Episode #187 Teaching A Puppy To Relax in a House Outside of Their Pen or Crate

Can you imagine your puppy roaming freely around the house without causing havoc? In this episode, we reveal ten indispensable strategies to transition your puppy from confined spaces like pens and crates to enjoying more freedom at home. You'll learn how to gradually introduce your puppy to new rooms, create a puppy-proof environment, and use positive reinforcement to reward good behavior. We also highlight the importance of providing suitable chew toys and structured playtime to keep your puppy mentally stimulated, ensuring a smooth and stress-free transition.

Chapters

• 0:00 Training Your Puppy to Relax
• 9:18 Gradual Training for Puppy Relaxation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Puppy Training Podcast, episode 187, teaching a puppy to relax in the house, outside of their pen or crate. This podcast is designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning, as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is the Puppy Training Podcast and I'm your host, amy Jensen. Hello everybody, thank you for being here and listening to the podcast. Today. I want to talk about how to get your puppy to settle when they're not necessarily being managed. So we talk a lot about here at Baxter and Bella using a crate, baby gates, an exercise pen, a tether, especially in the beginning, as we are house training these puppies, but also teaching the manners how to be kind to guests and not jump all over everybody or not bite at their feet. So management is really important. But outside of that, as the puppies start to get better at house training, they're spending more time out of their confinement spaces, the pens and crates. We want them to just be able to relax, right. Sometimes we just want them to do nothing. Now a young puppy has a lot of energy, but they do sleep a lot. Then they hit the teenage phase, the adolescence, and they get a lot of energy and they're awake more. So we have to kind of up the mental stimulation game at that point and then they go to be an adult and they go back to sleeping a lot. So just recognize there's some phases there. But anytime we bring a new puppy into the home I know it's an exciting experience. It also comes again with its own set of challenges, and one of those specifically is teaching a puppy to relax right and just behave appropriately outside of their pen or crate. Now, transitioning a puppy from a confined space to the freedom of the house requires patience on your part, consistency and a well-structured plan. So today I want to give you some strategies to ensure a smooth transition while preventing your puppy from causing any destruction in your home. Today we are going to go through 10 tips for you to be successful at this concept.

Speaker 1: 2:09

First is gradual introduction. Again, the key to successful transition is gradual exposure to new places. So start by allowing your puppy to spend short periods of time outside of their pen or crate, but you're supervising them. Initially, you'll want to choose a specific room where you can easily monitor your puppy's behavior. Again, this limited freedom helps the puppy acclimate to the new space without feeling overwhelmed. So we always start with that one room space. Once your puppy is really good in that one room space, we add a second room. Now this is what we do for house training purposes, meaning potty, right, but your puppy's going to get pretty good at knowing, okay, I need to go to the bathroom outside, and so we give them more freedom in the house. But as you start to open up these rooms, if your puppy's starting to destroy household items, then we need to go back and shrink down the space. So it's not just about getting them to go to the bathroom outside. House training is also getting them to behave inside. So you might ebb and flow, right, you're going to have successes where they can have two rooms in your house, a little bit more freedom, and then you might need to back it up and go back to that one room of freedom for a week or two. Just again, you're helping them learn the rules of a household and being there successfully without destroying things. Okay, so gradual introduction to your home, room by room, as your puppy can be successful.

Speaker 1: 3:26

Yeah, number two is puppy proof the environment. We are huge here at Baxter and Bella on setting your puppy up for success. So before allowing my puppy to explore outside their pen or crate area, I want to make sure that that area is safe and free from hazards. I remove anything that they might want to chew or possibly swallow. I take away shoes, electrical cords, any small objects that are on the floor. Have your kids help you clean up If you have kids in the home. Again, using baby gates you can block off some restricted areas and I keep all doors closed to rooms that are off limits. So that's a really a good way to open up more space in your home. But also confined to some spaces would be just closing every door you can possibly close right. So again, puppy proving the environment. Set your dog up for success. If you know they're going to go for the shoes, just put the shoes away for now. We'll train them to do a leave it and we'll generalize that to shoes and then, yeah, eventually your shoes can stay out. But in the beginning let's set them up for success by minimizing what trouble they could possibly get into.

