I don't feel that your dog has to be calm at all times to be considered a "trained" dog. My dogs are extremely excited and involved when we're doing Obedience/Agility/Flyball training, but they are NOT out of control, they focus their excitement into the activity they've been trained to do.
I was just wondering as it seems that some people don't like to have excited dogs. I was just wondering what you guys thought on the concept.
Honestly, I am sooooooo annoyed by people whose dogs are given no boundaries and are in an excited state constantly. Dogs who non-stop harass me when we're sitting around calmly, throw toys at me, and jump on me, are definitely not my favorite dogs. I definitely don't want my dogs to be excited at all times. They know when it's time to chill out, and when it's time to get excited. At first, I had to teach them, but now it's second nature. To me, a dog who is always excited and who cannot turn off is just as unhealthy as a dog who is shut down at all times. There is a medium in there.
Over training for the dog to not want to do anything is wrong.
I agree with Dekka. What you're talking about is NOT training, it's punishment. Punishment weakens a behavior (such as excitability) because a negative condition is experienced as a consequence of the behavior.
The worst that I could imagine a dog could get from "over" positive reinforcement training/conditioning is that the dog would look to their owner for direction constantly, but they would look to them happily and eagerly, not like a lifeless corpse.