Settle
Basic Manners · 13 steps · by Push Drop Stick
Your Dog will learn to genuinely relax on a mat, building a deep, loose, durable calm that she can hold for up to 2 minutes and eventually drop into for the soft verbal cue 'Settle'.
**This is not a stay:** Settle is different from Down Stay or Go to Bed. Those plans train a position and reward holding it, and a dog can hold a perfect stay while still tense and alert. Here we capture the relaxed state itself: loose muscles, a rolled hip, a heavy head, slow breathing. We reward the feeling, not the shape.
**No corrections, ever:** Because we never want to punish a dog for breaking calm, this plan uses Capturing throughout. Every step is a Capturing step, which means there is no fail button at all and Your Dog genuinely cannot fail them. There is deliberately no No Reward Marker and no release cue. If Your Dog gets up, you simply wait for the next offer.
**How to reinforce:** Calmly place a low value treat between her front paws or at her chest so she barely lifts her head. No clicker, no marker word, just silence or a soft 'good'. The treat will rouse her a little, and that is fine. Watch how quickly she re-settles, because that recovery getting faster is the learning.
**If she settles faster than the plan:** Your Dog will often run straight past the step you are on, going from a down to a rolled hip to a chin on the floor in one slow slide. That is a good thing, not a problem. Never rouse her, call her off the mat, or reset her to collect more reps of an earlier step, because disturbing a settling dog undoes the exact thing you are building. Reward what she offered and Push forward to the step that matches it. Reps are not the point in this plan, the state is. In the other direction, if she is up and busy, just wait. The waiting is the work.
**Needs met first:** Only train this with a dog whose physical and mental needs are already met that day. Never try to capture calm from a wired, under-exercised dog.
**A note on harder cases:** For a truly anxious or over-aroused dog, capturing is only one piece, alongside management and often the help of a certified positive-reinforcement professional or a veterinary behaviorist. Progress here is bumpier than a trick, because you are waiting for Your Dog to offer the state rather than prompting it.
Training steps
Reward any calm pause on the mat
Setup: Your Dog is loose near the mat in a quiet, boring room, her needs already met.
Let Your Dog explore near the mat. The instant she goes still on it, calmly place a treat between her feet. You are rewarding the choice to pause on the mat. Keep yourself boring so the mat becomes the interesting, rewarding place to be.
Success: Your Dog goes still on the mat for a moment, standing or sitting.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Capture a voluntary down
Setup: Your Dog is on or near the mat.
Sit quietly and wait. Do not cue or lure. When Your Dog offers a down on the mat by herself, calmly place a treat between her front paws so she can eat without getting up.
Success: Your Dog lies down on the mat on her own, with no cue.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Reward a weight shift toward a hip
Setup: Your Dog is lying down on the mat.
Watch for the first sign she is getting comfortable: a hip tipping to one side or a back leg sliding out. Reward that shift low and slow. This bridges a square, alert down toward a relaxed hip flop.
Success: Your Dog shifts her weight onto one hip or slides a back leg out to the side.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Capture the hip roll
Setup: Your Dog is lying down on the mat.
Wait for Your Dog to roll onto one hip so her weight comes off both back legs. This is a big one, because a hip flopped dog is committed to staying and cannot spring straight up. Reward calmly in place.
Success: Your Dog rolls onto one hip so her weight comes off both back legs.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Reward the chin dipping down
Setup: Your Dog is hip rolled on the mat.
Look for her head getting heavy: the chin dropping toward the floor or resting toward her paws. Reward the moment it dips. Deliver the treat low so she does not have to lift her head far.
Success: Your Dog lowers her head, chin drifting toward the floor or her paws.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Capture chin resting down
Setup: Your Dog is hip rolled on the mat.
Wait for Your Dog to fully rest her chin on the floor or on her paws while hip rolled. Reward right where her chin is, so eating barely disturbs the position.
Success: Your Dog fully rests her chin on the floor or on her paws.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Chin down for 5 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is hip rolled on the mat with her chin down.
Once her chin is resting and she is hip rolled, let it ride for about 5 seconds before you quietly place the treat. That shape is the whole criteria, so you do not have to judge how relaxed she looks from moment to moment: a dog who is hip rolled with her chin on the floor is loose through the body almost by definition. You will often see the softer signs alongside it, a slow breath, a sigh, loose ears, or soft blinking eyes. Those are confirmation, not extra criteria. If she lifts her head or gets up, there is no Oops and nothing to fix. Just wait for the next offer.
Success: Your Dog keeps her chin resting, hip rolled, for about 5 seconds.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Chin down for 10 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is hip rolled on the mat with her chin down.
