Advice with ‘settle’ for 5 month pup

[Tribe85]

Miniature poodle is 5 months old. She’s generally pretty well behaved and picks up things quickly. I’m looking to work on settle for in public places as we’ve started to take her to cafes etc and she’s going on holiday with us so will be great on the beach. Currently she’s ok in cafes but doesn’t really settle - a little on edge, looking about.

At home she has a towel that she lies on in the kitchen to sleep (it was a dog bed before the heatwave!) and will settle if we just leave her in there. At night she’s in a crate next to our bed. I’ve got her a settle mat to take out - should I use this at home as well or is it best to have a home bed/towel separate? I’ve read lots of different versions of the settle so would love to know what’s worked for you.

Take the towel she settles on at home and use that out and about. We would tether ours to us so he had to settle on the mat and then reward/praise at regular intervals.

I would use the same towel that you use at home to train but I would not rain the praise and treats down. I think it teaches the dog to push you for more and then you'll never get a true settle. I think you ask for the down on the bed/towel and then every time she gets up, don't look her in the eye and use the lead to guide her back down. Just keep going. I remember doing it over thirty times in a row once putting my dog back on his place bed - it was literally every ten seconds, and then eventually he gave up and he settled there. If you give in, you've lost the battle forever, because she'll always be waiting for the point where you'll give in. While you're training, you really want to wait until you've got a comfortable down/settle even if it's just for twenty seconds and end it with your release marker word ( ok/free/break or whatever you use). Let the settle be quite short at first and then build on duration.

Edit to add, I would make it part of your daily routine when you're walking. She shouldn't need a settle or place mat. If you see a bench on a walk, sit down for a couple of minutes, get her to lie down, ignore her, do nothing, and when she's chill, move on. Gradually increase the difficulty of the places that you stop. First you want it to be a really low distraction area