The Energizer-Doggy

Savannah Hamann • February 27, 2024

“I’ll run my dog for two miles and they’ll still bounce off the walls when we get home… They never stop!”

A Corgi playing in the water.

If you’re like me, and you decided to get a high energy/high drive dog, you have probably thought that exact same thing. It feels like your dog NEVER gets tired! Constantly on the go, moving from one place to the next. And if you don’t give them something to do, they’ll entertain themselves, and not always in the way you’d like them to…


My dog’s are a combination of two of the smartest and highest energy dog breeds. Their brains plus their never ending battery means they will go forever. Maybe your dog is the same way! So I COMPLETELY understand, and have felt the same way until I figured out each of my dog’s mental “formula”.


Even if your dog isn’t a mix of crazy active breeds like mine are, they can still seem to forget that relaxing is an option. And if you aren’t prepared to meet all of their physical and mental exercise needs, be ready for some not-so-great behaviors to come your way!


Why is my dog ramped up?


Like some humans, being able to sit and relax isn’t always the easiest thing to do. After all, we only have so much time in our days and there always seems to be something on our check list.


For our dogs, they have a check list of their own. Granted it won’t include things like going grocery shopping, doing the dishes, or taking out the trash (though I’m sure they’d love to help with that!). Unfortunately for them, they are dependent on us humans to help them check things off.


If I know I have a lot of things to do, and I don’t get them done or it takes me longer to do them, I will get very anxious and stressed out. That same thing happens with our dogs.


Their list may consist of things such as: going for a walk, running in the yard, playing fetch, finding the toy, eating food, engage with human, bark at leaf, and so on. several of those things require us to take part in. So if we don’t do them, our dog is now building up pent up energy and mental frustration. Especially if we don’t do those things for a few days, that’s all snowballing for our dogs.


There’s more than just physical exercise!


Don’t get me wrong, physical exercise is an incredibly important for providing a well rounded life for our dogs. But, that’s only one part that needs to be worked.


Mental stimulation for your dog is something that quite a few people overlook. Every dog, no matter the breed, needs mental exercise! It doesn’t matter if it’s a lazy Great Dane, or a high energy cattle dog, every dog needs to relieve the pent up energy and frustration in their mind.


Like I said in the beginning, if you take your dog on multiple mile runs, and they are still crazy when you get home, their mental exercise requirement has not been met yet! They are telling you that they need more.


So if you are facing a similar situation, let’s start to figure out what you could do to get their brain working more each day.


Mental stimulation for dogs


This can seem like a pretty straightforward subject. But if you don’t take it seriously, you’ll find yourself in the same situation over and over.

There are lots of things that you can do to mentally stimulate your dog. I’ll list a few of my favorite things below:

  • Snuffle mats
  • Kongs with peanut butter
  • Kongs with frozen food
  • Puzzle toys
  • Sprinkling food on a towel and rolling it up
  • Scent training
  • ANY TRAINING


And so much more. These are just a few things that I’ll do with my own dogs to try and provide them with the mental exercise they need.

Another thing you can do is take your dog on a “sniff walk”. For me, I always have some ground rules when I do this with my dogs. They aren’t allowed to pull me around everywhere, and they still have to mind their manners when we are outside. But, letting our dogs get in a solid 15-20 minute sniff session is roughly the equivalent of a mile run!


Of course, training with your dog is a fantastic way to get their brain thinking. And if you aren’t sure what to do to help, or if you are facing some issues with your dog and you could use some help on how to reign them in, reach out to your local professional trainer! One of my favorite things to do is help people engage more with their dogs. Cause if your dog is driving you nuts, the last thing you want to do is be around them a lot. (At least for most people).


Our dogs LOVE when we engage with them. So training is a beautiful way to get them thinking, and get you both working together!

Meeting the needs of our dogs both physically and mentally will improve their lives tremendously. Whether they are non-stop hyper or anxious and stressed, getting their brains thinking and bodies moving will help to balance out their energy, tire them out, and make them happier.

