Do This to Keep Your Dog Calm

By utilizing this game, we are able to show our pets that calm behavior gets rewarded, even after getting wound up during play.

What you’ll need: Quiet room with lots of space A hungry dog Leash (6’-15’) attached to an appropriate collar or harness Extra tasty treats in an easy to reach pocket or treat pouch Practice, Persistence, Patience and Praise

How to begin: With your treats ready, attach your pet’s leash to their collar or harness and bring them into your designated training area. You should have ample space in this area to run around a bit without bumping into things.

Once in the area, ask your pet to sit. When they do say your reward marker and give them a treat.

After your pet finishes their treat say, “Go Wild!” and start to run or jump around a little. We do not want to get too crazy the first few repetitions that our pet won’t calm down. You should only do this for about a couple of seconds and move a couple of feet at first.

Next, come to a stop, bring your hands into your chest and wait a moment. Your pet should respond by eventually sitting down (since that was the behavior previously rewarded). Once they do, say your reward marker and pop a treat into their mouth.

Try it again! Repeat the same steps about 3-5 times. Your pet’s response time to freeze should start to increase by sitting faster once you come to a stop and bring your hands to your chest.

As long as your pet can calm down rather quickly about 90% of the time once you stop moving, you can advance to the next step.

With your pet already sitting, again say, “Go Wild!” and run around a bit more. Try to get your pup a bit more excited than the last few times. After a few seconds, come to a stop, bring your hands to your chest and say “Freeze!” then wait a minute for your pet to respond by sitting. Once they do, say your reward marker and give your pet a treat.

Continue this game, slowly getting more and more excited each time you ask your dog to “Go Wild!”

Start to practice this game in different areas, with different people and vary who is rewarding the dog. When playing this game with multiple people make sure that everyone freezes at the same time. When your pet responds by sitting, make sure that everyone rewards your pet, starting with the person closest to them.

We are teaching our pet several things during these sessions: Not to jump on people when excited How to calm down after being wound up How to respond to someone’s body language saying, “I don’t really love when dogs jump on me”. Calm behavior gets rewarded from everyone