The same picture, held for about 10 seconds before you quietly place the treat. This is the last shape step before the timed settles begin. Keep delivering the treat right where her chin is so eating barely disturbs the position, and stay boring and still yourself.
Success: Your Dog keeps her chin resting, hip rolled, for about 10 seconds.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Stay settled for 30 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is settled and loose on the mat.
Stretch the relaxed state toward about 30 seconds between calm treats. This step uses a "variable interval" schedule where you mix shorter durations (blue) in among the longer target durations (green), so the wait stays unpredictable and your rate of reinforcement stays kind. You will complete more than 5 reps per step but only the target durations will be counted toward the tally. Regardless, quietly place a treat for every rep, even if it was only a few seconds long. Start the timer and follow the duration prompts. If Your Dog gets up, there is no Oops and nothing to fix, just wait for the next offer.
Success: Your Dog stays in the relaxed state for about 30 seconds between calm treats.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Stay settled for 1 minute
Setup: Your Dog is settled and loose on the mat.
Build toward about 1 minute of loose body calm between treats. Stay boring and relaxed yourself, because your stillness helps her stay down. This step uses a "variable interval" schedule where you mix shorter durations (blue) in among the longer target durations (green), so the wait stays unpredictable and your rate of reinforcement stays kind. You will complete more than 5 reps per step but only the target durations will be counted toward the tally. Regardless, quietly place a treat for every rep, even if it was only a few seconds long. Start the timer and follow the duration prompts. If Your Dog gets up, there is no Oops and nothing to fix, just wait for the next offer.
Success: Your Dog stays in the relaxed state for about 1 minute between calm treats.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Hold the calm for 90 seconds
Setup: Your Dog is settled and loose on the mat.
Bridge toward two minutes by holding the calm for about 90 seconds before reinforcing. This step uses a "variable interval" schedule where you mix shorter durations (blue) in among the longer target durations (green), so the wait stays unpredictable and your rate of reinforcement stays kind. You will complete more than 5 reps per step but only the target durations will be counted toward the tally. Regardless, quietly place a treat for every rep, even if it was only a few seconds long. Start the timer and follow the duration prompts. If Your Dog gets up, there is no Oops and nothing to fix, just wait for the next offer.
Success: Your Dog stays in the relaxed state for about 90 seconds before you reinforce.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Stay settled for 2 minutes
Setup: Your Dog is settled and loose on the mat.
Hold the relaxed state for about 2 minutes between calm treats. This is a real settle: deep, loose, and durable. Keep rewarding low and in place. This step uses a "variable interval" schedule where you mix shorter durations (blue) in among the longer target durations (green), so the wait stays unpredictable and your rate of reinforcement stays kind. You will complete more than 5 reps per step but only the target durations will be counted toward the tally. Regardless, quietly place a treat for every rep, even if it was only a few seconds long. Start the timer and follow the duration prompts. If Your Dog gets up, there is no Oops and nothing to fix, just wait for the next offer.
Success: Your Dog stays in the relaxed state for about 2 minutes between calm treats.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Name the state with a soft cue
Setup: Your Dog is clearly drifting into the calm state on the mat.
As Your Dog is clearly drifting into calm, softly say 'Settle' one time, then reward. You are labeling the state as a prediction, not a command. Over many reps the word starts to invite the feeling.
Success: Your Dog settles into the calm state after you softly say 'Settle' once.
Advance on: 4 of 5 successes
Beautiful work. Your Dog can now melt into a real, loose-bodied calm on her mat, hold it for a couple of minutes, and start to drop into it when you softly say 'Settle'.
From here, Settle is a way of life, not a drill. Bring the mat to the places calm is hard to find: the kitchen at dinnertime, the living room during TV, a cafe patio, the vet waiting room. Lay it down, settle her, and quietly pay the calm. Over time the mat itself becomes a cue that means we relax here.
Build up in that order rather than jumping straight to the hardest picture. Start at home by simply getting up, moving around the room, and letting normal household noise happen while she holds the settle, lowering the activity again if she pops up. Then take the same mat somewhere new and low key, a different quiet room or a calm porch, and reward generously for the first few settles there, since a new place is harder than a familiar one.
Keep it kind. Go on rewarding calm with calm, a soft word or a slow stroke and only the occasional treat, letting the relaxing context itself carry the behavior as the food fades. Keep meeting her needs first, since a wired, under-exercised dog cannot settle no matter how good the mat is. Never correct her for getting up. If she breaks, you simply wait for the next offer, exactly as you trained it.
If the calm falls apart in a busy new place, that is the environment being too much, not Your Dog failing. Add distance from the bustle, make it easier, and rebuild the settle there from a shorter hold.