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Teaching your hyper dog to be calm

There are sooo many dogs out there that stay in an adrenalized state of mind (super hyper and never calm). That is not a way a dog should live nor is it healthy for them to be like that. We all want to relax and maybe have a spa day every now and again and dogs do too. But because we tell them "hey, I love you" excitedly right when we get home and we give them affection/petting when they are being hyper, we are praising that state of mind of the dog. So the dog will automatically assume you want him to stay that way. When in reality we all want calm dogs 90% of the time and energetic dogs when playing fetch. So petting/praising/giving affection to the dog when he is calm will teach your dog that you want him to stay calm.

The Belgian Malinois, Anya, is always in an adrenalized state of mind, mainly because the breed is made for high energy, but also because people have given her more affection for being hyper than they have for being calm. Teaching her to walk calmly and slow on the treadmill or on daily walks is a good way to exert her extra energy as well as teach her and to re-pattern her brain to be calm. Once she is calm, we will give her lots of CALM praise to be sure not to RE-adrenalize her.