Over-Stimulation

Ok, a little info about him: he is a year old Dutch Shepherd named Apache. I have had him since he was 8 weeks old, and work with him everyday. He is indoor/outdoor, but spends the majority of the day outside in a fenced 2 acre backyard. Its because he wants too...he gets bored inside.

Anyway, he does great when he is working. He is focused and calms down. However, sometimes he get way overstimulated and goes crazy. Its like a switch flips and he can't listen to commands he just did instantly a second before. When the flip switches, he usually tries to play. It is not aggressive at all, but he takes it too far and will get too rough with my arms, and tears my clothes. He doesn't listen to commands unless i calm him down or distract him first. And its not only while like playing or anything. It can happen anytime something exciting (or boring sometimes) happens (new people, dog, me doing something else, etc.) I have tried to ignore him (gets more crazy). And forcefully holding him till he calms down. The last one sometimes works, because i can hold him down and then once he sort of snaps out of it, i can give him a command. often he will revert back again a few minutes later. And holding him down is not a solution i want to rely on...he often thinks i'm engaging him in play and gets more crazy.

Have any of you experienced this kind of over-stimulation before? Not sure if this a dutchie thing or just a individual dog personality thing. Any suggestions on how to calm him down/get him to snap out of it?

Oh, btw, it is not a lack of exersize. like i said, he runs in a huge yard everyday, and i take him on 2-4 walk/runs everyday, plus lots of hiking, training, and basic agility. I have also been being to do some training for SAR.

HI i would say some of the behaviour is down to breed,dutchies are hard,sharp strong willed dogs and some is down to training,control and respect,have you talked it over with your trainers? does he know a "off" and
"leave" command?they type of dogs need so much mental stimulation and like every dog they need to learn to cope with frustration

Yeah, I was thinking it was a breed and individual thing together. He knows the leave command. What is the off command? He knows a command to get off things (couch, table, etc) not sure if that is what your talking about. Man, they sure do need a lot of mental stimulation. He loves mind games. When he is working, he does great with commands, and obeys instantly. I just need to figure out how to snap him out of crazy mode. We've been playing a eye contact game to see hold long he can focus on my eyes. It's is pretty cool.

Thanks for your response!

a off command could be used to stop him jumping up at you,what word do you use to get him off the settee ect and you could use the leave command to get his teeth of your arms then quickly distact with a toy as you have already taught a leave i would also teach him a hold command because if he is concentrating on holding the toy or chew he cant be mouthing and jumping up at you,i have a bull terrier cross who is similar to your boy and have found great results in teaching him that to greet me or play with me or anyone coming to the house he has to have a toy in his mouth

i would also refrain from playing any games with him that are prone to over stimulate like tug of waror chase you

Ok, got it! That's a good idea about the toy...makes sense! Thank you for your help, I will try it and see how it goes! Thanks

are you likely to want to train and compete in bite work with him in the future? if so i would find a trainer who competes sooner than later to help you calm him down and perfect a good "out" or "off" command because if you want to teach bitework you really need a dog that doesnt react to frustration or excitement by mouthing because this can easily become dangerous.good luck and let me know how you get on

I was considering it, but I don't think he would succeed in bitework, and I think I should not do bitework with my first working breed. I am planning on doing Search and Rescue with him, so we are focusing on nosework/finding people. He also enjoys agility, so maybe sometime I might do competitions.

sounds like an excellant plan,if you are a runner wot about canicross aswell and if he likes water try dock diving

I may look into that! I'm not a "runner" but with a dog like him, I have to get in shape and run. He is great at pushing me he's not too crazy about water, so he might not like that. I always like suggestions for new things to try.

What kind of dogs do you have and what do you do with them?