Teaching a Dog to Go to a Dog Bed to Stop Dog Fights

Published Date: April 2, 2026

For this in-home West LA dog training session we teach 2 year-old Pomski Sanai to go to a dog bed to help him have a better relationship with his roommate Belle, a 6 year-old blind Husky.

This was a really interesting session to do because both dogs had different needs. Each of the humans in the house had acquired a dog before they met as a couple, and fully integrating them has been a bit of a challenge.

Being a blind dog, Belle has snapped at Sanai when she bumps into him unexpectedly. This has caused Sanai to feel anxious when she is around. The guardians have addressed this issue by keeping the dogs segregated in the house. While this is a temporary solution, it doesn’t help the dogs learn to be calm and feel secure around one another.

Belle also has an incontinence problem that could be a result of lack of potty training, but could also be an indication that she is having some physical issues.

Throughout the session we oscillated back and forth between issues affecting each dog individually.

But before we started working on the individual problems, we covered a number of core dog behavior fundamentals. But as I went through them, Sanai stopped multiple times and disengaged. After it happened a few times, Sanai’s guardian mentioned that she had sent him to a board-and-train when he was a mature puppy.

I am not a fan of board-and-train situations. I have found that the overwhelming majority of them use aversive, punitive and sometimes very unethical methods to train the dogs. Being a Behavior Specialist, I don’t believe it is appropriate or ethical to punish dogs to train them.

Instead, I’m a big believer of relationship-based positive dog training. My goal is always to train my clients so well that they can replace me. When the dog’s humans are the ones that teach and train them, it in engenders a deeper and richer relationship between dog and human.

While Sanai came back very well trained from his board and train, he may have been too trained. We ran into issues multiple times in the session where he stood and waited for his guardian to give him permission to move or approach things.

There’s nothing wrong with teaching a dog to stay or wait, but training a dog to such an extreme that it has to ask for permission to move around freely can create behavior problems. It requires you to micromanage your dog instead of teaching them so they can manage themselves. Training a dog to have to wait for permission can also cause problems in situations like when you have another dog in the house that he may want to try to avoid at times.

The guardians were thirsty for knowledge so I spent the first portion of the session going over the basic dog behavior fundamentals that I cover to make sure to share with every one of my in-home behavior clients.

We introduced and loaded a marker word, ran through a hand targeting exercise to help the guardian practice her timing and technique. Her timing was spot on, but her mechanics were a little convoluted. I made sure to point out the importance of her saying the marker word first, then moving to deliver the treat in a completely separate action.

Dogs are very big on reading our body language. Humans often combine movements with verbal communications for efficiency of movement. While this works for humans, it can often cause confusion for the dogs.

Next we went over how to introduce a cue, how to fade a lure, the importance of celebrating desired behaviors to increase confidence, how to teach manners and my favorite lesson; teaching humans how to read dog cut off signals, affirmation signals and signs of consent.

Learning how to better recognize when Sanai is STARTING to feel uncomfortable will allow his guardians to redirect him or fix the problem. This is even more important with Sanai as he has been trained to wait for his human to give him direction or permission.

With the basic fundamentals out of the way, we started working on individual exercises to help the dogs with their various issues. I had been ruminating on how to help the dogs exist together while also preventing any conflicts from occurring. That’s when I first got the idea of teaching Sanai to go to multiple dog beds. More on that later.

Next up was Belle’s accidents in the house. This is obviously an issue the guardians wanted to sort out as soon as possible. No one wants a home to smell of urine.

I asked Belle’s guardian what her word was to potty and learned he had not introduced one. Almost every time I have a client who has a dog with a potty training issue, they do not have a cue for the dog to go.

I’m a big believer in putting behaviors on cue as it offers the ability to communicate more effectively with the dogs.

I ran through our potty training exercise and recommended that the guardian use my preferred cue for potty, “business.” Since Belle tends to go potty immediately upon getting outside, I told him to introduce the cue as soon as he sees her getting into a potty position, then mark and reward normally.

But since this is almost a reflexive behavior, I wanted to also help him turbo charge the word. I suggested that he continue going for a short walk after her initial bowel movement and watch for other indications that she’s going to potty. When she starts to get into position that second time, I recommended he say the cue as she starts to potty, then mark and reward with a jackpot; five treats delivered one after another.

Hopefully, Belle starts to associate the word with the action. I told the guardians to be on alert for her offering unusual behaviors once she puts the word in action together. Dogs who are newly potty trained start barking, pawing, moving in circles or whining to communicate they need to go. This happens once they learn that going outside = treats!

When this alerting behavior happens, then he can say the cue word “business” to her. If she shows some animation or bounces around, they know that she is trying to communicate that she wants to go outside and do her business.

I also recommended that the guardian practice our collar grab game which will make it easier to lead Belle around the apartment. Due to her incontinence, they have restricted her movement and often grab her by the harness to move her in various directions. But the pulling on the harness can cause some dogs to start resisting.

