Teach Your Dog To REST!

It sounds crazy, but we need to teach our young dogs to REST. We assume that as dogs mature, they will naturally learn to settle themselves instead of waiting for the inevitable crash out after burning through all of their energy. Resting and self-settling is a skill in and of itself, and it is a skill that has a tremendous influence on how pleasant our dogs are to live with. And yet, people don't seem to tell dog owners to enforce rest, or explain how important it is to practice quiet time in the home. We can be too keen to keep our dogs entertained, which comes from a loving, honest place, but if fun only happens with us, we can create dogs that nag. When we see our dogs becoming more mouthy, barking more and becoming destructive, it can all be signs that they are overtired. This is where crate training becomes such a gift to dog and owner, by creating a safe place where our dogs can properly rest and switch off without disruption. We can set our dogs up to win by training, playing with or exercising our dogs before they head into the crate for rest time. By having a vague schedule in our dog's day, energy levels become a slow, controlled burn, rather than explosive, erratic energy with an inevitable crash out that follows.