#166 Breeding Anxiety: The Hidden Cost of High-Energy Dogs

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Why can't some dogs just relax? You've taken them for a walk, done training, provided enrichment—yet they still pace, whine, or stay on high alert. It's easy to dismiss this as "high energy," but what if it's something deeper?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Let's talk about those dogs who just can't seem
to turn off.
And I don't mean border colliesor working dogs that are meant
to go all day.
I'm talking about the goldenretriever who paces nonstop in
the living room, or the shepherdwho's alert to every single
sound and can't settle evenafter a walk and a training

(00:25):
session.
And sometimes people say, oh,she's just high energy.
But what if it's more than that?
What if we're literallybreeding dogs who don't know how
to settle?
Because here's the thing wildcanines, like wolves and coyotes
, they don't act like that.
They rest a lot, they move whenthey need to hunt, protect,

(00:52):
explore, but they're not buzzingaround 24-7 like a toddler
after a birthday party.
They've got energy, sure, butthey also have natural
regulation.
They know how to conserve itand they know how to be still.
But our pet dogs, especiallycertain lines, they're

(01:15):
struggling and a lot of thatcomes down to us.
When a breeder, intentionallyor not, keeps producing dogs
with non-stop energy, dogs whopanic when left alone or can't
relax in the house, they'rereinforcing that nervous system.
And you do that for a couple oflitters and before you know it,

(01:36):
the puppies are being born witha brain that runs hot all the
time.
That doesn't mean these dogsare bad.
It just means they need so muchmore help learning to be calm,
because their baseline isalready cranked up to 10.
And sometimes, even with greattraining, they're still just

(02:01):
buzzing.
They're not misbehaving, that'sjust their wiring.
Now could we train that dog tosettle better?
Absolutely, but if calm isn'teven in their genetic blueprint,
it's going to take a lot moretime, more structure and a lot
of proactive reinforcement forbehaviors that we often overlook

(02:24):
, like doing nothing.
And if that same high arousaldog is bred again and again,
we're not just producing busydogs, we're producing dogs who
are trapped in their own energyand that's not fair to the dog
or the families who bring themhome thinking they're getting a
chill family companion.

(02:45):
So if you're looking for apuppy, don't just ask about
health testing, ask abouttemperament, ask if the parents
can settle in the house, if theylive with kids, if they've been
through storms and doorbellsand downtime, because what you
reinforced in one generationbecomes the baseline for the

(03:08):
next.
And if you've already got a dogwho struggles to turn off, just
know you may not be doinganything wrong.
Some dogs really are born busy,but that just means your
training has to be about morethan sit or stay or come.
It has to include calm,stillness and rewarding the

(03:34):
quiet moments just as much as wedo the flashy ones.