Episode #248 The Art of Teaching Your Dog to Do Nothing

In this episode of the Puppy Training Podcast, Amy from BAXTER & Bella explores one of the most underrated—but life-changing—skills you can teach your dog: how to do nothing.

From understanding what “settling” really means to learning how to train calmness step-by-step, Amy breaks down the process of helping your dog relax on cue. You’ll hear practical tips for teaching your pup to rest calmly at your feet, wait patiently in real-life settings, and develop emotional balance in an often overstimulating world.

Plus, Amy shares common pitfalls to avoid, like accidentally rewarding excitement, expecting too much too soon, or turning “settle” into a correction rather than a cue for relaxation.

Whether you have a high-energy puppy or an easily overstimulated adult dog, this episode will help you create a calmer, happier home—one peaceful moment at a time.

🎧 Tune in and learn how the art of doing nothing can transform everything.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why “Do Nothing” Matters
• 2:51 Settling Is a Trainable Skill
• 4:44 Breeds, Temperament, and Influence
• 6:15 How to Capture Calm
• 8:20 Naming, Duration, and Mat Work
• 10:20 Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

On today's episode, we are talking about nothing. Okay, not really, but kind of. Teaching your dog to do nothing is actually a really valuable skill. Let's talk about it. Welcome to the Puppy Training Podcast. I'm Amy Jensen, founder of Baxter and Fella, the online puppy school. Here, we are all about helping you create the best possible experience raising a puppy. From training tips to practical tricks, all aimed at fostering a happy, well-behaved dog who truly feels like part of the family. So if you are ready to enjoy the journey and strengthen the bond with your dog, let's get started. Hey everybody, welcome to the puppy training podcast. I'm Amy Jensen, your host. I am the owner of Baxter Umbella. We do an online puppy school where we have an entire curriculum of lessons, videos, uh help via our trainers. I have amazing trainers on my team that do one-on-one calls, QAs, group QA calls, weekly, all sorts of things. We want to help you be successful training your dog. So today I actually want to talk about teaching your dog to do nothing. Sometimes we get caught up in all of these exciting things that we're going to teach our dog to do, and we forget this one. But it's a big one because a lot of the day, I don't know about you, but I'm busy. I'm working, I'm making dinners, I'm helping my kids with homework, I'm like all of the things, right? We're all busy people. And I want to spend time with my dogs, absolutely, but there are times when I have to do things that don't involve them. And then being able to do nothing is valuable. So I guess when I say nothing, we have to be careful because they are technically doing something. They're chilling, they're sleeping on the floor, they're relaxing. So they are kind of doing something, but not really, right? Okay, I don't want to confuse you. Let's get into some of the details on how you train your dog to settle. How do we get them just to lay down, chill out, relax? They don't need to be stimulated or exercised or moving to be happy, right? Okay, so what does it mean to do nothing? I don't mean we're ignoring them or expecting them to sit like a statue either or hold a downstair for hours. No, what I'm asking them to do is to manage themselves and they're choosing to settle, they're choosing to relax and regulate their own energy. So think about it. Our dogs are exposed to constant stimulation. Doorbells, kids running through the house, the neighbors' dog barking, or even just the excitement of going for a walk when we're out and about and they get to sniff and smell all of the good smells, right? If we don't intentionally teach them how to turn off, some dogs don't magically do it on their own. A dog who can do nothing is one who can rest calmly while you work from home, chat with a friend, or sit at a park bench. It's peace for both of you. Now, why settling is a skill? Just like recall or leash walking, settling is a trained behavior. Puppies and adolescent dogs especially need guidance to learn how to slow down. Their natural state is curious, busy, full of energy. You can envision your dog doing this, right? Running around your house. So if we never show them what relaxing looks like, they assume being on all the time is the goal. Now, I will also insert this right here. There are different breeds who are bred to do different things. And some dogs naturally are more active all day long because of their breeding. Other dogs, they're happy just to lay around and settle all day long because of their breeding. So what we're talking about today is how we can influence the individual dog. They're going to have different tendencies based on their breed and their personality within a given litter, but we can definitely influence each dog to learn how to settle. A well-trained settle creates emotional balance. It teaches patience, helps prevent overstimulation, and reduces unwanted behaviors like the barking, jumping, or whining. So here are a few tips for you on how to train a settle. There are a few great ways to teach this skill. Let's go over one of my favorites, capturing calm. Now, capturing means you see it happen and you reward it. First, we want to set up the right environment. We want to start in a quiet, low distraction space with your dog on a leash or in a small area. And it's nice to have a comfy bed or mat nearby so they have options. Do they want to lay on the cold tile? Do they want to lay on the soft mat, right? So give them some options. Have a good environment. Again, low distraction. We want to second wait for calm behavior. So I don't ask my dog for a sit or a down. I'm just watching. The moment my dog lies down, sighs, or even just kind of shifts into a more relaxed posture, then I'm going to mark and reward that. So I'm going to use a calm yes or a click. I don't want something that excites my dog. So if that click is going to have your dog pop right back up or your high-pitched yes is going to excite them, then we don't want to do that necessarily. We want them to stay down. So you can actually just give a nice calm yes and then drop a little food reward without exciting them. The key here is to reward calm in calm ways. Now I'm not dropping something that's super exciting because I don't want them to pop up to get more super exciting food either. So you could even just praise them if that works for your dog, but we want to reward in a calm way. And then I'm going to start to name the behavior. Once they start