How to Handle the “Hyper” Puppy

Do you think you own the most active puppy in town? Is he on the move constantly? Is he a furry, four-footed, destruction machine? Are you wondering what you got yourself into? Guess what, chances are what you actually have is a perfectly normal puppy!!!

The young of most every species spend a large part of their waking time exploring their surroundings and trying out all of the behaviors that they can think of. And with everything they try, they are learning. Some things they will learn to enjoy and want to repeat, other things will not be enjoyable and they will not repeat those behaviors. But puppy is always learning. Our job then becomes to provide our puppies with opportunities to learn behaviors that we want them to repeat.

Your puppy will learn to perform behaviors you want more quickly if you:

	Set up your puppy’s surroundings to create success.
	Provide plenty of exercise and mental stimulation.
	Focus on, and reward your puppy for, behaviors that you want.

Housetraining your puppy is more than just teaching him where to go potty. Housetraining includes good management—helping puppy not get “into trouble” by blocking access to temptation.

For example:

All the items that you would put behind locked doors for a two-year-old human child should be put behind doors for your puppy. In addition, trash cans should be inaccessible to puppies. Not only to prevent the trash from being strewn throughout the house, but also to protect your puppy from ingesting items that could be harmful. Clothes, shoes and other "smelly" human clothes should be put where puppy cannot get to them. The toilet paper cannot be torn to shreds if you close the bathroom door. Baby gates and barriers should be in place to prevent puppy from having unsupervised access to your home. If you are either watching puppy or have puppy in a safe place, it will be impossible for puppy to soil the carpet and eat your family heirlooms.

Your interest in this article tells us that you are probably already aware that puppies tend to be “HYPER!” They have a ton of energy and they need to burn that energy up somehow. If you do not provide an acceptable outlet, they’ll come up with one of their own.

getting exercise.jpg (3928 bytes) Taking puppy for a walk around the block or through the park is a great way to exercise puppy. Talk to your veterinarian about how much exercise is safe for puppy at his age. A eight-week-old Yorkie may tire out walking to the corner. An eight-month-old Dalmatian may need a 2-mile jog! You also need to be sure that all vaccinations are up to date and puppy is protected from diseases.

chasing stick.jpg (2011 bytes) Another way to exercise puppy is to teach puppy to retrieve a toy. Retrieving is a game that allows the puppy to do all the running while you sit under a shade tree, drinking an iced tea!

There are other games that will physically and mentally challenged your puppy. Games such as “hide ‘n seek” are a lot of fun for both you and your puppy. Hide ‘n seek can be played a couple of ways. One is to teach puppy to “hide his eyes” (stay) and then a family member hides and calls the dog, or you can have puppy “hide his eyes” and then hide a favorite toy for puppy to find and retrieve. (Until puppy learns to “stay” it’s OK to gently hold puppy in place while the person or toy is hidden. Also, always play hide ‘n seek with you hiding, and puppy finding. It would be ill advised to teach puppy to hide from you!) Hide ‘n Seek encourages good behaviors like come, find, and retrieve.

Don't ask “How do I get puppy to stop _____?” Instead ask…

What do I want puppy to do? If you will stay focused on what you want puppy to do more than on how to stop what you don’t like, you will get a lot further in gaining control of all that furry motion.

When puppy is bouncing around, direct him to and encourage him to play with a toy. Vary the toys so puppy doesn’t get bored. An excellent toy for conquering boredom is a Kong(r). It is a hard, rubber toy that is hollow. The key word is “hollow.” The empty center allows you make this toy really special by making it different every day. To do this, stuff it with various treats—one day maybe regular kibble and topped off with a bit of Bil-Jac(r), one day with a biscuit treat and some cheese, one day with liver treats, etc. We recommend having something stuffed in the toy that your puppy probably will not be able to get out, plus something that he can. That way after he has spent half the day cleaning out the stuff he can, he will learn to bring the Kong(r) to you to have you take out the rest of the treats. Not only does this encourage your puppy to want to bring things to you, it also lets you know when it’s time to reload!

Another commercial toy that can keep your puppy entertained for some time is a Buster Cube(r)—a large plastic toy with chambers in it that you load with dry food. As the dog rolls the cube around, it spits out a piece of food every once in a while. With this toy, a portion of your dog’s regular meal will be fed via the cube. You reduce the amount at “meal time” so as not to create a rolly polly puppy.

jumping up.jpg (3146 bytes) Spend time teaching your puppy the basic commands of sit, down and come. That way when puppy is doing something unacceptable you can change the behavior into something more appropriate. An example: a dog that is responding to a sit command IS NOT jumping on your guests!

The key to “Handling the HyperPuppy” is management. By preventing holding leash.jpg (2636 bytes) inappropriate behaviors, burning off excess energy, relieving boredom and teaching appropriate behaviors you too can learn to enjoy that bundle of fur and he can grow into that well behaved adult that you pictured when you decided to get a Puppy Pal!

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