Driven or Hyper?

By Silvie Montier


While discussing the drive of a dog, too many imagine a hyper dog.  Although a high drive dog does have a lot of energy, he is by no means a hyper dog.  Hyper dogs, usually lack focus and therefore lack drive. 

A driven dog is a dog who can be very calm, but that nothing will stop until he achieved what he has put his mind to do.  The major work is to guide the driven dog as to what his little heart should desire, thus giving purpose to his drive.  Being calm is by no means opposite to having a good level of energy.  A calm dog can work for hours, sometimes days if he has a good drive.  It is a dog who thinks, who visualizes, a dog that calculates and adjusts to oncoming situations, a dog who has good work ethic.  Not all high drive dogs are calm dogs, but none of them are hyper.  Most of them are calm when indoors and active when loose outdoors.  The high drive dog is a "game boy".  He retrieves until your arm gets numb, he will play hide and seek, he will race anyone going in the same direction, he will go through the bushes rather than around to get to his goal, but it is a dog that never forgets you are here behind him, a dog who, easily trained, will respond to your commands, a dog who will get destructive only if allowed to be bored. 

On the other hand, the hyper dog is the one that will jump and run inside the home as well as outside, it is the dog who runs circles without other purpose than to burn energy, the dog who will change direction as his eye catches on something without having completed the previous chase, who, while in activity will no longer see you nor hear you.  It is the dog who rarely stops, the dog who is destructive just because it is something to do.

The high drive dog can be stopped from being bored by simply telling him to "keep the house" when you leave.  He then has a purpose and will carry on his duty with all vigilance required.
The hyper dog will not satisfy himself with such a responsibility.  He needs to move, to chew, endlessly and without purpose.  The driven dog always has purpose.