offering this more easily, you can add a cue like settle or relax. And then not only can they do it on their own, but you could also cue it if you need them to do that, which is really nice to have both. So we add time and distractions gradually once we're to this point. We work up to practicing while I talk on the phone or while I'm cooking dinner or I just want to sit outside. Over time, our dogs learn that settle means it's okay to rest now. It's okay to turn off play and just be. We can also pair this with a station or a mat cue where your dog learns to lie on a specific spot while remaining relaxed. We do have those behaviors in our program. We teach you how to train a good downstay and a good go-to-bed cue. But I also like this behavior not on cue. I also like this behavior that we're just capturing when they choose to do it on their own. I'm not asking them to do it. And I'm rewarding when they choose to do it on their own. Now, if they choose to get up from the mat and leave, that's their choice. I didn't ask them to stay on the mat in this instance. So they get to choose when they get off the mat. But the more you reward them for being and doing this calm behavior or being in this calm state, they're going to choose that again. Now, here's some common pitfalls. Even though doing nothing sounds easy, here are some traps that I see people fall into. First, they reward with excitement instead of calm. So if you squeal or move fast or drop a really yummy food reward when your dog finally lies down, you can actually re-energize them. So we want to keep our voice low and our movements slow. We don't want to excite them as we reward them. Now, we can also expect too much too soon. Puppies can only relax for short bursts at first. Build duration over time, seconds, then minutes, then hours. As you start to do some of these um more formal down stays with your puppies, they learn to hold still, which is counterintuitive to a puppy. They just want to go and do and be. Um, and they don't realize that sitting still or laying down is a good thing and it gets rewards. Like not moving gets you rewards. So that's kind of the first concept we need to help them realize. So just don't expect too much too soon. Recognize their age and their maturity level. And as you do this training with them, it gets longer and longer, right? To the point that now I'm actually recording this podcast right now. Baxter chose to go over to his bed and he's taking a nap. I didn't even ask him to do that. He just saw the microphone come out. He knew it's podcast time. So he's like, I'm gonna go to nap, right? So he's settling. And sweet little Bella, she wanted to go play, but she saw that I can't play right now. So she actually chose to go over on my love sack and she jumped up on that beanbag and now she's napping too. Didn't ask her to do that, didn't tell her to do that. She chose to do that. It's because as from puppyhood on up, we've spent time practicing and rewarding when they choose to go lay down and settle. That's a good thing. Okay, the other pitfall I see sometimes is using subtle as a correction. So if I only say subtle when my dog is hyper or in trouble, it can become a negative cue. Instead, we want to practice it in neutral times as well. Um, and that would be if you're cuing it. So I know we're talking about kind of both today, like if you put it on cue and ask them to do it, or if they just choose to do it on their own, just be careful not using it as a correction. And then another pitfall would be not modeling calmness myself. So dogs are emotional mirrors. If I'm anxious or I'm moving fast, they're going to more likely feel that anxiousness and want to mirror that energy. When teaching calm, I need to be calm. Now, what does this look like in everyday life? Once your dog knows how to settle, you'll notice it everywhere. They curl up quietly at your feet during dinner. Awesome, right? They relax on their mat while guests visit. They lie peacefully beside you at a soccer game or an outdoor cafe. They take breaks naturally between play sessions. This skill transforms daily life. Suddenly, you don't have to manage your dog every second. They know how to manage themselves. And that's the beauty of teaching your dog to do nothing. You get to live with your dog, not just around them. Now, a few tips for you if you want to get this started at your house. It's really simple to let's say you're at the park watching your kid play soccer. Have your puppy on a leash and have a little mat set out for them or a blanket, have a chew toy that they can chew on. Maybe you have a little toy if you need to kind of entertain them, but we're just sitting in that spot. And they might get up and move around, but then they might lay down too for part of that. And they might get up and need to move around a little bit because they're puppies, right? But then they settle for a few minutes. That few minutes is a win. And the more you do that, whether it's at a soccer game or you're at the park, you just want to sit on the bench or at home and you're watching a show, right? You can keep your puppy kind of in a limited area. So maybe that's the tether, the house line, or the a little leash that you're keeping them in an area where they can get up and move around and shift and do things, but then they can't really run around and play. When they settle, ah, we want to reward that and tell them, yeah, good job. That's what I'm looking for. So that's a good way to get started. We're happy to coach you through this process inside our program as well. So if you have any questions on how to get started, or if you're having troubles getting your dog to settle, please reach out to us. We'd love to help you. Teaching your dog to do nothing is one of the greatest gifts you can give them and yourself. It's about emotional regulation, balance, and trust. So remember, calm is a learned skill. We can practice it daily. We can celebrate the little progress that we see with our puppies who are small and immature, right? They need time to mature and grow into this. But our dog will learn that stillness can be just as rewarding as action. Thanks for joining me today on the podcast, you guys. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Happy training. We'll talk soon. Thanks for tuning in to the Puppy Training Podcast. I hope today's tips help you feel more confident and excited about raising your dog. Remember, with a little patience and consistency, you can create a loving bond and a well-behaved pup who's a joy to have in your family. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with fellow puppy parents. For more resources, visit Baxter and Bella online. Until next time, happy training.