Unsettling

I was going to do a post about teaching a dog to settle and some of the ways that Langley and I are working on this, but honestly, Langley and I really suck.  I mean, we keep plugging away at it but neither of us by nature are settled and laid back so together we are not so good a team.

Everything Langley does has a certain level of intensity.  When he is training he can be a pretty amazing dog but even practicing "sit" and "down" with him it's hard not to laugh because he performs the actions like there is a race to see who hits the floor fastest.  He could be walking across the room and I say "down" and all 4 legs fly out and he slams his body to the ground and then stares intently at me, waiting for the next cue.

Anyhow, since Langley is a little ADHD and can find focus (on me) difficult at times, for settle I try to use some kind of stationary toy or chew for him to sit in one place and just stay and work on it calmly.   Today I loaded the Ruff Dawg Pickle Pocket (sorry - in an earlier post I mistakenly said that Starmark made it) with freeze-dried bison lung and we got started.  Now mind you, Langley's settle looks like what I imagine for some dogs would be the cue "unsettle".  But it's about the baby steps, you know?  Below shows several photos of Langley "settling".

Langley being still and settled - part 1

Another attempt at still and calm - part 2

Trying a new location - nope, not working

Finally, we have achieved "stillness" but aren't even close to relaxed and settled

So my final advice to you is never ask me for instruction on how to teach a dog to be calm and settled.  Instead, I suggest you go to youtube and watch Kikopup's series on teaching a dog to settle.  Here's the first video in the series called "Capturing Calmness".  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wesm2OpE_2c&feature=plcp   I know that I'll be watching it for a refresher course.