Cafe Visits
“I dream of being able to bring my dog anywhere without having to worry.” - Said every dog owner who ever worked with us. A common place which people struggle with are cafes, so I thought I’d make a post just dedicated to this! It is usually a quite noisy space, full of people, dogs, children and food at close proximity. In this post we’ll break it down into smaller training steps.
Common Mistakes
Some of the most common mistakes I see people make in cafes with their dogs are due to lack of communication.
Firstly, in terms of communicating with the dog. Instead of helping the dog figure out what to do in the situation, people have a tendency to simply hold the dog back on a short leash. Physically blocking it from jumping on people or reaching the neighbour’s food, but without actually teaching the dog anything new. All while the dog is getting more excited and frustrated as time goes on. Restraining is not training.
Secondly, dog owners sometimes do not effectively communicate with their surrounding in order to advocate for their dog. For example, if you allow a person to approach and pet your dog, knowing that your dog will get overexcited, but somehow hoping that it will miraculously stay calm and well behaved this time - you are being unfair to your dog. Person comes up, you wish they wouldn’t but don’t want to be rude, you let them get your dog all worked up, while holding your dog by the collar so that it can’t knock anyone over, feeling embarrassed and apologising “Sorry, he is a bit excited.” Instead of simply saying “No, you cannot pet my dog.” and making sure your own behaviour lives up to those high expectations you set on your dog’s behaviour. Your dog’s opinion of you should be more important than that of a stranger.
Preparation
House
The very first step to getting your dog to settle in busy places, is teaching it to settle in calm and controlled environments. One easy exercise we recommend to all dogs we see, is settling on a dog bed on cue. We have a video on how to teach it here, and another one on suggestions for helping your dog generalise here. Start practicing with low distractions, when you’re reading, watching a movie, eating or cooking, and the energy in the household is low and calm. Build it up while you leave the room, open and close door, and eventually, until you are able to ring the door bell or have people come over.
Garden
When your dog is good at settling indoors, start to practice it in front of your house or in the garden. If you have previously used a blanket in your dog’s bed which they associate with relaxation, bring it out with you and ask them to settle. Practice having them on their bed both when you are at a distance, and when you are sitting down next to them. Try to get the full range of pictures in which they might see when they are in a public space at the later stages of training.
Outdoors
We recommend all dog owners to get into a habit of occasionally stopping and practice settling on your daily walks. Make it part of the routine so that the dog doesn’t only associate the outside world with excitement and activity. In fact, it is such an important exercise that it was the topic of one of our first blog posts. You can read it here.
For dogs who are reactive or very active and struggle to settle, a nice in between point before bringing them into cafes can be to start practice being around people, sounds and strange distractions in an outdoor environment. This means it can just be a brief stop on your walk, and should your dog start to feel overwhelmed at any point, you can simply leave. The entry to supermarkets are perfect for this! When I was woking on this with Tennessee, I used to bring her along in the car every time I went shopping, and take her out for a short training session when I was done.
I usually break this practice down into two parts, both can be practiced in parallel before you bring them together. Stay at a distance, have your dog on a long line and reward the dog when it chooses to stay calm and relaxed. The key here is not to tell them what to do, but to keep far enough away that you can give them the freedom to make good decisions on their own. If you have done training with us, this is the first step we always practice towards recall training. I usually vary this with bringing the dog right into the middle of things (if they are ready), but keep them closer to me, and run them through commands. You can do food play, practice engagement, maybe some trick training - anything fun and lighthearted to teach them to be focused and listen to you when a lot is going on around them. This will come handy later on so that you can direct them if they become unsettled by something or start to unravel. Don’t forget to practice your down stays - the most useful cue of them all in this context! Slowly work your way closer on a long line as your dog gets better, and give your dog more freedom when you are close to the distractions (longer breaks between reward events and commands), until you can merge the two together.
Keep In Mind
Once you are inside the cafe, there are a few things to keep in mind. Alexandra Ortega from Dogs of Pegasus has a great podcast episode where she breaks it down into three main points: Place, Posture and Direction. Using this structure with attention to detail, increased the chances of your dog being successful.
The dog’s Place: Keep in mind where you decide to position your dog in relation to you and in relation to your surrounding. For example, territorial dogs, if given the option, might position themselves ahead of you (often lying in a C-shape pointing outwards), and be more likely to react or try to block people approaching. Some insecure dogs will lie under chairs or tables, giving a temporary power boost so that they can pounce out and bark if someone walks past. Regardless of what your dog’s temperament is, so pay attention to where they choose to lie, how that influences their behaviour, and how the behaviour changes when you remove that option and select the spot for them. For many dogs, positioning yourself between your dog and the place people will be passing, will help you advocate for your dog, creating a safety bubble where you can easily block others from coming too close, as well as quickly and smoothly give your dog direction before they get themselves in trouble (especially in tight spaces). Allocating your dog to a fixed position also helps prevent shuffling about and restlessness.
The dog’s Posture: Is your dog standing, sitting or lying down? If your dog is lying down, they are the most likely to stay settled for a while, and the furthest away from moving (in comparison to, for example, standing). If you look at the videos of Tennessee that I posted at the bottom of this post, you can see a progression of this. At the first visit, I asked her to lie down, essentially doing a down stay, and left little room for her to make a mistake, reminding her of what her job was if people walked past close etc. In the second video we had already had quite a few repetitions, so she just lied down on her own as soon as we stopped and stood still to order, flopping her hip to the side to get more comfy and settled. Brodie on the other hand, found the situation very challenging (especially as someone had just petted the dogs a moment before), so I gave him specific instructions (“Down”) to make it easier for him. In the third video, we were doing a cafe visit with our longterm W&Ters. The dog settled well on their own, but when dog who was not part of the group entered and started barking at us, they sat up and got alert. As we already had a good foundation, it was easy to encourage them to settle again.
The dog’s Direction: In what direction is your dog’s body pointing? For example, if your dog is lying down calmly by your side but is facing the door, another dog, or whatever distraction they may find difficult, your dog will quicker go from resting to getting alert. Some dogs will lie and have their head downs, but their eyes stay alert and focused ahead, ready to jump up if the distraction suddenly becomes more activated. For dogs like this, it can be helpful to help them orient away from the distraction or facing you, to make it easier for them to relax.
Some other things you might want to be intentional about are:
The location inside the shop. If you have a dog who quickly becomes unsettled or alert, you might not want to sit close to or right across from the counter, the door, or any place where a lot of people will be coming and going.
The time spent inside the shop. If your dog is reactive or struggles to settle, keep it short at the start. As short as ordering a take away coffee might be enough to start with. You want your dog to get short and good experiences of being stationary in a busy environment, without letting it go on for long enough that they start whining, getting frustrated or uncomfortable. Once your dog is ready for a sit down, 15 minutes might be plenty. Rather go often for short periods to build up those positive experiences, than going a few times and staying longer. Many dogs at the start of training will be much more likely to get into trouble, get antsy, bark at things, get startled or frightened, once you start to go past that 45 minute mark. Build it up slowly (set a timer on your phone!) and practice often.
Finally, the more calmness and impulse control you work on in general, the easier it will be to work through the steps I’ve discussed here. I hope you have found this post helpful and that you feel more confident in how to get started, and how to progress.
Happy training! :)
