Canine Relaxation Protocol Demo

canine relaxation protocol demo photo - b/w border collie on orange floor mat, looking at person standing next to her

One of the things we’re most famous for are FREE audio/video files that make the canine relaxation protocol easier to do. It might look like simply a way to teach dogs to stay, but the RP is much more complicated than that. It’s meant to teach dogs prone to fear, stress, or over-arousal to defer to you and relax no matter what weird stimuli happens (noises, movements, etc.) Hard to believe I never made a canine relaxation protocol demo video before, but here you go. Below is a video of what it looks like when I do it with a behaviorally normal dog. In this case, first Clover and then a short snippet with Mr. Stix. 

I kind of made the video in a rush for a friend who needed to see it recently. I didn’t realize I’d cut off my own head with the video angle until too late, and I was NOT about to redo the entire thing. So, there you go. A video with my head not showing some of the time. That’s how it goes. I figured it might be useful for others, so I’m sharing it here too. 

It’s also kind of funny to see just how closely Clover follows my every movement. While she does stay put throughout the canine relaxation protocol demo, I admit that she doesn’t seem SUPER relaxed. She is monitoring everything, but she isn’t otherwise overtly responding to it all and her body position is fairly mellow, which is pretty much the goal. 

Other key points?

  • I’m using stale cheerios as rewards. 
  • Both dogs already know “go to place” on a mat, so that helps. 
  • I didn’t really allow myself enough space to go left or right as required by day 1 of the canine relaxation protocol, but I adjusted as needed.

Canine Relaxation Protocol Demo Extra Notes

Within the last 6-8 months, I learned that some smartphones no longer play all the way through each day’s audio recording of the RP tasks, which is super annoying. To correct that issue, I made YouTube videos of each day’s recording. Really just a photo with the audio playing. I think that fixed the problem. 

You can find all the videos on the bottom of this page on our site. 

Or, upon request of a video user recently, I put all 15 days of the RP into a YouTube Playlist for easy access and use. 

Other Video Demos of the Relaxation Protocol for Dogs?

If there are other things you’d like to see us demo, please let me know. For example, I should probably demo the strict way of doing this for serious behavior modification.