Have you ever seen a dog just hanging out under a chair at an outdoor restaurant patio? Although there’s tons of people around, they still manage to look relaxed. Dogs who can stay relaxed in worrying situations are often better for things like going to the vet, getting their teeth brushed, or having their nails done.
If you’re struggling with your dog’s anxiety in tense moments, the Protocol for Relaxation is a training program designed to help them learn how to relax even when in a stressful situation.
Requirements:
Treats (ad)
Clicker (ad) (optional)
Loaded Clicker (optional)
A basic understanding of shaping for humans
A (free) copy of the Protocol of Relaxation by Karen Overall
How it Works:
At first glance, you may realize that the Protocol for Relaxation reads like an obedience guide. Owners work their dogs through a series of task pages, including asking their dog to sit through various more challenging circumstances.
Obedience is a core to teaching relaxation, however. When your dog is anxious about something, they’re usually not lying down. They’re standing, hunch backed, tail tucked, whimpering over it.
Most dogs learn the “One-second Sit” which is to perform the sit action and then immediately stand back up. They may even be able to hold it a few seconds if you stare intensely into their eyes. What happens if you move though? What happens if you walk away? In an instant, that sit or down is broken.
Tiny Challenges
The protocol introduces the dog to tiny challenges (you moved!!) first. Once your dog is able to meet all those tiny challenges in the living room, the challenge is then upped by repeating the drill outside, on leash.
Once the dog can perform the drills in all the different rooms of the house, outside on leash, and even in exciting places like the park, it’s time to address the problem areas you face.
If your dog hates the groomers, practice the Protocol for Relaxation outside the groom shop. (Bring a pillow for those sensitive chihuahuas.)
If your dog hates the vet, practice outside the vet. Practice in the lobby, with permission. Most vets and groom shops are wildly glad to have someone care about their pets’ behavior and will surely accommodate you.
Final Results
We will be sharing the results of the Protocol for Relaxation in our own dogs in about 6 weeks. Until then, we found a Reddit post asking if people have ever used the Protocol for Relaxation Successfully. Here is the Reddit link, or if you prefer, a quote from it:
Author has deleted their account, name unknown,
“I just completed with my extremely overexcited lab mix. It has made a huge difference, I noticed a real difference after only a few days. He used to just pace and follow me everywhere and was never able to relax. About a week ago, halfway through, when I was cleaning I put his mat down and he went over and fell asleep on it and left me alone while I cleaned.
“Another night we got food delivered and my boyfriend was in the bathroom when it arrived, I told baldur to go lay down and he barely lifted his head when I answered the door, a month ago he would have had to be held in another room. He happily chilled on his mat while we ate mother’s day dinner at my brother’s house. If he’s laying on the couch and I get up, he’ll lift his head, but lay back down, he used to follow me anytime I’d move.
“My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. You have to make sure you watch his body language, we had to do day one a few times because he wasn’t relaxed, he was clearly waiting for his next treat and very excited. I just kept retrying until he figured out he had to be relaxed to get the treats. I also shaped him to the mat, I made sure he associated the mat with good stuff so he’d happily stay there even when not doing the protocol.”
Have You Used This Training Technique?
We’d love to hear from you! Share your results in the comments below.
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- Final Results: Protocol for Relaxation
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[…] To truly solve separation anxiety in chihuahuas, you need to help them cope with their favorite human being gone. […]
Great information! I’m going to try this with Henry. He already knows his commands so this will be a good one to teach him. Thanks for sharing!
Let me know how it works for you. We ended up discovering that the protocol in and of itself probably isn’t all that helpful, but applying the training (once done) to different areas might be. As an example, the protocol didn’t make him relax more in general, but doing the protocol for relaxation in the car as training might help, etc.
The sit/stay is the first thing I teach my dogs, and my foster dogs if they don’t already know it. It’s so important to teach this skill. It’s a great foundation. My newest dog Jessie is a super strung out dog but I was recently able to teach her to sit and stay! However, she has a real problem keeping it when the doorbell rings – she gets super stressed out so I’m working on that with her. I feel bad making people wait at the door while I work w/ her LOL! But we’ll get there.
This sounds a fascinating thing for the owners of tense dog’s to try. Having a strcutred learning programme gives people so much help!
This sounds a fascinating thing for the owners of tense dog’s to try. Having a structured learning programme gives people so much help and makes them feel less lost. I know it’s the kind of thing I would appreciate with a restive or nervous dog.
Cannot wait to learn more as Nili needs to learn to relax as I am exhausted, thanks for the introduction.
We use this with our pack while training behaviors in general. I didn’t realize they named it! It works great because you are basically giving them something else to focus on and do while slowly desensitizing them to different levels of distractions.
That’s awesome!