First Day Surprise

Two years ago when we brought Stacie home from the shelter we were both excited and nervous. We had so many questions on what training her would be like. Would she bark too much? Would she be aggressive? Would she be good with kids? We decided to take the chance and couldn't wait to pick her up from the shelter. That's when the adventure began almost immediately.

We learned Stacie's first trait-- escape artist. The shelter didn't quite put her harness on right. As I walked her out the door proudly, she did a flip, squirmed out of her harness and bolted away from me. I sprinted and dove to catch her. I should've known this wouldn't be an easy dog to train right then, but I chalked it up to a mistake by the shelter.

When we got her home, everything seemed perfect. She was nervous, but she didn't bark and I taught her sit within the first hour. That's when our 37 lb dog had a little surprise for us. I went to take her out. We lived on the third floor at the time. As we got to the stairs she froze. She was afraid of stairs. I had no choice but to carry her down and back up the stairs. My bad knees cringed as I realized this would be a bit of a problem.

The other issue was I was leaving for the weekend and my wife couldn't carry her. She needed to have her friend stay over to help take her out. Who would've thought of all the possible concerns not going up and down stairs wasn't one of them. Through treats and patience she finally learned to use the stairs in a few days, but right then I should of known that training this dog would be a challenge.

TOP TEN KEYS TO TRAINING A HYPERACTIVE DOG

10. Prioritize training. Teaching sit and stay will be more valuable than that cool trick you can show your friends.

9. Take time each day for training. You and your dog will be grateful for the time you invest.

8. Be consistent. Your dog doesn't speak english, so you need to be consistent with commands and tone of voice so they learn what you train them.

7. Talk to other dog owners. It sometimes helps to realize you are not alone in your training.

6. Read as much as you can on training. Knowledge and multiple perspectives help.

5. Dogproof your home. The best lesson I learned with training was to dog proof my home so that my dog learned to stay out of trouble.

4. Treats. Make your dog's training your dog's job. Reward them for good behavior and make them earn their food.

3. Exercise. A tired dog is a good dog

2. Patience. They will learn what you train them. It just takes time.

1. Remember how much you love the dog, so you can forgive their bad behavior and keep working at the training.

Training the Hyperactive Dog

I am writing this blog to share my adventures with training the hyperactive dog I got from the animal shelter two years ago. I have had two dogs previously growing up, but none had the energy and behavior issues that Stacie has had. Training her has been both frustrating and rewarding in a way only other dog owners could understand. I will post some of these stories and updates on her here. She is a wonderful labrador retriever, chow, possibly terrier mix. She can jump over a 5' fence, thinks shes a cat, loves to chew what she shouldn't, and is very smart. While being smart makes her easy to train it makes it tougher to keep her out of trouble.