How to teach your dog to relax outside?
Lori Spinka
2025-07-29 13:16:45
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Teaching a dog that won’t settle to lie down when asked on a mat or dog bed gives them and you time to switch off and chill out. Giving time for your dog to settle and relax allows Glutamate, which is linked with brain development, cognition, learning and memory, to rise. Step one Place a mat, blanket or a towel on the floor so the dog has somewhere comfortable to lie down. Reward the dog whenever they investigate or go near the mat. Reward them by throwing treats on the mat instead of giving them from your hand to help build a strong association that the mat is a good place. Gradually include distractions and practice in different locations, using your dog’s mat as a cue to settle. This exercise should be calm and collected, practice at a time when your dog is already tired, encouraging calm behaviour from your dog. Remember to go at your dog’s pace. If they move away from the mat or break their down position go back a step and lure them back into position.
Norma Durgan
2025-07-24 03:41:24
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To help your dog learn to relax outside, it's best to begin practicing somewhere quiet, as it's hard for your dog to learn how to settle when there are distractions. Reward relaxed behaviours, such as sitting or lying down, by dropping tiny bite-size treats to your dog as a reward for settling down on a blanket. Gradually reward more relaxed behaviours, like sighing, weight shifting and head resting. Once your dog starts to get the hang of it and is shifting their weight so they’re comfortable and relaxed, you can start practising with them off lead. You need your dog to learn that they can settle whether they’re on or off-lead – useful skills for a lot of different situations. Add in distractions slowly by practising the ‘settle’ in increasingly busy areas or ask a helper to create a distraction by walking past, progressing to more exciting activities like sweeping or skipping. If your dog becomes unsettled or gets up, ignore them and wait until they settle again before rewarding them. Try to resist telling your dog what to do during training, the aim is for them to learn for themselves to be calm and to relax.
Oswald Marquardt
2025-07-14 09:06:48
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To teach your dog to relax, teaching the "relax" cue can help prompt your dog to settle herself more and avoid getting completely hyped up. Teaching "relax" involves waiting for your dog to naturally relax on her own, associating a word with that, and calmly praising her. You will then reward the behavior as it happens naturally. To begin, think about the situations in which your dog begins to relax on her own, such as when she lies down after a walk or play session. Look for signs that your dog is starting to relax such as lying down, letting out a sigh after activity, resting her head, or crawling next to you for a nap or cuddle. When your dog shows signs of relaxing, quietly say "Relax." If touching your dog usually calms her down, you can gently and slowly stroke her fur. Over time, which could be days or weeks, try asking your dog to relax in busier environments and situations, but only after you’ve practiced a great deal in quieter situations and you’ve seen your dog respond with calmer behaviors. If your dog has responded to "relax" at home but doesn’t respond when outside or away from home, it’s likely she’s not able to calm herself in that situation. Practice in environments where your dog is comfortable, and not in environments your dog finds scary, such as at the vet.
Reyes Mosciski
2025-07-14 06:33:00
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She doesn’t seem to know how to entertain herself, or just exist when the focus isn’t on her. When cooking dinner, she whines at the door we go out to play fetch. If you aren’t petting her or playing with her, she whines or stares. I understand she is a very high drive dog and this behavior is certainly less after very high exercise days. In the past I had a dog who would chew on a nylabone in her “free time” but Rosie doesn’t seem super interested in those, or forgets they exist. Would love to encourage her to do that more often as well. Sometimes I have to cook dinner or work or clean. So how did you all teach your dogs that they’re gonna be okay without an activity going on every second?
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