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Question
Hi,
My 6 year old golden retriever was overweight a few months ago and I've gotten her back to a healthy weight.  Now she has a lot of energy and is very hyper all day.  I take her for about a 30 minute walk - 8 blocks - every day, and I often take her to the park to play and run around.  But when we get home she still wants to play.  She runs around the house with her toys and jumps on anyone she sees to try to get them to play.  She even does it to visitors who come to our house and they get very annoyed.  I got her toys that you can put treats in, but she gets the food out very quickly.  She destroys her toys and then gets bored because she has nothing to play with.  I keep buying her new toys and she chews them up.  I tried balls that are indestuctible, but they're hard and she likes soft toys.  I let her outside in our back yard to play, but she doesn't like being out alone, so she barks until someone comes out.  Is there any way that I can get her to calm down?  

Answer
Dear Gina

Thank you for your question.

The best thing for you to do is to give your dog time-out session, when she gets too excitable.  So this could be when she returns from a walk, when you can see her starting to very excitable, or if you want some time-out.  

Your dog will have learned that when people come round and she acts all excitable, that she receives attention from your visitors.  The best thing you and your visitors can do is to ignore your dog when she is excitable, and only interact with her when she has clamed down.  What you are teaching her, is when she is excitable she receives no interaction from people, but when she is calm she does!

Kind Regards

Richella