Hello to all!

I am looking for good sources of information/advice regarding teaching a dog to be calm and focused in response to certain equipment.

An example of what I mean is when an owner grabs a leash or puts on a certain pair of shoes and the dog goes nuts because it associates that equipment with going for a walk. Another example would be a dog reacting excitably to car keys because he knows he’s going for a car ride.

I am hoping that there may be a way to teach my boys to be calm and focused when I bring out certain equipment. In my case, what I am trying to do is teach my boys that when I put a certain harness on them it’s time to be chill. I am trying to fix a problem that I have with them when we go for walks with other people; they are used to going for walks/hikes with just me and when my husband tries to tag along (or mother-in-law, or anyone else) they stay way too excitable the entire time. Takes all the fun out of it! They are perfect when it’s just me …

I have recently purchased new harnesses for both dogs but have not used them yet. They walk fine (with me alone) with or without leashes and on any collar type, so the harness is not for the sake of control. I want to introduce them to the harnesses in a way that encourages only calm energy, but first I need to learn how to properly encourage the behavior that I want!

I will be using marker training for this experiment, and I’m fairly new to this training at this point. I’m really not sure how to teach more abstract behaviors as opposed to physical behaviors such as “sit”.

I guess what I really need is directions to good information on teaching calm behavior using markers.

Thank you in advance!!

Are you familiar with Dr. Karen Overall's Protocol for Relaxation?

http://dogscouts.org/Protocol_for_relaxation.html

I found this protocol to be very useful for teaching my dogs to be calm...as working line GSDs, this is beyond their nature

When it comes to equipment oriented excitement, I do one of two things:
1. Wait for calm behavior prior to making any further action (putting on my shoes, putting on leash, or whatever...)
2. Wait for calm behavior in the presence of the object and click/treat or mark/treat. I personally find that a clicker makes a nice tool for this type of training, though I generally use a verbal marker.