Levels Of Excitability In A Dog


Excitability refers to how easily a dog comes alive or is set off by a stimulus such as a doorbell ringing, a vacuum cleaner being turned on, or a car door slamming half a block away. When we think of a calm dog, we are usually referring to its level of excitability as well as its general activity level. The specific question we put to our authorities regarding excitability was phrased this way: A dog may normally be quite calm but can become very excitable when set off by such things as a ringing doorbell, or by an owner's movement toward the door. This characteristic may be very annoying to some people. Rank these breeds from least to most excitable.

Prospective dog owners are going to differ about the level of excitability that is desirable in a dog. Almost everyone wants low-level excessive barking, and most of us would prefer a high level of acceptance of obedience training, but excitability is a trait that clearly relates to the particular household or lifestyle.

The small breeds, especially the terriers, rank the highest on this trait. The Bloodhound, the Basset Hound, and the Newfoundland rank very low. Because it's not easy to find a small dog that's not high on this characteristic, people who have an excitable dog may simply tolerate it as the cost of having a small dog. Of course, having a dog constantly buzzing around your apartment is much less annoying if the dog is very small.

Excitability, along with watchdog barking and excessive barking, is a trait that researchers did not rate as differing overall between the sexes. Thus there is no way that you can expect to influence this trait by selecting one sex or the other.

The predictive value of excitability is the highest of all key behavioral traits found in dogs. What this means is that you'll have more success in predicting a dog's behavior from this one trait than on some of the other traits that have medium or low predictability, so this is a good trait to start with in narrowing down your list of possible breeds.

One trait that sometimes relates to objectionable excitability is excessive barking. An excitable dog is one thing; a dog that barks every time it is excited is quite another. If you're concerned about too much excitability in a dog but prefer one of the smaller breeds, look for one that doesn't rank high on excessive barking as well.