Training place or hit your mark

I start in the house in a quiet room and put down my puppy’s bed or a blanket.   I throw a treat on the bed and when the puppy goes to the bed I tell him/her “good”.

More treats are thrown on the bed and more praise is given each time the puppy moves to the bed.  Eventually I’ll start delaying throwing the treat and as soon as the puppy heads for the bed I throw the treat.  After I can delay until the puppy gets to the bed, I start add the word “place”.

Now every time I say “place” and the puppy goes to the bed I can start to move the bed around.  Then move to other locations.

The bed can get phased out whey your puppy is going to the bed every time you say “place”.    To introduce a new place “target” I will add something that I can put on top of the bed.  I usually use a plastic dog food cover.   I will then take away the larger target and replace it with the smaller object.  

Finally I can put anything down and they will go to that target.  If need be, I can put down the larger object and reduce the size again.  

In the photos you can see the larger object.  The video shows Harley going to his place or mark.  Then I used a smaller object and finally I had him go to a small clump of leaves.  

This photo is Harley hitting his mark.   I have him touch it with his foot.  However, this can be just a visual mark also. 

Now I’m using leaves as the mark for Harley to go to.