Best way to calm down a hyper, anxious, or badly behaving dog.

What's the best cure if your dog is hyper, anxious, or one that seems to vibrate too fast for his environment?  

Put him on a disciplined regimine of vigorous exercise each morning, become hyper concious of how and when you say his name, and increase your expectations of him.

Vigorous exercise is not a romp at the park.  This is too much fun, so it's not work, it's play.  It will have a momentary calming effect, but it doesn't build your jedi calming power.  A long, loose leash walk with multiple obedience commands throughout the journey works much better at building your leadership skills (which equates to more skill at calming your dog).  You can ask your dog to sit before being leashed, when at stop lights, when you get close to his triggers (quirrels, german sheppards, etc.).  

Sometimes when our dogs are excited we say their name casually.. for example, "Benjy, shush.  Benjy Shush.  Benjy stop barking".... My feeling is that dogs associate a very powerful and positive response when they hear their name.  So, hearing their name actually equals a big reward for whatever their doing in that moment and tends to reinforce the bad behaviour.  This is the same if you try to calm your dog down by petting him.  Don't use their name when you want them to stop a behaviour.  A much more effective mehtod is to flash them a firm and unaccepting gaze of your eyes.  Once they stop you can decrease your intensity and tell them to sit (and expect that they do not get up)... this is what I mean by increasing your expectations of him.

When your dog has mastered the art of sitting and not getting up until you tell him, then the earth will ground him and this will help calm him.  Not to mention, it's a very effective way to train 'stay' without introducing anything cmplicated.  He stays when he's distracted...maybe he vibrates a lot, or pants heavily when he's learning to do this.  This is OK... he's being obedient when he'd rather be doing something else and you're well on your way.