Something that doesn’t get talked about too often in the dog training world (and needs to get talked about more!) is duration work. So what is duration work, you ask? Well, let me put it this way…duration work is basically meditation for dogs. There are two key commands that I teach dogs in order to get them to do this kind of “meditation.” These commands are the “down” and “place” commands.
I’ll assume you already know what the down command is, but you might not be familiar with the place command. When I say “place” to a dog, it means the dog must go to his bed, mat, rug, or whatever object it is I want him to go to, until I release him.
So here’s how this whole duration thing works: I say “place” or “down,” and the dog does whichever command I give. Once the dog does the command, the dog must stay there until released, even in there may be exciting or scary things around. By doing by this, the dog learns to relax, and ultimately learns new ways of coping with things that normally make the dog overexcited or uncomfortable.
Instead of fleeing from, or even attacking, certain things like vacuum cleaners, other dogs, or other people, a dog in the place or down command has no choice but to simply stay there and exist around what normally makes him uncomfortable.
Over time, the dog begins to become more comfortable with unsettling things. Now one must not forget, of course, that it certainly takes time for a dog to be able to stay in the place or a down command for long periods of time with heavy distractions going on around. But by slowly increasing the amount of duration and challenge for the dog, we come closer and closer to creating a dog that is “bomb-proof” when doing duration work.
Another important thing to mention about duration work is that it is great for dogs with separation anxiety. Since dogs with separation anxiety constantly feel they need to be right next to their owners, giving them some duration work is a great way to get them to relax AWAY from their owners. So instead of allowing ours dogs with separation anxiety to always be in our space, it is best to give them the job of chilling out by themselves.
So whether you have a dog that has separation anxiety, uncertainty towards other people or dogs, or simply has a bad case of becoming overexcited at certain triggers, duration work is exactly what your dog needs.