How do I get my dog to relax outside?

To get your dog to relax outside, place a mat, blanket or a towel on the floor so the dog has somewhere comfortable to lie down. Allow the dog to go over to the blanket and investigate. Reward the dog whenever they investigate or go near the mat. 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. Step seven Gradually include distractions and practice in different locations, using your dog’s mat as a cue to settle.

To get your dog to relax outside, it’s hard for your dog to learn how to settle when there are distractions, so it’s best to begin practicing somewhere quiet. Then move on to reward specific signs of relaxing 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. Slowly start building up distractions 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. If they won’t relax and settle, increase the distance from the distraction or make the distraction less interesting. Once your dog has learnt the basic objective of being settled, try training in different locations with more distractions.