Head down!

I taught Dottie "head down" while shaping relaxation on her mat. This has been awesome. It was Chelse's idea to teach Dottie a super long down-stay to keep her from bugging me on the days I work from home, like today. I gave her "go to bed" and "stay," then gave her treats every time her head hit the ground. Then every time her hips flipped. Then when she rolled all the way on her side. The stay was so solid that she didn't hop up to bark at something out the window with Gustav, just lay on her mat and bark. I appreciated her attention. This is a perfect happy medium, since I can do my work while training my dog, with peace and quiet, and Dottie can feel like she's entitled to sporadic attention and treats by being calm and quiet rather than making up things to see out the window. Yay! This has been the most relaxing homework day ever, thanks for the tip Chelse! I suspect Dottie really likes the "permission" to just be told what to do and not have the scary responsibility of making her own choices.