Luna. How To Help A High Arousal Dog.

Luna, a Dalmatian x Staffy, not pictured, exhibited overexcitement around other dogs, had high arousal, and easily startled.

Luna’s Story

At 13 months old, Luna’s previous owners had already rehomed her. We met her when she lived with her new family in a lovely village. Luna had not been well socialised as a puppy and would do somersaults of excitement when she saw other dogs, as well as birds and other triggers. Although her new family had put some of her basic training in place, her recall was still a bit unreliable, and she pulled on the lead when her arousal was high. To learn more about basic dog training, you can visit this helpful resource.

Her dogparents need to ensure her safety. We needed to teach her to feel calmer and more confident, and to reduce her high arousal around the outside world. She needed to socialise and become habituated to the things that made her so excitable.

In doing so, she would become less jumpy and quick to startle, as she would feel calmer in general.

She is adorable, friendly and super-intelligent.

For some reason, on occasion, she wouldn’t go through the front door – though this was sporadic.

She had an abundance of energy. Her dogparents were managing by hiring a field once a week so she could let off steam. Plus walks around the countryside village.

We decided to help her by:

• Scentwork – Teaching her to slow down and use her nose. Scentwork games help to lower the heart rate and stress levels, as well as using up mental and physical energy. Just as we might decide to use our eyes and ears to relax and watch a film, dogs use their noses to relax and sniff out a trail.
  
  Scattering dinner in the garden, or drawing sausage trails along the ground, hiding toys for the dog to find, the three cups game … all things you can easily play with your dog right now!

• Loose lead walking – We taught Luna a few loose lead walking games, including “300 Peck” and the “Follow Me” games. These games are played with rewards and help dogs to find staying close to their humans interesting and rewarding. Much nicer than having your arm ripped out by a pulling beastie.

• Easy wins – Giving Luna easy tasks to perform, meant that we can praise her up and make her feel clever. Clever dogs who feel they can do things, are generally more confident than those who feel they can’t. This is also a great way to proof up cues when out and about!

• Wait – We taught her a “Wait” cue, first around the house, and we then began to take it outside on the road, always using a long lead for safety.

• Recall – We proofed up Luna’s recall, with games of hide’n’seek, and also randomly recalling her while out and about, simply to give her a reward and let her go off again.
  
  Recall is often poisoned by what comes after – being made to leave a prized sniffing spot; or to come away from a playmate; or to get a lead back on and go home … This can discourage a dog from coming back to you.
  
  However, if at least 9/10 times the dog comes back to play a game, to come and seek you, to get a treat or investigate something wonderful you have just found or thrown into some greenery, the dog will be much more willing to come back and join in the fun. Then, simply let them go again if it is appropriate to do so.

• Disengagement – One of my favourite things to teach dogs who struggle with triggers is how to disengage from them.
  
  Dogs can find themselves fixated on things that arouse them. Helping them learn to come away, look away, and increase distance can really help them overcome the struggle.
  
  Coupled with desensitisation and counter-conditioning techniques, this becomes a very powerful help for the worried dog to overcome their fears.
  
  If they learn that a trigger, when far away, means nice things happen, they become happier to see that trigger.
  
  So by teaching reward based disengagement games, you not only help them see oncoming triggers as an “ok” or even “good” thing, you teach them they do not have to take much notice of them at all.

• Achieving calmness at the door – We worked on reducing Luna’s heightened arousal at the door, as it was causing her to bolt through it quickly or hesitate to go through. We played games with her near the door, at different stages of closure, both inside and outside the house. This helped her understand the door was not as exciting as she thought.

  We trained her to wait calmly when people knocked at the door or when she was about to go through it for a walk. We did this by teaching her to stay still as the door slowly opened; if she jumped up, the door closed again. Eventually, we would fully open the door and give her a “let’s go” cue or allow her to greet the person behind it.

  Ensuring calm exits from the house resulted in calmer walks, in contrast to the over-arousal that occurred with rushed exits. This approach prevented over-arousal even before the walk began.

Results

By controlling her arousal, Luna was able to be gradually introduced to triggers in a gentle way. To begin with, she was seeing triggers from a distance, but doing things with her dogparent. Although she knew those things were there, they were not so bothersome. More interesting was following the games we were doing, and the rewards she was getting.

Slowly, she became more at ease with everything, with lower arousal levels, more confident in herself. Her dogparent now has a framework in which to help Luna grow ever more comfortable and confident in her world.

Luna was off to France for the summer, for a holiday with her family the last time we spoke. I’m looking forward to catching up to hear how she got on!

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