Teach your Dog to go to Bed!

Teaching your dog to go to his bed can be a very useful behavior.  Not only can it be used at night, but also when you need your dog to settle and relax.  Family mealtimes, visiting guests, and housecleaning are other opportunities to use this exercise. 

To begin, place your dog’s bed or mat in a central location where the dog would like to be anyway.  Most dogs crave being with you and your family so the den or television room is perfect to start.  First lure your dog to the bed with delicious treats or some of his kibble.  Reward him with the treat as soon as he steps on the bed and don’t forget to praise.  Repeat this several times and begin to add your command such as “go to bed”. 

When you are successful with the first part, move back from the bed by a few feet.  Tell your dog to go to bed, and then toss the treat onto the bed.  After a few successes, your dog should start anticipating what you want.  If so, you can wait to toss the treat until after he steps on the bed.  Once he is readily going to his bed, you can begin to add more distance.  When you add distance, do it slowly with a few steps at a time.  After a few days, you should be able to send your dog to his bed from any part of the house.  Keep rewarding and praising. It’s important to always heavily praise through the dog training process.

The next step is to add a down and stay to the behavior.  If your dog already knows how to down/stay, then just incorporate this into the act.  If he doesn’t, it’s best to teach him down and stay separate from the bed exercise at first.  Gradually increase the amount of time your dog can stay and practice various times throughout the day. Other helpful hints include placing his toys and chew bones on the bed.  If you see your dog going to his bed on his own, be sure to reward him calmly.  If you are too excited, he will jump up to see what all the fuss is about.  Dogs are experts at body language so adding a hand or arm signal during the training can be useful.  Point to the bed as you are teaching him and you’ll probably find he takes this cue sooner than your verbal command.  Don’t make going to bed as a punishment, keep it positive!

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