Go to your bed, to your spot, to your crate is a very useful behavior to have in your tool box with your dog. Your dog might be dirty, you need to take a phone call, there’s a knock on the door, it’s time for your dog to settle. The trick is to make “going to bed” a very rewarding and fun experience.
If you have different rooms, you’ll need to train it in each room.
Here are the steps
Part 1
- Have your dog on leash.
- Toss a few treats on his mat.
- Hold the dog away 6-8 feet.
- Rev him up by getting him excited with words such as “ are you ready?”
- When your dog looks to you, tell him “Go”
- Swing your arm towards the bed in a bowling motion.
- The second your dog’s feet hit the bed, say “yes” just before he eats the treats.
- Reward him with another treat on the bed.
- Release with OKAY or your release word.
- Repeat several times, making it a fun game.
Part 2
You will be repeating part one but you will not toss the treats onto the bed.
- Have your dog on leash.
- Hold the dog away 6-8 feet from the bed
- Rev him up by getting him excited with words such as “ are you ready?”
- When your dog looks to you, tell him “Go”
- Swing your arm towards the bed in a bowling motion.
- The second your dog’s feet hit the bed, say “yes” just before he eats the treats.
- Reward him with several treats on the bed.
- Release with OKAY or your release word.
- Repeat several times.
Tip: When your dog runs to the bed to look for the food make sure to drop the treats on the bed and do not feed him from your hand.
Part 3
Same as step #2
Instead of immediately marking his move to the bed with a “YES” and treat.
- Wait to see if the dog offers another behavior.
- If your dog sits tell him YES and reward.
- Repeat several times.
- Next when your dog sits, do not mark with a yes.
- Wait it out and wait for a down.
- Once he is down, mark with a YES and put a PILE of treats on the bed.
- JACK POT immediately if your dog lies down!
The goal is to have the dog run to his bed and lie down.
Part 4
- Repeat above and now add your cue word(s) to the action.
- Go to bed, Bed, crate, kennel up, settle, You pick the words, and then always use that.
- Continue to practice having your dog go to his mat.
Part 5
So now your dog is going to his bed or crate willingly and lying down, but how do you get him to stay there? The steps above can be taught in a couple of days, the next step needs to be practiced a lot and the time needs to be added very slowly. So now that you have a 10 second settle on the bed, you can’t expect to jump to 10 minutes. You’ll need to add in seconds, then minutes.
- Set up a chair near the bed and grab a magazine.
- Use your method to get your dog to the bed
- Reward with a treat when your dog is lying down on the bed.
- Toss a treat every few seconds. Start extending the time in between.
- Act like you are engrossed into the magazine, meaning don’t watch your dog directly.
- Decrease the number of treats being delivered again, longer time in between.
- Work up to a minute, two or three.
- Release your dog, you get up and walk around.
- Try again if you think your dog is up to it. If he is amped up, then try again later.
- Try this stage as many times as you can and begin to add seconds to the time, then minutes.
Problems that might arise: Your dog continues to bounce back up.
Solution: Try for shorter times and work on releasing your dog before she releases herself.
Problem: Your dog is acting totally wild and won’t settle.
Solution: End the session and try again after a really good exercise session.
Problem: You have added some time, but feel the need to continue the treats.
Solution: When your dog has settled for 5-10 minutes, and is still awake and alert, you might offer a stuffed Kong or a chew to work on.
I hope you find this helpful with your dog. Let me know how it goes.
Awesome advice. Delilah goes to her bed when tired or if she is bad but not to settle or during the time I eat dinner which is what I am going to work on with this exercise.
Thanks Eileen, I’m going to work on my boys when I get to my Mom’s house too. There’s always new challenges in new places! Thanks for visiting.
I think I’m going to have to go back to A and compile this into a personal manual. There is too much solid stuff here to just let it go in May.
Keith Channing A-Zing from http://keithkreates.com
Thanks Keith, I didn’t start out with training posts, but then realized that would be a fun way to create some content. It’s been a good process to work on all my material from my dog training days..
Interesting!
Juliet,
Still enjoying your challenging posts. Love them! Working on a storage unit purge this week in Sacramento. You know what I mean. Found my ” dog “, Freddie, in his box, oops, crate, where he’s been for three years. Nice to have him back again. Don’t think I will be doing much of your wonderful training with him, though. Love ya.
Thanks for reading Terri, I’ll be in my storage unit in the coming weeks in Santa Fe. Need to purge the rig again!