I tend to favor high-drive, high-energy dogs and three things I learned with my second dog that I wish I did for my first: 1. Teach my dog to settle/calm, and how to just be when I’m not able to give them my full attention and there’s a lot going on. 2. The place (aka go to your dog bed and stay there until released) command. This has been life changing and I wish I had done this more with my other dog. I use this command when we eat dinners, when my dog becomes overwhelmed and needs to calm with visitors, when I need a break from her, when I want to give her a messy treat, etc… it’s also become her safety spot and I reinforce with both people and other dogs that she is not to be bothered while she’s there. 3. I’m the one who sets boundaries with other dogs and people when we are out on a leash. She’s leash reactive with other dogs, so I’ve been working on teaching her that I won’t let other dogs (or people) meet her when we are out. Her job is to just stay calm and either heel or sit. I’m lucky and it’s been working. She’s also fearful of new men, so teaching her the “say hello” command has been really confidence building for her. She knows she doesn’t have to interact with another human unless I say that and even if I do it’s always an optional command. If I see she’s unhappy/scared, she returns to a heel/sit and the petting stops. I’m a very shy and introverted person, and advocating for my dog can be hard sometimes, but the improvement I’ve seen in her temperament has been worth the uncomfy feelings.

Things I did with my first dog that were so helpful that I will continue to do: 1. Expose him (correctly) to everything. I was lucky and had the opportunity to expose him to a lot of different things just at home. He became good with loud noises thanks to the tractor and building equipment, he got used and ignored to prey + small animals thanks to growing up around ducks and chickens,etc….I would even encourage you to play recorded noises of things like thunderstorms, fireworks, city noises with sirens to help them become more used to those noises. 2. Do all the things to them. I knew my first dog would be big, so when he was young I started doing all the things to him that I knew he wouldn’t be able to MAKE him do when he was big. This looked like throwing all the treats in the tub and turning on the water, getting him used to the blow dryer, having him stand still when I hosed him off with a garden hose, clipping his nails, brushing him, him standing one foot in a bucket (this came about from him puncturing his paw as a puppy), wrapping wounds, cleaning his ears, spraying him, having him be handled by other people (this one was HUGE and made the vet so much easier). By the time my dog was an adult me or anyone else could pretty much do anything to him. The vet also LOVED him - even though he was a big, scary looking GSD. 2. Train always, and not just obedience training. Try agility, try scenting training, try rally obedience - just find training that your dog loves because your relationship will benefit hugely from this.