High Energy Driving Us Crazy

[Judy Wheeler]

We have a sweet 5 mo old Sammi who has a very nice temperment.  However, when someone comes to the door....look out.  We just can't control her and it's truly embarrassing. She jumps all over them and most people don't like that at all.  We have her in obedience class, and as soon as we get out of the car for the class, she's lunging and pulling on her leash toward the other dogs.  This lasts almost throughout the class. Even though she is learning to "heel", when we are walking and meet up with another person or animal, she's lunging and pulling until they are out of sight.  When my husband and I are home alone, she's fine, but bring another animal or person into that equation, she goes nuts.  We have a cat that she pretty much terrorizes, but he just tries to ignore her.  She is not mean with him, but due to her size when she charges him in her playful mode, he has to run.

During her calm time with just me and my husband, she follows commands well, but the minute someone else comes there is absolutely no way to control her.

  I absolutely hate to see anyone come.  She's almost 40 pounds and getting so hard to control.  Our trainer says she's ADD!  Will I see some calming with age?  If that's the case, I can hold on, but is it possible I have an extremely hyper puppy, that will never calm down?  Help!!!.

[Emily Koft]

Hi Judy.  I have an almost 2 year old medium goldendoodle - her name is Georgie.   I've had similiar experience and hate to say it but am still working on the jumping up on other people dynamic. Its common in doodles.  However it is not impossible to overcome.  I'm in another training class now, and we are working on something called 'automatic sit' - meaning the dog sits when a new person approaches.  After one practice session in class, and practicing / reinforcing it at home, I could see it starting to work.  Its patience, repetition, and making sure any visitors know to turn away from your dog when they are greeted by her (e.g., don't acknowledge the jumping).  It means explaining to people that you're training her on the desired behavior, and that it takes time.  Most people will understand.  From my experience, a well exercised dog is a calmer dog.  I spend a LOT of time at the dog park so Georgie can run freely at warp speed.  Dog walking alone is not enough. Also, giving your dog a long-term consumable can your dog them occupied and tire 'em out a bit (e.g., peanut butter in a kong, or something frozen to suck on - a good thing for puppies is to mix mashed banana with a bit of wheat germ and a bit of plain yogurt, then stuff it in a kong and freeze it).    I'm told by many fellow doodle owners that by 3 years old they start to be less crazy :-)  Anyhow, hope this helps and if you are involved in any dog training classes, perhaps you can ask about 'automatic sit', or other similar tools.   My mantra is, 'this too shall pass'.  I think the doodles are just the greatest, but the puppy years are a lot of work.  Good luck!   Best, Emily.

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

Sammi will calm!!! Izzy is 8 months old and 40 lbs and she is crazy but a lot more controllable than she was a couple months ago. I'll have to look up this automatic "sit". I like the idea. I make the dogs sit when the postman comes to the door and he gives them a treat if they stay calm. This has helped a lot. I agree with Emily as to exercise. I notice a huge difference in Izzy if I take them to the dog park. She runs like crazy. My son took her running last night and she was quiet all night...yay!!!

Lucca is 2 1/2 and very mellow. They do calm but puppy-hood is not easy. Once Lucca got over the 1 year mark he was a different dog and I could breath a sigh of relief.I am hoping Izzy will calm at a year but with her I may not hold my breath. It seems with her it may take longer. Patience and consistency is key...good luck. We've ALL been there and some of us even got another puppy after going through it once!!!

[Judy Wheeler]

In my heart, I know "this too, shall pass".  Last evening we took her to the dog park and there were several dogs and they ran and played together.  When we came home, she was calmer, even this morning she is calmer.  I am going to try to have "certain" people come to door and make her sit and give her a treat.  Maybe coming from the "visitor" rather than the "mother" will help.

Thank you so much.....need all the help we can get!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Does your trainer help you when she's lunging and pulling during during the class?  It seems to me if you're paying for an obedience class, you should be able to expect some strategies to help with this behavior.....things you could also use at home.  As for the "high energy"...I think some dogs are able to calm themselves, while others need to learn this.  Teaching your dog to down/stay is something that I found helps a lot with this.

[Jaime and Barley Barker]

You could always ask friends and neighbors to help you practice the "automatic sit" with Sammi. You might have some helpful neighborhood volunteers once school lets out.

 

I've also found that the best strategy to deal with jumping is to completely ignore Barley until he calms down. Barley never jumps on people out in public, but he gets excited when people come into "his" home.

