09/10/2026
Walks & overarousal x
Why does the “common” dog walk often turn into such a nightmare for a lot of us dobe owners?
I think a lot of us don’t realise that when we step outside our home into the big wide human world our young Dobes minds can be completely blown
There is so much going on and Dobermanns are pre-programmed to notice EVERYTHING, they are often so environmentally aware that outside is hard!
Our dog doesn’t know (as we do) that the dog barking next door. for example, is well contained by the fencing in his garden - our dog may feel he’s about to be attacked.
The noise of a building site may alarm our dog. They don’t understand the noises & workings in the human world. The off lead dog charging about may lead our dog to chase, they are genetically disposed to chase after all.
Dogs are not humans and they have no concept of how our world works so what we accept as the norm can be overwhelming or over arousing for some of them
On top of all this - we also know that a dog’s nose is capable of smelling one teaspoon of sugar in an Olympic size swimming pool and therefore he can smell a bitch on heat streets away or the cat hidden in the bushes down the road as soon as you open your door, that’s not to mention all the wildlife we encounter in the countryside that we walk in but can’t see. You can be sure our Dobes can can smell them tho and he then can’t help that his hardwired need to hunt & chase kicks in so he starts to crazily drag you along with him on his lead!
The world can be scarey or way too over exciting for our sensitive or overly prey driven Dobermanns. Reactivity often creeps in too because after all they are a large working breed, originally bred to be suspicious of everyone & everything
So what can we do?
Well - We can learn to observe their body language a lot better than we are able to generally.
We can then learn to spot the early warning signs of overarousal or anxiety and then be better able to cater for our dog in that moment on his walk - maybe taking a different path, do an about turn or even go somewhere else.
Next : We can learn about taking care of all his needs, not just food, water & walks. A DOBERMANN’S needs are far more complex than that. When we know what they are then we can learn to not just satisfy them but to focus these needs on us
We need our dogs to listen to us so they can be free on our walks. So we can practice the relaxation, confidence building & focus games we need, at home first and then in various other safe & quiet spaces so we can start to use them to help us and our dogs out & about
And in the meantime we can plan our walks. We can change where we walk and we can change what we do on them.
We can train a calm exit from the house
We can work on safe & calm travel, including being calm in the car & on exiting the car for a walk.
All these things will help you completely change the picture
We can build our relationship & focus with our dogs in chosen places and I really recommend finding & using these places as I do myself
My own dog walk with my puppies & young dogs has all the ingredient of a traditional walk ie : physical exercise, play, exploration, toileting, problem solving, training and companionship but it looks so very different whilst I’m training & preparing my young dogs for the traditional & our real world walks like the one I enjoyed yesterday with Sassi & Harris
Dobercademy : Training through kindness, knowledge & understanding
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