All About that Place

Woops, meant to post this on Friday. I'm blaming it on pregnancy brain.

Can you tell that I heard Megan Trainor this morning and it’s been stuck in my head all day? I know it’s Friday and typically I like to keep Friday posts on the lighter side but I’m throwing a curve ball this week. After my post on Tuesday I knew I had to get this out ASAP because the questions were going to start rolling in. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I answered some questions and inadvertently sparked a separate topic. I mentioned that Ares stays in his place nearly the entire time I am home in the evenings. So this post is to answer your questions and explain the hows and whys of it all.

 A LONG time ago I did a mini-series of blog posts called The Training Diaries where I discussed a different dog training method each post. We have come a long way since then. Chris is now a certified dog trainer after completing nearly a year of online schooling. He went back to doing road construction, which allows him to work hard and make a full year’s income in 6 months, so that he could go through more extensive and in depth hands on training in the off season. Currently Chris has been training with the head trainer at a very well respected facility in our area every day during the week. He has already learned so much and this knowledge has sparked us to revisit training on our dogs.

 I did a post on the Place command, which is not completely dissimilar to the way we use it now, just much less advanced. If you are completely unfamiliar with this command and would like to learn it, see this post for the beginning basics. “Place” put simply is a down stay command. However the difference is that “Place” should be used if you need/want your dog to stay for an extended period of time and not just momentarily. Examples are always helpful I think so here are the differences by situation. If you are out walking your dog and see a neighbor you want to stop and briefly chat with you would just give your dog the down command and then the stay command so he lays at your feet while you have a quick conversation. If you don’t have a fenced in yard but would like your dog to be able to come hang outside with you on a nice evening, you would give the place command as he would be expected to stay laying down for more than a few minutes.

 Teaching your dog the place command can be incredibly invaluable for both inside and outside the home. I don’t know about you but mine would love to just follow me around the house when I’m home alone and dogs underfoot + stairs + carrying a laundry basket can be very dangerous. Especially now that I’m carrying extra precious cargo. But you might be thinking that it sounds cruel to make your dog lay in one spot for hours on end. I did at first too. But there’s a really good reason why, on the contrary, it’s great for your dog. When you give a dog a command he uses mental and physical energy to obey. Even though for “Place” it’s just one command, it requires continuous energy for the dog to maintain the command. That means your dog’s mind and body are essentially getting a workout as long as he’s obeying the place command. The brain is learning focus and control and the body is actually burning calories as if exercising. Sounds crazy, right? Take it from a total skeptic right here that it’s the real deal. We actually had to increase the amount of food we were giving Ares and Chaos at mealtime because they had lost a few pounds the first couple weeks into doing this regularly. It has also seemed to make them much more relaxed and happy dogs in general. There’s an old saying that a tired dog is a happy dog. If you find your dog has fallen asleep while in “Place” you can smile because he’s happy.

 So, is this a forever situation or a boot-camp kind of thing? Well, both. First let me reassure you that OF COURSE they get water breaks and time to go out to do their business and play/run in the yard. We will remain consistent with “Place” at all other times while inside the house until such time as they have learned they cannot break the command no matter what until another command is given (come, heel, ect.). We are still working on keeping the boys from getting up when someone comes over , the cats roll toys their way and getting up if we turn our backs or walk into another room. Once they have proven the place command will be followed strictly after it’s given, then we will scale back. Every dog is different so they will learn at different paces and it may take longer for one dog than the other. Even once we are secure with the command, it will not be a free for all. We plan to allow the dogs to roam the house somewhat but definitely give the place command  if we are going to be up and down stairs, doing a project we need them to stay away from, putting the baby sleep, ect. The command will not lose it’s positive effect on the mind and body as time goes on but eventually it won’t be necessary all of the time. Why? Because Ares and Chaos will understand how to behave inside the house versus outside the house and control their energy levels relative to the situation. This in itself will continue the learned mind/body stimulation. Now I’m not saying to stop walking your dog or playing in the yard with him because he’s burning all those calories in “Place”. Walking and playing together are excellent bonding experiences and FUN. Plus, low impact exercise will always help to ensure an overall healthy dog. But you don’t have to feel guilty (like I used to) if you just can’t get a walk/play session in today because having your dog stay in place is definitely giving him amazing mind and body benefits.

 The way we practice “Place” now is a graduated version of our original use of the command. The dogs follow this command for very long periods of time, often hours, instead of just 30 minutes or an hour here or there. The only way the command is broken is to give another command, such as “Come”, “Heel” or “Outside”. We also use a specific spot in the house as opposed to a blanket/rug/bed. Our dogs love being by the fireplace and it’s a great out of the way spot for them. We put their beds there so that they will be comfortable but the point is that if we gave the command they would go lay in front of the fireplace even if the beds weren’t there. “Place” isn’t on a specific object but rather in a specific location. If you want to get really fancy after the initial concept of the command is well learned, you can name specific spots throughout the home. We have designated spots for “Place” in 3 rooms of our house right now and for us, we felt like it would be simple and easy to name them by color. You can use anything you want that you can remember and don’t feel ridiculous saying every day. In front of the fireplace is where we want the dogs to be in “Place” the majority of the time and that is “Blue”. So instead of saying “Place” when we want them to follow the place command in front of the fireplace we just say “Go Blue”. This is especially fun if you have a favorite team and use their color. We have not made it to this point yet but eventually we should be able to say “Go Blue” if we are upstairs with the dogs and they will go downstairs to the correct spot. We would still use plain old “Place” for any other time we want them to go into an extended down stay. Make sense?

 I know this was incredibly long and involved, especially for a Friday, so I’m going to go ahead and shut up now. Send me your questions when you turn your brains back on after the weekend.