The "Place" Cue

Set Your Dog Up For Success with The "Place" to Be

The "Place" cue is a boundary stay that is a useful foundation behavior that can give you a great alternate behavior in many situations and help teach your dog to be calm in the cue. When your dog is in “Place", they can sit, lie down, sleep, snore, scratch, or even better, play with an interactive toy.

This comes in handy in a number of daily activities. such as someone coming to the door, dinner time, TV time, and entertaining guests are all appropriate occasions to incorporate “Place”. It can also prevent unwanted begging, jumping, barking, and other unwanted nuisance behaviors.

Here is an example of how my dog Karma, a 45-pound dog, fits on a 40x30, 40x22, and 30x22 4 Legs 4 Pets cot.

Recommend Raised Beds:

The bed should be long enough that your dog can lay and turn around comfortably,similar to their crate.

My favorite is 4legs4pets, use coupon code “ccc25” at check out to save 25% off. Please order grippers that help prevent the cot from sliding on hardwood, tile, and other smooth surfaces. Find the best size for your dog here.

On Amazon, I also recommend K&H Pet Cot, Vehoo or Kuranda dog Beds.

For a soft bed with a clear boundary, the Casper dog bed is great. Make sure your dog can fit in the center area.

Raise your soft bed to create a clear boundary, with the lift™ elevated dog bed frame.

Homework:

After our first session, your homework is to work on going on to and releasing from “Place” and, most importantly, practice “Duration" to achieve an hour in “Place.”

Have the leash in at all times until you have verbal reliability.
Focus on the duration and achieve 45 mins to an hour while your dog is next to you within a week.
Practice duration while doing boring things for your dog, such as; watching TV, or a movie, while on the computer, or reading a book while the dog is next to you with the leash in your hand or over your leg and be able to access it quickly and easily.
Incorporate the "Place" cue into your daily life.

The priority after our session is to focus on your dog staying in “Place” for 45 mins to an hour. This is how we can teach our dogs how to relax and settle.

On & Off “Place”

Here we are starting to teach Yuki to go on and be go off the “Place” bed.

Practice guiding, luring, or presenting your dog onto the “Place” bed and releasing, like in the video with Yuki.
Remember to Mark and then Reward when all four paws are on the bed and then off of the bed when released.

OK, Free or Break (Release cue)

Every Cue/Command has a beginning and end,
Instead of repeating “ Stay," we start with the Cue, such as Sit/Down/Place,
End with a release cue, such as "OK," Free," or "Break." Remember to always release with one of these words, or any word you choose, as long as you are consistent, so your dog knows exactly when they are released from a command.
In the beginning, always go up to your dog to release as not to build anticipation; the release will be the reward after they start understanding it.

Reward for Calm Positions

Mark and reward when your dog goes from a standing position into a calmer position, such as sitting or lying down.
Wait until your dog lays down and relaxes for at least a minute before releasing.

Duration On “Place”

Put the bed/cot right beside where you will be sitting.
Move it as you practice in different locations.
Practice duration “Place” while doing boring things for your dog, such as; watching TV, or a movie, while on the computer, or reading a book.
If your dog tries to come off, use the leash paired with your No Reward Marker,” Ehh Ehh,” and when he stops trying or is back on, say your duration marker of “Good.”
Start duration incrementally, a minute, 5 mins, then 10, then 20, and so on.
Once your dog is calm, do not reward and let them relax.
If you need to get up, then release your dog or put them in its crate.
Focus on achieving 45 to an hour, the length of a TV show with commercials within a week.
Do not give any toys or chews while learning to stay in and be calm; once your dog understands to stay on and you have reliable duration, you can add them.
After a job well-done, release your dog and reward it with food, excitement, affection, and love.

Add Distance and Distractions

When the duration is going well, you can work on adding small distances and distractions.

