I wonder if anyone has any tips for calming our ckcs down....

He is so excitable, in fact when we bought him we thought it was really cute but he is very rarely calm...at training the trainer said he was the most hyperactive ckcs she had ever seen (not a compliment!!)

He is walked, has toys that he plays with on his own and toys he plays with us with. We have a garden that he has access all times to also...

Any suggestions would be great

How old is he? A young dog is usually far more excitable than an older one.

I would also check out his diet as some foods can make dogs hyper. He might have a food intollerance. Worth checking ;)

Yes, I agree on the food, to be honest it would not worry me at all, hyperactive puppies do not necessarily make hyperactive adults, exercise usually does not rid a dog of hyperactivity you have to engage their brains, give him his walks and his plays in the garden with you and then play hide and seek games with his toys or treats, see if you can teach him little tricks to engage his mind, when you have done everything with him that should normally tire him out, then just pop him behind a dog gate or in a crate and tell him to sleep or calm.

If he gets used to this and in particular I would use the calm response you can then use this command in training classes to stop his excitment there and focus him on the class.

He just sounds to be a very happy little boy, let him enjoy himself and if the classes are too regimental for him at this time, try them when he is a little older. ;-)

He is fed on natures best puppy, he only has cooked meat as a treat as he is sick on all of the treats that i have tried before...:rolleyes:

Don't get me wrong he is alot of fun but can be a real pest when we have people over as he just loves people...and other dogs, he was the one in the class leading all the other dogs astray!!

I was just worried by the trainers comment, we did pass our kc good citizan foundation and we had planned on going back to do the next one but i think that he is just too excitable and i am going to wait until the next round of classes in the new year.

It does worry me that we will never be able to get another dog as he is a real pest and doesn't leave them alone but we have decided we won't look at this until he calms down...

He does have a crate which is always left open, he loves it and his bed is in there we originally got it so that we could say to the children that when he is in there he must be left alone! (i wish i could have a crate...)

Oh he is 7 months old!

I was just worried by the trainers comment

It's funny how just one persons comment can make you look at your dog/life in a whole different way. :-) Perhaps it was her skills of not being able to get back her authority that made her say that, after all most training classes have dogs that disrupt in some way, they are not all going to sit down nicely and listen.

Well done on passing the KC good cit, (he can't be that bad ;-)  )

CKCS's are such happy go lucky dogs, I love happy, nose into everything puppies, just the way they should be.  When he is between 12months - 2 years he will be great with another dog, when dogs live together they are not as full on as when they just have visitors, or meet on their walks, puppies in general love other dogs and Cav's are particularly friendly and I think thrive on living with another dog.

He sounds adorable and extremely happy. :-)

His diet sounds fine, just keep away from colourants and E's.

Goodness he is a real baby and I woudl expect hm to be a play pest.  My pup is 9 months old and plagues the life out of ther granmother.  She has 3 other dogs to keep her amused and she is still pretty tiggerish.

I would expect slight calming by a year and more adult behavioru by two, and real grown up traits by four.  this is the main reason my dogs are a minimum of two eyars apart in age, even up to foru with the most naughty immature one.

i agree its normal, i would be worried if he didn't have energy some dogs never grow up i have one:rolleyes:

When he is old enough I would suggest trying agility, sounds like he has the right sort of temperament. I love to see 'other' breeds at shows instead of the collies taking all the limelight! I have a GSD who was exactly the same at that age, one of the trainers at obedience told me to try agility & we never looked back. I think dogs need an out-going sort of temperament to compete, try it & see.

Just got back to this :)

As he is only 7 months old what on earth are you worried for ;) He still has to go through the 'Kevin' phase :D Enjoy his bouncy ways, so long as you can control him when you are walking him near a road, and carry on with his obedience. I don't think you have a real problem dog on your hands. It sounds like the trainer doesn't really want a dog that is a little bit naughty. She would rather have a class of robots :( Personally, I'd rather have a few like yours (ok, I have a few like yours ;) ) than one that is so quiet you don't know it's there.

hmm i can control him most of the time....:rolleyes:

I will continue with the training we are doing at home rather than obedience as i don't think that is the class for him at the moment but i love the idea of agility will ring our dog class tomorrow!

