Example:

At the veterinarians, I observed a woman enter and approach the reception desk with her dog, a sheltie, on leash. She began chatting with the receptionist and instructed her dog to "sit".

And the sheltie sat, like a good little dog. And then the woman turned back and kept chatting with the lady. And the dog got bored, stood up and started pulling on the leash to look around and see what was going on.

That wasn’t satisfactory for the woman – she could feel the dog tugging on her while she talked to the lady at the desk. So she turned to the dog and said “sit!”. And the dog sat.

And then what happened? The lady kept talking to the receptionist and the dog got bored and stood up and started straining on the leash to look around. Because – I was there with my dog, and there were other dogs there, and the dog was straining and wanting to look at everything around it.

This went on many times. And the woman was actually getting increasingly annoyed with the dog. “SIT!” – and the dog would sit. Then get up.

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Observation:

Leash calming is helpful in times like this because it eliminates the need for your dog to be on performance. It is a more clear indication of what your dog can expect, therefore they are more content to chill out and relax while nothing is going on.