24/06/2025
We took a little social media break over the past few days, so here’s Monday’s Training Moment, delivered on Tuesday.
Sometimes learning a new cue comes in stages. Having your dog go to their mat, kennel, raised bed, etc, is one of those cues. It’s an important cue to train so they are in a safe and relaxed place when someone comes to the door, you clean up a mess on the floor or any time they need to just chill out for a few moments. Think of this cue as a set of stairs with looking at the mat as the bottom step and going to and staying on their mat when requested as the top step. Your staircase could be shorted or longer than others and that’s ok.
Start with standing near the mat, clicker and treats in hand. If there is no interest in the mat at all, simply toss a treat on it without a click. As soon as the puppy looks towards the mat, they receive their click and a second reward. Next step is placing a paw on the mat and then two and so on until the puppy places all four paws on the mat consistently. At this point, name the cue. We use “go to place” because when we use “go to mat” the dogs try to find our son, Matt, wherever he is in the house and the cue has failed lol.
Once they have consistently followed the cue correctly, you can add a sit and a wait cue to challenge the puppy even more. If you reach a day where the puppy doesn’t seem to have any idea what you’re asking, go back to the beginning and allow them to catch up. Remember they are requiring their brains so setbacks are normal.
This is our Solie on place in the yard and Shakes joined her. 🤭
Ps this is the cue my mom uses the most often with her Ruby Tuesday- girl and she’s been waiting for me to share the steps with you all. lol
Happy training!
Macbeth
