This is not really a "problem", but I'm just curious. Kenya is the type of dog where it's all or nothing. She's either totally laid back and sleeping, or she's all hyped up and ready to roll. It's not a nervous anxious thing, just a lot of excitement. I think she's a high strung dog, something I cannot and do not intend to change. For example, when I come home, I hear the dogs bark. That's fine with me, my neighbors haven't complained and I like that they recognize someone coming to the house. The difference is that Coke barks a few times and when I enter he backs up and wags his tail very excitedly, but Kenya is so hyped up she's literally jumping 6 feet in the air straight up, knocking her paws on the slider door or the windows as I walk along the driveway, and when I come in she's spinning in circles or jumping all around me (I've taught her not to jump ON me, but I guess the jumping on me was not the real issue, it's the overall excitement). I'm not sure that she's any more excited than Coke is, but she just tears around the house for several minutes. Again, I don't call it a real "problem" because she is NOT mouthy and is not barking at me or jumping on me. But, like today when I came home at lunch, when I let the dogs out the back door she took off so fast she literally ripped a section of carpet off the porch floor. There's no middle ground for her. Coke is excited too, but he walks out on the porch, waits for the door to open, trots outside and THEN runs around. It doesn't even matter how long I'm gone. This morning I walked out the door but forgot something so I went back inside and already she was jumping up and throwing her body against the sliding door.
Another way this manifests itself is going up and down stairs. Our house is very small and is a weird double split level, so we are going up and down stairs every few minutes. Coke...he just goes up and down the stairs like norma. Kenya...she will come from the other end of the room and bowl me over to get up the stairs if she thinks that's where I'm going. Many times she's slipped and falling, twisting her legs or slamming her own head into the wall. I don't really mind if she follows me around, but this 0-100 way of doing things could be dangerous for her. It's like she goes from a deep slumber to "OMG MOM IS GOING UP THE STAIRS!" in half a second. MOST of the time she is calm and relaxed in the house, either sleeping, chewing bones, or playing with Coke, it's the times when I come home or when I am up and moving around that she gets spastic on me. I EXPECT dogs to be excited when we come home, but one of these days she's going to slam through the glass and be injured or worse.
I guess I'm open to suggestions on just helping her CHILL OUT more in the house when I am moving around. It's kind of hard to explain. Coke does it perfectly. Yes he follows me around and gets very excited when we come home, but he's not throwing himself against glass doors, ripping curtains off the wall, tearing up the carpet excited. I'm sure crating them would solve the problem but I'd hate to have to crate them when I leave just for that. When I am gone, they are fine. I can tell where they sleep by all the drool and hair that's there when I get back.
Some of the things I am going to try are.... When I come home I walk in and ignore Kenya b/c she's going ballistic, I give Coke all the attention. If she doesn't get the point, then I simply send her to a crate. I shut the door. When she calms down (and STAYS calm, as in, not being calm but then starting to thrash as I reach for the door), I open the crate door. Now if I simply release her at this point, she still TEARS out into the yard literally ripping carpet in her wake, so I reach in and LEASH her, and then we sloooowly and calmly walk out the door (I say "easy.....eeeeasy...", then I kneel down and stroke her, speak sloooowly and calmly for a few seconds, and then let her go. She gets affection for being calm and she sees that I am not rushing. Once she's out in the yard, I don't care how wild she is. Coke has figured this out, he knows that we go out, he waits to get clipped, and then when I give him a little spank on the butt and say "OK!" he runs off. I'm also working on using my arms to give cues that I need more personal space (seriously all I'm asking for is six inches! I'm not sending her to another part of the room). A few times today as we've gone up the stairs I hold her collar and go with her slooooowly. Any other things to try?
Again, this is not a complaint or an "issue" or whatever, I'm looking into this more for her own safety than anything. Today she was so hyper she ended up slipping and walked with a limp for a while.