"Settle" or "Place" training and how we do it.

Recently on Roo's instagram stories we have been posting about upping Roo's settle training for when we get ready to take her to BBQ's and perhaps the pub. "Settle" or "place" training is about telling your dog they have a place to go to and when they are there, they should settle and not move from it. A few people got in touch to ask how we do it, so we thought why not do a blog post about it!

Some dog trainers argue that it isn't actually teaching your dog to relax, it is just keeping them still. But whatever, for the purpose of being able to take your dog out to places and have them calm or even in your home, it works great.

"Settle" as we were taught the command, formed part of Roo's basic training. To teach the command, you will need a mat or bed. Basically a moveable surface with distinct edges. Many people opt for raised beds for this training.

The first step is to teach your pup to be interested in the mat/bed. To do this, treat your pup everytime they step onto the mat. Once your pup is happy to do this and understands that being on the mat means treats, you can ask them to sit on the mat and treat. Next, you move onto asking the pup to lay on the mat. You eventually want to move away from having to ask them to lay on the mat, instead them offering this position as a default when on the mat. This process can take a while. You can also add in a command, we use "mat" to ask Roo to go to her mat.

Once your pup can sit/lay on the mat, you need to start building up the distance you stand away from the mat. When begining the training, start kneeling next to the mat. Then start standing near it, eventually stepping back further and further. It is important not to do this too quickly as you want your pup to stay in position on the mat. Eventually, you should be able to walk away from the mat and return to treat your pup.

The next step, is to add in throwing treats away from the mat for your pup to get with the aim being that they run back to the mat as they know this is where they should be. For this part, it is easier to have your pup on lead in the begining to easily reinforce returning to the mat if they aren't quite getting it.

To add value to the mat, try to get them to sit on it before you feed them or give them their chews on it, so they see the value on being on the mat.

When you pup has grasped what the mat means and what is expected, you can restart the training in a new environment such as your back garden then moving onto your front garden, after that perhaps a field or friends garden. Remembering to keep distractions low in the begining. This stage is what can help with taking your pup to pubs or other peoples houses.

The idea is to bring the mat/bed with you to these places for your pup to be on so keep that in mind when thinking about what you are going to use. This is why we use a vet bed (flat mat) as it is easy to roll up and put into a tote bag to take out with us.

Hope that helps!