Teach Your Dog To Settle

Teaching your dog to settle is really important and can be really helpful in day to day situations. It can be used when you have guests, making dinner, cleaning the house or even out at a pub with your dog. It’s an easy behaviour to teach but takes a lot of practice and consistency to build up to settling in any situation. It will be harder for your dog to settle in a busy area or an area with lots of distractions so it’s best to practice in a calm and quiet environment first. Begin at a time when your dog is already calm, such as after a long walk, and they are wanting to relax.

Choose a blanket or mat that will be your dog’s settle mat. By using a specific mat, and the same mat every time, it will become a cue for your dog to lie down and relax.

Sit on a chair or sofa and place the mat by your feet. When your dog goes to the mat to investigate, drop a few bite sized treats onto the blanket. When teaching a dog to settle it is best to reward by dropping the treats onto the mat rather than feeding from your hand, this will prevent the dog looking to you for treats and they will associate the mat with the reward instead. When training settle, you shouldn’t say anything when giving your dog a treat, just drop the treats on the mat for them to find.

Repeat this so that the dog gets treats every time they are on the mat, then begin rewarding only when your dog lies on the mat. Some dogs will start doing this naturally but others you may have to ask to lie down, that’s fine but remember to reward from the mat rather than your hand.

Now that your dog is lying on the mat you should continue to drop treats to reward calm behaviours. Try to drop treats when they are not looking at you, sniffing the mat, sighing or resting their head, these are all signs they are starting to relax on the mat. As well as treats you can give your dog something to keep them busy such as a chew or kong, try to use relaxing objects rather than exciting toys.

When your dog has learnt to lie down and start relaxing on the mat, you can increase the amount of time they settle before rewarding them. Start by waiting a few seconds before dropping treats and slowly build up to longer amounts of time over several sessions.

The next step is to begin to add distractions. It will be difficult for your dog to hold a settle with distractions so start very slow, maybe by standing up or walking across the room and back. If your dog becomes unsettled or leaves the mat, ignore them and wait for them to settle back on the mat again. Once they can settle even when there are distractions you can start practising in different and busier areas.