Go To Your Place (Shaping Method)

This lesson will show you how to teach your dog to go to a place in the house and lie down. It could be to his bed, to his mat, to his pillow, or to something else you want him to go to and lie down on.

  1. Place your dogs mat (or whatever you want him to go to and lie down on) on the ground next to him.

  2. Click if he looks at the mat, and treat.

  3. Click if he makes any movement at all toward the mat, and treat. Repeat this step a few times.

  4. Click if he puts a foot on the mat, and treat. Repeat this step a few times.

  5. Click if he walks over to the mat and stands on it with all four feet on the mat, and treat. Repeat this step a few times.

  6. Click if he moves onto the mat and starts to sit or begins to sit on it, and treat. Repeat this several times.

  7. Click if he moves onto the mat and starts to lie down, and treat.

  8. If he walks over to the mat and lies down, click the moment he lies down and give him four or five treats at once and shower him with praise. Repeat this any time he lies all the way down.

  9. When he is going to his mat and lying down every time (which may take several training sessions to achieve) you can now add the cue. To do this, say the cue "Go to your mat" just before he goes over to the mat and lies down. And from now on, only click and treat if he goes to his mat and lies down after you've given the cue.

  10. You can now start to increase the duration of time he stays on his mat (one second at a time) before you click and treat. Let him lie on the mat for one second, before you click and treat. Then two, then three, etc, until you've built up the amount of time to 10 minutes or more before clicking and treating.

Remember, follow these steps above to shape the behavior. It may take you several training sessions to successfully teach your dog to go to his place.

If he stops progressing or seems to forget what you've already taught him, simply go all the way back to step one and work from there to refresh his memory.

The steps above use the shaping method to teach the behavior bit-by-bit. However, if he goes straight to the mat and lies down straight away you should, of course, click and hand him lots of treats (a jackpot). You may then have to back track, clicking and treating gradual movements towards the mat, if he doesn't just go straight to the mat and lie down again.

When you add the cue, it doesn't have to be "go to your mat." It can be "go to your bed," "go settle," or even "monkey banana," it's up to you.

Next: Targeting