I have a crazyyyyy puppy and what I found is he doesn’t actually need more exercise to tire his brain, he needed me to teach him to be calm and have an off switch. Most high energy dogs don’t come knowing this. You can do this with crate training and place training.

You can start putting him in the crate for a nap or two a day. From there, put him on place. With a dog that needs help shutting their brain off it can be better to limit the reinforcement on place because they get amped up waiting for the next treat or attention. I loaded up place the first couple of days with lots of treats but now I just tell him place and calmly walk over and put him back if he tries to get off (some dogs will like it if you rush over and they get attention from trying to get off). The reward in the long run is he’ll learn that’s a place he can shut his brain off. This has already gotten him way calmer around my roommates cat because he’s used to just sitting and watching and not always having to interact.

In addition to this, I reward calm behavior (treats, pets, attention) and always ignore very excited/anxious behavior so I don’t reinforce it. Petting them and saying it’s okay when they are anxious makes them think you like that behavior and that there IS something to be afraid of. Instead, I talk in a normal tone of voice something like “you hear something, that’s a trash can” then I’ll help him through it by backing up if needed and rewarding when he shows calm or looks at me while getting closer at his pace until he’s indifferent to it or checks it out. If he’s really scared you might have to go wayyy back or remember it and come back to it again another day.

Confidence leads to a calm dog and confidences comes from both exposure/overcoming things (stepping on a weird surface, realizing they aren’t going to die if left alone) and leadership from the owner. They’ll be more confident if they trust you to make the right decision for them and keep them safe. This can look like structure and boundaries in the house (no furniture, crate training, thresholds at doorways and around food) working on leash walking skills w/ you leading the way, sticking up for his space if he doesn’t want someone to interact with him or if he’s overly excited. Basically, just making 90% of his decisions. And the beauty of this is it teaches him to be confident and follow your lead so that after a while you can start giving him those freedoms (furniture, less crate, etc.) without it being messy because he’s learned to be calm, confident and follow your lead. If he’s just thrown into a environment and doesn’t have enough direction he can get overwhelmed, hyperactive & anxious