Some dogs, especially the young ones, bewilder their owners with their constant bouncing, jumping up on people or furniture, constant barking at everything, or chewing on almost anything. So, they go online and search, “My hyper dog won’t calm down.”
If this is your issue, go ahead and search that yourself and you will get a variety of training or exercising types of solutions. Most of these suggestions are free or at a low cost and are a good place to start. If you’ve already tried these kinds of solutions without results, then here is another perspective on the problem.
Why won’t some hyper dogs calm down?
You’ve tried running them into exhaustion with fetch or other exercises but only succeeded in wearing yourself out. Could it be that there is an underlying cause for their manic behavior? If you’ve read some of my blog posts you might already have started to wonder, “could my dog be stuck in fight-flight?” The short answer is, YES, it could be!
How does fight-flight make a dog hyperactive?
The first thing you need to know about the fight-flight response is that it is an automatic priority one response. When a stimulus, like a sudden loud noise, an unexpected fall and crash landing, running into a closed glass sliding door, or being attacked by another animal (or human for that matter) activates the amygdala brain switch the rest is automatic and no longer under mental control.
This means that the dog can’t be trained out of it because it is on autopilot and responding without thinking. Until the fight-flight response gets reset back to a normal resting state the dog will be anxious and hyperresponsive. Bouncing, barking, chewing, and sometimes even snappy.
A recent case I worked on
Wally is a beautiful 4-year-old mixed-breed black and tan, fine texture long-haired, approximately 30-pound neutered male. This is what his owner had to say:
“Over the last month has had a severe increase in fear aggression. Vet appointment tomorrow. I’m worried about a brain tumor or simple focal seizures. Grew up around kids and up until last month loved kids. Snapped at 2 kids over the past week (my kids’ friends. One of which he knows and has been fine with his entire life). I have seen what looks like a focal seizure where only 1 eye will twitch 3-4 times followed by a change of body language becomes fearful can be talked to by a trusted person and snaps out of it quickly. But there have been times over the past 2 weeks where he seems fearful for no reason and it lasts hours. The dog walker says that on and off over the past 3 weeks he screams when she tries to leash him which he’s never done before. He has never done that with me. I’m really nervous he’s going to bite a kid.”
The vet appointment was negative for any obvious health issues, so we set up a program for four Neuro-Energetic Balancing™ sessions over 4 weeks. Wally is in the vicinity of Prince Rupert, Canada and I am in North Central Idaho, so these were Zoom sessions where I guided his owner’s hands to touch the energy points that needed to be reset. After a couple of sessions, it was clear that we were having a positive effect, and after the series was complete, he was calm and having no more unusual behaviors.
What to do if you suspect a fight-flight issue with your dog
If you have a hyper dog that won’t calm down or is like Wally, you can talk with me for free to see if this sounds like a situation Neuro-Energetic Balancing™ could help. Click Here if you would like that free consultation. That will bring you to the contact page where you can fill out the contact form and I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can to set up a time to talk. You should know that I’m not a veterinarian. My degree is Doctor of Chiropractic and I currently help pets and people all over the world with my energy balancing work.
