#19 Relaxation is Underrated
Highfives Insights: Relaxation is underrated in dog training.
I have noticed a pattern: Many people want to train their dog or new puppy on fun tricks, obedience, and socialization, but they skip training actual relaxation. Yes relaxation CAN and SHOULD be practiced, not only expected. You have to condition an off-switch, especially in high energy dogs. A calm dog is a well-behaved dog.
And a calm dog isn’t necessarily inherently calm. You’re lucky if you get one of those! The way to encourage calmness is to provide a clear outlet of fulfilling activity and then enforce an off-switch. Take for instance an agility dog. If an agility dog went from the agility course to his home and was allowed to use the furniture as obstacles and the walls as rebounders, the energy would be unbridled and never have a limitation. However agility itself is a positive outlet for your dog’s energy. So its not about avoiding agility. Its about teaching the dog that the switch should be ON during the course but OFF when he arrives home.
There are many ways that you can create an ‘off-switch’ in your dog. It all starts with providing structure in your lifestyle and relationship with your dog.
- Create a routine - Everything should happen on your clock and it should be different every day. Walk time, play time, and meal time should happen only when you initiate it. The exception to this is puppy potty breaks… When they’ve gotta go, they’ve gotta go!
The most common mistake we make with our dogs is that we cater to their whims. When they want to play by bringing us a toy form their toy bin, we play. When they want to eat, we feed them. When they smack the back door, we let them in and out. When they are barking, we give them attention. When they become nippy maniacs, we either walk away (give up) or crate them at our wits end. It becomes a vicious cycle where the motivating factor is actually a very unsettled mindset in the dog. So technically, we are feeding into a hyperactive state. No wonder our dogs can’t calm themselves!
Instead of practicing this unhealthy ritual, instil a routine of Walk - Train - Rest. The structured walk drains physical energy while also keeping the dog controlled. Training and play is for mental stimulation. During the interaction, you should be maintaining energy awareness and rewarding the dog for good behaviours. The Rest period shouldn’t be happening ‘just because your dog is exhausted from previous activities’. It should constitute every break between the active times in your dog’s life. Rest can happen on Place or in the crate.
- Playtime is Training time - Utilize an on-off method during playtime. If your dog loves to play fetch, don’t mindlessly throw the ball over and over. That builds hyper activity, bad impulse control, and obsession. Instead, have your dog work for each throw. By slowing down the play process, you build motivation, patience, focus, and self control. Mark eye contact or patience with a postive marker word such as YES and then throw the ball. This way, your dog has earned the toy through their good behaviour.
Do the same during tug games… Your dog should be able to drop the tug toy on command and not touch it again until released. You start and end the game, always.
- Expect Calmness when Indoors - Don’t encourage your dog to become excited in the house. Don’t play inside the house. Don’t allow tons of free-roaming inside the house. It’ll be a lot harder for your dog to learn to be calm inside when you allow or even encourage them to do zoomies in the evening or upon the return from a walk. Its also very hard for your dog to relax when you allow them to look outside a window and bark at passing people, dogs, or squirrels. Correct arousal by either providing a proactive goal such as Place or a reactive punisher to turn the brain off.
- Place - Train your dog to go to a mat or bed and stay there for extended periods of time. Your dog can never do too much Place when you are responsibly providing appropriate amounts of exercise and training daily. Frankly, all dogs should be on Place almost all the time while inside the home. Free-roaming should be an earned privilege for dogs who are more settled or older.
The biggest mistake of new dog owners is to allow the dog the option to aimlessly wander around a large area of the house. This only helps to get the dog into trouble as their bored or anxious mind urges them to pace or even become ADHD and destructive.
When starting with Place, its important to practice a lower duration time in low distraction with leash on the dog while you’re nearby. Place can even be practiced by tethering the dog to keep him in a localized area with access to a bed. We need to limit the options our dog has access to so that the brain practices choosing relaxation.
- Crate train - Utilize the crate when you’re early in the relationship with your new dog or puppy. The crate should be used between all activities when you aren’t able to supervise your dog on Place. The crate reduces all opportunity for a dog to get into trouble. Just like Place but with physical walls, the crate can help immensely with management and calming brain training.
And as always, remember your own energy will be mirrored in your dog. While training your dog to relax, maybe take a look into your own self and practice some calmness as well!
No train no gain!
Jenna