Doggie Zen Level 4

You thought Level 3 was tough? You ain’t seen nothing yet!

Today’s Games

Time Allowance:
Practice for 1-2 minute sessions and then take a break. Have a few  sessions today.

Try fitting  each short session into your routine; for example, while you wait for the kettle to boil, during the ad break of your TV show or while you wait for the computer to start up.

Really do keep sessions short on these exercises! The self-control bank account depletes fast and your dog will need some time to recuperate so make sure to give them a good break too.

Family Participation:
This exercise is for adults only!

Top Tip for Today’s Training Games:
Notice that we don’t ask our dog to do anything here at all – no talking!

This is about self-control – we are working on a default here so you never need to ask for polite behaviour when you have things your dog wants – he just does it!

Remember, if your dog gets stuck with any of our exercises this week, think of ways that you can make it easier for him to succeed and then build again more gradually.

Zen Level 4

Play a little bit of Level 3 first to warm up.

• when your dog moves back from the container, take one food reward out and place on the floor beside the container
• (be ready to cover the container and the food on the floor if your dog approaches)
• pick that food off the floor and put back in the container, feed one food reward from the container to your dog
• repeat using different combinations of placing food on the floor, putting it back into the container, feeding from the floor and feeding from the container

Really short sessions for this one as it’s very tough!

Check out our compilation of some Level 4 Zen-dogs:

Link

Dogs of all shapes & sizes, and of all ages & stages can become zen-dogs!