Teach Your Dog to Be Calm If you want your kids to be able to sit calmly and quietly (without a phone or tablet) in a wedding, funeral, dinner party, or church service for an hour without disrupting, then they have to practice the skills of being quiet and sitting calmly PRIOR to the wedding, funeral, dinner party, or church service. It would also be a good idea to ensure they had proper sleep the night before, proper nutrition that day, and drained their physical/mental energy prior to the event.
So if all you do is let your dog practice excitement when they see you, excitement on the walk, excitement at daycare, excitement at the dog park, excitement for feeding, excitement, excitement, excitement - then you’ll never be able to take them to the library. We have to workout the muscles we want to build! And think about it.. how much of your life is made up of clubs, theme parks, concerts, and athletic events?
We spend waaayyyyy more time at dinner parties, waiting in lobbies, stores, restaurants, workplace etc which requires CALM/RESPECT. And your dog will spend the lion share of their life needing those same skills - calm and respectful. I’m not saying don’t have fun. But can’t you have fun without losing your mind? I’m not saying don’t create excitement.
But I AM saying that I’ve never once been paid to teach a dog how to be excited, however, I pay my bills teaching dogs how to be calm. Something to think about. 🤷🏻♂️ Our challenge for you today: require calmness from your dog before you need it. Require calmness when it’s “easy”. Don’t wait until you see another dog on the walk to try to get your dog to calm down. They should be calm when you come home, before you leave, when putting on the leash, at feeding time, when no one is around.. when it’s easy.
