How to Keep a LA Dog From Getting Too Excited Before Walks

For this Los Angeles dog training session we helped a 6 year-old Tibetan Terrier named Max who gets so excited for walks he has trouble listening to his guardians.

Max was excited when I arrived for the session and shortly after coming inside he nipped me lightly after passing by him. It was a light one and he didn’t show any signs of aggression, so Im assuming it was a case of him letting me know he sees himself as being the leader in the home.

I spent quite a while going over ways to reward desired behaviors. Like many dog guardians, Max’s family spent quite a bit of time correcting him. Since good attention is about the same as bad attention, the humans had inadvertently trained him to misbehave as that’s when he got the validation of attention.

By petting Max with a purpose and rewarding desired behaviors through passive training, his guardians can help him start to behave how they want. This will improve communication and establish a healthy leader follower dynamic; a crucial part of dog behavior rehabilitation if you ask any of LA’s dog behavior experts.

I walked the guardians through a few positive dog training exercises to help Max learn to focus, leave a room on command and go to his dog bed on command. I also recommend the guardians teach Max to stay. Not only will this help manage the dog better, training a dog this way will help promote a healthy leader follower dynamic.

Next I turned my attention to Max’s excited behavior before going for a walk. When a dog get excited for a walk, that is a great example of what is referred to as Classical Conditioning.

Its important to remember that a dog’s excitement level inside the house before the walk has a huge impact on how the dog will behave when on the walk outside of the home. Watch the video below to get some free dog training tips to help a dog learn to stay calm when getting ready for the walk.

This was the first time using new components for loose leash walking prep and Max did an outstanding job. Before we started he got so excited for the walk he couldn’t even sit. By the time we finished, Max was calm, staying in a sit while being leashed, looking up to his guardian for direction and guidance. Although I do most of my work as a LA dog behavior expert, its nice to practice some Los Angeles dog behavior training too.

Its going to take the guardians a few weeks to get into a new habit of enforcing rules, petting with a purpose, rewarding desired exercises through passive training and building up new skills by practicing the exercises we introduced in the session. But the more they do so, the more Max will respect them. Changing his perception into a follower will be the key to stopping many of his unwanted actions and behaviors.

To help the guardians remember all the positive dog training tips we shared in this in home dog behavior training session, we shot a roadmap to success video.