Impulse Control Dog Training: 5 Exercises to Help Your Reactive Dog Pause Before They React

Do you ever feel like your reactive dog struggles to make good choices? Lunging at other dogs, jumping up on people, or going from zero to a hundred in a heartbeat? If that sounds familiar, you're in the right place. Impulse control dog training is all about teaching your dog how to pause, take a breath, and choose calmness over chaos.

In this post, you'll discover what impulse control really means, why reactive dogs often find it difficult, and simple yet effective ways to help your dog slow down, think clearly, and handle everyday situations with more confidence and less stress.

Impulse control is your dog’s ability to pause and think before reacting. It’s the difference between a dog who barks the second they see another dog and a dog who takes a breath, checks in with you, realises there is no need to react, and keeps walking. 

Imagine impulses like intrusive thoughts. We get impulsive thoughts all throughout the day (or is that just me?), but we refrain from acting on them. It wasn't always like this, though. Think of babies; sometimes, they get the intrusive thoughts to fling food halfway across the room. Over time, we had to teach them that food (and other objects) are not for flinging around.

For reactive dogs, this is basically the same. When your dog is constantly flooded with excitement, frustration, or stress, their ability to make good decisions disappears. They act on instinct and impulse—lunging, barking, jumping, chasing—because they don’t yet have the ability to stop that thought in the moment and choose something different.

But the good news?

Impulse control isn’t something your dog either has or doesn’t have. It’s a skill. One that can be built slowly through consistent practice.

This is a super simple game you can play with just a handful of treats.

The idea is to teach your dog that they don’t get the treat or reward by grabbing for it — they get it by not grabbing and showing patience. That choice to wait is what gets rewarded.

Hold a few treats in your hand, palm open. If your dog dives in, simply close your hand. When they stop trying or pull back, say “yes!” and give them a treat with your other hand.

Eventually, they’ll learn that waiting politely is what works. Once they start understanding this concept, you can start making it slightly harder or start bringing it into other scenaris.

You can use this with the food bowl, treats, toys, guests etc.

This game teaches your dog how to stay calm when they see something in the environment that would usually set them off, like another dog, a bike, or a person.

Start at a safe distance from the trigger (if your dog has issues with dogs, take them to somewhere they'll be able to see them but still be below threshold).

When your dog looks at the trigger (without reacting), say “yes!” and reward. Repeat this a few times, keeping things relaxed and rewarding for calm observation.

Here, you are slowly changing how your dog feels about a trigger. Before, they used to act on impulse, but from this distance, with reinforcement, dogs start to realise they don't have to actually react like they normally do.

With time, they’ll learn that spotting something doesn't mean losing their shit, it means checking in with you and getting rewarded.

Warning: Keep your dog under threshold for this. When I did this with Jasper, there was never enough distance. He wouldn't react, but looking back now, his body language was giving off the signs that he was uncomfortable.

After a few sessions of this, any time I said "look at that", his body would be expecting a trigger in his space.

So, make sure you give your dog that distance first!

The changes that happen to start with are very small and are easily missed if you aren't keeping your eyes open, but the signs are there if you know what to look for. 

You might notice your dog pausing before reacting, hesitating at a doorway, or checking in with you instead of fixating on a distraction. These are small moments, but they’re huge steps forward. 

Over time, you may notice shifts in their overall energy. Maybe they settle faster after play, bounce back quicker from excitement, or start showing a bit more thought before they act. That’s impulse control in action.

For some dogs, especially those who are chronically dysregulated, these changes take longer — and that’s okay. Stick with it. Regulation has to come first, and when it does, you’ll start to see everything else click into place, not just impulse control!