Keeping calm is crucial to sooth hyper hounds
Everyone knows a hyper dog. A dog that is constantly jumping and running around trying to take in as much as possible, bounding away in the dog park chasing after every other dog despite their owners plea to come back. However it’s clear that with hyper dogs obedience is often ignored.
Dog trainer Cheryl Wittevrongel trained hundreds of dogs and has over 7 years experience of teaching dogs the right way to behave. She has realised over the years that these dogs need special requirements in order for them to settle in the right way. With this in mind she created the ‘Settle Down Spot’ plan in which she believes that calm people will have calm dogs.
The programme that is 6 weeks in length dogs will teach and reinforce to dogs the basic obedience skills that they need. But also focus less on movement and create fewer distractions by only having 6 dogs and owners in one class.
“It’s for the type of dogs who never seem to settle. They’re never relaxed: they’re running, they’re panting, they’re vocalizing, they’re jumping up and they’re always moving. Even if you try to tell them to sit or lay down, it’s like they can’t really hear you they’re so focused on the distraction,” says Wittevrongel, the Happy Tails Dog Training owner.
The first session focuses solely on the owner as their energy is often reflected in a dog’s behaviour. Positive reinforcement techniques are then put into place to reward the dog for their good behaviour. Catch the dog doing something good and then reward them for it.
