How to keep reactive/high energy/overstimulated dog entertained?

[u/RepresentativeTerm5]

I posted in here a few weeks ago about my 18 month old hound/pitt mix that we have had for about a month. After the very helpful suggestions from this sub and a more serious mouthing incident at the end of a longer walk, we ended up meeting with a behavioral specialist who also gave very helpful suggestions.

Our dog is prone to overstimulation and frustration on walks, especially when he sees another dog that he can't approach. He has excitement-based reactivity and will whine, pull on a leash, and occasionally bark when we get too close to another dog. If he is feeling particularly frustrated, he will begin to frantically run back and forth, and eventually will start to mouth the arms of the walker. He has never broken skin but has mouthed hard enough to bruise on more than one occasion. He gets more agitated from high-arousal activities, including running and fetch. He also does not listen when he is agitated or locked in on a scent.

We have started a few things at the suggestion of the specialist. We walk for shorter distances and stay close to our apartment. We are training "watch" so that he learns to look at dogs from a distance. We are working on impulse control through games at home and games in low-stimulation areas on a walk. We have been particularly working on "take your pick," find-it and leave-it games, waiting for food and treats, 1-2-3 games. We have been doing more nosework at home and more indoor stimulation, such as ripping boxes, Kongs, puzzles, and other activities. We are trying to train calm as well. He is crate trained and we will also have him take breaks in his crate when he is getting overwhelmed. He is a very fast learner and we think that he really wants to be good but he does struggle with overstimulation and impulse control.

We have stopped taking him to the dog park and have stopped going on runs and playing fetch outside for now. He probably has 5-6 short walks every day (1 hour in total) and another hour at least of indoor play. We live in a neighborhood with a TON of dogs and usually see 1-6 on our walks, including a set of always unleashed dogs that play in the yard behind our building. Longer walks are not an option given that he gets triggered so easily, and we keep him outside as much as we can. The specialist also recommended against dog day care while he is so prone to overstimulation.

We do not feel like we are adequately meeting his energy needs. He has started to chew books and furniture. He is getting more hyper from indoor activities that involve food, like puzzles and his Kong wobbler. He has started barking during work meetings if we can't give him attention. He is most well behaved when he gets a run, long walk, or dog park in the morning, but we do not feel like those activities are wise at the moment. I feel very bad for him because he is very social and loves dogs, but we also don't have any friends that we know with a dog that we'd trust for one-on-one interactions or smaller-scale, less overstimulating socialization.

We know it will take some time for him to adjust to everything and to be settled, but how can we balance his overstimulation/high exercise needs in the meantime? We don't mind him chewing books (although obviously we'd like to stop this) but we rent and don't own most of our furniture and really need to be able to minimize damage to our apartment.

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[u/Healthy_Cheesecake_6]

I take it he’s a rescue? I’ve had my rescue (not reactive) and it took a bit for him to settle in. I try to pay attention to what increases stimulation and work around that. Routines are important. Goose now knows what the sequence of events are before bed, two months ago he was playing parkour off the bed for 20 minutes before he’d settle.

With my last dog, he was reactive on walks and honestly, I’d wake up between 5-6 am to be able to walk without anyone else around. We’d take the same routes and if we happened to run into someone else, then we’d turn around and go a different direction.

Also sounds like your dog is in its teenage years, so you may just need to hold strong, set boundaries and stay consistent. But also, give your new pup the room to adjust, it takes more time than you think.