how to get dogs to be calm before a walk?

[redfoxy]

I have two dogs, both mongrels, one a collie x, male, the other a gsd/lurcher bitch. they get two walks a day, one morning one evening. THey know before we go out what is about to happen and go absolutely mental, running around, whining, trembling with excitement. I tell them to lie in their beds while i get the poo bags/leads out but they just jump in and jump out and have almost knocked over my daughter who is 6. How do i make them be calm before a walk? Any suggestions? Otherwise they are brilliant very obedient animals, no problem with recall etc, it's just the pre-walk chaos!!

[RedwingWinter]

I am no expert and hopefully one will be along in a minute, but I had trouble with my dog getting excited and shooting out the door as soon as I opened it (on his lead - can't walk him off-lead). It was really tricky because I wasn't always ready for a running exit and besides I need to lock the door. So I started making him sit before opening the door. I already had him sit to put his lead on in the house, but the problem occurs at the garage door, and we go in and out via the garage so there's no risk of him getting out without his lead on (if he bolts out the side door he just gets stuck in the garage).

At the beginning it added a lot of time as he likes to think about whether he's going to sit or not at the best of times. However he would do once he realized he wasn't going for a walk otherwise. Maybe you can get yours to sit, and then if they jump up and start running round, stop getting ready for the walk until they sit again? So if you start to open the door and they jump up before you've said they can, shut the door and make them sit again? Just an idea as it worked for me.

[Disputandum]

Mine used to do this so I started getting the walk paraphernalia out every hour or so - initially they got excited every time, quickly followed by crushing disappointment when I just popped to the washing line. In time they barely raised an eyebrow and were pleasantly surprised when a walk actually happened.

And if they still showed signs of untoward giddiness as we left the house the lead went back on the hook. It wasn't long before they realised that they only got out of the door if they were calm.