So, you brought your precious dog to a party the other day but found yourself apologizing profusely after the perfect pup you promised turned into a furry flurry of bad behaviors, including a lack of impulse control. They would never do these things at home, but out in public, where distractions abound, they ignored your cues, snatched food from counters, jumped on party guests, and basically did the exact opposite of what you’ve been training them to do.
Don’t beat yourself up; it’s all part of the process, and we see this all the time during our training sessions at Pawsitive K9 Solutions. That’s why we never consider a dog proficient with any good behavior or command until we push the limits using the 3 D’s— distance, duration, and distraction.
Today, let’s focus on the distraction portion of that discipline and provide a few quick tips on how we can use distractions to build focus and develop the impulse control that you’d expect from any good-mannered pup.
What Does Distraction Mean?
We adults have had ample time to grow accustomed to the sights, sounds, and smells of the world around us, but your poor puppy hasn’t had quite as much time to acclimate?
The curious pup wants to dive in with all four paws, checking out everything around them, seeing, sniffing, licking, and otherwise engaging with everything and anything. Likewise, the cautious pup may cower in the presence of too many stimuli, hiding behind your legs and hoping you’ll protect them or remove them from the scary environment quickly.
Regardless of which pup sounds like yours, it’s hard to get their attention or have them successfully obey commands if they’re distracted by the environment.
Thankfully, with consistency and a little know-how, you can use those distractions to your advantage and train your pup to perform perfectly no matter what’s going on around them.
Tips for Teaching Your Dog Impulse Control
So, your pup is busy when there are things in the environment they want to get into. That’s very understandable for puppies, but we must teach them that you are the source of rewards and that it’s more worthwhile to stay by your side than to run off and get into trouble.
Here are some of our top tips for teaching impulse control.
1. Start Small
If your primary training setting is your living room, where it is reliably quiet and everything around you is within your control, then your dog may be great at holding a sit-stay position. Now, throw in the hustle and bustle of a busy sidewalk, noisy traffic, and other dogs being walked nearby, and suddenly, that sit-stay is not so good anymore.
The idea is to gradually introduce higher levels of distractions before expecting your dog’s full attention in an environment full of distractions.
Start at home, practicing for short periods of time in different rooms to rehearse and reinforce, then take it outside. A street with some pedestrian activity or a quiet neighborhood park might suffice for a first outing. From there, you can go to busier areas, eventually working your way up to areas with many distractions, like crowded parks, events that allow dogs, and city sidewalks.
Home Depot allows dogs to enter as well, but be sure you’ve reached an intermediate level of attention before bringing them there. With customers, employees, and even heavy machinery like forklifts moving through the store, it’s not ideal if you’re still laying the initial groundwork.
2. Be Generous With Rewards
As the name suggests, we at Pawsitive K9 Solutions believe in positive reinforcement, so we’re quick to recommend plenty of treats during training sessions. You want your dog to associate rewards with you, not the environment so that they’re more focused on what you’re doing and what you’d like from them rather than what they can find all on their own.
Direct their attention and reward eye contact, sit-stay position holding, obedience, and more. Using a clicker can be helpful here too, but the timing can take some work, so we recommend discussing with a certified dog trainer before beginning specialized training such as this.
Over time, after much praise and consistency, your dog will begin focusing on you and ignoring the increasing level of distraction around them. And that’s exactly what you want.
3. Teach Restraint
Teaching your dog what not to do is almost equally as important as teaching them behaviors and commands. For example, a stay, “leave it,” or reliable recall command can be lifesaving in the right situation.
As with all impulse control training, start small. Asking them to wait an extra moment before diving into their bowl of kibble, for example, is a good way to teach restraint. Another great method is by offering a treat in a closed hand, letting your desperate pup try their darndest to get it, only to open your hand once they sit down and show patience.
The important thing to remember here is that it’s rarely enough to tell your dog not to do something without also offering what you’d prefer they do instead. If you tell them not to jump, do you want a sit-stay, or do you want them to go to a designated place and remain there? If they’re expected not to chew on a guest’s shoes, is there something else available that you would prefer them to chew on?
So, be consistent in teaching patience and restraint, and always offer an alternative to the impulse.
4. Hire Help
Training is a process, and while you can build a strong foundation over the course of a few weeks during the formative weeks of your puppy’s life, it is often a lifelong process.
Don’t go it alone!
Hiring professional dog trainers, like the ones we staff at Pawsitive K9 Solutions, gives you the support and attention of a certified expert, insight into cutting-edge and tried-and-true training methods, tips, tricks, and so much more. We offer various services designed to help your dog build confidence and a strong foundation so that you both can live your best lives together.
Don’t wait; contact us today and find out how we can help you turn that embarrassing party pup into the perfect party guest!
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