I am still learning my way through dog training. Every day I educate myself a little bit more and each day I am acutely aware of just how much I have to learn. Sometimes (all the time), I think about areas where I went wrong with Waffles. Now, I absolutely refuse to play the blame game. Waffles was an extremely loved and cared for dog with a great life and I truly worked hard at training him. He knew all of of the basics and even a few adorable tricks. However, the truth of the matter is that, while Waffles knew a lot of commands, neither he or I understood how those commands were supposed to be applied in our everyday lives. We understood the how but were completely clueless on the why.
When I was reading about how to train Waffles, many of the books and videos emphasized the importance of teaching a good “place.” This is where you tell your dog “place” and they go sit or lie down in their designated spot. I’m not going to go through the steps of how to do this, there are too many people with tons of experience that have put out great how-to videos on YouTube, definitely look it up if you need to learn how to teach the skill. The videos are amazing and will teach you step-by-step directions; however, what they don’t teach you is why the hell you should teach your dog this skill to begin with. The only thing that I will also add in is that a lot of the videos use a dog bed for “place.” I truly think that a raised dog bed is the way to go with this command. With a dog bed, the dog sometimes lays near it, half on it, has a paw on it…there is wiggle room. With a raised dog bed the dog is either on the bed, or off the bed. This takes away any confusion that the dog might have and also takes away any wiggle room for them to play the system.
Waffles knew place but I didn’t know how to apply it (it’s always the human fail, truly it is). We used “place” mainly during dinner time. I have a bunch of kiddos and didn’t want the dog hovering under the table so I taught him to be at his place while we were eating. He picked it up pretty quickly and, eventually, whenever Waffles saw anybody sit down at the table he would go to his place without being asked. Now, this is great, and I still do this with Ricochet too. Many chicken nuggets have not been stolen due to my dogs knowing this expectation. However, the place command can be used for for situations other than the prevention of stolen chicken nuggets.
Right here, this is where I am going to share with you how the proper application of place could have saved Waffles’ life, so read closely. Place can be used WHEN.EV.ER. , your dog is in a situation that they don’t know how to navigate safely or appropriately (or, honestly, if they are just being annoying and need to settle a bit). Take Ricochet’s obsessive staring at the window to bark and lunge at busses. Now, during the morning from 7:30-8:15 am when the busses are driving past our windows, Ricochet is in his place. His place is by the window so he can still see what is going on outside and hopefully desensitize to busses. When Ricochet is at his place, he is on his bed, laying down, I keep his leash on him at this point so that I can guide him back to his place if he breaks before I tell him to, and I treat him every couple of minutes for holding his place. This has resulted in a dog that is calm (and often falls asleep) during the morning bus time instead of the dog that we had a couple of weeks ago who was running from window to window barking like a crazed lunatic at the school busses. He has learned that the morning pick-up is a time where we are calm. This also means, that he is laying nicely on his place when the kids go out the door for school so there is no chance of him slipping out as they leave (safety first my friends).
I also use place when I know that friends are coming over. When people walk through the door Ricochet gets so excited that he jumps all over our visitors. Now, when somebody comes to the door, I tell Ricochet to “place.” This way he can see who comes in but needs to remain calm while our guests come in and get settled. After a few minutes when the excitement of somebody coming into the house has lessened and he has had a few minutes to see who is here, I release him to calmly greet our friends. If he is still overexcited, I send him back until he settles. You see??? Are you seeing what I’m doing? I’m using the place command to teach Ricochet how to be calm in overexciting situations as well as impulse control.
THIS, this is what I didn’t know. These are things that could have saved Waffles. If I had taught him to calmly wait at his place when the kids are leaving the door, if I had taught him to remain calm when he sees something or somebody exciting, if I had taught him to listen and look to me for guidance instead of taking off after every impulse. I didn’t teach him these things. I didn’t know. I thought Waffles would just grow out of these behaviors. I taught Waffles the commands and skills but never understood the underlaying reasons for why these skills are important to my dog’s safety and my sanity. I know better now and, now that I know better, I am doing better for Ricochet. Ric is safe, and so are the chicken nuggets.
The Heralding Hound 