Using a specific protocol, you’ll be able to teach your dog to calmly stay sitting or lying down on a mat through increasingly difficult and distracting environments. Dogs learn to develop a pattern of calm behavior that can be used moving forward under a variety of circumstances.
Karen Overall’s Relaxation Protocol can help with:
· Dogs who have low frustration tolerance, high arousal or and lack impulse control. They learn to calm down and turn off.
· Excited greeters. They’ll learn to stay on their mat when someone knocks on the door
· Focus Training. Dogs learn to focus on the handler during this training.
· Distraction Training. Dogs learn to focus on the task despite increasing distractions in the protocol.
· High-energy dogs. They learn how to lie down and watch the world go by – in exchange for tasty treats.
· Pushy dogs. If your dog is on his mat, he’s not jumping on your friends when they come to visit
Relaxation Protocol Preparation
· Choose small treats since you will need so many.
· Place the treat bag behind your back so the dog is less likely to jump up.
· Designate a specific relaxation mat or bed.
· Reward at the end of each task.
· Before starting the protocol, train your dog to sit or down on cue (either hand signal &/or verbal). DO NOT push or pull the dog into position
For each listed task:
· Cue your dog to sit or down
· Perform the task (i.e. wait for 5 seconds)
· Reward the dog for each successful completed task.
· If the dog gets up out of the sit or down, close one hand around the treat, and ask the dog to sit or down again.
One or two short sessions a day will be all you need to be successful. It’s not about completing the list of tasks, but rather stop the session when either of you becomes tired or unfocused. This is especially true if the dog is becoming more aroused, frustrated rather than less, as the session progresses. Don’t move on to the next list until your dog is successful at the current level.
Start in a quiet place in your home. Once the dog is successful at home, you can go to quiet locations away from home and redo the whole thing.
Here’s a link to a free, downloadable mp3 recording of the list of tasks. This will be especially helpful so you don’t have to stop and read the tasks while you go.
