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Place
By Devene Godau, CPDT

This exercise teaches the dog to go to a specific place (be it a blanket or dog bed, pick whatever works best for your dog and household). The goal is to teach the behavior and attach a cue to it that will tell your dog to go to his "place" when you need him out of the way.

Here are the steps:

• Let the dog smell the treat in your hand
• Take your hand and point (this will become your hand signal once we
  wean off the lure) at the pad you want to become your dog's "place."
• As soon as your dog's feet are on the pad, click and treat.

You can also use free shaping methods to build this behavior. If you dog wanders on his pad on his own accord, click and treat… or if he is more toy motivated, throw him a toy.

Once your dog is responding to the hand signal for place (finger pointed toward the pad) you can start adding the verbal cue (I use "place", but you can choose from "go to your spot", "pad"or "bed"… whatever you want, as long as it is consistent!).

In addition, once your dog is reliably going to his "place" you can start withholding the click, at first for a few seconds, then slowly and intermittently extending the amount of time he stays in his place before earning the click and treat.

Teaching this behavior will help you to get your dog to his "place" and out of your way, whenever you need him to!

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