Do you ever have the urge to throw everything down and throw a screaming, yelling, crying, temper tantrum? Do you ever do it? Maybe you do, but here's the real question: Do you ever do it in public? In the middle of a huge, packed food court in the mall? I hope not, since if you do you may be due to be carted off by the white coats any day now.
Assuming you're the average person, why don't you give in to that urge and have the temper tantrum? The answer that many of you are probably thinking is because it's embarrassing, or it's just something not done in public.
Now consider a dog that has the urge and really does have a screaming, yelling, crying, temper tantrum in a very public place where a lot of people (and other dogs) can hear it.
What stops you from doing it, and what causes your dog to do it? It's the same urge, and it's just as loud coming from both dog and human whenever it happens.
The answer is impulse control.
When a human has an impulse to do something and they inhibit it, such as with the temper tantrum example, they are using their impulse control abilities that they developed somewhere along the line, probably while they were growing up.
When a dog has a similar impulse and doesn't inhibit it, it shows that they, for whatever reason, didn't see that particular situation as one where they should inhibit that big temper tantrum.
When it happens all the time, that usually indicates that where the human in our example did learn impulse control while growing up, the dog didn't.
When a dog is growing from puppy to adult, they learn a lot of things, just like humans.
Also just like humans, dogs learn new things throughout their entire life, and they are constantly revising and rearranging their beliefs and general behavior in accordance with those new things.
Just like our own parents, it is our job to teach our children and our animals to understand and use impulse control.
To many, it seems like that is an easier thing to teach a child rather than a puppy, and they may be right.
Easy or not though, teaching impulse control to a dog can save a person a lot of headaches and embarrassment later on in the dog's life.
To get started with teaching a dog impulse control, or at least to teach them how to control their urges and impulses when you want them to, using the "stay" or "wait" command, along with the "leave it" command, can go a long way.
The "stay" or "wait" command teaches the dog that in order to have what they want, and do what they want to do, they must wait for you to tell them they are allowed to move.
Often this is used when letting a dog outside or feeding the dog, by having them sit and stay...
until you give them the release command, which tells them it's all right to eat, or proceed outside.
Make sure you have a "stay" or "wait" command, and then a release command.
This release command can be anything from "ok" to "Cheetos", as long as you and the dog understand that that particular command means they can eat, go outside, or do whatever else it is you're having them wait for.
The "leave it" command is useful in many ways, since you can use it to get a dog to stop messing with nearly anything, from chewing up the toy to avoiding the toxic substance they're running towards.
It teaches them to pull their attention off of something because you want them to, even though they still want to continue with whatever they were doing before.
The usual way to start teaching this is to have a piece of food (or something else they want) under your hand, and the second they look at you and not whatever it is you're hiding, you reward them with a treat from your other hand.
Impulse control is an essential part of training your dog, mostly because it serves so many purposes.
It can save them from harm, make your life easier when feeding them or opening a door, and turns them to all around well behaved dogs that listen to you without question.
For the most part, anyway.
We all occasionally get those days when we feel the need to be onery.