By Savannah Hamann February 21, 2025
During my time as a professional dog trainer, one of the most common challenges I have helped people with is separation anxiety in dogs. It’s one of the most mentally and emotionally draining hurdles that someone can work through. If you’re like me, and most people I work with, seeing our dogs stressed out or upset or scared is incredibly difficult. My dogs are my family, and I love them more than most things in my life! To see them in such emotional distress is not on my top ten list. There is no way around it, separation anxiety is brutal. And, in most cases working through it is just as tough because it takes TIME - more time than people think. It also takes an insane amount of patience and consistency, not to mention building up our emotional wall so we can push through and get our dog into a better state of mind. What is separation anxiety in dogs? So what is separation anxiety and why is it such a monster to deal with? Think of it this way, your dog has developed such an attachment to you or such a fear of being alone or confined that they become irrational and their fight or flight instincts kick in where the only answer is to escape or otherwise face their impending doom… Doesn’t sound too fun right? When our dogs enter such a state they are basically on another planet mentally. Of course, there are different levels of separation anxiety, it isn’t always immediately a huge freak-out, but if left untreated it can and most likely will escalate to that. Some of the most common signs of separation anxiety are as follows: Excessive panting Continual lip licking Sweaty paws Pacing “Whale-eye” Timid body language Excessive barking/whining Destruction These are just a few signs of separation anxiety, but they also could be reactions from something else so we need to assess the entire situation before deciding what is causing the behavior. When a dog is in an intense reaction you’ll oftentimes see a combination of multiple signs. This could be excessive panting with their tongues all the way extended, dripping saliva onto their paws, the ground around them saturating their fur and the space they are in. They go through barking fits accompanied with pacing back and forth in the kennel or room you keep them in and from there, with no relief in sight, they resort to an escape attempt. This is where separation anxiety becomes very dangerous. Dogs can and will do whatever they can to get out of the situation. How do we help Separation Anxiety in dogs? If you’re like most people the thought or sight of your dog losing their mind because they are so scared or stressed is something you’d like to avoid at all costs. As with most behavioral challenges with dogs, there are things we can do to help prevent the issue or reshape and eliminate the reaction. One of the biggest things you can do if you have a new puppy is to leave them alone. That’s right! I said it… Leave your adorable little puppy alone in a safe space for a very short amount of time. I’m talking like stepping into another room and then returning a few moments later, amount of time. The idea here is that we want our puppy to start to learn that just because we leave them alone, it’s not the end of the world. The key here though is to always wait until your puppy is quiet before you go back in! The last thing you want to do is teach them that being boisterous and barky will get you to return. This is a similar concept as well for older dogs, or older dogs you may have rescued. If they are uncomfortable being alone we have to slowly expose them to that over a period of time. The idea is the same though, they need to learn that being alone is not a life or death scenario and they can and should be calm and relaxed. There is an exercise I like to do with people who are facing separation anxiety with their dogs that helps to keep the dog engaged and become more used to the idea of their human stepping away. Here’s the outline: Place your dog in a stay Walk away from your dog without making a big fuss. In the beginning, stay close to them. After a few moments have passed and your dog has not broken their stay, walk back to them and calmly give them a treat. Walk away again and repeat! Slowly increase your distance and duration over time to the point where you can step out of sight without your dog becoming anxious or breaking their stay. Now you might think this is just a place-stay exercise. To a degree it is, but the focus behind this is to show your dog that when they stay put and don’t make a fuss or begin to whine or stress out that is the behavior you are looking for and they’ll be rewarded. We want our dogs to become used to the sight and sound of us walking away from them, leaving them alone. This is just one exercise, and it may or may not work for your dog because as with all things dog training, there is no cookie-cutter approach! You may have to try different variations of the idea or something completely different to start to get results, but the goal behind it is the same. You might not see improvement in your dog’s behavior for some time. You also could have some really good days in a row, start to think things are getting better, and then out of nowhere your dog reverts into their typical freak-out self. That can be an incredibly disheartening moment, but take a breath and evaluate. When we are working on behavior improvements with our dog, your dog may experience something that’s called an “extinction burst.” This is where their behavior gets really bad, sometimes worse than it was before. When this happens, you don’t cave or give up! You have to stay consistent and committed to your process and work through it. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is your dog’s bad behavior going extinct. It is not an easy thing to deal with, especially when it’s based around separation anxiety. Be patient with yourself, be patient with your dog. Try to understand the scenario from the dog’s perspective. Start with baby steps, then slowly increase those over time. And if it’s just too much for you, get help from a professional dog trainer.
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