An Easy Way to Teach a Puppy to Relax in Hollywood

For this Hollywood in-home puppy training session we showed 10-month-old Golden Retriever Louie’s parents how to teach a puppy to relax.

This session was a lot of fun. Louie is a very smart and charming puppy who was just a little bit misunderstood by his parents.

We started things off as I often do by introducing and loading a marker word. This is the fundamental building block of all modern dog training. Establishing and loading a marker word accelerates your dog training because it takes the ambiguity out of your communication with your dog or puppy.

Louie had already learned the hand targeting lesson that I like to use to help humans perfect the technique of using their marker. However their senior dog, Lucy had not learned the exercise yet.

I walked Lucy’s guardian through the hand targeting exercise and just like her puppy roommate, she caught on very quickly. We worked with her mom on her timing and mechanics to make sure that the message she was sending was very clear.

A couple minutes later, both of them had mastered the hand targeting exercise so I took a couple of minutes to go over the proper way to introduce a cue.

There are four parts to a cue

1. The cue which is the direction to the dog
2. The action that the dog completes
3. The marker which tells the dog it’s completed the task
4. The reward; a pet, a treat or affection

Many people introduce a cue before the dog has learned the action, but you should never introduce a cue unless you’re 90% certain that the dog is going to do the action when prompted.

Puppy Training Fundamentals

Next we went over a simple recall exercise since Louie often doesn’t like to come when called at the park. Of course we practiced the exercise inside the house first. You always want to teach a dog an exercise in an easier environment first so that they can learn what you want.

One of the most common behavior mistakes people make is trying to introduce a cue in a very distracting environment or to move too fast. But if you go at the dog’s pace, it’s a much faster and more enjoyable experience for both dog and human.

Next we went over one of the easiest ways to train any dog, something I call celebrating. I recommended that the guardian practice this technique as often as possible and use the watch word of “celebrate!” Anytime their partner misses an opportunity to reward a desired behavior.

We also covered the flipside of that equation, how to react when a puppy or dog is offering some unwanted behaviors. We did this through the manners lesson but we also discussed how to use the positive interrupter to redirect a dog without accidentally causing it to do the thing you want to avoid.

This lesson can really come in handy, especially if you have a high energy puppy like Louie.

Of course we discussed dog body language, consent and cut off signals. This is one of my favorite lessons to teach because so many people dont know how to read it when their dog says “no.” It also helps the humans recognize when the dog feels uncomfortable or disagrees.

This gives people such a different perspective of their dog’s behavior that I find it to be transformative. I know without a doubt that we’re making a difference in the quality of the dog’s life which is the gift that keeps on giving.

I also went over some creative exercise tips like how to use box enrichment, the cookie in the corner game, how to drain energy by using a snuffle mat during meal time as well as the importance of incorporating some rules and structure to help the dog practice impulse control. This is another really important behavior to cultivate with a high energy puppy.

Throughout the session, Louie showed a high level of intelligence. Sometimes dogs that are very smart can be challenging when they are puppies. Especially a high energy puppy like Louie.

How to Teach a Puppy to Relax

While Louie is very smart, he certainly has a lot of energy which is common in puppies. We had covered a number of tips that will help with his energy but I also wanted to show his guardians how to cultivate calm.

To achieve this I decided to walk the guardians through something called the protocol for relaxation. This is a series of activities that help condition a dog to relax while humans engage in the normal things that we do on a daily basis.

I make every one of our Dog Gone Problems dog trainers master this exercise before we start sending them out for in-home dog training sessions. I do this because the exercise forces the human to learn how to break things down into smaller steps so that the dog or puppy can be successful.

If you have a dog or a puppy with a lot of energy who has difficulty focusing, you should definitely check out this free positive dog training video below.

By introducing a series of exercises that progress through various human movements, we were able to easily teach a puppy to relax.

After I demonstrated the relaxation protocol with Louie myself, his mom took a turn and did outstanding. Not only did Louie complete the series of tasks in one go, his mom showed excellent timing and technique. All of the work we had practiced earlier in the session was really paying off.

I explained that not every day will be as good as it was today. Dog training is not a linear process, especially when you’re trying to teach a puppy to relax. There will be good days and bad days, the key is to stay the course.

Sometimes it can be helpful to practice this exercise at different times of the day. You want to avoid doing it when the dog is overly excited or has a lot of energy; like first thing in the morning or during sunrise or sunset.

We covered a couple of other exercises like how to use a conditioned emotional response to stop Louie from avoiding putting the harness on. I also showed them a neat trick that motivates a dog to put the harness on themselves.

We wrapped up by going over a leave it exercise and how to build that into a practical application.

By the end of the session, Louie was pooped. We had helped burn the energy by using his brain and his nose. Even though he is a high energy puppy, I know that and since it had been longer than a couple of hours since he slept, I knew that he would crash as soon as we finished up.

Since we covered so much I wanted to make sure that the guardians were going to be able to remember everything. I pulled up my camera so I could record a roadmap to success summary video of all the dog training tips and secrets we covered in this in-home Hollywood Dog training session.

I recommended the guardians watch it weekly for the next 3 to 5 weeks until they have everything down cold.

If they’re still having issues after that, we can certainly schedule a follow-up session, but based on how well they picked everything up and how great Louie responded, I doubt that will be necessary.