01/06/2025
“Tired Isn’t Always Trained: Why Mental Stimulation Is the Key to Calming High-Drive Dogs”
In the world of dog ownership and training, there’s a phrase that often gets thrown about: “A tired dog is a good dog.” While there’s truth in the notion that a dog with pent-up energy can quickly become a behavioural handful, we must tread carefully. Particularly with high-energy, high-drive, focused dogs, the live wires of the canine world, physical exhaustion alone is not the answer. In fact, it can sometimes make things worse.
This article explores why mental stimulation is not only as important as physical exercise? but arguably more so, when it comes to managing and training driven dogs. Whether you’re a dog owner or a professional trainer, understanding how to “work the mind to calm the body” is critical to creating balance, focus, and long-term behavioural success.
The High-Drive Dog: A Blessing and a Challenge
High-drive dogs, whether a working-line German Shepherd, a driven Malinois, a focused Border Collie, or even a working Cocker Spaniel, are genetically wired to do. They’re bred for stamina, intensity, and a singularity of purpose. In the right hands, they’re an asset. In the wrong setup, they’re a liability.
These dogs don’t switch off easily. They’re not content to curl up on the sofa after a trot around the block. Instead, they look for jobs to do, problems to solve, or trouble to make. Give them too little structure, too much stimulation, or inconsistent guidance, and they may develop behaviours such as:
• Obsessive fetching or ball chasing
• Fixation on movement (bikes, joggers, wildlife)
• Destructive chewing
• Lead reactivity
• Hypervigilance
• Chronic inability to relax
Physical Exercise: Helpful but Not the Whole Picture
There’s no question that dogs need exercise. Walks, play, and purposeful activity are essential for physical health and cardiovascular fitness. But here’s the trap many owners fall into:
They keep ramping up the physical exercise, longer walks, faster runs, more ball throwing, believing it will tire the dog into calmness.
In reality, what often happens is this: the dog gets fitter, not calmer. You’re training their body to expect more and more adrenaline-fuelled output, which only makes the “off switch” harder to find.
If you’re constantly topping up physical energy without any outlet for mental engagement or downtime, you’re fuelling a cycle of over-arousal and lack of control.
Why Mental Stimulation Matters
Mental work taps into the cognitive part of the dog’s brain. It engages their ability to problem-solve, make choices, respond to cues, and think. Unlike physical exercise, which can spike arousal, mental stimulation builds focus and emotional regulation.
When a dog has to think, they slow down.
Think of it like this: physical exercise burns calories; mental work builds resilience. It fosters better communication, develops calmness, and increases your dog’s capacity to respond to instruction, even when they’re excited or distracted.
Practical Ways to Engage the Mind
Here are effective, practical ways to mentally stimulate your high-drive dog:
1. Scent Work and Nose Games
Dogs see the world through their noses. Scent work taps into their most primal biological need: the drive to hunt, track, and search. Even five minutes of structured scent work can calm a dog more effectively than a 30-minute run.
Start with simple find-it games in the house or garden. Hide treats, toys, or even yourself and let them search.
2. Food-Based Enrichment
Instead of feeding from a bowl, hand-feed meals during training or use food-dispensing toys and puzzle feeders. This turns meal times into mental workouts.
Snuffle mats, frozen KONGs, licky mats, and scatter feeding are excellent for encouraging focus and slowing down the dog’s pace.
3. Obedience with Purpose
High-drive dogs thrive when they understand what’s expected of them. Teach a structured obedience routine, sit, down, stay, heel, recall and practise it in a calm, focused manner. Make sure to use clear marker words and reward calm, deliberate responses.
Mix up your sessions. Keep them short and engaging. Three five-minute sessions a day are often more valuable than one long, dragged-out effort.
4. Impulse Control Games
Teach your dog how to wait, leave it, stay, and settle. These exercises help the dog learn that calm behaviour earns rewards. Games like “It’s Yer Choice” or teaching a solid “Place” command are powerful tools in reducing impulsive behaviours.
5. Teach New Skills or Tricks
Dogs love to learn, and driven dogs love a challenge. Whether it’s a paw, a roll over, or something more advanced like opening a door or retrieving an item, learning new tasks builds focus and strengthens the dog/owner bond.
6. Environmental Training
Expose your dog to new sights, sounds, and surfaces, but not in a frenzied, over-excited state. Instead, work on engagement, neutrality, and loose-lead walking in new places, always aiming to lower arousal, not spike it.
Teaching the Dog to Switch Off
Just as important as working the dog’s brain is teaching them when to rest. High-drive dogs often struggle with enforced calmness because no one has ever taught them how to relax.
• Crate train or use a designated “place” mat.
• Reinforce calm behaviour in the house.
• Don’t reward attention-seeking or hyperactive demands.
• Incorporate structured enforced rest periods as part of your daily routine.
This is where your structure and boundaries as a trainer or owner really matter.
Final Thoughts
For high-drive dogs, exhaustion is not education. You can’t run the energy out of them and expect calm. What they need is balance, between movement and stillness, stimulation and rest, action and reflection.
The real magic happens when we stop asking, “How far can I walk this dog to calm him down?” and start asking, “How can I engage his brain to create calmness from within?”
Train the mind, and the body will follow. Calm isn’t found at the bottom of a 10K hike, it’s built, thoughtfully, one choice at a time.
www.k9manhuntscotland.co.uk
