I do not preach that one of your main training goals is to make dogs calm.
I think it is counterproductive to keep trying to make dogs calm and often backfires. It is, for lack of a better description, unnatural to keep trying to suppress excitement in a dog.
All the “calmness” strategies I see are mainly a way for inexperienced dog trainers to shut down dogs because they don’t have good solutions for behavioral and training issues. The focus on calmness is a tell that reveals the inadequacy of the trainer. Even worse, are trainers who force dogs to stay for long periods on a dog bed or cot, sometimes for hours.
So, what do I do? I want dogs to be content and mannerly. Dogs can be taught not to jump on guests, to not bark incessantly, not be destructive, be good around the kids, sleep in a crate, and walk well on a leash without ever focusing on calmness. I have good solutions for all the above, and more. A dog should be happy that you are home, not turned into statues. Dogs can learn to perceive different situations differently to not bark. Dogs can be taught and supervised, and behaviors modified, to not be destructive. Dogs can be taught manners, so they are good with kids. Dogs can learn to love a crate and readily go in and rest (assuming they are ready for rest… I can’t just lay down and rest just because someone wants me to). Dogs can be highly aroused and engaged while working or walking on a leash and still walk well alongside you.
I saw a funny clip of an Adam Sandler movie yesterday. I don’t know the movie (Anger Management?). Maybe it is a good movie, maybe not. I like some of his stuff and some I don’t. The clip I saw was of him as a passenger on an airline. He asks the stewardess for a headset. He is very calm about it. But she escalates it, tells him to not yell at her, and eventually calls over security. He is already calm, and he is being forced to even be calmer, as if that is the same thing as being socially correct. You can have a dog be a normal dog, yet someone thinks that dog still needs to be crammed down even more to fit some warped idea of dog manners.
I have encountered a few Pit bulls that, for lack of a better term, wind up (get very animated and excited) when you are with them. For example, a few years ago, a potential student had a male Pit that would get increasingly wound up on a walk, would eventually start jumping up on her and grabbing her clothes or grabbing the leash until he tugged her to the ground and he would run around with the leash. He would also grab clothing and pull her down. I wanted to start the dog learning how to deal with that excitement, but she didn’t want to spend the money and so I never got to work with the dog. I’ve run across a few other Pits that are this way, sometimes bobbing in and out, jumping up to grab clothing or at your forearm, grabbing a shoe, or jumping up and holding on and humping you. It isn’t aggression, but the mouthing sure can hurt and when wound up some won’t take treats or play fetch or tug. I didn’t practice “calmness” exercises with him. I helped him discover how to be excited and mannerly at the same time. Part of the problem was that the former owners (he was a rescue, so I’m guessing), had repeatedly grabbed at him as a puppy. So, he desperately wanted interaction but had been grabbed by the collar and probably shoved into a crate or back yard. So, his very social nature conflicted with being handled, so it caused all this activity to leak out into all this frantic bobbing in and out. I had to get him comfortable with being touched, talked to, directed, played with, and being mannerly when around someone else. Just trying to suppress his goofy actions would have made things worse. Along the way, after he was adopted, his owner hired another trainer who put an electric collar on him. That backfired and after one session, the trainer said the dog should be put down. I got a call from the rescue, talked with the new owners, and showed them how to work with him. There is a role for using corrections in training, but in this case, that wasn’t the answer at all.
I know of a dog that was put into one of these calmness programs. Afterwards, if the dog heard a dog barking next door, the only way the dog could cope was to rapidly spin in circles.
Calmness is a dumb idea that came out of the dog whisperer community. Good manners are taught. Turning dogs into statues isn’t good training, in my opinion. Your job is not to be the Fun Police.
Plan accordingly.