Course Details
Note: Week one class lectures will be released on June 1st but your instructor will not join the classroom until Monday, June 4 due to participation in the FDSA Training Camp. This class will be extended to July 15th to allow for this delay.
Chill out and Relax will teach your dog to switch between excitement and relaxation, from being completely wired and ready to work to take a nap, from being on to being off. After exciting things like chasing, running, biting and playing, we will be practicing helping the dog calm down. We will incorporate our calm to excitement to calm games to address undesired behaviors that your dog might have such as over-excitement with going through doorways, door dashing, jumping up and biting at you when you run and move, over-excitement with seeing a leash, harness or collar, over-excitement with mealtimes, entering a new room or building and switching between reward types and locations. We will also practice having the dog chase, do a calm behavior and chase again and have the dog bite a toy then do a calm behavior then bite the toy again.
Chill out and Relax will teach the dogs to be calm in a crate with duration and with their handler out of sight and teach the dogs to be calm in a crate or behind a barrier with other dogs running around, chasing things and doing exciting activities.
The dogs will learn to switch between reward locations and between reward types to help the dogs distinguish between remain in place and explode forward. A warm-up strategy will be built to help the dogs be thoughtful and focused in new locations instead of over-excited. In this class, the dogs will learn how to relax when work is done and how to respond to an invitation to work cue. We will also be shaping the dogs to do a chin rest and a go-to mat behavior and we will utilize other known calm behaviors and other exciting games and behaviors.
*Easily excitable dogs won’t get through all of the material in 6 weeks.
*This class is not appropriate for dogs who are causing themselves bodily harm trying to escape confinement and it's not appropriate for dogs who will bend bars to escape confinement. Nancy Tucker’s class Home Alone class is perfect for dogs with those sorts of big feelings about being confined.
Registration
There are no scheduled sessions for this class at this time. We update our schedule frequently, so please
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Registration will begin at 9:30 AM Pacific Time.
Enrollment limits: Gold: 12 students, Silver: 25 students, Bronze: unlimited.
Gold Level includes access to all course materials and the ability to post questions and videos to the course forums. Students will receive instructor feedback on written and video assignments.
Silver Level includes access to all course materials and the ability to participate in the discussion forum. Students may ask GENERAL questions about course materials and may submit two, one-minute videos for instructor feedback. Any questions specific to your dog MUST be accompanied by a video.
Bronze Level includes access to all course materials and the ability to read all questions and answers posted in the class forums. Students will not post questions or submit written or video assignments.
For more details, refund policies, and answers to commonly asked questions see our FAQ page.
Syllabus
Pre-class:
Reward markers
Stationary Offered Attention
Week 1-
Enrichment, exercise, causes and management
Really relax
Offered attention with reward markers (with 30 second limit)
Reward markers for calmness and excitement
Chin rests and Sustained nose target
Calm behind a barrier, in a crate
Week 2-
Invitation to work cue and all done
Calm around the house mat work- reward markers, adding a cue, building duration
Running game
Threshold games
Are you okay routine
Calm behind a barrier/ in a crate- duration
Week 3-
Calm around the house mat games- reward markers as distractions
Calm in a crate- distractions
Targeting- rapid fire treats fade to slowest dog cookies and adding distractions with food or toys
Busy, calm, busy, calm game
Warm up routine
Week 4-
Leap frog mat game
Chase, chase, chill game
New location- threshold game, offered attention
New location- environment testing and reward markers stimulus control
Calm in a crate- new location (near dog park for example)
Week 5-
Leap frog mat game with distractions
Calm in a crate- out of sight
Would you, could you with a toy or a treat?
Switching rewards
Mat games- more duration, more distractions, more distance
Week 6-
Calm in a crate with dogs in motion in sight
Pattern to chaos game
On the floor- Would you, Could you
New environment- leap frog mat game and threshold game
New environment- calm to chaos game
Prerequisites & Supplies
The dogs should have a sit or a down on cue.
Testimonials
New course for the June 2018 session.
