Too excited all the time

So Luna will be one year old next month and I’m still really struggling in getting her to calm down around people.

This showed to be a big problem when we took her to the vets few days ago, the vet was berly able to look at her as she was just squirming around wagging her tail and just wiggling her whole body trying to jump up at the vet to say hello. She’s super friendly and reacts like this to everyone that will come within a meter of her. This was a big problem as the vet seemed to be somewhat new, she was really young and seemed almost afraid of Luna jumping at her so she berly even glanced at her.

What can I do to get her to relax a bit? She’s over excited with everything, I’m trying to work hard at the moment to stop her from jumping up at you when you have her toy, she keeps launching into the air to try to take it from you, I get her to sit but she’s so excited she won’t even let her bum touch the floor she like pretends she’s sitting for a second then launches at the toy.

In the house her recall is good aswell but it completely goes out the window when we’re on a walk. She will not listen to being called and won’t even take her favourite treat outside As sniffling is too important. When we’re on the footpath she listens, we have an extensive lead so it’s on loose all the time I just tell her “this way” if I’m turning and she knows to follow, she knows “cross the road” it’s almost like she’s not on a lead even untill something catches her attention and then it’s game over, I’m not there to her anymore.

Now she is 11months old so I’ve been suggested by other friends with dogs that she might be just defiant over her age and that it’ll get better in time, but her not being able to relax and be calm around people has always been a problem that we just can’t solve. When people come to the house she goes crazy jumping at them trying to nibble at their sleeves and shoes, which is strange as she doesn’t do it to us she only nibbles “strangers”. It’s like she’s so excited that there’s a visitor and she just cannot contain herself. We often have to lock her away, that’s when she starts non stop whining untill she is let out(can go on for up to an hour straight we haven’t ever left her there longer but I believe she could still go on). When you let her out she’s straight away back to jumping at the guest. A couple of times she peed on the guest from excitement, once she ran around the guest in circles trying to jump up at them (we told them to ignore her till she calms down) so she got sick on them....

Can you remind me what food she has?

In the park I'd keep her on a long line until she has matured enough to calm down & listen!

If you have a visitor, put Luna on a lead and don't let her greet the visitors until she is calm. Keep her with you & when you stop or sit down, get her to sit or lie down. It'll take a while, and you may get tantrums, but it will work....eventually!

She isn't being 'defiant', she's being excitedly friendly! That's great, you know she's a friendly girl, but she does need to learn how to remain calm. I think it's more than likely that she just needs to mature a bit - she's still, really, a puppy!

She’s on Orijen puppy food since she was about 3-4 months old.

I always have her on a lead unless we are in a completely empty closed off field- in which she does listen enough to come back after she does a few laps of zooming past me we use a 3 meter extensive lead, she has learned to be really good on it and I rearly have to control the length it’s at as she keeps just a few steps ahead of me and will wait when I ask her to, it’s just that the second a distraction comes along I cannot get her attention back untill it passes, tests and such don’t work at all but maybe it will just come with age maybe.

I have tried to keep her on a lead with visitors but she just pulls and whines,then will lie down so the visitor will pet her and she starts nibbling them and jumping... will keep going at it and try more but was wondering if anyone had any tips what to do when I need to bring her to the vet. She has to go again in 4weeks for a check up to see if her eye gets better with what she got if not she will need to get skin scrapes and I’m just afraid of them not being able to do it.. when they asked me to put her on the vet table for them to just look at her she was jumping and wiggling her whole body in excitement trying to get at the vets face to lick it.. like she’s trying to be loving but it makes the vet not be able to look at her or do anything, my boyfriend had to hold her body while I held her neck and head against my chest in order for the vet to just look at her eyes :/

I wonder if it's time to change her food? Orijen is a good one, but maybe it is causing her over excitement?

Oh, I feel for you as my Opium is almost always in an excited state too.
If it’s any help to you, she was at her worst up to about 18 months old and then she’s starting to be more mature about things at now 21 months old.

When she grabs at my clothes, I tell her to let go and heavy praise when she does. When she’s really hyper and snapping out of excitement, I put a hand on either side of her body and push a little harder the opposite side to which she is snapping at. It’s enough to distract her attention from the snapping to what is putting a bit more pressure from one side.

We also have a Stop command but she can only hold a few seconds and generally bursts afterwards.
I would say that for your vets, she will calm down in time.
Do make sure she’s had a play before taking her to the vet. She won’t be calm but calmer and that’s always good to take.
Then I find that the more I show Opium of life in general, the better she manages to contain her emotions.

Our recall has also greatly improved at home since COVID and especially since I let the girls in all of the big garden. I’m trying to trust my girls more and I see a big difference in Opium. But out and about, I definitely keep my girls on a long line (hate those extendible leads that ironically always keep a tension on the collar/harness).

