Training Video: How to calm a puppy down

Teaching your puppy to calm down

Learning to calm down and chill is an important life lesson for all puppies. This will happen naturally for some puppies, some will need some guidance.

A common solution is to restrain or restrict a wired-up puppy with physical barriers like a pen, crate or leash. This may work with some pups, but some will resist this.

In training, we must introduce calm and winding down time to our pups. A good way to do this is through bed or crate training.

To start bed or place training, we want to encourage a high-energy game with the puppy. They need an outlet for their energy, and here we are giving them one. As we progress, we will adapt the training to teach the puppy to control their energy.

Firstly, create a positive association with their sleep area by simply throwing bits of kibble onto the bed. Whilst they are eating the food on the bed, calmly say “bed bed bed”.

Once your puppy is comfortable with going to the bed, you can start luring them onto it.

Top tip: At this early stage, guide your puppy into a down rather than a sit. Down is a more stable position.

Using voice inflection and spatial pressure, encourage puppy to stay on the bed in the down for a brief time. Be sure to pair your voice and energy with what you want from the puppy.

Going on and off the bed calls for high energy and engagement from us. Then for the calm, we apply the breaks. Both our voice and energy are calm and relaxed.

After 1 or 2 seconds of calm from the puppy, release it with a higher energy FINISH command.

The puppy can quickly understand that this stillness is part of the game and because the game is enjoyable, they will be happy to repeat it.

With this training, your puppy will learn to sync its energy with your input and the words associated with it.