hyperactive dog

Question
Hello,

Im writing to you because my sister has a very hyperactive dog and was wondering what to do to calm her down!! She has had her since she was a puppy and she is now a year old. she has recently been spayed in the hope that she would calm down but to no avail.

Skye is always jumping up and down and snapping and biting. she knows the commands but only ever obeys them when she feels it necessary. she pulls on the lead and wriggles about when she is out. my sister has taken her to obedience training but none of her efforts have worked.

she is also very destructive and has destroyed the sofa and the carpet and also the coffee table - pretty much anything she come into contact with. Occassionally she bears her teeth and snaps but most of the time i think she just wants the attention.

even when she had been spayed and was healing from the wound, she was still jumping on the back of the sofa and tearing things apart.

Skye was dropped on her head as a very small puppy - before we picked her up - and i was wondering if this could account for her behaviour?

She is a collie crossed with a lurcher and we are pretty sure she has sum staffie blood in her too as her head is the same shape.

Please help!!  

Answer
What an interesting mix your sister's dog is! I'd love to see a picture of her if you have one. My e-mail address is blueridgerescue @ gmail.com (remove the spaces) if you can send me one!

I don't think that being dropped on her head (did that >>really<< happen??) accounts for her behavior. It sounds as if the dog is seriously under-exercised and under-stimulated. Obedience classes do little good unless the owner does the work at home, is consistent, and continues to work with the dog each day even after classes are over with. She has so much pent-up energy, from the sound of it, that she just cannot control herself. That's why she is hyperactive and that's why she is destructive. She NEEDS to be exercised more. That means she should be walked at LEAST once a day, for at least 45 minutes straight. Playing fetch is another thing that she should enjoy doing.

Your sister might also want to check into enrolling her in agility or flyball classes with her. It sounds like she'd really do well at either of those activities.

If she is destructive whenever she's left alone (which most puppies are), she needs to be confined so that she cannot tear things up. A crate works well for this, and so does an outdoor pen. I think she'd probably break out of an x-pen in the house, or I'd suggest that.

I cannot give any advice on the teeth bearing and snapping without actually seeing the behavior. It could be aggression, dominance, or as you said, simply an attention getter. It might also simply just be excitement. I have a dog that gets 'nippy' when she's excited.