Oh, and you can take her off puppy orijen. Mine stopped puppy food at around 10 months old and the adult orijen is sold as “all ages” anyway so you won’t risk deficiencies

Just a thought, I presume you take her to the vets by car.
Do you go elsewhere by car and if so, at what frequency ?
Another thing that helped us was that I take Opium for a car ride whenever I can, even if it is just to wait a few moments for me in the car whilst I’m at the rubbish tip or the bakery. Any excuse is good.

I think you can also take your pets to pets at home stores (or equivalent). Try to take her even just for window shopping. The idea is to get her out of her familiar places (home) to see new places (shop, vet) and new people. It’s a sort of desensitization, if you will

Yes I was considering changing her food soon to adult food, maybe I should try a different brand and see how she gets on but I’ll have to do my research as to what one unless anyone has any good suggestions

She comes in the car a lot for a lot of reasons but she’s always very excited she knows what “going for a drive” means when my partner collects me from work he brings her with him, she comes when we go to the shop too and waits in the car with me. We take her in the car to go to the local forest too so she does definitely get excited to get into the car and to put her head out the window.

Let go is definitely something she is really struggling with and she just won’t do it unless you get mad at her and say it in an angry tone. She’s very stubborn and determined, with clothes she will let go but when it comes to toys she holds on for her life and shakes her head to try and get it from you. I tried to lure her away with a treat and praise the once off times she does let go but when it comes to toys or sticks she just won’t.

She definitely learns more everyday but she’s a very stubborn piglet that wants to lick everyone to death, and she can jump really high, she loves jumping so it’s very frustrating when she’s jumping at the vet poor girl just wants to love everyone but she needs to learn to do it gently

She’s a perfect example of a staffy really

Acana is very similar to orijen but a bit cheaper and not as “concentrated”, if you see what I mean ?
There might not be a problem with feeding orijen but she probably just doesn’t need the puppy variety now. Maybe switch over when you finish this bag ?

To be honest I was really considering to switching to Carnilove Lamb & Wild Boar for adult dogs. She has always been on a chicken flavoured orijen and gets chicken often as a treat and I was thinking about not giving her any chicken at all and seeing if it makes any difference with her itchiness and fur loss around eyes. Carnilove has lots of good reviews and comes in variety of flavours so thought it might be worth trying to switch to that and see how she gets on with it.

Yes yes yes !!
I give my girls carnilove but I don’t think you can get it everywhere.
Up until now, I was alternating between the 2 fresh kibble flavours : carp & trout or chicken & rabbit.
I suspect Nifty having a chicken intolerance (we stopped the orijen and acana due to added egg which was a problem for her) so I have just bought a bag of reindeer and a bag of salmon to see how she gets on.

Honestly, I’m very happy with the Carnilove and would even say that the tinned food has a very good rating too. My girls’ Sunday dinner is sharing a tin of carnilove and they love it.

The only bother with the kibble is the size of the bags, 1.5kgs or 12kgs but nothing in between. I would much prefer 6kg personally.

Yes the bag sizes aren’t great we got two small bags of the lamb and wild boar flavour, she still has small bit of the orijen puppy left so will just mix them half and half for next few days untill we run out and then she’ll be completely chicken free for a while to see if it helps at all with her itchiness

Hope you see a positive difference with the lamb & wild boar

I’ve currently got Nifty transitioning from chicken & rabbit to reindeer

Just wondering if you’re now feeding chicken-free kibble and if so, have you seen any change ?

I’m definitely seeing change in a chicken-free Nifty !

Yes and no. Her coat is much softer and shiner now,she isn’t scratching as much,but still does occasionally. Her eyes don’t seem to be getting worse but they’re not better-but fur might take a while to grow back so that could be why.

However upon looking at the ingredients more carefully the Carnilove lamb and wild boar does actually have 3%chicken liver. Most of the Carnilove range have at leave like 3% chicken liver or some other chicken organ. Do you think that’s okay or should I try to find a brand that’s 100%chicken free. The only Carnilove one I can fine with completely no chicken is the fish one I think but Luna isn’t a big fan of eating fish kibble, she tried it before and didn’t enjoy it much.

I think that if you’ve managed to reduce chicken to 3%, that’s great. Plus I don’t think organs have the same allergen factor than the meat. Thismight need confirmation though.
I switched Nifty from chicken & rabbit to reindeer and I’ve seen a huge improvement.

Yeah that’s what I was thinking that maybe the 3% chicken liver isn’t that bad. We have the lamb&wild boar and the reindeer one just to mix things up a bit sometimes. I think she prefers the reindeer one, she seems to eat it waaaaay faster then the other one