Teaching Impulse Control: Helping Your Dog Stay Calm

This is Boo, who is learning to control his hyper-activity around his favorite ball. The goal is to teach him that he only gets the reward when he is in a calm state of mind.

If your dog barks uncontrollably at guests, it can be very stressful. This session shows how we work on creating a calm response to people entering the home, using focus exercises and clear communication.

Here, we are practicing obedience exercises with a hyper dog inside the home. Using a designated "place" or mat gives the dog a job to do and helps them learn to settle down amidst household activity.

This is what a basic obedience and impulse control session looks like. The dog is learning to go to its "place" and stay there, even with the owner moving around. This builds focus and self-control.

This is an engagement exercise around guests at my training facility. The dog is learning to focus on the owner and remain calm instead of rushing towards new people.

Here we see two different energies: Chhote is anxious, and Boo is hyper. We are teaching both dogs how to coexist calmly by managing their impulses and rewarding settled behavior.

This is Goofy, a hyper-energetic dog in my Board and Train program. You can see how my calm body language helps him settle down. I am rewarding the moment he offers a calm behavior like sitting.

Training a dog to stay calm under distraction is key to reliable obedience. This session is focused on maintaining a "sit" or "down" while other people are moving around in the room.