Finding the Optimal Arousal Zone for our dogs

As a trainer specialising in working type pet dogs, the number one issue I’m seeing currently is over aroused dogs who can’t settle into a functional state of mind - otherwise known as the optimal arousal zone.

Arousal is the state of physiological alertness, and how prepared our dogs are for action. We need a certain level of arousal for our dogs to be able to do stuff with us. Not enough and we see the sleepy, unmotivated dogs who just don’t want to do anything!

But in our pet working type dogs, we usually see them tipping into the red zone as shown here on the Yerkes-Dodson curve - over aroused, too wound up to do anything productive. This can look different in each dog.

Usually when we think over aroused, we immediately think of the dogs who get busier, more active, a bit frantic and sometimes into barky/lungey territory. That’s known as stressing up, or stressing high.

But we can also see dogs stressing low/down when over aroused. This can look like an unmotivated dog - sniffing, disengaging, getting silly and jumping around or generally avoiding the task at hand - but their heart is racing, their pupils dilated, and their brain fizzing and they’re just trying anything they can to cope in that moment.

Which way they go depends on the dog and the situation they’re in - some dogs can go either way in different scenarios. But whether they’re going up or down, it can be super tempting to whip out better toys and better treats to try and get the dog more motivated to work with us. This is a frequent occurrence in pet dog obedience and agility classes! But often you’ll find that either they’re too wound up to take those treats or toys, or they’ll take them but they’re not really doing much good - the dog is just sharking your hand off for the food which they swallow without chewing, or they’re mauling the toy in frustration. It’s just bringing the dog up higher, not into the thinking brain we want.

So what’s the answer for bringing our dogs back into the optimal arousal, thinking zone?

It’s typically not going to be a one and done quick fix. There are a few activities I do in the moment to suit each dogs case and bring them down - whether that’s as simple as a “no” and a leash correction in the right dog at the right time before redirecting to a healthier course of action, or for others we might work on simple cues they can do even in a high arousal state, find soothing patterns using food or using a station on a familiar mat/bed to help them settle.

In the bigger picture for longer lasting improvements though, it’s about addressing whole lot of different factors. Clarity in communication and expectations, the dogs familiarity/comfort in the environment or with other dogs/people etc, the handlers skills, and often the dogs health and general wellbeing.

All these pieces contribute to where our dogs arousal levels are sitting at any given time, and by working on each piece we can increase the dogs ability to find and sit in the optimal arousal zone in a wider range of situations.