Start by practicing five to ten-minute sessions of what we did in our session together. But focus on achieving the hour in “Place.”
Add distractions. While you are sitting on the couch with someone, and they need to get up to use the restroom, have them tell you and then mark and reward as they get up, and your dog makes a good choice and stays on. When they return, mark and reward as that is a distraction too, and can cause excitement. Do the same when someone wants to get a snack, prepare food, or deliver comes, as we discussed in our session. Later you can have your dog next to you while you eat and cook,
Add Distance. Once this is good, practice the same things with your dog with the Place bed/cot in one spot within your sight.
Remember to keep the leash on until you feel you have verbal clarity and a good command of the use of spatial/distance pressure.
Be prepared to reward good behavior and have food treats in a container next to the place bed/cot if possible.
Clarify when they make any mistakes with spatial/distance pressure or leash/hand guidance.

Please let me know if you have my question.

Here is how I teach the ever important "Place" cue to Marlo. I explain many aspects of the teaching process and hope it can help you guide you and your dog.

Teaching “Place” cue

Start with your dog on leash and by luring your dog with a tasty treat onto to the bed or mat. Once all four paws are on the bed, Mark with Click or "Yes" verbal marker and reward. Then release your dog by luring or tossing a piece a food away from the bed adding your release cue (OK, Free, or Break).

Give your dog the “Place"cue and lead them onto the bed. Repeat this a few times so your dog gets comfortable getting all four feet on the bed. Next, you can show the the boundary by walking from corner to corner, rewarding at each stop. Start practicing going on and going off the "Place" cue so your dog understands the release.

If your dog comes off the "Place" bed

Use your no reward marker (NRM) of "Ehh Ehh" paired with light leash guidance and or spatial pressure to move him back onto the bed. It's important to keep enforcing the rules and always end on a good note with your dog releasing on cue, even if it's been a long time put them back and wait a few seconds then release. Consistency will make all the difference.

Once your dog is doing great at staying, releasing, and you've worked on plenty of Duration, start adding some Distance slowly and then more Distractions like we practiced together. This is the 3 D's.

Before teaching the "Place" cue, helping Meatball overcome his fear of a raised bed.

Overcoming Fear Of A Raised Bed

Helping a Fearful Dog build confidence with a Food Trail

If your dog is fearful of the raised bed

Many dogs can be unsure of what to make of raised beds, especially fearful dogs; it's something new that most likely they have never seen. Like many things without dogs, we need to help guide them and help make new and scary things into positive ones. When teaching the "Place" cue, I prefer using raised beds to help set dogs up for success with a clear boundary and, in turn, can help us teach them quicker.

When using a raised bed or cot, I prefer 4Legs4Pets Cots, by Mahar Mfg., they are USA-Made cots that are not too high of the ground and stable that come in a variety of great colors. For us, with small NYC apartments, the longer rectangle ones don't take up too much space in the NYC Railroad-style apartments.

Teaching a fearful dog the “Place” cue

Here is a video we recorded during a session helping Kouko, a fearful dog we are helping learn the "Place" cue. Working with fearful dogs we must change the way we use our body language to communicate better with them. This is only my second time meeting and working with Kouko, so I have not built up enough trust to interact with her as I would with a more confident dog.

I felt even though I made many mistakes as you will see, it's good example of a dog that is making vocal sounds, and as my mentor Nelson Hodges explained to me; people need to see it does not mean aggression, It means “I don’t like this, I am nervous, please explain your intent better, I want to avoid conflict”.

Also if I was training her alone I would not do all of the talking in between, as it can confuse her. But in this lesson I wanted her humans to understand what I am doing so I explained as much as I could.

Make the "Place" cue part of your daily life.

After our first session, your homework is to practice Duration. I find incorporating the "Place" cue into your daily life is a great way to start.

Practice Duration, Duration, and more Duration to create calm on cue

Practice plenty of duration, while you are watching TV, or on the computer are great times to practice duration, even cooking dinner marking and rewarding all good choices. Remember you can move the "Place" bed to anywhere you want and have multiple items be "Place" just not human furniture or the crate. The clearer the boundaries the easier it will be for your dog to succeed.