“ Go to the basket!“ – and your dog jumps into the basket and stays there until you allow him to go out again.

„I wish!“ you may be thinking.

Many dog owners only know the basket as a quick place to go when there’s a chew toy, or as a forcing measure when there’s a visitor, or as a punishment for unwanted behavior. And here is already the first problem why your dog does not stay long in his basket. The basket was never seen as a place of relaxation, but always in the context of an event (food, visit, punishment). However, the basket should be one thing in the first place, a place of rest and retreat. Your dog should perceive the basket positively, feel safe and be able to relax. Your dog should like to visit his basket, and voluntarily.

To help your dog learn to love his basket from the start, we have revealed the top 3 mistakes in basket training and how you can do it better.

1. the treat mistake

Most basket training exercises start with luring over food. Also in our app, we start the training this way. This is where the first mistake can happen. If you send your dog into the basket with a piece of food or chew bone and he gets up shortly afterward, you must block your dog or if he has already completely disappeared from the basket, take him by the harness or a house leash and lead him back. Back in the basket you can repeat the command „basket“ and wait until your dog lies down. If your dog lies down in his basket for a while, you can throw a few pieces of dry food between his legs to reinforce the lying down.

2. rest and activity are not in balance

If we want to teach our dog to rest, at the same time it is also important to fulfill the need for exercise and mental activity. Starting the basket training without first satisfying your dog’s other needs is unfair. Who is relaxed when they are hungry, need to go to the bathroom, or haven’t moved all day? This doesn’t mean that your dog needs to be completely exhausted beforehand. You should just make sure that your dog is satisfied and has been a little physically occupied to need the rest in the basket as well.

3. giving up too quickly and not resolving the command

Really the most common mistake in basket training is that although the dog successfully goes into the basket on command and stays there for a while. But he never knows how long „basket“ actually applies. Thus, your dog independently dissolves the command and will simply get up and leave the basket in case of a distraction or after a certain time. To avoid this mistake, you should teach your dog a release command, e.g. „Ok“. This command gives your dog permission to leave the basket. If you are just starting training, it is important to start with a few minutes and give the release after about 5-10 minutes. If this works well, you can extend the time to 20-30 minutes and then to 1 hour. We recommend that you always release the basket command after 1 hour at the latest.

We hope these tips will help you and that your dog’s basket will soon become his favorite place! If you want to start with the basket training right now, download the Pupy App here and watch the first training session right away!

We wish you lots of fun with your dog!

Your Pupy Team 🐶