The “Place” Command
The place command is a very important command. It allows us to desensitize your dog to anything in the environment that is causing reactivity or overexcitement. Plus, it’s a great positive, alternative behavior that you can ask your dog to do in place of many negative, problematic behaviors. “Place” means, “go to this spot, lie down, and stay here until you hear your release word.” We are going to teach place in a few steps.
You will set the place up in an area you spend the most amount of time in. Typically, this is the living or family room. You can have more than one place in other rooms if you’d like. The indoor tether will be put directly behind your dog’s place.
The word you’ll say for place can be whatever you’d like. Usually clients say “place,” “go lie down,” “go to place,” or some other variation. We are going to use “place” in this book to keep it simple. Please use your command word when teaching your dog. You will also need to choose a release word.
Release words give your dog permission to break a command and essentially be on break until you give another command. Clients typically use “break,” “free,” “done,” “okay,” or “release.” We will use “release” in this book. Just like with the place command, pick a word and use it consistently with your dog.
While teaching your dog a new command it’s important to keep conversation to a minimum. Your dog learns a new command word through association of the sound paired with a behavior they do. We want to keep things crystal clear when starting out.
- Start close to their bed and point at it. Once your dog steps onto it say “place.” Make sure your dog stops on the bed (you don’t want them to immediately walk off) and then praise. Once on the bed, your dog may sit or lie down without being asked. If they do, praise your dog again.
- Say “release” and guide your dog off its place. Repeat 10-30 times.
More repetition generally means you’ll make a better association, but you don’t want to overdo it. If your dog goes right to its place and lies down when you point then you’re ready to start asking “place” when you point.
Next, you are going to start to use the indoor tether. Ask your dog “place” and point to the bed. Once they go, praise them and hook the tether to their regular, flat collar. You will keep the leash and training collar on your dog, even with them tethered. Your training collar will be highest collar on the neck with your regular collar below it.
Now your dog is tethered on their place.
- Drop your leash directly in front of your dog. This means an “implied stay.” You’re asking your dog to stay without verbally saying “stay.” In addition to stay, sit and down also have implied stays.
- As long as your dog stays quietly and calmly on place you will praise them.
- If your dog breaks the implied stay of the place command by not remaining calm (this may include barking or trying to walk off their place) you will say “no,” then ask your dog to “stay.” Your dog should lie back down. If they do not, you can repeat “no,” then ask “stay” again. Do not immediately praise your dog when they lie back down. That sends mixed signals and can cause your dog to break the command again. If you had to say “no,” wait at least 10-30 seconds before praising your dog for staying on place.
- When you’re ready, release your dog by saying “release,” and praise.
You can keep your dog on place as long as you need, but don’t ask for too much at first. You want the place to be a positive, calm spot for your dog to be in. Duration on place can always be built up over time. We recommend you do not leave your dog alone in their place for more than a few moments. If you do and they get up, there would be nobody there to say “no” them to let them know they shouldn’t do that when they’re at place. Eventually you will be able to leave the room, but the command needs to be practiced with fewer distractions to start. Do not play with your dog on place. We need “place” to have a calm association.
The tether will be removed at some point in training. It is only a tool to help you and your family while you’re learning how to give commands and handle your dog. At the end of the day your dog should be staying because you asked it to, not because its tethered.
You should aim to ask your dog to go to “place” 30 times a day. That doesn’t mean your dog needs to stay for long periods of time 30x a day, but rather that they’re going there and being released 30x a day. If you do this, by the end of your “1/3 rule” you will have repeated place 630 times! Dogs need about 500 repetitions of any given command for it become learned. Sometimes more for advanced commands.