Basic Impulse Control: A Young German Shepherd Learns From the Pack

Impulse control is the skill underneath almost everything else you want from a dog. A dog that can hold itself still while something interesting happens two feet away is a dog that can walk past another dog, wait at an open door, ignore a dropped sandwich, and come back when called. A dog that cannot do that will fail at all of those, no matter how many commands it knows. In this short clip, Shawn Hines is working with a young German Shepherd at Best Buddy Dog Training. The job is simple to describe and hard to do: stay settled and keep paying attention to Shawn while the distractions are close, moving, and very tempting to a young dog. He is not working alone. Simon, Gabby, and Kaiser, three adult German Shepherds who already understand the rules, are right there in the mix. They are calm, they hold their positions, and the youngster reads that. Dogs learn a great deal from watching settled dogs, and a good pack does some of the teaching for you. Watch for what is not happening. Nobody is waving a treat. Nobody is pressing a button on a remote. The pressure on the young dog comes from Shawn's position, his movement, and his timing, and the release comes the moment the dog makes the right choice. That is the core of the PRIME approach: proximity, resources, interactions, movement, and elevation used clearly and fairly, so the dog learns to look to its person before acting on its impulses. This is the same work we do in your home and in our board and train program across Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York. German Shepherds, working breeds, and adolescent dogs of every kind need this foundation early. If your young dog cannot obey around distractions, call (401) 536-7982 for a free phone consultation.