Why Your Dog Gets Overstimulated on Walks: 3 Common Causes and Solutions
Do you find your walks a bit on the tense side? Dealing with a dog that always seems on alert all the time? This is a sign that your dog gets overstimulated on walks, a common challenge that many pet owners face. When the seemingly simple act of walking your dog can quickly turn into a stressful experience when your dog becomes overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, and scents of the great outdoors.
You’re not alone in this struggle, and there are steps you can take to help your dog stay calm, 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.
What Is Overstimulation and What Does it Look Like?
- What Is Overstimulation in Dogs?
Let’s break this down, taking a look at stimulation (stimulus) first. A stimulus is anything that can trigger a physical or a behavioural change. This can be a smell, sound, a touch etc.
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.
- What Does Overstimulation in Dogs Look Like?
As we know, a stimulus triggers a behaviour or physical change. When walking our dogs overstimulation can look like what I call âsquirrelly behaviourâ. This is that high alert, vigilant, tense, shifty behaviour I’m sure we’ve all seen.
When a dog becomes overstimulated by their environment on a walk it may look likeâŚ
- Barking
- Tense body language
- Focused staring
- Lip licking
- Becoming jumpy
- Hiding behind you
- Reactive behaviours
- Panting
- On alert behaviour
- Frantic behaviour
Why Constant Overstimulation in Dogs is Bad
Too much overstimulation is a very bad thing. It’s a very stressful state to be in and being in that state for prolonged periods of time can be very detrimental to a dog.
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.
3 Reasons Your Dog Gets Overstimulated on Walks
#1 – Too Much Freedom
Firstly is being allowed too much freedom on walks. Now before you crucify me, hear me outâŚ
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.
#2 – Trigger Stacking
Next let’s take a look at trigger stacking. This is something that you may have heard of if you have a reactive dog, but for those of you who don’t let me explain quickly.
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.
#3 – Lack of Proper Exercise
Some dogs suffer from issues with stimulation and arousal because they aren’t getting the proper exercise. The pent up energy they have needs an outlet which may end up being on the walk.
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 Role of Mental Stimulation Before Walks
One way to reduce overstimulation on walks is to provide mental stimulation before you even leave the house. Activities like puzzle toys, scent work, or scatter feeding can tire your dog mentally, leaving them more balanced and focused during the walk.
Mentally stimulating your dog before heading out helps to burn off some of their energy in a controlled environment, making it easier for them to stay calm and engaged outside. It can also help reduce the likelihood of them becoming overwhelmed by all the distractions during your walk. Remember, a mentally tired dog is often much easier to handle than one bursting with unspent energy.
5 Ways To Reduce Overstimulation on Walks
#1 – Detox Periods
I’m a major believer of rest/detox periods, understanding that at some points, we need to take a break from walks to allow our dogs to decompress away from their triggers and an over arousing environment.
A good stress detox for dogs can do wonders by eliminating stress and resetting dogs to a baseline where they are able to think clearer and make better choices, making them easier to train and follow guidance.
A stress detox isn’t just for our dogs, it is also for us. Dealing with an overstimulated dog constantly can cause us frustrations, stress and anxiety too.
You can download my FREE 5 day stress detox below which is a simple easy to follow and customise routine that will help your dog get back to a level baseline.
Sometimes simply taking a rest can be all that is needed to reset a dog back to a suitable level. In this period we cut and eliminate stress from the dogs day and start to add more stimulation and focus on getting the right rest and relaxation which is the key to eliminating stress.
#2 – Play
Play is amazing for many dogs. It’s a very powerful thing when you can find a game or a toy that a dog loves.
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.
#3 – Obedience
Obedience is great as it gets your dog to focus on a task. When a dog gets overstimulated on walks you can use obedience to channel that energy into a variety of different things.
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.
#4 – Scatter Feeding
Scatter feeding is probably my favourite on this list (don’t ask me why it’s not on the top of the list) if a dog gets overstimulated on walks.
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.
#5 – Targeting
Another great activity that gives your dog purpose is teaching them to target your hand.
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.
Final Thoughts
If you constantly find your dog gets overstimulated on walks and struggles with self regulation then it falls on us as their guardians to help them deal with it.
If you have any tips for dealing with overstimulation then drop a comment and let us know!!
