# relaxation protocol



## Mercutio (Jan 18, 2010)

I was reminded of this by our trainer the other day (I had gotten slack and not done it for awhile...) and thought other people with dogs that are always "on" might be interested in trying it. It takes a bit of work and we certainly didn't do everything that is listed under one day in one day. I was told it would probably take up to three months to work through.

Anyway here is a link to the best description of the method that I could find although if you google "dog relaxation protocol Karen Overall" lots of sites come up.

http://www.dogscouts.org/Protocol_for_relaxation.html


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## Lyndsey3boys (Jul 5, 2010)

That's how I trained my dog as a child.  Of course I didn't know what I was doing but it worked.


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

Yep, That's pretty much the template I use. I refer to it in terms of applying and releasing pressure, but the end result is the same thing. A dog that is focused on it's owner.
For folks that intend to hunt their dogs, and use this method, or a similar method. My experience has been to drop the "Sit" command, and introduce/reinforce/use the "Stay" command. 
Many people give the "Sit", followed by the "Stay", myself being guilty also, but when you begin to steady the dog to wing and shot the commands are "Easy", "Whoa" and "Stay". It can confuse the dog when it hears the "Stay", because it is used to that command being given as part of a two part command "Sit", "Stay". The dog may actually, and mine have, sit on the point, which is very unstylish, or miss the mark on the dropped bird after the shot which slows down the "fetch"/ retrieve component. Ergo the Sit" command has to be "untaught"
I don't use the "sit' command at all.


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## Mercutio (Jan 18, 2010)

I think a lot of the time people are actually doing the same things when training dogs, they just use different words.

I understand why you don't train sit, but for me it's a life saver - it's the most reliable command I have 

Practising the stay in this manner really helped calm and focus Merc. When we started I never thought I'd be able to tell him to stay, walk out of the room, knock on the front door and have him still sitting when I got back. Took a while but we got there.


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