Mat or place training is a valuable tool to have in your dog training tool kit. It can be useful if you want to keep your dog in a particular area of a room. Once the command is learned you can use this behaviour to shape other behaviours too.
Mat training simply involves your dog going to its mat or bed and waiting there until you call it off. It is useful for people who are not comfortable with having a dog inside their home as they have control over where the dog is lying down. This is a win situation for the dog too as many behaviour problems can be lessened if the dog is allowed to interact with its pack and be part of the family.
Mat training is best achieved using old towels rather than a bed specially bought. If your dog has a bed or you would like to use one just place the old towels over it for the time being. The reason I use old towels is because they can be washed if soiled and they are easier to take with you in the car or to other people's home. Dogs have such a great sense of smell; you need to wash a towel eight times before its scent can be eliminated. Being able to smell themselves will increase your dog's willingness to return to its mat and make training quicker.
Place an old towel, which we are going to refer to as a mat from now on, in the part of your room where you want it to sit. Take your dog over to it and give it a 'go to' command like "on your mat" or "bed". Give your dog a treat. If your dog goes to move off the mat re-command it and lure it onto the mat with more treats. It will take sometime for your dog to understand what it is that you want. You will have to be patient and also consistent. If your dog moves off the mat you must get up from what you are doing and take it back. Save bones and special treats for mat training. If your dog learns that being on the mat means it will receive some tasty rewards, mat training will become quicker.
By teaching your dog to go to its mat, you will stop it aimlessly wandering around your house. Dogs that are left to wander will get up to mischief. They may end up sleeping on your bed; chewing on things that they shouldn't and making a mess emptying the rubbish bin and devouring the contents.
You will also have more control when it comes to toilet training. All dogs will not soil where they sleep. If your puppy leaves its mat it may want to go to the toilet and you can take it outside straight away.
You should practise this exercise every day but you have to be prepared to act if your dog gets up because the dog must learn that if it gets up it is going to be reprimanded. If it gets away with leaving the mat just once, you will have to start training again and it will be much harder because the dog has learned that it doesn't really need to pay attention to what you are saying.
Always remember as with any form of training to give your dog the opportunity to correct its behaviour and always set your dog up to win and learn what best way to please you.
Sue Day is a dog behaviourist with experience in puppy training, dog agility, obedience, and re-homing shelter dogs. Sue owns Messy Pawz Dog Training which advocates positive training methods. Sue has made a lot of information available for free on her website: http://www.messypawz.com
Sue has also written a comprehensive website about toilet training a puppy. It can be found at http://www.toilet-train-your-puppy.com
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