An energetic dog that you have rescued from a shelter or a foster home can be a bucket load of fun. He or she will enjoy racing around your house that is all too small for such a vibrant creature, knocking over vases and dishes, tearing up the carpet, colliding with walls and household residents, and just having itself a ball; however, if you haven't picked up on it yet, someone could get hurt, and hopefully it won't be the dog. Energy is a sign of life in pets, so it's not as if your adopted or rescued dog needs to be any less energetic in order to have a good life in your home; you just need to create a system capable of harnessing such a potentially dangerous amount of energy.
One of the best ways to help an energetic rescue dog is to give it some room to run around in without any major obstacles or hazards. The easiest way to do this is to get a fence installed in your backyard. Although this may be relatively expensive, it saves you the time and energy of having to walk a very energetic dog four or five times a day at a sub-five minute mile pace. Plus, once the fence is installed, your dog will have a sizable piece of land to call its territory and play in. This lets your dog not only have a way to expend some of its energy before coming inside and taking over the house, but to also use the bathroom without taking you along.
Now, the exact opposite of the first proposal works just as well. If you enjoy running, take your energetic dog for a run with you every day and see if you can keep up with him or her. Not only will you have the advantage of having a companion while you exercise, but you can kill two birds with one stone by allowing your dog to relieve itself while you are running and having a good time of it. Energetic dogs like to move really fast, or at a moderate pace for an extended amount of time (little hairballs never get tired, do they?), so you should definitely consider promoting your rescued dog to the rank of "exercise buddy." Speaking of buddies, this also lets you spend some quality time with your rescued dog, which will get him or her used to being around you and better adjusted to its new life. Be careful, though: for at least the first few weeks that you take your dog running with you, you should keep it on a leash. Depending on your dog's attention span and loyalty to you, which probably isn't very strong because he or she is a rescue dog, he or she may run away in a heartbeat unless attached to you by a leash.
Try to keep your dog as entertained as possible to make sure that its energy is channeled towards more productive activities rather than destructive activities. For example, a destructive activity would be running into walls and smashing vases, whereas a productive activity would be herding sheep. Okay, so chances are that you don't live on a farm and that you don't want your dog to chase sheep around all day, but you get the idea. Let your dog run with you, or even set a new pace. If you can think of any way to put your dog's energy to good use, such as racing or helping with some work (even if it means just following you around, possibly on a hunting expedition), then your dog will have a much better life than than if its energy had no use except to destroy your home.
Additionally, young and energetic dogs tend to enjoy playing. If you have any children, then this is a perfect situation; encourage your children to play with your newly rescued dog (Knowing little kids, I have a feeling it won't take too much convincing) so that it gets enough attention from the family and can put its abundant supply of energy towards playtime rather than destruction time. Plus, your kids will have fun with the dog as well, so this is another situation in which two birds can be killed with the same stone. Speaking of stones, you'll need to set some basic rules for playing with your children, such as no yanking on the dog's tail, no biting back at the dog, no attempting to ride the dog like a horse, no poking in the face, and yes, no throwing stones. If your children are comfortable and responsible enough to handle playing with a dog, then you've got yourself one more way to help out your rescue dog.
Logically, dogs like to play with other dogs. You should make an attempt to find other dog owners of similarly sized dogs in your neighborhood and possibly arrange a "play date" with them. Energetic little puppies love wrestling, playing tug-of-war, and chasing each other; plus they seem to have their own mysterious way of communicating with one another, so they can discern an attempted murder from a merely playful bite, unlike some humans. If you have another dog in addition to the rescued one, this situation is even better, as he or she will now have a friend to play with all day. However, you need to ask questions about the temperament of the dog after he or she is rescued to find out about any possible outbursts or incidents, and make sure you ask the owners of other dogs how well their dogs get along with other pets. You don't want there to be any bad blood for anyone just because you wanted your energetic dog to have some fun in its life.
As far as your dog's diet goes, you really shouldn't need to do much besides making sure that he or she is getting just enough to eat. If your dog is energetic, like an energetic human, its metabolism may be slightly different from that of a more languid or sedate canine. You'll need to pay some extra attention to when your dog needs to relieve itself, i.e walk it as often as you can or allow it to roam free in your backyard. Having too much energy does mean that your dog is going to burn calories, so you need to make sure that it gets enough to eat to fuel this exercise.
The method you choose largely depends on your style of ownership and personality; however, this is subject to change if you need to accommodate your pet. For example, lets say you are someone who rarely exercises; the ideal solution to helping out your rescue dog would be to build a fence in your yard, no? But what if your yard isn't very large, can't have a fence installed, or if you find a fence to be too expensive? Well, it looks like you'll have to get off the couch and take your dog for a walk or run. In fact, maybe you should take up running as a hobby to have something to do with your dog. Often times, the adopted or rescued dog only needs to make a few adjustments to settle into its new home, but the owner may need to make some larger adjustments to help it out.