Does seeing other dogs playing, wildlife or people stir your dog up into a state of over-arousal? This may be displaying frustration behaviours, increased pulling on the lead, whining and crying, panting excessively or instigating inappropriate play with a walking buddy.
Princess struggles with over-excitement, especially at the start of her walk and when she wants to play with her older brother Jax. Using food scatters helps to calm her down at the start of the walk, interrupt cycles of rough, one-sided play, and helps her decompress after seeing something a bit scary or unexpected. It's also a nice calm, social activity she can do with Jax without needing to bowl him over!
Encouraging sniffing can be a great way to help calm dogs down and help them get into more of a thinking state again. Sniffing is a naturally calming behaviour and helps to lower the heart rate and reduce anxiety. If your dog struggles to sniff on their walks, you can help support them by using food scatters to encourage sniffing and foraging.
Food scatters are perfect for encouraging intense sniffing and help to break your dog's line of sight to that really over-exciting thing. One of my favourite options for this is freeze-dried raw food, its high meat content will keep your dog engaged and it is really easy to crumble up into flakes, giving your dog more to sniff for, making a small piece go much further than kibble.
