🧘 Week 3 Day 2 · Impulse Control — Door Wait + Dog Visible

Layered distractions. Day 1 proved the behavior works in real environments. Day 2 stacks competing stimuli simultaneously — verbal praise overlapping the cue, simultaneous lures, ambient noise, and social pressure at once. If it holds under layers, it holds anywhere.

Impulse Control — Week 3, Day 2 with your dog

⏱ 10–15 minutes🚪 Front door or any exit point — another dog nearby if possible🎯 Goal: door-wait holds while another dog is visible through a window or at distance outside

Where Day 1 left off

Day 1 built sit-wait at controlled distance from another dog — down to 20 feet with clean 10-second holds and name re-focus recovery. your dog holds sit-wait with another dog in the environment at managed distance.

Day 2 layers the door-wait context: your dog must hold a wait at the door threshold while another dog is visible outside — or simulated via video on a phone or through a window. Two triggers at once: door-crossing impulse + dog-sighting impulse.

Your Week 3 Day 2 protocol

1
Setup: Position your dog at the front door — another dog visible through window or outside
The dog doesn't need to be close — visible through a window counts
Position your dog at the front door in a sit-wait. Have another dog visible: a neighbor's dog passing, a dog visible through a window, or a video of a dog on a phone placed at your dog's eye level near the door. The visual presence of another dog at the threshold — already a high-arousal location — is the layered distraction. You need the sit-wait established before you add the dog sighting; confirm the sit first before opening the door or turning on the video.
2
Reps 1–4: Sit-wait at door with dog visible — don't open the door
your dog must hold the sit while looking at or toward the other dog — door stays closed
With your dog in a sit-wait and the other dog visible: hold the position for 15 seconds. If your dog holds while oriented toward the dog: mark and treat. The door stays closed — you're not opening it yet. You're building the "sit-wait at door even when a dog is visible" behavior before adding the door-open variable. If your dog cannot hold the sit at all when a dog appears: that's the training level. Work the sit separately, then add the dog.
3
Rep 5–7: Open the door slowly while your dog holds — dog still visible
Crack the door — then open further — your dog must not cross the threshold
Once your dog holds the sit-wait with the dog visible through the glass: begin opening the door slowly. Crack it 6 inches. Hold. If your dog holds the sit with the door cracked and a dog visible outside: open further. The threshold crossing impulse is activated by the open door; the dog-sighting arousal is already active. Two impulses at once. If your dog breaks and tries to cross: close the door immediately (no mark, no reaction) and reset the sit. The door closing is not a punishment — it's a natural consequence of breaking the wait.
4
Reps 8–10: Release through the door on cue — then controlled approach to the other dog
"Okay" — your dog exits calmly — you manage the approach to the other dog with sit-wait at 15 feet
With the door open and your dog holding the sit-wait: release with your cue ("okay"). Walk out together — not a run. When the other dog comes into closer range: ask for a sit-wait at 15 feet. If your dog holds: release to a controlled greeting (leash slack, both dogs calm). The full sequence: door-wait → controlled exit → sit-wait at dog approach → release to greeting. This is the real-world sequence for leashed dog encounters.

If no real dog is available for the door-wait session: use a video of a dog on a tablet or phone placed near the door. It won't trigger the same arousal as a real dog, but it's sufficient for building the door-wait behavior with a dog visual stimulus. Note in your session log that the dog was simulated — real dog exposure is the Day 3 target.

Two impulse control triggers stack exponentially, not additively

Door-crossing impulse and dog-sighting arousal are each trainable individually. But their combination creates a behavioral state that's qualitatively different from either alone: the dog is simultaneously driven to push through the threshold and to orient toward the high-value social target outside. The combination can overwhelm behaviors that hold perfectly in each condition alone.

The door-closing consequence — not punishment, just removal of access — is the most natural consequence available for door-bolting. It's also why the sit-wait at the door has practical value: a dog that holds the sit-wait gets to go through the door; a dog that bolts doesn't. Over enough repetitions, your dog learns that the sit-wait is the behavior that reliably produces the greeting, and the bolt produces only the door closing.

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Week 3 Day 2 — layers make it real.

10–15 minutes. Competing stimuli. Stacked pressure.

✅ Week 3 Day 2 logged.

Layered distractions cleared. The behavior holding under competing stimuli is a fundamentally different animal than the behavior holding in quiet conditions. Day 3 adds duration and variability — the last frontier.

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