Some Tips to Help a High Energy Dog Listen to Her Humans Better

For this Omaha dog behavior training session we worked with Zoey and Juno, a pair of Weimaraner’s who have difficulty listening when they are over excited.

We started out the session by discussing the relaxation protocol appointments that Jacob, one of our level one trainers, had done with the dogs. The guardians mentioned that it did not go as well as Jacob or they had hoped and after spending a few minutes with Zoey, I can see why.

I’ve worked with over 4,000 dogs professionally at this point and I would say Zoey is in the top 10 of the most energetic dogs I’ve seen. Her pupils were maximumly dilated, she paced the room, jumped up on me, nudged her guardians for attention and just couldn’t settle down.

Normally I discuss the importance of exercise in the middle of a session, but because of Zoey‘s behavior I knew needed to burn off some energy pronto.  I showed her guardians a few exercise tips, then demonstrated the doggie stairmaster. This is not an activity that I recommend often anymore because it is repetitive and long term used can create physical issues if done too frequently. I recommended the guardians discuss it with their vet to be sure that it’s not gonna be a problem for the dogs.

After about four minutes of the doggy stairmaster, Zoey was finally relaxed enough to lay down and just chill out. I went over a number of other creative ways to get her some physical exercise like sniff walks, games of tug-of-war, a weighted backpack scent games and sniff walks. I also suggested several mental stimulation exercises as well.

Because of the dog’s energy level, until the guardians are able to find a satisfactory daily regimen that balances mental stimulation with physical exercise every couple of hours, it’s gonna be difficult to fix the dogs behavior problems. I suggested the guardians play around with the frequency of the exercises as well as their length or repetitions until they find a rhythm that works for the humans and the dogs.

Because the dogs energy level was so high, I wanted to show the guardians how they could build off of the lessons that Jacob had gone over with the relaxation protocol. You can get some tips on how to use the relaxation protocol to set your dog up for success for various activities by watching the free positive dog training video below.

The key to the relaxation protocol tips detailed above is to practice in small steps on a consistent basis. You need to build on the previous day’s sucess. Practicing in short 2-3 minute sessions a few times a day every day for a week will generate more progress than infrequent and inconsistent practice.

The main issue the guardians wanted help with was the dog’s inability to listen to their humans in different situations. A huge part of this is the dogs not being exercised as often as they need. Lack of exercise can concentrate a dog’s energy and when any outlet presents itself, the dog goes in full force. This intensity is why the dog’s dont seem to listen to people. Regular exercise will help improve the dog’s ability to listen to their guardians.

While an increase of exercse and mental stimulation will help a lot, there are a number of tips you can use to teach a dog to listen better. If you have a dog that is so excited it can’t listen, chck out the free positive dog training video below.

The great thing about this easy way to get a dog to listen to you is that anyone can do it if they can go at the dog’s pace and practice often. You dont have to be a professional Weimeranner dog trainer to do it. But just like the relaxation protocol video at the top, the guardians will need to practice this exercise to develop a dog’s listening skills frequently to see the best results.

To help the guardians remember all the dog behavior tips we shared in this in home Omaha dog training session, we recorded a roadmap to success summary video you can check out below.