If I am being totally honest, mat training is a behaviour that can become tedious and boring to teach repetitively. If you are new to dog training in general, Mat Training is a popular skill that involves teaching your dog to be calm and sedentry on a mat or a dog bed. The benefit of this skill can be seen when guests come inside your home, when you bring your dog out to a friends barbecue or for high energy dogs to learn to relax. Instead of being uncontrollable or jumping towards being, or bolting out the door – dog’s instead learn to relax and hang out. On top of all of this, the dog learns to be bored and to be ok with it. So, this is becomes an important life skill because being bored is likely to happen in a dog’s life, and it is something that should be taught rather than assumed to be inherited.
So it is a great skill! However for me, ‘proofing’ it ( the process of ensuring the dog can perform the skill on cue in any environment) can become tedious. Afterall, we are teaching the dog to accept boredom and there are only so many repititions you can do before the skill starts to lose your own interest (as well as your dogs!)
As a result of this, over the years I have come up with some fun games that I implement into our training routine to keep things interesting, challenging and overall helps keep my dog’s skill sharp!
Its important to note that these games are meant to be challenging for your dog; therefore, your dog should have a basic understanding of mat training before you try them out. You want the dog to have a clear understanding of laying down on a mat beforehand, otherwise you are adding too much, too soon into your training. If you don’t know what mat training is, check out this great video here or message us for any training inquiries.
This game specifically focuses on building your dogs mat duration – so they calmer they learn to be (and the longer they can do it), the better!
The Set Up
Start these games in a familiar environment, and use a medium level value of food.
Have your dogs bed or mat available and ready to go.
Try not to over use your verbal cues (ie: ‘go to your mat’ should be used once)
You will be sitting in front of your dog in this game
The Game
- Cue your dog to go to their mat/bed
- Mark and reward your dog.
- Once you are sitting down with them and they are on their mats, you will wait for them to offer a slight head tilt downwards
This is the first step towards a chin rest! You want to make sure you reward this.
Mark and reward your dog, then wait for them to offer it again. As they guess at the correct behaviour you are rewarding, you will start to get an effective head/chin rest or head movement towards the floor.
I recommend trying 10 Repetitions of this skill. Then end the training session, release your dog from the mat and do something fun!
If you need a video to help you out, check out the one below!
Trouble Shooting
- This game involves free shaping – therefore some dogs may take a bit of time to think. This is ok! Try not to verbally cue your dog in any form. If your dog has never free shaped before, you will watch your dog and wait for them to ‘look’ downwards, or make any slight movement with their head. You’re reinforcement and reward delivery will communicate to the dog that they have performed a correct behaviour.
- If your dog becomes frustrated, end the session early and try again later
- Your timing should be accurate in this game, and you should be 100% focused on the dog in order to avoid missed opportunities to reward!
Implementing different skills and games in to your regular obedience training keeps things interesting for not only you, but for your dog as well. Give it a shot and let us know how you do!
Happy Training