Do you hold back from letting your dog get excited?

If your dog gets worked up about other dogs, the doorbell, or bunnies, do you avoid tug or being fun and exciting around those things? Are you afraid that you are reinforcing or rehearsing being excited when we just wish they would calm TF down?

Arousal isn't the enemy.

Arousal can work for you - and you can have fun with it!

Arousal is what makes our dogs really fun and good at sports, hiking, tricks, etc. Once your dog learns how to move from excited back to settled (we call this arousal modulation), the real training can begin.

Teaching people how to train this and how to have fun with it my very favourite part of dog training.

There are a lot of great games for teaching a dog to lower their arousal, but too often we skip steps. Dogs need more skill building before we can expect them to offer calm on their own, or we end up with frustration, too many failures, or progress that takes impossibly long.

If your dog gets worked up around other dogs or at the door or [insert your challenge], until your dog is trained, the fix isn't asking them to calm down. In that moment, they simply can't. They don't have the skills.

Think about the last time someone told you to "just calm down" when you were upset. Did it help? How did it feel?

It's the same for our dogs. Calm isn't something they can do on cue until we have taught it.

Food for thought? Hit reply and let me know what you think!

Have fun training!
Christina

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