The Place command is a constructive way to mentally engage your dog while allowing for easier in-home management. Place is not a punishment! A lot of dogs love the Place command because of the high rate of positive reinforcement they associate with the command. Plus, this allows your dog to be a part of your busy life without being confined to a crate or a separate room. 

We teach the Place command as part of all of our basic obedience programs. Both our clients and their dogs love it! If you teach it right, dogs will not only happily perform, but also offer the behavior. Place becomes the place for good vibes!

Benefits of the Place Command

• Calm in-home management without crating
• Providing mental stimulation and giving your dog a job
• Better manners: prevent jumping, barking, begging, and counter surfing
• Creating healthy boundaries in the home (especially between dogs and kids!)
• Useful for recovery: managing injured dogs and post-surgery rest

Management Without Confinement or Micromanaging

Crate training is a very important part of training your dog. If it is possible for your dog to be managed without having to confine them in a crate or a separate room, wouldn’t you prefer to do that? We love using the Place command for management so your dog can still be out without being underfoot or making bad life decisions. 

• Delivery guy is at the door. Is your dog barking at the front door trying to see who it is or trying to get out? You don’t have to worry about your dog slipping out, jumping on the delivery guy, or dropping your pizza. Simply put him on Place while you take care of business. 

• You’re cooking dinner. Is your dog underfoot trying to get some snacks? A loose dog in the kitchen can be an accident waiting to happen. One moment you’re trying to cook pasta for your family, the next you’re tripping over your dog while on your way to the sink to drain the boiling water. Put your dog on Place or create firm boundaries where your dog knows he’s not allowed in the kitchen to avoid potential accidents!

• Does your dog jump on the counter or go through your trash? If you’re not in a position to closely watch your dog, but your dog has a good Place command and you are able to be involved enough to check he’s staying there, put him there instead of crating him. That way you’re giving your dog something to do to keep him occupied and keep him out of trouble. Feel free to give him his favorite toy or a bully stick while he’s on there! It is totally okay to give your dog a special treat while he is on Place.

• Does your dog beg for food? Put your dog on Place while you enjoy your meal. Take the opportunity to capture the times he’s calm and pay accordingly. Your dog will quickly learn that if he wants attention and snacks, he has to be relaxed and not underfoot. If my dogs are doing great on Place while I am eating, I might sneak them a little bit of my food after I’m done with my meal as a special reward for a job well done!

• Working on manners? While having a dog that is trained enough to know to not jump on people is the goal, if you’re still working on training, Place is a great way to manage an excited pup so that they don’t jump on guests. Wait until your dog calms down before you release him. That way he’s not super overstimulated and is more likely to make better life choices.

All of these situations make Place a part of your everyday life. One of the most common questions we get regarding training is “how much time do I have to spend training my dog?” Training your dog shouldn’t feel like taking on a new job, but it is an adjustment to your current lifestyle. In the previous examples, you would be cooking dinner, having guests over, and eating with your family anyways. You’ll quickly get into the habit of putting your dog on Place while you do those things, and you’ll quickly be amazed at how much more calm and focused your dog will be in the house after having that be a part of your routine!

Providing Mental Stimulation and Giving Your Dog a Job

A lot of dogs, especially high energy or working breed dogs, get in trouble around the house simply because they’re bored and understimulated. While getting dogs tired using physical exercise does help temporarily, long-term you’re only creating an athlete because the dog will need more and more exercise to achieve the same level of tired. What’s going to happen when you’re sick for a week and can’t run or bike with your dog? The pent up energy is going to lead to even more destructive behavior. Exercise is important, however there’s another way to work your dog!

Mental stimulation gets dogs tired faster than any exercise could, especially with high energy dogs and working breeds. Think of it like taking a test or working a long shift at work – even if you weren’t doing anything physically, you’re mentally exhausted afterwards. Same thing for dogs! Including training as part of your daily routine is going to create a dog who more calm overall – even at times when you are not actively training. 

Place is great for this! Even though it might look like your dog is just laying down and not doing anything, he has to fight every impulse he has to fly off of the bed to do whatever he wants. Impulse control is a lot of mental work! 

The Place command also reinforces a calm state of mind. Your dog is going to learn how to calm himself down and stay focused. Best part is, those skills transfer over into all other training you do with him! They help tremendously when it comes to proofing behavior, especially when it comes to walks and working around distractions, as well as working with dogs that are reactive or aggressive.

Using Place to Create Healthy Boundaries

Having more structure and consistent boundaries in the home gives dogs a framework they can rely on, and they love it! Dogs love training and working with their people, and having that working dynamic leads to healthier relationships between dogs and owners. 

Many of the dogs we train that have behavioral issues only have them because they were given too much freedom too fast. The biggest mistake people frequently make is to allow their affection for their dog to be expressed in permissiveness, lack of firm, consistent boundaries, and the refusal to correct the behavior we don’t want to see. While it is important to build off of a foundation of good vibes, we have to hold dogs accountable for their actions. If we don’t, dogs will become opportunists and resort to behaviors that pay them, even if its what we don’t want. Issues like resource guarding and reactivity can quickly creep up, and aggression might escalate. There needs to be no grey area with dogs that are quick to push boundaries.

We also heavily utilize the Place command in households with children, especially little kids. This way you don’t have to worry about dogs jumping on little kids, or even go as far as resource guarding toys or children. It is important to advocate for both your child and your dog – if your dog is trying his best to be a good boy and stay on Place just for a toddler to crawl all over him, not only is that unfair to the dog, that is also a potentially dangerous situation. 

This doesn’t mean your dog can never be free in the home! This just means there is more clarity as to what is allowed. That will also lead to more healthy separation between owners and dogs, which can help with issues like separation anxiety. This teaches dogs that they can be okay being apart from their owners and helps with confidence building.

If you would like to learn more about managing a household with children and dogs, check out our Dogs and Kids post!

Managing Injured Dogs with the Place Command

We have had countless clients rave about how useful the Place command was after their dog was recovering from a surgery like a routine spay. Zoomies are not an option post-surgery, and the dogs need to be controlled as to avoid ripping out sutures. 

We have also trained heartworm positive dogs who have greatly benefited from the Place command. Dogs undergoing heartworm treatment need to remain calm and be on restricted movement. That unfortunately often leads to them to being crated most of the time. Training the Place command not only taught them how to be calm on command, but also allowed them to spend more time out of the crate instead of being crated.

Giving dogs that are ill or recovering from surgery mental stimulation and more ability to be around their family can help both you and your companion feel better about recovery!

Contact us today to learn how to teach Place as well as anything else your family might need from one of our expert trainers!