EXCITABLE DOGS: Rehabilitating the Canine Wild Child It’s not uncommon for humans who are living with young dogs to bemoan the adolescent “wild child” phase of development – when the canine youngster naturally starts becoming a little more independent and, sometimes, a lot more active. Some even display excessive jumping and biting as young puppies. Of course, normal dog personalities lie on a continuum from very calm to quite energetic, and even an older dog who has lived in an environment with little to no structure can exhibit high-arousal behavior. If you’ve previously had the good fortune of only raising or working with dogs at the calmer, naturally well-behaved end of the continuum, you may think they are all supposed to be like that – and it can be particularly alarming to discover you or one of your clients have adopted one at the high-arousal end of the continuum. These dogs need significantly more physical exercise and mental stimulation to meet their genetically programmed exercise needs, as well as a ramped-up training and management plan to teach appropriate behaviors and prevent them from being reinforced for their unwanted behaviors. • High-Energy Behavior – What is it? Normal for some dogs, but not easy to live with, and fortunately modifiable – how is it different from true “hyperactivity”? • Outdoor Physical Exercise – A walk on leash doesn’t even being to cut it – think off-leash running and play with humans or (if appropriate) other dogs; there are endless fun outdoor activities that can tire your dog • Indoor Physical Exercise – There are also a multitude of exciting indoor games to explore that can provide physical exercise for your dog that make use of household items such as laundry baskets and broomsticks • Mental Exercise – More tiring than you can imagine, and fascinating for the human as well: choice, imitation, reading, object-shape-color discrimination… • Training and Management – Every good behavior modification program includes management and training, tailored specifically to the behavior(s) and the individual dog – reinforcing alternative and incompatible behaviors while removing reinforcement for the inappropriate ones. • Among the training exercises we’ll explore: Click When Your Dog is Calm, “Sit” as a Default Behavior, Wait, Wait for Food & Wait at the Door. Among the games: Find It; Hide & Seek & Manners Minder. Plus More on the Wait & Stay Cues.

Sponsor:Puppyworks
Speaker(s):Pat Miller

Contact: arie kopelman
 Email: events@petworkshops.com
 Phone: 917-699-6440
 Web: http://www.puppyworks.com/