How to Train a Dog to Relax

Video Transcript

"I'm Jim Leske, animal trainer for Expert Village. Today we're talking about basic dog training. Our next exercise is called relax. At dog shows, at the vet, there's a lot of down time, it's a lot of hurry up and wait. If you've ever been in the military, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So the goal of relax is get them down on their side so just like we started in the sit, Bear, sit? Very good boy, now next I get him into the down, very good down, very good boy. Now I get him into the relax, okay, Bear? As you see, sometimes it doesn't always work. It can be challenging. Patience helps tremendously. So don't expect a miracle on the first time, even dogs that have done this many many times sometimes have challenges. So we're going to try this one more time. So Bear, sit, very good boy, down, down, that's a good sit, down, very good boy, very good boy, very good boy and relax, very good boy, very good, very good. So what I'm trying to do, when I bring the treat around, once I get him into the down, I'm trying to bring the treat right around his neck and get him to follow that over and getting him to do it rather than me to do it. So we'll try to get a little better view for you this time and we'll try that one more time, that was very good. Sit? Very good boy, down, down, very good, very good, relax, good boy, very good, very good, and you see after a couple attempts we get him right back into the mode, okay we're done, good boy, we get him right back into training mode, he did the relax very very very good. So sometimes they get distracted, sometimes things happen, nobody's perfect but Bear did a very very good job. Relax, once you develop the relax, as soon as they get on their side, the sooner they know they're going to get a belly rub, the easier your job is going to be and with a little bit of practice, we can turn relax into roll over and that's what we're going to do next. I'm Jim, this is Bear, we'll be right back."