Things You Must Know When Adopting A Shelter Dog

If you are planning to adopt a dog from the shelter or have already done so, then read on to find out about the common behavioral problems your dog will have and one of the most common one is extreme hyperactivity.

After experiencing high anxiety levels and living a long life of boredom mixed with his nerves, a dog becomes hyperactive. When kept in a shelter too long, a dog spends much of its time pacing the cages and whining to get the attention of people. If a dog is locked up for so long with nothing to do, it may lead to its hyperactive behavioural problem.

After bringing the dog home into a bigger and more spacious environment, it may be stressed out by these new surroundings. Even though your home may be a very positive situation for your dog to live in, the changes are very stressful to it. It will consume some time for your dog to adjust to its new home, and old habits that it practices in the shelter such as pacing and crying out may be methods of coping.

Certain people think that to curb the dog's pacing and whining is to lock it up to keep it from moving around so much that may become quite irritating to the owner. But that is not the solution. By doing that, the hyperactive behaviour of the dog cannot be curbed on a long term basis. After all that exercise, it may cause the dog to be tired and it may stop the nervousness for awhile, but later on the hyperactivity will return.

Proper Training & Spending Time Together

Do some training with your dog, such as obedience training. It may rectify the problem by giving it some confidence and will help the dog pay attention to common commands like 'sit' or 'heel'. A trained dog tends to be more subdued, and will listen to commands and show less signs of hyperactivity.

By spending more time with your dog, it will help with its hyperactive problems, as training helps you bond with it more. When the training sessions are fun for your dog then its situation will improve. The more time your dog gets busy with training and playing the more the hyperactive habits will go away.

See below for more information on Dog Obedience Training.