WRITTEN HOMEWORK Week 1, Days 1-6, The Quiet Time Exercise (Passive Training)

 

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Quiet Time

How do you teach a dog the following?

1.    That you are the authority, in the dogs' language?

2.    That regardless of what is going on the dog is quiet, in the dogs’ language?

3.    How do you teach a dog to trust you fully, in the dogs’ language?

4.    How do you teach a dog to relax in the most vulnerable position, the down position, in the dogs’ language?

5.    How do you teach a dog that being on your left side is ‘the safe place’, in the dogs’ language?

One of the most important lessons for a dog to learn is to relax in the face of distractions.  But how can you teach a dog, in a dogs‘ language, to learn to relax in the face of distractions?

By doing The Quiet Time exercise.

Here is how you do this exercise:

• You need a chair (hopefully one like a folding chair that has a place for the leash to go through it towards the back of the chair, a chair that doesn’t roll and is stationary.
• Face the chair with the dog on your right side, step on the leash close to the snap bolt so your dog can’t move much and is safe.
• Feed the leash from the right side of the chair to the left side and sit on the leash.
• When you sit on the leash, the dog will be on your left side.
• Tighten up the leash until when the dog chooses to lay down; there is just enough upward tension so the dog can feel the tension. The dog will relax with that upward pressure.
• It is important to give the dog ONLY enough leash room for the dog to lie down. The dog is learning your left side is the ‘safe place’ and you are conveying to the dog to remain close is the best place to be. 

Once seated correctly, here are “The Rules” for doing the Quiet Time Exercise:

• Do not look at your dog.
• Do not touch your dog.
• Do not speak to your dog.
• Do not allow any other person or dog or thing to approach your dog while doing this. Imagine you and your dog have a 4’ bubble around you and nothing comes inside that bubble.

What is the goal for doing the Quiet Time Exercise?

• For your dog to choose, of its own volition, to lie down beside you for 30 consecutive minutes.
• Should your dog choose to lie down and at 28 minutes get up (for whatever reason), the clock count resets to zero and your time begins again.
• The Quiet Time Exercise is to be done twice a day, each time for 30 consecutive minutes.
• Who can do The Quiet Time Exercise with the dog? Anyone that lives with the dog, owner(s), children responsible enough to sit with a dog for some time and follow “The Rules”, the trainer (for a Board’n’Train), or the handler of a dog. 
• This is the ONE exercise that can be done by anyone with a dog. This exercise can NEVER be overdone in a day (so yes, you can do it more than twice a day), but it can be UNDERDONE (failing to get in the full 30 minutes each time).

What is the training regime?

Days 1 & 2: This is to be done with low levels of distractions. Start doing the Quiet Time in your home in various locations.

Days 3 & 4: Now, take this training outside your home where there are medium levels of distractions. Do Quiet Time where your dog is interested in activity going on. Example: at a neighbor’s home or a park or a field, etc. Do Quiet Time in new locations.

Days 5 & 6: Here we up the ante and you do Quiet Time in high levels of distractions. At your vet’s office, on a park bench where there is close traffic to you and your dog, at a Petco or a Home Depot, etc. Anywhere you can take a dog and sit with your dog is a fair location to train doing the Quiet Time Exercise. Here in Maryland, I take dogs to Bass Outdoor Pro Shop for indoor training and especially for doing Quiet Time.

Results of doing The Quiet Time Exercise?  The dog learns in its own language:

• That you (or whomever is doing this exercise) is the authority
• That regardless of what is going on the dog is quiet
• The dog learns to trust you fully
• The dog learns to relax in the most vulnerable position, the down position
• The dog learns that being on your left side is ‘the safe place’