Teach Your Dog “Place!”
This issue’s Training Tip is brought to us by Kelly Castle of Chuluota, FL. Her three dogs have competed, or will compete, in agility, rally, obedience, tricks, Barn Hunt, Scent Work, FastCAT, and Dock Diving.
Zuri (Shameless Poc-Ket Of Petunias CD BN RM RAE AX OAJ CAX FCAT3 SEN RATCH CGCA CGCU TKP ATT) is her most versatile girl and enjoys Barn Hunt and Fast CAT the most. Dixon (Shameless Wee Winged Archer RA BCAT SWN SCA TKE), Kelly’s ‘super sniffer,’ excels at scent work and tricks. He is just getting started on his journey. The rookie, Rupert (Shameless As For Me I’ll Be A Knight RATI) just turned a year old and will be entering his first scent work and dock diving trials soon.
One of my favorite training quotes has always been, “I want my dog to see a behavior as an opportunity, not a risk.” When competing in multiple sports, the most valuable thing your dog needs is confidence.
Dogs need to know that during a training session, it’s okay to be wrong as long as they are willing to make an effort. It’s our job to reward for the behavior we want and to diminish the behavior we don’t. It takes a lot of courage for any team to step up to the line to compete.
As the human element of the team, our confidence comes from knowing our dogs understand the task and can perform it well. Our dogs need to know that, no matter the outcome, they have made us proud. This takes lots of confidence!
Another quote that has always been a standout to me is, “The hard dogs make us better trainers.” I learned this lesson when Zuri came into my life. She was my first shelter dog and she had lots of fears and very little confidence. We found it hard to communicate with each other until I learned how to break our lessons into simple pieces.
Most of our lessons started with “place.” One of the most valuable, cross sport behaviors I teach my dogs is “place.” There are endless applications for this skill in obedience, rally, agility, tricks and even home life. As puppies, “place” is used to build focus, drive, and most of all, confidence. I love this game; it’s very black and white and easy for dogs to learn.
Getting Started
Buy a mat. Make sure it is a bright color that stands out from the floor and has a texture different than the floor. Yoga mats cut into three or four pieces work well.
- The size of your mat depends on the size of your dog. It only needs to be slightly larger than your dog.
- Put a collar and leash on your dog, even if you are indoors.
Giving the “Place” Some Value
Put your mat on the ground and lure your dog over to the mat with your arms extended toward your dog and holding a treat, at the same time say the command, “place,” or whatever word makes you happy. At this point reward your dog for even putting one foot on the place.
- Don’t ask for any additional behavior like “sit.” Remember this is all about keeping it simple and building drive.
- Once your dog is on the mat reward with the treat. Then, quickly throw another treat on the ground off to the side. Only throw your treat as far as your leash will reach. This is to get your dog to leave the mat to retrieve the treat so you can ask them to come back to “place.”
- As your dog is moving to get the thrown treat, position yourself so the mat is between you and your dog. This is to make it easier for you to lure your dog back to place by asking your dog to come toward you.
- While your dog is picking up the thrown treat, say the word “place.”
- Again, and lure your dog back onto the mat. Try not to use your leash to pull dog toward the mat, use your outstretched arms holding the treat to lure them into position.
- The most important aspect is to keep the mat between you and your dog so that the dog is coming toward you when returning.
Repeat this process, keeping your treat delivery and treat toss fairly quick. Also, make sure to toss the treat to both the left and right side of the mat. Don’t get stuck using just one side.
You will know your dog is understanding when the head starts to snap back toward you immediately after picking up the treat on ground. You are now building drive!
As you build on this exercise start throwing your treats farther and move around your place more and more.
How do I know my dog is getting it?
Once your dog starts performing the turn back toward you with speed and you can see drive and excitement building, take a couple of extra steps back as the dog is returning to place. If the dog “sticks” on the mat instead of continuing forward toward you, then understanding is happening.
- At this point, you can start adding additional cues like “sit” or “stand” while the dog is on the mat.
- Don’t be afraid to go back to basics if you feel your dog is not understanding as well as you hoped.
Adding the Final Touches
Now that your dog gets excited upon seeing the mat come out for a training session and you are confident she fully understands the exercise, it’s time to start applying more layers.
A layer I like to add at this point is to add two or three more places either in a line or in a circle.
- Move the dog from place to place by starting on a mat at the beginning of the line, point to and take a step toward the next mat in line while repeating your command for “place.”
- Your dog should be offering to move to the next place without too much body motion from you. This is the beginning of your “send” to the mat.
- The most useful application for “place” is being able to send your dog to the mat without helping.
Some Useful Applications for “Place”
Rally – I find starting all my “stay” exercises using place is very helpful; it gives your dog a space to occupy while you step away.
Again, going back to being very black and white: dog stays on place and gets a reward; steps off, is put back on place and does not receive a reward. This is useful for all the rally stations requiring you to leave your dog in a position and then return. In the Masters level I also use “place” to help with the “send to cone” exercise.
Obedience – Teaching ‘go-outs’ for the directional jumping exercise is easy when your dog understands to run out to “place” from a distance. Start slow, putting your mat in front of ring gating and sending to the mat from 10 feet. As your dog reaches the mat and is turning to face you, tell her to sit and wait, pause a few seconds then step in and reward on the mat for holding the wait.
Do not call your dog to you for the reward. You want to encourage the wait on the mat. As your dog progresses, add to the distance they have to travel to get to the mat. Before long you will have a good 30 foot send. Once you have a good send-to-mat start adding one jump at a time to the picture.
Tricks – The key to good tricks is distance and independence. If you ever hope to get your dog into movie or commercial work, he must be able to do tricks and behaviors at a distance and can’t rely on luring from you. Pick any trick your dog does well and start asking him to perform it on the mat. As you progress, start adding distance for your send and heavily reinforce when your dog performs the trick on the mat at a distance. If your dog struggles with this, go back to less distance and choose an easier trick.
Agility – I find “place” especially useful in teaching distance and independence early on and helping with two-on-two-off contacts. I start teaching distance with two mats and a cone situated between them. The game is simple: the dog starts on one mat, runs around the cone and finishes on the second mat. Make this game as simple as you need to for your dog. As your dog gains more confidence you can move the mats farther apart and ask for more and more distance around the cone.
When teaching two-on-two-off contacts, put your place on the ground just next to the end of the contact, almost like an extension of the board.
As your dog traverses the obstacle ask for a “place” at the end. As the front feet hit the mat ask for a wait, hold a few seconds and release. This is a sure-fire way to ensure your dog touches and waits on the contact.
“Place” is also helpful in teaching jump grids or sequences. Use two mats with two or three jumps between. Much like the go around the cone exercise, teach your dog to have forward motion over the jumps and to end on the second mat. Your end goal should be to have the dog start on one mat, complete a series of jumps and finish on the second mat, all without you having to accompany him. Make sure to perform this exercise with your dog on your left and on your right.
As you can see, the applications are endless. Use your imagination! I have even used “place” to get fantastic Christmas pictures with Santa!
Training should be fun, and keeping things simple is the best way to build confidence. Never be afraid to break things into smaller sessions and make sure to always end on a high note.
Training tip: Do not put your place on the floor unless you are training. Seeing you get it out for a training session should incite excitement in the dog. Put the mat away once your training session has ended. Also be sure to practice your “place” in different locations out in public. Adding distraction is the best way to solidify how much focus and confidence your dog has while performing a behavior.
Put several treats in your hand before you start – you will be doing rapid fire treat dispensing. Think of yourself as a giant Pez dispenser!