Having a brand new pup and getting them to chill out is crucial. To me the term chill out means to relax, calm down, stay calm, basically to sit or lay down and stay put. You will require this from your pup and it can be on the grass, in the yard, in the house, in a crate, or on a rug.

I have two different videos of two pups, Karia and Merle, different ages, showing chill out work being done.

To do this work you need to be chill. I will repeat that, your energy needs to be calm and relaxed. Do Not try this when you are wound up.

Second, walk the dog, burn off some energy, do some work with it, have it moving and going around, but, DO NOT FEED it prior to this. Dogs get quick energy bursts after food, so don’t do this training right after you feed them.

You can do this any time of the day though, as long as you are not attempting to train right after feeding.

There can be distractions, there can be things going on, all those things do not matter. The pup will focus, will sit, will relax. It will chill out if you do. However, if you can have the surroundings calmer, this is going to help no doubt. If you have children, other adults in the house, that sort of thing, have everyone calm down while the training is going on. But in the end, distractions are part of life, the dog can adapt and can chill right in amongst chaos.

Pups can combine mat training, grass chill training and crate training in sequence, in regularity, using all of them as chill training options. Lots of times I’ll have a harness on a pup, sit on the grass and relax. 20 minutes, give or take the pup will be sleeping.

You can do chill training on mats, same way, some pups chill out almost instantly, others take time. But eventually all will chill.

Putting a pup in a crate and letting it howl, till it calms and chills out is part of it. Some pups make a racket, others don’t. Racket only lasts a short while, then eventually they are calm and resting in the crate. I use all techniques so I can have a pup on the grass resting, or on a rug, or in a crate. All work.

Your energy is going to be a factor. The calmer you are, the calmer the pup is. Hard to sense energy, but just try your best to relax, get calm, lots of times I just sit beside the pup, or am right near it. Pups appreciate you near if they are just learning, so the closer you are the better it is to train. As they develop they can have more and more time alone.

I’ll showcase two videos, the first is little Karia, my sidekick, a phenomenal pup who at 9 weeks was highly stable, easy to mat train and literally was mat trained in like a minute. Truly. But this is a very stable pup who had spent almost all waking moments of her early life “By Me”. As soon as she could walk she was “By Me”. So my work began really weeks ahead of 9 weeks of age, but mat training began at 9 weeks and as you will see, she went chill in under a minute. Karia Mat Training Video

The second video is showcasing Merle, he was an incredibly gifted calm big fella and I am showcasing chill factor out on the grass. There are great tips on this video for working with the pup, how to utilize the harness and more. You will see an incredibly calm pup in this video, yet a full tilt warrior working male at the same time. Amazing really. Here is Merle at 16 weeks demonstrating chill factor.

Preparation and repetition is required, sometimes it takes 15 minutes a day, over a couple weeks to get real solid results, other times it’s going much faster. If the pup has Desna training by Kamia Kennels then it is already more or less set up and it will go much faster.

Your energy is the key ingredient, if you do repetition it will speed results up dramatically.

I have dogs that can stay on a mat and like never move. But it’s all a work in progress with a new pup.

Having this in place over a few weeks makes life so much better. Use the crate, use a mat, do it outside, but make time each day for this, or multiple times a day is even better. A combination of mat, grass, crate works excellent.

Drop me a note for some tips if required too, but watch those two videos, I think they will be awesome.

I also have some fun to share about Merle. His owner is John Feeney, he is an incredible dog handler and has two of our dogs, Merle and also Daisy. John came to visit us a while back and we had a great hike up in the mountains. We were able to get Silver Nessa, the full sibling sister to Merle and go for a great mountain hike. We had a terrific time. Merle is like the best dog ever. John has him so well trained. I have a few photos, one at feature is John with Silver Nova the mother of Both Merle and Silver Nessa. As well I have a photo of my big smile sitting with Merle and Silver Nessa up on the trails. A great memory of some truly great times. Thank you John for visiting and giving Merle and Daisy such a great home.