Transcript:

For dogs that are really anxious we find that it’s super important to just start with some of the basics and start with your house, just being inside your house and being where your dog might actually be very comfortable, so that you can get a good foundation for obedience and a good foundation for the basics.

Then once your dog feels really confident and comfortable with those basics, you can start to move out into your driveway or move out onto the sidewalk, in your neighborhood and when you start taking these like really small baby steps, then we kind of see that snowball effect.

So your dog knows and understands place command or coming when called just inside the house, where they feel really confident and comfortable.

Then we move out to the driveway and we might bring the place cot out into the driveway do placed cot out there, get them really calm and comfortable there and then maybe take it to the park and put the place cot in the park and have them do placement there.

We find that when dogs are really good with something like place command which we call it like the doggie off switch, come on command.

So when they’re really good with that, they can really apply it just about anywhere. You can start taking that and start using it in a situation where your dog may not be super comfortable.

So we had a dog recently, that is really uncomfortable around strangers and new places. So we taught her place command in our training center and then I moved it outside, then I brought her to the park and I went at a time where it wasn’t super busy. So we might have seen maybe three or four new people but I put the place cot out there, she already knew what it was about.

She was really interested in taking food which is great because it allows us to positively reinforce some good thoughts and behaviors. So where she might not have felt as comfortable, she had sort of this thing to do, where it took her mind off of that.

So place command is like the duct tape of effective dog training. It fixes just about everything, from jumping on guests at the door, to anxious and nervous dogs and their behavior, it even addresses reactivity and aggression with either dogs or other people. So once you start with that foundation really, the sky’s the limit with that.

So when you have a nervous and anxious dog, placement is a great start. Then we start introducing things like walking nicely on leash, we give them replacement behaviors.

So it’s like saying; “Hey, don’t worry about this. I need you to do this instead”. Replacement behaviors are a great way to interrupt behavior that you don’t necessarily like.

So I don’t want my dog jumping on people at the door, go to place instead or I don’t want them begging at the table, go to place instead. I don’t want them reacting towards another dog or human. So come to me and I’ll give you some guidance and some tips on how to make yourself feel better.

So recalls, healing, sitting, downing, all of the foundation for obedience is a great way to start interrupting some of those behaviors that you don’t like and anxiety is definitely one of those in dogs.

It’s really disheartening when you see a dog being super anxious just in general in life, maybe not even necessarily around other dogs or people but anxiety is a big thing that we work with a lot of owners and dogs with.

Because it’s not great for us to live in that kind of state and we know it’s not great for them to live in that kind of state, so place command, crate training and that foundation of obedience really does help address all of those things.