Training at Full Energy: Building Duration and Impulse Control with Drax

As dogs progress through training, we don't just want to see what they can do when they're calm, warmed up, and completely focused. Eventually, we need to know whether those same behaviors are available when the dog is excited and full of energy.

That's exactly what we wanted to test in this training session with our board and train dog, Drax.

Instead of giving Drax time to settle after arriving at the facility, we went straight into training. He came through the door ready to go, and we immediately asked him to perform one of the more difficult parts of his obedience: holding commands for longer durations.

Why Train a Dog at Full Energy?

It's relatively easy to get good obedience after a dog has already exercised, trained, or had time to settle into an environment.

But that's not always how real life works.

Sometimes you get out of the car and immediately need your dog to listen. You might arrive at a restaurant, walk into a busy public space, have guests come over, or encounter something exciting while you're out.

We want Drax to learn that obedience still applies even when his energy level is high.

That doesn't mean we're trying to eliminate his energy. We're teaching him how to control himself while he's excited.

Starting With the Hardest Exercise

Rather than warming Drax up with exercises he already finds easy, we started the session with one of his biggest challenges: a long sit.

Drax has made a lot of progress with his basic obedience, but duration requires a different type of understanding. He doesn't just have to perform the command—he has to understand that he's responsible for maintaining it until he's released.

Add a bunch of energy on top of that, and the exercise becomes significantly more difficult.

Drax struggled with the long sit initially, which wasn't unexpected. Instead of abandoning the exercise, we continued putting in clear and consistent repetitions.

Eventually, he started putting the pieces together.

Teaching That the Command Isn't Over

One of the biggest concepts we're developing with Drax is that a command doesn't end simply because time passes or something in the environment changes.

If we ask him to sit, we want him to understand that sit means sit until he's released.

That understanding is important for the real-world goals his family has for him.

We've been working toward Drax being able to calmly accompany his family to restaurants and other public places. In those situations, performing a quick sit or down isn't enough. He needs to be able to maintain those positions even when there's activity happening around him.

That's why we're spending so much time developing duration now.

Back to the Basics

After working through the long sit, we moved into Drax's basic obedience.

We worked through familiar commands and gave him an opportunity to get successful repetitions after completing the most challenging portion of the session.

We also worked on his long down, continuing to reinforce the same concept of maintaining a command until released.

The more consistent we can make that understanding across different behaviors, the clearer the overall picture becomes for Drax.

Knowing When to End the Session

Drax was doing well, so rather than continuing to train simply because we could, we called the session early.

There's a lot of value in knowing when you've accomplished what you wanted from a training session.

More repetitions aren't automatically better repetitions.

If the dog works through a difficult problem, gives you the behavior you're looking for, and finishes engaged and successful, sometimes that's the perfect place to stop.

Drax came into the facility at full energy, struggled with his hardest exercise, worked through it, completed his basic obedience, held a long down, and finished successfully.

That's a productive training session.

Continuing to Build Real-World Reliability

Drax continues to make great progress throughout his board and train program.

As his understanding improves, we'll continue changing the picture around him—more energy, longer duration, additional distractions, different environments, and eventually more real-world situations.

The objective isn't simply having Drax perform commands inside the training room. We're building toward obedience his family can actually use when they're out living their everyday lives with him.

We'll continue documenting his progress as we add those next layers to his training.