That Zen Place
Duration work; The method & effects it has on dogs!
Teaching a dog to DO something is easy for dogs to pick up on, teaching stillness is difficult!
-Dogs are generally always aware, ready to go, and conscious to all that is going on around them. The problem arises when they focus more of their attention on that “busy stuff” over you and as a result occasionally they will impulsively react to them as well.
Examples!
-Kids running around outside and your dog reacts by barking at them.
-Cars pulling up the driveway and your dog charges the windows or doors.
-Seeing another dog or animal in the distance and your dog takes off running towards them.
What duration work teaches!
-Duration work teaches a dog to have more self control, be less impulsive, and more importantly be truly unphased by everything going on.
-Duration work allows dogs to practice a new and healthy habit of relaxation, to make better choices, and helps keep your dog in a healthier state of mind as opposed to the constant worry or reactivity they may have normally resorted to. I always say if a parade was marching through your living room that your dog should be unphased.
This process of slowing down & really thinking about something before reacting is the part of duration work that carries over into other aspects of the dogs life.
Teaching it!
-Teaching them the command 'place' is only one part of the concept, you also need to make that connection between the command & the zen or calmness. If your dog is focused on something else going on around them, barely holding a command, then they aren’t reaping the benefits. Making this connection takes extra time, work, patience, and practice, but it is SO WORTH IT!
-We call it forced relaxation the first few times because it requires your dog to submit into that feeling of zen. We ultimately get to this point because of the repetition and using communicative methods to teach them that there are other options than their initial instinctive reaction(think like a knee jerk reaction!)- whatever reaction that may be(lunging, fleeing, barking, etc.)
Slowly but surely they will start to realize ; 'Hey man this isn't so bad, it actually feels nice doing nothing and hang out!'