Teaching your puppy to settle down is a really useful and important skill for your puppy to learn.
- Want your puppy to stop pestering guests?
- Jumping up at the dinner table?
- Getting into trouble when visiting family and friends?
Teach them to settle down instead.
Puppies that learn the skill of settling down become pro’s at regulating their own emotions. They’re well practised going from excitable to calm.
They’re able to remain in the ‘chilled zone’ in busier places, making it easier for you to take your puppy anywhere!
In this blog post we’ll explain how you can teach your puppy to settle down.
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To teach your puppy to settle down, you’ll need to be prepared
You need a mat that isn’t usually laying around the house and is big enough for your puppy to fit their whole body onto. Vet bedding, noodle mats or old bath mats work well for most pups.
The idea is that over time you can cut the mat down into smaller sizes, so it’s easier to transport.
Your mat will be the cue for your puppy to settle down.
You’ll also need a good portion of your puppy’s yummy treats. The best puppy training treats are small (the size of your fingernail), soft and smelly.
You might like my blog post – Easy puppy training treats – less than 5 minutes prep time.
As you progress, and depending on your puppy and what you feed them, you might be able to switch to using a portion of their regular food.
Remember to deduct the amount of food used for training from your puppy’s daily food allowance so you don’t end up feeding your puppy too much.
How to teach your puppy to settle down
STEP 1
Hold the mat and your puppy’s food or treats in your hands. You want your puppy to watch you place the mat on the floor. They’ll be more likely to come over and investigate it this way.
STEP 2
As soon as the mat is on the floor, drop a few pieces of food onto it. Point them out if your pup is struggling. Continue to add pieces of food to build value and don’t be stingy.
Listen for the sweet sound of their sniffer working hard!
STEP 3
Say, “OK” and show your puppy a piece of food before throwing it a short distance away from the mat. Your puppy can go and eat the food you’ve thrown off to the side.
STEP 4
Wait and see what your puppy chooses to do next. It’s likely they’ll return and either sniff the mat or place a paw or 2 on it. Reinforce with a piece of food.
Watch the video below for a lovely example from fabulous Bertie of steps 1 – 4.
STEP 5
Pause for a moment. Don’t give the game away by luring or cueing your puppy to ‘sit’. Let them think for themselves and see if your puppy will offer a ‘sit’. If they do, amazing! Reinforce by placing a few pieces of food on the mat between their paws, ideally your pup will remain in that position.
No problem if your puppy doesn’t offer a ‘sit’, you can help them out with a lure, or the cue ‘sit’. Reinforce by placing a few pieces of food on the mat between their paws.
STEP 6
Say, “OK” and show your puppy a piece of food before throwing it a short distance away from the mat. Your puppy can go and eat the food you’ve thrown off to the side.
Watch the video below of steps 5 – 6 from gorgeous Bertie.
STEP 7
Wait to see what your puppy chooses to do next. It’s likely they’ll return and sit on the mat. Reinforce with food in the same way. If your puppy stands first, that’s totally fine, reinforce that and wait for a sit. Help them if needed.
STEP 8
Rinse and repeat until your puppy is returning to the mat and sitting down.
Watch the video below of brilliant Bertie smashing it!
STEP 9
From this position you can lure your puppy into a down. Put a piece of food on the end of their nose, slowly bring it down between their shoulder blades and to the mat so your puppy is laying down. Then release the food from your hand onto the mat for your puppy.
Add a few bonus pieces here.
STEP 10
Say, “OK” and show your puppy a piece of food before throwing it a short distance away from the mat. Your puppy can go and eat the food you’ve thrown off to the side.
STEP 11
Rinse and repeat – luring your puppy from the sit into a down position.
STEP 12
There will be a point where your puppy returns to the mat, and if you’re patient and give them time to think, they will offer a down.
What we want to see is one of your puppy’s hips flopped over to one side. Feeding your puppy to the side of one of their paws can help them to get into this position.
Watch the video below of Bertie showing off how it’s done.
STEP 13
Once you’ve taught your puppy to settle down you need to increase duration (the amount of time they remain on the mat) and the level of difficulty.
Follow these steps for success
This exercise is going to take a few training sessions to complete. Move through the steps above at your puppy’s pace and always keep your training sessions short and fun.
To end a training session say, “OK” and show your puppy a piece of food before throwing it a short distance away from the mat. Your puppy can go and eat the food you’ve thrown off to the side. Then pick the mat up and tidy away until your next session.
Practise in different rooms in your home and in the garden. Maybe to start you’re sitting on the floor next to the mat, then you move to sitting on a kitchen chair with the mat on the floor next to you for example.
The best time to practise teaching your puppy to settle down is when they’ve had a chance to burn off some energy. So go on, get outside. Play and be silly with your puppy for a few minutes first.
In this blog post, we’ve shared how to teach your puppy to settle down.
And if you enjoyed my style of teaching and want to watch more of my puppy training videos, including how to teach your puppy attention, recall, loose lead walking, leave-it, remain in position and fun tricks such as leg weaves and a roll over, plus many, many more you can find them inside my Puppy Wise Academy membership.
And at the cost of £24.99 per month, which includes unrivalled support from me, joining us today is an absolute no brainer!
Click on the image below to learn more and start your puppy training journey today!
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You might also find the related articles below helpful.
Happy training!
Lindsay xx
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