Many dogs require rather extensive stimulation to become aroused and to hyper respond to their environment and raise their levels of arousal in small increments over a period of time. This type of arousal level is often easy to predict and just as easy to control. On the other hand, some dogs seem to go from “zero to a hundred” is an instant. Sometimes genetics plays into this easy ability to become hyper vigilant and hyper reactive, and sometimes the environment teaches the dog to respond in this manner. With many dogs, it's a combination of genetics and environmental learning! Once these high arousal dogs are stimulated, it can be almost impossible to get some of them to calm down quickly and easily. It’s as if the dog is being controlled by the target stimulus and is oblivious to other things around them. This all day presentation will look at these “high arousal” dogs. We will look at breed types, age of onset, the kind of stimuli they find to be releasers, and what can be done to help them live the life of a more sedate house pet. There is help for these dogs, but understanding them, their neurochemistry and nervous system responses is often a key component to giving them the help they need. In this full day seminar, we will discuss these dogs, what makes them “high arousal” and what we can do to lower the thresholds and response rates.

Sponsor: For the Love of Pits

Speaker(s): Ken McCort

Contact: Shana Klein
 E-mail
 Phone: (216) 214-1149
 Web