Have you ever heard of conditioned relaxation? It is an elegant and useful application of classical conditioning that will allow you to make your dog go to sleep.

Yes, you read that correctly – we can gain the ability to make our dog very tired; not through exercise and physical exertion, but by a clever approach of linking sleepiness to certain objects and situations.

The Theory

Remember how in classical conditioning, we could link a reflex or emotion to a previously meaningless (“neutral”) stimulus? Just like Pavlov linked saliva production to the sound of a bell. Dogs are not born expecting that the sound of a bell predicts food, but we can create this connection in their brain by repeatedly linking the bell with their feeding time.

The same concept can be applied to relaxation and sleepiness.
If we consistently link a calm, tired state to a certain stimulus, eventually it can be reversed and the calm, tired state can be produced by presenting this stimulus.

The Steps

1. Pick one object that will be the “cue” to go to sleep. This should conveniently be something that is comfortable and can be taken anywhere, eg a blanket. Don’t leave that blanket lying around or have your dog play with it – we want the connection between sleepiness and the blanket to be as clear as possible, so we will only present it in a sleep context.

2. Start the training with a dog that is already tired. Don’t take your dog out of a crate and immediately try to make him go back to sleep – you will be frustrated and fail. Instead, begin after your dog comes back from a walk, from a training class, from a dog play date etc. We want a dog who is likely to go to sleep.

3. Bring out your blanket, have your dog lie down on it and sit with your dog. Depending on his preferences, you can massage him or pet him. If you have a wild puppy, I recommend either going into a very boring room for this (so there is nothing else to do that would be more fun) or tethering him to you.
Now wait for your dog to go to sleep.

5. Repeat as often as you can. Do not use blanket it in other situations (such as eg for sitting on it at the park when your dog will be awake and alert) – make sure that the connection between the blanket and sleep stays very clear. Spend a lot of time “loading” the blanket with sleepiness.
If you have the option to train in different environments, that will further increase the effectiveness.

6. Eventually you can elicit sleepiness by presenting your now “conditioned stimulus”, the blanket that produces tiredness.

If done consistently, this becomes a powerful tool for relaxing your dog in just about any environment and situation. I have used it on long road trips, and also sent my dogs’ conditioned blankets to pet sitters to help them go to sleep when I was gone.

Try it out – and enjoy the ease of being able to put your high-drive dog to sleep at any time, in any situation.

Happy training!

Do you want to condition your dog to like his crate as well?
The Smart Way To Crate Training will help you!