Hyperactivity?

 

We frequently hear dogs labelled as hyperactive or that a dog is displaying over the top behaviours at times. These dogs may be over or highly aroused.

 

Arousal, simply put, is the dog’s level of excitement and emotional control (or rather the lack of it). A highly aroused dog will be very excited, with increased heartrate and respiration and dilated pupils. He will have little or no impulse control. He may become mouthy, vocalise, jump up and even grab clothing or hands and he will find it difficult to settle. A highly aroused dog’s ability to use the thinking part of his brain is reduced and leads the dog to experience stress. Over arousal or hyper arousal can even lead dogs to become reactive to other dogs.

 

There is a common misconception that the best way to manage hyperactive dogs is to try to physically tire them out. For some working breeds, they will need more exercise than other breeds but if we regularly engage in activities that cause our dog to become highly excited and over aroused, every day for long periods, he will have high levels of stress hormones in his bloodstream, even though he is enjoying these activities. Over arousal is not necessarily just linked to negative events. It occurs with positive events too. We often see this in dogs who play long daily repetitive games of fetch.

 

If we attend a music concert, watch, or participate in an exciting game or other exciting activities, our arousal levels go up with our excitement during that time. I know how tired I become after attending a music concert! Even happy exciting events create a physiological stress response in humans AND dogs.

 

Many dogs enjoy a game of fetch, playing with a flirt pole, agility, chasing around with other dogs and there is nothing wrong with playing these games (as long as the dog does not have any physical issues or is experiencing pain) but we should limit how frequently and how long they play these games.