Well said.
There are two important reasons to teach your dogs - and it is NEVER too late - to follow your commands, once they understand them, instantly: Saving another life, and saving their own. A dog who instantaneously drops to the ground when you say Down can be stopped from running into the path of an oncoming vehicle, and a dog who learns to go where you point or nod can keep another animal or child from doing the same.
A dog who does not sense the Alpha position is occupied by its human is a worried individual who constantly tries to control and patrol things because he or she feels the human is not doing so. Alpha is in charge of everything - food, activity, shelter, and position in the pack of all other individuals.
As Alpha, when your dogs are milling at your feet you should tell them what to do, and the fastest thing to teach is Sit. Dogs learn this quickly, and almost every dog I've ever worked with has been very motivated by food, a favorite being boiled liver cut into little (1/4-1/2") chunks. I always used to keep chunks in the freezer in little baggies or containers - cooking it stinks up the house (IMO), so only doing it every month or so was easier than every week. Teach it before the milling, so you aren't impatient, then reinforce regularly. I always snap my fingers, place my hand palm down above their heads and slightly behind where standing point of vision is for them, and say Sit. Because of the position of your hand, the hindquarters are naturally headed down anyway. If they actually sit, say Good Dog and give a tiny bit of liver, and if they don't just press down with the other hand on the point of the hips until they do, then reward so they know what you want when you say Sit. It is harder with two at once but it can be done. Once they do it every time, make them hold it longer and longer, and teach them they must hold it until you release them, I used to say Okay, but if you use that word a lot choose another. You can even just say Release.
Once your dogs learn sit, you have a new tool that can reproduce itself as you teach them new words, and they have a JOB - obeying you - which is almost always a dog's favorite job. Pleasing you is what they live for, and when you teach them how, they have a whole different attitude. Once they know you are in control, their anxiety level will go down, and as you teach them more commands they will gain the quiet confidence of a dog who knows what to do and who is in charge.
