Why Your Dog Gets Overstimulated on Walks: 3 Common Causes and Solutions

You're not alone in this struggle, and there are steps you can take to help your dog reset and enjoy walks to the fullest. In this blog post, I'll explore three key reasons why dogs get overstimulated on walks and provide practical solutions to this issue.

Knowing this we can see overstimulation as when someone or something is excessively stimulated. Being flooded with stimulation can be overstimulating for anyone, however some can just process it better.

When a dog becomes overstimulated by their environment on a walk it may look like…

Imagine it like humans and stress/anxiety. You know how they say for some people the feeling of opening an email drives the same bodily response for when you see a tiger? That fight-or-flight response. Imagine feeling that everyday you got an email, imagine one day you had to go through 20 emails!

Staying in states of stress is known to lead to health and also mental issues and for dogs you are looking beyond that to developing issues such as reactivity and restlessness.

It is our responsibility as pet parents to help teach our dogs not only how to deal with the overloading of stimulus in a more controlled manner but also for us to learn what we can also do to help reduce overstimulation on walks.

Some dogs struggle with freedom, they just don't know what to do with it all. When given ultimate freedom some dogs bounce from smell to smell, investigate everything and anything, get distracted or startled by every sound.

These dogs are the ones that tend to get overstimulated and frustrated. The more and more they bounce around from stimulus to stimulus, the more worked up they start to become.

As much as I believe in liberty and allowing a dog to sniff on a walk. I also believe in knowing and understanding when that freedom sometimes needs to be restricted by structure.

For this reason I believe structured walks are one of the best ways to walk a dog. The ability to allow your dog freedom at certain parts of your walk and bringing them into a structured walk at other points for however long is required.

Imagine your dog like a volcano. As they continue their walk their level of stimulation rises and if they aren't able to self regulate it keeps rising.

Loud sounds, seeing triggers, having a stranger approach. The volcano can build to a point where a plastic bag could startle and cause the volcano to erupt and explode (reaction).

Now as the volcano rises so will your dog's level of stimulation, they start becoming more frantic and squirrelly.

We want to avoid trigger stacking as much as possible. Working on socialisation is great for helping dogs acclimate to their environment.

Socialisation isn't interacting with dogs and people but it's learning to become comfortable in the environment.

Being able to teach your dog how to deal with their environment is critical. Teaching them how to cope with different forms of stimulation and surprises they may endure.

A lot of owners think that dog parks, yard time and even regular walks are sufficient forms of exercise. The thing is, constantly running around without purpose can cause franticness, overarousal and frustration.

Proper exercise requires a purpose, something for a dog to focus on. This avoids the build up of overarousal, reaching a goal and then resetting.

Without a proper outlet for their energy this will leak out throughout the day, especially on walks where there is so much going on (remember trigger stacking above?).

The thing about play is it creates movement. Movement is great for bringing down overstimulation and releasing built up energy allowing a dog to forget about the experience and reset.

Tug of war is a great game to have in times of overarousal. Being able to have a high intense game and shake off that energy can also be very rewarding for dogs.

For Jasper when he gets overstimulated we go through loose leash walking games which are basically leash drills. This once again creates movement but also provides a game your dog can win and engagement back onto you.

If going down this route make sure your dog understands the rules of tug such as when to start, stop and when to let go. Adding rules also allows the development of impulse control.

I love obedience as it's a great foundation for everything but especially building engagement and developing bind and relationship.

A lot of high energy dogs thrive for things to put their mind to. Taking an executive decision to stop and go through some obedience drills can bring that focus back to you and bring down that level of overstimulation.

Scatter feeding involves throwing food on the ground and allowing your dog to search for it. The act of searching and sniffing once again gives something for the dog to focus on but it also allows for more breathing.

You can do this on your walks or at designated locations away from distractions and triggers. It's now very common for owners to feed meals through this method as it's a great method for daily decompression and mental stimulation.

This is great to use in times of distraction but it's also perfect for overstimulated dogs. Getting them to focus on the task of hitting your hand.

Targeting can really mentally and physically challenge a dog if you increase the difficulty. This can boost confidence, give the dog something to focus on and reduce levels of frustration.

Sometimes simply taking a rest can be all that is needed to reset a dog back to a suitable level. However, some may need extra stimulation and exercise from home to help with their energy levels and also to help them regulate and bring down their current overstimulation levels.