Speaker 1: 4:24

Now. Number three is positive reinforcement training. So we like to reward our dogs right. We like to again set them up for success and then be able to pay them for good behavior rather than saying no, no, no, all day long and causing frustration. So teaching them simple behaviors that you can then reward them for, like a sit-stay, a down-stay, a go-to-bed behavior that can help them learn oh, I simply get rewarded just by chilling right here on my mat, okay.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Number four would be providing appropriate chew toys. Make sure, now that we've picked up the area, that we've put out in the area appropriate dog toys put some choose soft things, hard things, a variety of textures that they can go get and play with. Non chew Okay, they can have these items and we want them to see several of those around so that they gravitate towards getting those items and they start to like to chew on them and play with them. And so then, when we do open up more of the house, they're seeking out those things because that's what they're used to chewing on and playing with. So encourage your puppy to chew on these toys. You can play with them, you can wiggle them, you can hide them, you can squeak them. Make them interesting in the beginning to help your puppy learn to like toys.

Speaker 1: 5:36

Number five is structured play and exercise. Again, a puppy's need mental exercise and physical exercise. A well-exercised puppy is more likely to be calm and relaxed. So ensure that your puppy gets ample physical and mental exercises through structured play. You can go on, go sniff walks, you can do attention walk training Just keep those sessions nice and short. And then training sessions with the sit, stay down, stay, leave it, drop it. All the tricks all the fun tricks bring out some fun things too. Again, a tired puppy is less likely to engage in destructive behavior, and it's not just physical exercise. If your puppy is getting more bitey and mouthy and irrational, they're probably tired and they need more sleep. So do make sure they're getting their naps as well. Okay Also.

Speaker 1: 6:20

Number six is establishing a routine. Puppies thrive on knowing what's happening next. They like predictability. So try to establish a consistent daily routine that includes meal times, bathroom breaks, playtime and then nap times. A structured schedule helps the puppy understand what is expected of them and reduces any kind of anxiety that they don't know what's coming next. So it doesn't have to be like minute for minute, but in general, keep a nice structure for them throughout the day, where they this is time to settle, this is time to play, this is time to settle, and so forth.

Speaker 1: 6:54

Number seven is using a safe space. So, even when outside of their Pender crate, it's important for puppies to have a designated safe space where they can retreat when they do feel overwhelmed. So, again, using a dog bed or maybe letting them have a specific corner of the room. You can train your puppy to use this space by guiding them to it and rewarding them for staying there calmly. Number eight is monitoring and supervision. We need to closely supervise our puppies during this transition period. It's important to keep an eye on our puppy at all times to prevent unwanted behavior and patterns from developing. If needed them to me, when my puppy hits that teenage phase, I tether them to me quite often during the day. So I just attach a hands-free leash to me and that puppy is my sidekick and we go places together. That way I can keep an eye on them and not worry about what they're getting into.

Speaker 1: 7:52

Number nine is gradually increase the freedom. So as our puppy becomes more comfortable and they're showing me good behavior, I gradually increase that freedom that they have in the house and I start to see. Well, let's see what they do. What does little puppy do when I let them have more freedom and start to allow them access again one room at a time, but you're slowly expanding that space Again. This controlled expansion helps the puppy adjust without giving them too much freedom all at once, okay.

Speaker 1: 8:19

And then number 10 is patience and consistency. When we're transitioning a puppy from a pen or a crate to the rest of our house, we have to be patient, we have to give it time time for our puppy to mature, and also that consistency of the supervision and then increasing the freedom, um, at a rate that our puppy can be successful. You're going to have setbacks, so expect those be prepared to back up in the training If needed. It's okay to minimize the actual freedom space that your puppy has in the house. If you have given them three to four to five rooms and you need to scale back to one to two rooms for a little while, that's okay. Uh, that's pretty normal in puppy training. So recognize that. Uh again, consistent rules and positive reinforcement will help our puppies understand boundaries and they'll develop those good habits over time.

Speaker 1: 9:08

That's really what we're trying to do is help our puppy develop patterns of good behavior. So we have to be consistent. There has to be repetitions there. They're not going to learn this in one day.

Speaker 1: 9:18

It's going to be over time that this happens and you'll start to notice as you open up your house to your puppy and you take away maybe the pen for a little while or the crate for a little while. You want to start to watch for times when they're naturally just letting themselves rest on the floor. Their nap time is now happening in the corner of the room or at your feet while you work. If they're able to do that, great. If you're pushing too far, too fast and they can't help themselves settle, they might need that crate and pen for a little while longer to help them settle. That's okay too. All right, you guys. There you have it 10 tips for just helping your puppy relax in your house. Remember it's going to be gradual, it's going to be over time and our puppy's going to mature into this, but it's setting them up for success and putting them in environments where they can be successful and not get into too much trouble. So supervise, give them lots of things that they can self entertain with and then start to watch for those moments where they put themselves down for their own nap in the corner of the room or at your feet.

Speaker 1: 10:23

I hope you guys are having a fun summer. Good job with your puppies. Keep up the good work. I know you can do this. Happy training. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy training question, visit my site Baxter and Bellacom to contact me.