Teaching Belle to follow their lead when they try grab her harness to guide her around the room by holding a treat to her nose this way will provide motivation. It will also make her feel more comfortable being led around the room.

At various times in the session, Belle was verbally protesting whenever she was put into her crate. I think some of this was due to her realizing that her vocalization will cause her guardian to give her attention or release her. At other times I believe she is communicating her distress and being apart from him.

I spent a little bit of time going over some tips to help dogs that have separation anxiety. I also made sure to discuss what to do when she is simply protesting because she wants to get out of the crate.

Belle has broken out of multiple crates before, so I suggested he do some remedial crate training. Your goal should always be to motivate your dog to want to go into and stay in the crate. Crate training this way ensures you don’t have to force or push them inside. Those actions will cause dogs to resist more.

I shared a number of crate training tips with him that should help her feel more comfortable and relaxed while also helping her feel less anxious in his absence.

Training a Dog to Go to a Dog Bed to Stop Fights

With all the other issues out of the way, I was ready to address the primary issue; the dogs not getting along. When I spoke to the guardians on the phone booking the session they communicated one of the primary objectives had was to help their dogs get along better.

Due to their challenging interactions in the past, the guardians had basically split their house in two. Belle stayed with one guardian in his office where Sanai spent his time in the other room with his guardian.

While this can prevent the dogs from having confrontations, it doesn’t help them practice living together in a positive way. I wanted to create a situation where the guardians could have the dogs in the room together but also create a safe situation for Sanai.

I decided to use a really basic dog training exercise to help create space and give the guardians the ability to redirect their dogs to different portions of the room. I did this by teaching Sanai to go to a dog bed. Actually we taught him to go to three different dog beds.

Having different dog beds with different names in different locations will give the guardians the ability to move Sanai away from Belle when he feels uncomfortable and starts offering cut off signals that she can’t see for obvious reasons. I haven’t taught a dog to go to multiple dog beds in the same session, but the process is the same.

If you want to learn how to teach your dog to go to a dog bed, or you have dogs that need direction to help them provide space for each other, you should definitely check out the free positive dog training video below.

By exclusively teaching Sanai to go to the dog beds and giving each bed a different name, the guardians will be able to manage their dogs while also keeping them in the room together. This is an important part of the process when you are trying to teach dogs to get along.

It’s not hard to train a dog to go to a dog bed, but I made sure to go through the process of feeding the lure so that they can use verbal cues only.

In addition to teaching Sanai to go to a dog bed, I went over a number of other tips that will help the dogs get along.

I recommended they start giving the dogs lick mat while in the room together. Using a lick mat can release oxytocin when the dogs lick them. This will help keep them occupied while practicing being calm together. By positioning the mat 10 or more feet together at opposite sides of the room, the dogs can practice being in the room together while distracted.

I also suggested that the guardians have the dogs stay in the room together at times that they are tired or relaxed such as after taking a walk.

Going for walks together is another great way for the dogs to develop positive associations. I made sure to recommend the guardians take the dogs out for a walk after any confrontation or incident that isn’t positive.

Separating dogs to get them from having a confrontation is great, but it can help make an unpleasant memory even more memorable. So if there is an issue or confrontation between the two of them, it will be important for them to immediately take the dogs out for a walk together so that the last memory they have of their companion is a good one.

I shared a couple of other tips to help Sanai feel more comfortable and give him a safe place that he can move to. But teaching him to go to multiple dog beds will do most of the work. The guardians will need to practice, i recommend 3 times a day in short, 3 minute practice sessions. If they are consistent (practicing daily), it shouldn’t take them long to train him to go to multiple dog beds on cue.

My hope is that by curating positive experiences together, the guardians can help this pair of dogs practice being calm and have a positive association with each other.

While it would be nice to have the dogs eventually learn to become friends or snuggle together, I warned the guardians to guard against making that a goal as it may be unachievable.

Time will tell how about the dogs feel about one another. But the more that the guardians create positive interactions, the more comfortable the dogs will become when in their counterpart’s presence. But once Sanai learns to go to multiple dog beds on cue, they will have a powerful asset in that endeavor.

To help the guardians remember all of the dog behavior tips we shared in this west LA in-home dog training session, I pulled out my camera so that I can record a roadmap to success summary video.

I recommended the guardians watch the video below once a week for the next four or five weeks until they have incorporated all of the behavior tips included in the video. Hopefully at that point the dogs are feeling more comfortable around each other and almost as importantly, the humans feel more comfortable and confident when the dogs are together.

I stress the importance of reaching out anytime they have questions or concerns in the future as sometimes it’s necessary to make adjustments when they reach plateaus or unexpected interactions.

But based on how dedicated they are to the dogs that they love so much, I’m very optimistic that this is going to turn out to be a very happy story with a happy ending.