Working with any type of dog, you must have a very calm tone and body to work through what you are asking. Asking a dog to learn pressure can be tough, but if you remain calm and take it at their speed, that pressure becomes a dance; a dance of calm communication between you and the pup. On the other hand, with high anxiety dogs or high energy types, at one point they need to be calm in certain situations. When going to visit family or a trip, you want a good mindset for the dog so then both you and your pup can have a relaxing and calm experience. Remember you can't just expect them to nail it, practice, practice, practice before you bring them into high distraction environments!
Now here is the fun one, show off how calm your dog is and in return you feel pretty good and cool about it! We have all been there where we wish our dog could behave like the dog over there, but if that's what you want, work for it! Wouldn’t it be cool to just go out and hang with your pup while they are laying down chilling while the other dogs bark and whine? If that's a goal, then work towards it with all of the confidence in the world! Be that owner getting complimented!
Finally, it's easy and fun to be calm and cool, but you also have to be collected in case anything happens. Let’s be honest, sometimes an off leash dog comes charging at you, a dog snaps their leash, or the dog slips their collar right in front of you. Now you have limited time to react but you remember that you have to advocate for your dog in the calmest and coolest way possible to show them you have their back. If you aren’t collected and confident in yourself and your dog, it's hard to trust each other. Take a second and think about any stressful situation, is my frustration going to get me and my dog anywhere?
