Settling: From Zooming to Zzz with "Go to Bed"

How do you teach puppies to settle quietly on a dog bed? What’s the secret to getting a pup from zooming to Zzz’s? This document will walk you through the process of teaching pups to chillax on their comfy bed. Most important things to remember are to be patient, consistent, and provide plenty of calm verbal encouragement and rewards!

Why It’s Important
Teaching a pup to go hang out on their dog bed has so many uses! It reinforces calmness when other household activities may be exciting or distracting, and gives puppies an easy choice over other temptations. Ultimately, it will allow their eventual partner to engage in regular household activities or entertain guests without concern about their dog underfoot.

What You’ll Need

• A comfy dog bed
• Calm pup
• Kibble or treats
• Quiet environment

Put the comfy bed in a quiet place in your home and encourage the pup to explore the bed by luring them with kibble and praising when they step onto it. At first rewarding for just one paw, then two, three, and finally all four. Continue giving them snacks as long as they keep all four feet on the bed.

When they are readily luring onto the bed with all four paws, use the lure to help them into a down by holding the lure on the bed and verbally cuing them for a down. Gradually increase the time between when they lay down and when the treat is given.

By doing this exercise repeatedly the pups will start to offer to go to the comfy bed because that is where they are getting the snacks! When they start to go to the comfy bed before being lured then you can add a verbal cue as they head toward the bed. Tell them "Go to Bed" and help them into a down on the comfy bed with a lure, if needed, or reward them after they get on the bed and lay down without a lure.

Continue this process in a quiet location until the pup is responding to the verbal cue to move to the bed and lay down from a couple feet away, without needing a lure.

The next step is to teach them to remain settled in the down position on the bed for longer times. You can do this by extending the time between snacks. At first, they might get a kibble every few seconds. Gradually extend that out to a minute, then continue adding time. As long as they are settled on the bed, they may get a kibble every 10 minutes or more until the treats are phased out entirely.

As the pup gets more comfortable remaining on the comfy bed, you’ll want to start adding distance between you and the pup. As you begin to add distance, you’ll want to decrease duration. Gradually start to move away. First just one step and return to give a snack, then two, then more and more until they can be relaxed and settled in a position while you walk across the room or sit in a chair nearby. Then, you can start adding duration again! Eventually they’ll be able to remain calm and settled on the bed while you walk away for 10 minutes or more.

When the pup is good at going to the bed on the verbal cue "Go to Bed" and is remaining calm and settled while you walk away from them, then it’s time to add some distractions. When you add distractions, you’ll want to decrease distance and duration until they understand that they’ll be rewarded for settling even when they can see and hear other fun things going on in the home.

Start with easy distractions like moving the bed to an area of the house where they may see more activity. Then increase the distractions slowly, always keeping the Rules of Three in mind. People, pets, food, and toys are common distractions. The more the pup likes something, the harder it will be to stay settled, so increase the distractions gradually keeping distance and duration in mind.

Once they can settle with many different distractions, you can start to increase either distance or duration. As they master one then you can add the other. Eventually, with repetition, consistency, and patience they’ll be able to settle for long periods of time away from you in highly distracting environments. At that time, you’ll be able to use ‘Go to Bed’ to help them remain calm in many different situations. They’ll ultimately be able to go from zoomies to Zzzs.

What if...

• The puppy just doesn’t want to settle? Be sure to teach this skill when the puppy is mentally ready to offer settled behavior. Eventually, when they are experts, you’ll be able to use this skill to help a pup go from Zooms to ZZZs, but at first, you’ll have more success if you teach this to a pup who is already calm.
• The puppy wants to chew on the bed? If the pup is trying to chew on the bed, then be sure to offer food rewards more frequently, ideally before they think about putting their mouth on the bed. If their brain gets channeled toward you and the chance to earn treats, they’ll be less likely to think about how fun it might be to chew that cushy bed. Once they know the game, then that behavior usually stops because they learn how to get the treats. Then you can continue with the progression of the training.