by Marc Phillippe Babineau

Created on: November 14, 2008   Last Updated: May 25, 2011

There are rescue dogs, which help in the finding of people who are lost or buried under an avalanche of snow or debris, and there are rescued dogs, which have come from homes where they were abused, from puppy mills or from the dog pound where they were facing euthanasia simply for not being adopted in time.  Rescue dogs are a highly trained, energetic dog that are extremely intelligent and focused on their task at hand; saving human lives.  When a rescue dog in training just does not make the final cuts they can look forward to careers in law enforcement or airport security, as the rescue dog is one of the more intelligent work dogs in the industry.  Knowing how to help an energetic rescue dog begins with noticing the signs early and increasing their exercise regimes.

When a rescue dog starts to show signs of being overly energetic they must be returned to basic training.  However, the owner must first investigate the reason(s) for the rescue dog to become energetic in the first place.  Perhaps they are not being worked enough, which for the people that they are trained to help is a great thing since nobody is lost or buried alive.  Since rescue dogs are trained to locate specific scents, they can also be trained to sniff drugs, bomb making elements or other illegal substances, as well as illegal immigrants.

If the rescue dog is simply not being worked enough, it should be trained to help in other ways, perhaps even as companion animals for elderly homes, hospices or children’s hospitals.  The rescue dog’s overall joy is in the success of the task that they are presented with, so presenting it with more tasks can greatly reduce pent up energy that could be adversely affecting their main job.  All that pent-up energy needs to be released in a natural way before it is expelled in the home or in the field where their talents are needed the most.

When a rescue dog is overly energetic they can lose focus and change direction to chase a different scent from the one that they are tasked with, which could lose valuable time in finding  people that are in major distress, possibly even buried under six feet of hard packed snow.  When a rescued dog is overly energetic all that really happens is a lot of dissociative behaviour which can be eliminated with a lot of love and running, running, running.  Take the rescue dog through its original training program again, in order to re-instil its’ work

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