11/06/2026
Sometimes the biggest training wins come from teaching dogs how to be calm 😇
Jess and Lottie have made some wonderful progress over the past three weeks. Read their story below 👇 Lead the Way Training & Behaviour is a separate page for all my behaviour and training work 🩵
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Three weeks. One dedicated owner. One very enthusiastic Cocker Spaniel and some fantastic progress.
Over the past few weeks I've been working with Jess and her lovely Cocker Spaniel, Lottie, who was finding life just a little too exciting. Like many high-energy dogs, Lottie struggled with impulse control. Jess was dealing with demand barking when she was busy or on the phone, overly enthusiastic greetings, jumping on people and furniture, and becoming over aroused around other dogs.
Together, we put a plan in place that focused on teaching Lottie that calm behaviour opens doors, while excitement no longer gets her everything she wants.
For Lottie, everything was exciting.
The front door was exciting.
Visitors were exciting.
Getting in the car was exciting.
Mum coming home was exciting.
Mum moving around the house was exciting.
Life itself was exciting.
And that's not unusual!
Many dogs learn to be excited simply because excitement works. Without realising it, we often reward those big excited emotional displays. We greet our dogs enthusiastically when we get home, open doors while they're bouncing around, allow greetings when they're over-aroused, and provide attention, affection, access and rewards while they're in an excited state of mind.
Over time, excitement becomes the dog's go-to strategy. Why? Because it has consistently paid off.
One of the most common patterns I see isn't dogs being "naughty", it's dogs becoming very good at behaviours that have been unintentionally reinforced.
The good news is that we can teach the opposite. We can make calmness rewarding.
Greetings happen when the dog is calm.
Attention and affection happen when the dog is calm.
Access happens when the dog is calm.
Rewards happen when the dog is calm.
Dogs become better at whatever they practise the most. If excitement is repeatedly reinforced, excitement will naturally grow. If calmness is repeatedly reinforced, calmness will naturally grow.
After just three weeks of consistent work, Jess is already seeing some wonderful improvements, and both she and Lottie are enjoying life together much more.
One comment Jess shared with me this week was:
"There has been a big improvement in how much she jumps up on me. I didn't realise how much she used to do it until she stopped doing it as much."
That's often the funny thing about progress - sometimes we don't realise how far we've come until we look back at where we started.
Training isn't always about teaching dogs to do more or to be blindly obedient. Blind obedience doesn't change how dogs feel emotionally. Sometimes it's about teaching them how to do less, while being mindful of when we reward behaviour and what our dogs perceive as rewarding in the first place.
Well done Jess and Lottie. Keep up the great work!