 

My family has another goldendoodle, Daisy Mae. Daisy was actually given to me recently so I now have two. Daisy was NUTS until she was two years old. She would run all over the yard and go crazy, not come when called, jump in our donkeys' water troughs (we live on a farm), and jump on people visiting. We'd make her sit, but her body would shake as she sat and tried to contain her excitement. Many friends and family members did not like her. However, when Daisy turned two, it seemed like a switch went off in her head. She stopped jumping on people and became extremely obedient. In fact, she is now our most calm, well-behaved  dog and visitors adore her. I can't imagine a dog being more obnoxious than Daisy was. So, hang in there! Sammi will turn a corner. I hope this little story encourages you.

 

[Lindsey]

Oh gosh, our Molly is FULL of energy too. The best thing for her...EXCERCISE!! Which, from reading the other comments- others have also suggested. We HAVE to take Molly for a long walk/jog at least once a day- twice a day is even better. We also play fetch, OFTEN.
Try and walk her every day, in a heel walk. This actually takes more energy from the dog, as weird as that sounds- studies show that if you just let your dog run around on the leash, they get less energy than heeling- heeling makes them focus and in return makes their mind tired more quickly.
Another thing we found to help with the mind excercise was to start feeding her 1 cup of her daily kibble in one of those puzzle food/treat dispensors. We use the KONG one, Molly loves it.
I would recommend the easy walk collar for the pulling issue. We were using a pinch collar, which does work great, but I just started using the easy walk and while Molly HATED it at first, she now walks MUCH better on leash. She was taught to heel as a puppy, we've never let her walk on leash without heeling, but there would still be those times when she would pull and the collar helps.
I know the zoomies and energy level is annoying...but hang in there and just excercise, excercise, excercise! It will get better :-)

[Sharon & Monty]

Things will improve, lots of great suggestions from everyone.  We trained Monty to gain control when visitors came by putting him on a leash before we opened the door.  That way I could pull him away from people and when he became calm only then was he allowed to them.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Sounds like a 5 month old puppy...they are so excited to see people, other dogs, anything that moves. You just need to be consistent. I think when the doorbell rings you put her on a leash. Explain to the visitor that you have a puppy in training and tell them NOT to greet her until there are 4 on the floor. Maybe you can have someone actually help with training and coming to the door specifically for that reason. Have them ring the doorbell, leash her, have her sit (she will after she learns this command), let the person in and she will actually start jumping, have that person NOT great her, fold her arms and turn away, totally ignore her...and repeat until she actually sits because you will be saying "no, sit"....then allow the visitor to say  "good dog" and you can treat her.

It is a lot of work but this works I promise.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

OH and exercise, exercise, exercise. These dogs need lots of exercise. A tired and hungry dog before training is wonderful. A pocket full of hi value treats and the command "look" will keep her focused on you. Let her smell the treat, make her sit, bring the treat up to your eye area so she watches it and say "look" even if it's only for a moment, if she even just glances at you say "good girl" and treat her....and repeat, over and over and over again.

If you keep the right attitude and don't get frustrated she will be good to go in no time. It is a LOT of work but in the end so worth it. Get em young though, waiting makes it harder.

My Daisy is still learning and she is 19 months old....fortunately for me she is a pretty calm dog now. We did 4 stints of 5 to 7 week training with no breaks in between...she just kept improving and I believe it's from consistency. Both DH and I were on the same page and we worked with her constantly.

We still can't break the barking thing, she barks at every little noise outside (while inside)...it's really annoying. I do admit however WE (really it's he, DH, selective hearing I think) have never been consistent on this one so she doesn't get it.

 

[Pat and Traveler]

Trav jumps up on people at the door too.  He's getting a little better--but it seems to be a person by person learning experience.  He doesn't jump on me, one daughter or my son-in-law, but does jump on my other daughter and several friends.  I have to hide a giggle sometimes--he is obviously trying so hard not to jump up, but he's just in a state of such joy--he jumps up on the couch by the door, or occasionally right onto the table, which is fairly close to the other side of the door.  He never jumps on the table at other times, and it's just so amazing to suddenly see him standing and propeller-tailing on that table!  Well, it's not jumping up on people...:)

[Lynda Kamrath]

You might try enlisting the help of a friend and have her sit and stay when they come to the door.  They can ignore her and you give her a treat when they leave.  Try this several times with the same person until she gets it.  My ALD is super energetic and jumps on everyone also.  Whenever he jumps on my son, he grabs his paws and dances with him. I think he will learn some dance steps before he calms down.  It is definitely not unusual for these very friendly dogs to think everyone wants to interact with them.  My five year-old goldendoodle was similar as a puppy, but he is much calmer now.  Thank goodness!  He is about 85 pounds.