# Settle



## Calistar (Dec 13, 2011)

Any thoughts on how to train your dog (in our case a five month old puppy) to go to his bed and settle would be appreciated. How long should we expect a five month old puppy to initially stay in that position and what should we do when he gets up?


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

... baby gates are awesome for training dogs to settle. And settle means shift to lower activity level, and lay down somewhere in the room. It does not mean holding a set position and locking in place. 

Stay means that the dog sits or lays down in a locked position, and is not allowed to break that position. If you are taking obedience classes (I hope you are), this means teaching short stays (10-30 second intervals). And not asking the dog to stay longer than he is capable of. 

A 5 month old dog should be able to settle. But it does require a lot of time with that baby gate up in the room and the dog being loose and allowed to settle down on his own without you paying attention to him. 

I would not ask a 5 month old to STAY longer than 5 minutes.


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## Calistar (Dec 13, 2011)

We have baby gates to limit his roaming area. But our concerns are his high energy activity with our Dobie and cat and in our kitchen which is open to the family room. Probably the biggest concern is him chewing on the cabinets out of our sight. He will not yet come when called so when he gets out of sight we have to pop up like a jack in the box. Think I will try treats to distract from the cat and dog play.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Block him off in the same room as you. If you are in the kitchen, block off the kitchen. If you are in the family room, block off the family room.


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## Calistar (Dec 13, 2011)

The way the kitchen and family room are designed blocking them off from one another is not really possible as we have what they refer to as an open floor plan where the kitchen is open to the family room. 

Also, even if we could block these two rooms, it is not something we want to do forever. So blocking is prevention but not really learning. Therefore once the gates are removed we are back to where we are now.


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## Aislinn (Nov 13, 2010)

You might want to look into free standing gates. They come in a variety of widths and are made for what you have. It would be temporary until he is older and you can trust him.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Is there a doorway? Or are they technically one room?

If there is a doorway, you can block the kitchen off and keep the dog in the room with you. 

You will need the baby gate for a few months until your dog learns the routine. It is not going to be for forever - though, I still like using ours to keep Jacks from getting handouts from people in the kitchen.


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## Calistar (Dec 13, 2011)

Megora: There is no doorway. Imagine one large room that has both the family room are as well as the kitchen in it.

Aislinn: Thanks for the free standing gates mention. We did not want to put in fixed gates because we would have had to damage cabinets. But with three free standing gates we could block off the areas of concern.


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## toliva (Nov 24, 2011)

We have an open floor plan and use ex-pens to create barriers. It works for us. For the most part we've been habitating in the kitchen since we brought him home. He is starting to mature, to be more trustworthy, so we have expanded freedom to the living room occasionally, but only when he is calm and will settle down. We will have those barriers up for awhile I'm sure.


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## Wyatt's mommy (Feb 25, 2011)

It sounds like you have a big open floor plan like us. X pens are the way to go. Put him in the x pen with all his toys and he will settle down on his own.


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## Calistar (Dec 13, 2011)

Wyatt's mommy said:


> It sounds like you have a big open floor plan like us. X pens are the way to go. Put him in the x pen with all his toys and he will settle down on his own.


Do you use a single eight panel X-pen or hook two eight panels together?

I will say we recently bought him a deer antler and he is very taken with chewing on it and will often spend 20 minutes at a time chewing on it which has increased his settling. but when he loses interest it is back to square one. Thanks for the X-pen idea.


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## dmsl (Jun 7, 2009)

I put a little peanut butter on Bear's antler at the end he's been chewing to increase interest if we have a friend over or something where I want him to be occupied (even though he's older now) works every time.

One of those baby gates that are hooked together (if that's what y'all are calling xpens) are big enough. Check craigslist, you can usually find a used one or at garage sales. And, they collapse down so you can slide it away if you're not wanting it up all the time.


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## Wyatt's mommy (Feb 25, 2011)

Calistar said:


> Do you use a single eight panel X-pen or hook two eight panels together?
> 
> I will say we recently bought him a deer antler and he is very taken with chewing on it and will often spend 20 minutes at a time chewing on it which has increased his settling. but when he loses interest it is back to square one. Thanks for the X-pen idea.


This is the one we used. It fit perfectly in our family room. He also slept in it at night. So when he got tired he would just circle it to let us know he wanted to go to bed. He was content just to be in the same room with us.


http://www.petco.com/product/5992/North-States-Pet-Yard-XT.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch


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