We hear the same sentence almost every week: "My dog keeps getting into trouble when I am not home." Chewed baseboards, emptied trash, a shredded couch cushion. It is one of the most common calls we take, and it is almost always the same dog: a high drive dog with more energy than outlet.
The good news is that this is a management problem before it is a behavior problem. You do not need a different dog. You need a little structure and some common sense, applied consistently.
1. Use the crate
Crate training is the single best way to manage a high drive dog when you cannot watch them. At work, at the gym, in the shower, out running errands: if your eyes are not on the dog, the dog should be in the crate.
Two misconceptions keep owners from using one. The first is that a crate is a punishment. It is not, and it should never be used as one. Sending a dog to the crate after they have done something wrong teaches them that the crate is where bad things happen. The second is that dogs resent being confined. Dogs are denning animals. Set the crate up properly, feed meals in it, and give the dog a chew in there, and most dogs will start walking into it on their own to nap.
A crated dog is not a punished dog. A crated dog is a dog who cannot rehearse the habit of destroying your house, which means the habit never gets stronger.
2. Spend the time you have burning energy
Most owners of high drive dogs are not short on love. They are short on hours. So the time you do have with your dog should be spent draining energy rather than passively hanging out.
Throwing a ball, a brisk walk or run, swimming, a game of tug with rules. Any of it works. What matters is intensity, not duration. Twenty focused minutes before you leave the house will do more for a high drive dog than an hour of wandering the block while you look at your phone.
If your schedule genuinely does not allow it, that is what daycare is for. A dog who spends the day working and playing with other dogs comes home tired, and a tired dog is a dog who does not go looking for a project.
3. Give them something legal to chew
Naughty behavior usually traces back to boredom. Chewing is a normal, healthy dog behavior. The problem is never that your dog chews. The problem is what your dog chooses to chew when nothing else is available.
Give them a durable chew that suits their size and jaw strength, and make sure it cannot be broken into pieces small enough to swallow or choke on. Then keep it in rotation so it stays interesting. We do not push any particular brand. Durable and appropriately sized is the whole standard.
4. Teach the Place command
Place is the command that changes the most homes. You give your dog a defined spot, a cot or a bed or a rug, and the dog goes there and lies down until released. That is the entire skill, and it is worth more than almost anything else you can teach a busy dog.
Place works for the same reason the crate works. It gives your dog a clear answer to the question "what am I supposed to be doing right now." Dinner is being cooked, the front door opens, guests arrive, and instead of guessing, your dog goes to their spot and settles.
We use elevated cots for this at both campuses because the raised edge draws an unmistakable line between on and off. Your dog knows exactly where the boundary is, and so do you.
The pattern underneath all four
A high drive dog getting into trouble is almost never a character flaw. It is the direct result of how much activity and how much structure that dog gets across the day. Add structure, and the relationship shifts from constant correction to something you actually enjoy.
If your dog's energy has taken over the house, our approach to settling a dog who never seems to shut off walks through what that structure looks like week to week.
Want help getting there? Call us at 480-595-6700. We train dogs 20 weeks and older at our Scottsdale and Cave Creek campuses.
