Clean Run - September 2020 - 8

night, dopamine decreases and melatonin increases, and
in the morning when we wake up, the opposite occurs.
We don't want to use anything that stimulates dopamine,
and therefore prevents melatonin production when we
are trying to get the dog to relax.

ing the dog to become aware that the food stopped
because he moved. If you have a smart dog he will lie
down again within the 30-second time frame, and if he
makes that decision, he must be rewarded. Therefore, if
the dog lies down of his own accord, you must resume
continuous feeding. The aim is for the dog to choose to
lie down again within the 30-second time frame.

The timeframe for the settle may be anywhere from
around 15 minutes to a couple of hours. To get training
underway, take a moment to think about your general
day-to-day life, and work out when you would like your
dog to settle on cue. Make a list of five of these situations
that you can then practise and train, for example:
1. When friends visit.
2. While you are eating a meal.
3. When you are watching TV.
4. While you are working on the computer.
5. When you are visiting a dog friendly pub.
Step-by-step

Hold your treats in the hand furthest from the dog,
and reward with the other hand, placing the treats
between his front paws.

When we teach a behaviour, we normally reward the dog
at the end of the exercise. To teach the dog to settle, we
are going to reward throughout the exercise. The end of
the exercise will mean that the rewards stop. This enables
us to build motivation in the dog for the exercise to continue. It will also help to avoid creating an anticipatory
"wait."

The first step to teaching a settle is to make the dog understand: "if you lie down, you get fed, if you move, the
food stops."

once your dog understands that if he moves out of
the down position, the human food dispenser stops
working, you can then start to slow down the delivery
of treats. Try adding a second between treats, then two
seconds, then three, and so on.

I would not add a cue or command to this behaviour
until the dog starts to look relaxed. At this point, you
will usually see the dog flop over on to one hip and
start to look like he's thinking about staying in position. You can then use the cue, "settle" or "settle down."

With some dogs the use of food can put them into a
high arousal anticipatory state, which you do not want.
If you have this type of dog, you need to reduce the
food value, and slow your movements as you place the
food between the dog's paws. This will help to produce
a calm response. In time, you will need to fade out the
food reward and replace it with quiet verbal praise.

I have three different release cues which I use to end
the settle exercise:

You are going to need a lot of very small, tasty treats.
Dogs that have learnt to demand treats by barking will
need to learn some manners around food for this exercise, as it can cause frustration in these types of dogs.
As with all training exercises, start off in an environment
that is relatively free from distractions, and only increase
the challenge when your dog has learnt the behaviour.

lure the dog into a down, and feed one treat after the
other as fast as you can. It is very important that the
food is placed between the dog's front paws so he
doesn't get any food from your hand.

At some point, the dog is going to get up and move towards your hand. When this happens, close your hand
and do not allow the dog to get the food. You are then
going to count to 30-a time lapse of approximately
30 seconds.

If the dog has not returned to the down position after 30 seconds, lure him back into a down and restart
your continuous feeding. It is important that there
is a 30-second time frame of "no reward" to link the
behaviour of the dog moving with the food stopping.
This enables thinking and problem solving, allow-

1. "Break": This is my working release cue which I
use in training. It releases the dog from a position,
when he is in a state of arousal, to come to me for a
reward.
2. "let's go": This is my relaxation cue, releasing the
dog from the settle. There is no reward so the dog
is not in a state of anticipation.
3. "off you go": This is a free release which I use during a walk in the park. It is a cue that releases the
dog to explore the environment.
Clean run | September 20

Clean Run - September 2020

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