Blaze pointing a bird!!
Warning: This video does have a high pitched chirp so if your dog has an aversion to this sound play on silent,
Impulse control and self control has to be taught to every dog. Although they learn the beginning stages with their mom and litter mates (bite inhibition, proper play, patience waiting to feed, being patient durning play and if they get hurt not over correcting the other pup or shutting down) this is something that has to carry over when they go to their new home. Regardless of age so even a rescue or older dogs have to learn impulse control and self control.
All too often this is missed and before you know it you are fighting a fight to get your dog to walk past another dog without trying to say hi, wait while you open a door to get a package or as you come in with your hands full, accept staying home without destroying anything and learn how to play without being over excited.
Impulse control and self control go together one is the act of waiting for something they really want and the other is the emotional/energy side of knowing how to remain calm and control their emotions.
Impulse control and Self control are used throughout the dogs entire life and trickles down to every aspect of what they do and how they go about doing it. A hunting dog has to learn he can’t chase, he has to track and point the bird, if he just rushes in and chases or worse jumps after the bird once it is in flight he could get seriously injured. That same hunting dog has to learn self control when he goes to retrieve that bird he has to control his excited emotion and he can’t just chomp down or try to keep it for himself.
Separation anxiety is an example of a dog who lacks self control and impulse control. They cannot emotionally handle being left alone and they very often will destroy things trying to get out.
Impulse control helps teach self control.
The process of teaching impulse control is very simple and one of the main ways I do this is through the Place Command. Teaching the dog to go to their place and fully settle (the self control aspect of it) is extremely important. It trickles down to having a dog who can handle just about anything sent their way. It helps them learn to just walk on by and ignore that other dog, person, skateboard. It teaches them to have control when you leave the house and know that you will be back. It teaches them to learn to fully settle down in any situation. It teaches them how to control their excitemnt durning play and teaches them to show restraint and not act out by humping, being too rough durning play and how to end play and walk away when they have had enough.
Self control is teaching a dog how to work through stress, excitement, frustration, and sometimes anger.
Blaze is the most well balanced dog I know and this is why he can teach other dogs self control and impulse control.
He has developed an aversion to certain sounds. He can handle thunderstorms, fireworks, and any other sound except the high pitched chirp of the low battery sound on the smoke detector. Or scuffing shows on a smooth surface.
In the video above you will see he is beginning to get fearful and I help him through this emotional reaction byputting him IN a command. In this case I have him lay down. I keep my tone calm nd steady and insist he goes into the down. I don’t feed into his emotional response and he will fully settle. He isn’t calm by any means just yet but he is learning to release that negative energy and does come out of it calm and relaxed.
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