Teaching your dog to be comfortable with restraint is an important life skill for them that can be very helpful, especially in an emergency. The goal is to slowly work up to the point where your dog is comfortable with you holding them against your body. This is a great thing to work on before you need it, and to continue to practice with your dog to maintain their comfort level with it.
How to Teach:
- Start with your dog set up in a way that they will stay in place. Ideas for this include using stations, putting your dog in a down, or using a helper.
- The final picture involves your arm around their chest and one over their hip with their body held against you.
- We start by breaking this down into two parts (front and back) to ensure the comfort of your dog.
- First get your dog comfortable with your hand on their hip.
- Reach your hand over their hip far enough away that you aren’t touching it, pair the reach with treat, then move your hand away.
- Continue to do that over and over, progressively moving your hand closer to her hip.
- As your hand gets closer to their hip you may need to bend over your dog, you want to make sure they are comfortable with that as well.
- If at any point your dog looks uncomfortable back up to an easier position (your hand further away or bending over them less).
- Work this way until your dog is able to comfortably maintain their position while you bend over, put your hand on your dog’s hip, and feed them.
- Next work on your dog’s comfort level with your arm around their chest. For these steps you are working on the front part of your dog only. Use the same steps as you did above, this time with your hand moving towards their chest instead of their hip.
- Start by reaching your hand around their chest, but far enough away that you aren’t touching it, pair with a treat, and then move your hand away.
- Continue to do that over and over, progressively moving your arm closer to their chest while pairing with a treat.
- If at any point your dog looks uncomfortable, back up to an easier position (your hand further away).
- Work this way until your dog is able to comfortably maintain their position while you bend over, put your hand around your dog’s chest, and feed them.
- Once your dog is comfortable with restraint in each area separately, work on being able to do both together.
- Start with your arms near her hip and chest, but not touching, treat, and move your hands away.
- As you did with the hip and the chest, slowly move your hands closer to both their hip and chest, pairing with a treat while making sure your dog remains comfortable.
- Work this way until you can put your hand on their hip and chest and hold them comfortably.
- Next you will build duration. There are two ways you can do this.
- Restrain your dog with one hand on their hip and the other around their chest, wait a moment, and then give a treat.
- Or you can have helper feed your dog while they are restrained, when restraint stops, the helper stops feeding your dog.
- For either duration option you want to slowly increase the amount of time you hold your dog before they get the treat by varying the duration so some holds are a tiny bit longer and others are shorter so you aren’t always making it more difficult for your dog.