Though her displays of affection (and really any emotion) can be excessive at times, she is powerfully personal in all of her connections—with you, other family members, and other pet companions. She does need your understanding when it comes to her occasional tendency to shoot from the hip—sometimes dramatically overreacting to perceived threats to her valuables and comforts—but she rarely intends any harm, even in her grumpy moments. She is just . . . so . . . emotional.

Love her for it. Help her through it. Show her how to keep a grip, and forgive her when she just can’t get one. She is just as she was intended to be, even if she is a difficult one to love in certain moments. The love you will feel in return from her is powerfully passionate and true to the bone. As with everything else, she gives it her all.

KEY CONCEPT: Impulse Control

There she goes. Gone. Good luck getting her back now. Even though she is still attached to the leash you are holding, she is a million miles beyond your reach. There’s nothing you can say or do to get her attention or interrupt her blind determination. All rational thinking has slipped away from her. Welcome to her passionate world. Welcome to your scent hound.

She is not broken or unusual. She is not a sociopath, and she has not turned wild. She is just lost in the land of passion, consumed by her own natural impulses in the face of great excitement. She will come back to you, return to being the sweet pup you know and love . . . eventually.

While all dogs can benefit from improved impulse control, scent hounds arguably make the best case for such efforts. In order to make better decisions, take directions more readily, and stay safe in the modern pet landscape these emotional dogs need a little help from us. You’ll have to literally teach her body—her nervous system—how to handle all of this excitement better. Helpful as all of that emotion might have been on the hunt, it can be pretty overwhelming on a city block.