Perhaps it will occupy his mind enough that he won't be so crazy!! LOL

Agility would be ideal from the sounds of it.  Worked for my WSD and I have never looked back.

You will probably find that he wont be able to start classes until he is a year old but that isnt that far off.

Make sure you get his heart tested though before doing strenuous stuff like agility.  Hip scoring woudl be useful too to be sure he has good joints.  I know the breed isn't often hip scored, but the oens that have have had some very poor scores too.

Would you get him heart tested once a year?

Is this done at the vets?

Yes they should be tested every year

Didn't you get a copy of the Puppy Advice from your breeder ?

Yes they can be tested by your vet

Have a look at the Cavalier Club site for more information about health issues

He can't start agility training until he is a year old & you do need good offlead control first

My smallest Cavalier is mega active & often runs with the BC's & also chases squirrels etc Your puppy sounds perfectly normal & not in the least hype. Many people thing cavaliers should be sedate & quiet they forget that they still a spaniel

Because he is so friendly and wants to meet everyone i am very frightened of letting him off the lead in case he runs away from me as he quite often makes it into a game in the garden!

Maybe it is because so many of them are grossly overweight or have bad hearts.  The slim ones I know are typical spaniels in their activity levels.

7 months is still very young he prob will calm down abit. also i would not recomment agility to an excitable dog as i found this hyped him up even more.(my opinion) also have you tryed ignoring him when he satrts to get excited.

When we ignore him he does calm down sometimes so we will persevere with that. At the moment i can't take him to obedience as he is too excitable around the other dogs and i can see that people get fed up with it!:rolleyes:

He has a Kong toy which we spray the kong puppy paste into, and he has chews and a cuddly toy and a squeeky toy that we play with along with him. Do you think i should hide treats etc around the house would that be a good game for him?

Obviously he does get excited around the children and we always knew that with us having young children this would always be likely but on the whole our kids are very good with him not running around etc.

Our previous dog used to sleep in our room and i thought it would strengthen the bond with him if we put him in our room also so we tried this the other night and he just thought it was a game jumping on and off our bed so he is back downstairs!!

Sod the embarrassment :D

The point is he will never be calmer around other dogs at training if you don't take him.  The whole point of training classes is to train dogs that need it.

I would give up on trying to join in any of the exercises at first just go and sit with him and make him chill.  Have treats so you can reward him for attention on you and calm behaviour.  Break his eye contact with any dogs and keep him quiet on lead at you feet and keep him sat or lying down and stay calm.

Once he is reasonably OK with this then join in the static exercises like the sit and down stays.

then the recalls, and only once he can reliably pay attention the walking to heel with the rest of the class.

Ok I will attempt it again. I think i will use cooked chicken as his treats as he has a really sensitive tummy and whatever treats i try he is always sick!!

Don't get me wrong he isn't a crazy dog, he does have his calm moments and we did achieve our foundation in puppy training and he was very good with the learning just a bit of a pest to the other dogs!

Perhaps the next class will be different they weren't very friendly at the last one!

if you just sit in the class to get him used to being around the other dogs, we have to do this with our dog who is petrified to go and hides under the chair.  but if we dont take her she will never learn. i would try training again. our class is really good with over excitable dogs so maybe try a different class. even know mags is only seven months i take her to the advanced class just because the dogs seem to be a lot calmer and dont bark, which is what she is scared off. so if you could sit in a more advanced class you will prob find the other dogs wont react to him as much.

Our trainer does this sometimes with soem dogs, until they are calmer.

He was the only one in his litter, i'm sure this is what has made him so excitable around other dogs!

prob is, he prob just wants to play with them. im sure once he gets used to the other dogs he will calm down and not be as interested in them.