Molly’s training visit to the coffee shop

Having a dog go to their place, mat, or bed is often used in dog training but what is the point?

There are some applications in the house such as sending the dog somewhere when visitors arrive. We like to train our dogs to go to their mat and use the behavior for many applications.

• It is a place where the dog knows that good things happen here 
• The dog knows where we want them to settle
• It can be the dogs’ station while waiting for next cue
• A safe place where there is no interaction required with other dogs or people and no dogs or people are going to interact with them
• It is portable, so what is learned in one place can be transferred elsewhere

We use the Mutt Mats brand because as well as looking good they are durable and can be washed easily.

In the photo above Molly is on her mat at the coffee shop happily watching the world go by with her breakfast frozen in a food toy while we enjoy a coffee. This also served as a training session too, Molly is learning to notice people coming and going and report to us with a nod of her head in their direction and then looking back at us. We’ve all done it, had those silent conversations with a friend about someone else close by. The benefit of using the mat is that Molly has now replaced wanting to go say hi, jump up, or bark because her mat is the new best place in the world to relax.