of the ways to calm a hyperactive puppy down.
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Ways To Calm An Energetic Puppy
Start crate training
To calm a rambunctious puppy down, you can consider introducing it to a wire or plastic dog crate for its training sessions. The training crates can also be maintained throughout the life of your pooch.
Training crates is a good way to go when you want to house train a dog or establish a secure and safe spot that the canine will come to appreciate. Also, It assists dog owners in managing their pups in typical situations such as when you are traveling by road or air, when you have workmen or visitors in the house, and it can also come in handy for injury rehabilitation.
With crate training, a canine will be aided in learning how to manage some negative aspects of its life like anxiety, fear, and insecurity that usually results from loneliness. Never leverage the crate as a means of punishment and endeavor to keep it well away from human disturbances, including noise. The dog must be made to feel that the crate is a safe and happy place.
When your pooch is properly crate trained, it will quickly learn the difference between “calm time” and “go time”. Also, ensure to regularly provide a dog’s exercise and when it is assured of getting it at the right time, it will just relax in the crate, expecting you to fulfill your part when the time comes.
Extend your pooch’s social structure
If your puppy proves to be extremely hyperactive such that it gives you too much trouble, calm it by down through regular interactions, you also allow it to frequently interact with other household pets if they can tolerate each other. Note that understanding the energy level of your dog is very vital in devising means of countering it.
Someone who is a pet parent to a Border Collie will need to establish a more vigorous exercise routine that will adequately meet the needs of the breed since its exercise needs can never be satisfied with two rounds of walks down the block per day.
Puppies should also be allowed to engage in quality playtime with other puppies; in addition to helping burn pent-up energy, they learn vital socialization that will be beneficial throughout their lifetime.
Apart from playing with puppies, your young dog should also be allowed some interaction time with older dogs. This can be achieved through organizing playdates, especially for those that don’t have older dogs around. Doggy daycare is another way of achieving this. During the course of interaction, older dogs will teach the puppy behavioral rules and are quick to bring them back in line when they err.
Control your dog’s feeding habits
Perhaps your pooch may be hyperactive because it eats late at night. Immediately after meals, while their food is being digested, pups experience high energy levels, urging them to stay alert and active. To counter this, be sure to feed your canine friend at least three to four hours before its bedtime.
Supportive training can help
Rambunctious puppies are known to have a short attention span and instilling some training behaviors in them calls for patience and consistency. Good training practices like a reward for good behavior, avoiding punishment, and teaching them basics such as staying, sitting, answering when called should be practiced. With this, you will establish a sound training foundation, making subsequent training at the adult stage much easier.
Learning is a good way to burn a lot of energy – brief and focused training sessions will calm a puppy much more than a jog around the park. Dogs love learning and take it as an interesting game. Pet parents can then take advantage to teach them desired behaviors, as well as tire them out.
Establishing a regular training routine with short training exercises with your puppy will be beneficial. When the pup understands that a session is exclusive for training purposes and not playtime, they will be well equipped to transition from one activity to another.
A puppy having so much pent-up energy can be a resultant effect of its inability to understand the transition from playtime (energetic activity) to rest time (a calm activity). Properly defining activities and contexts will make the dog learn proper behavior at the proper time.
Notably, when you succeed in maintaining a healthy relationship with your pooch, it will give you ample opportunity to study and understand its tendencies and behaviors, by so doing, you will be well equipped to understand the energy level of the dog.
It is true that activities are necessary to tire and calm a dog down, but the dog on its own needs to learn when it is necessary to calm down and how to go about it. It is possible for your fur buddy to learn these behaviors but the pet parent will have to play a major role by teaching them.
Leverage a daily schedule
Having and strictly following schedules and routines will help your puppy thrive as it will always know exactly what to expect and when to expect it.
When your puppy understands its schedule, it will be likely to keep calm and wait for playtime to go for a tumble or exercise. Getting acclimatized to a routine does not happen overnight with canines, but when they do get the hang of it, it will go a long way in calming it down.
Read Also: Why Do Dogs Sleep With Their Eyes Open?
Make some necessary changes in the environment
There are several other ways to help an energetic puppy to calm down; this can be done by making a few adjustments in its immediate environment. For one, you can introduce toys in the dog’s crate and get rid of objects that serve as triggers to unpalatable behaviors. You can play only low-volume soothing music that will not disrupt the pup’s peace and you can also try staying calm at all times.
Puppies have a way of picking up on the vibes in their immediate environment and faced with unpredictable schedules and a pet parent that is never calm, the ensuing anxiety may lead to hyperactivity.
Ignore the hyper behavior
Sometimes, dogs use hyperactivity to get attention and when you keep obliging it, it will serve as a reinforcement. Thus, under such circumstances, the best thing to do is ignore the dog and let it understand that acting hyper will not get the desired attention. You can only attend to the dog when it calms down.