How to teach your dog “head in lap”

The purpose of this exercise is to train the dog to put his/her head in the clients lap during an animal assisted intervention.
 
We use a towel for this exercise and the reason we use a towel is to protect the clients lap from possible saliva from the dog, but also to make it easier and predictable for the dog to know what behavior we are asking of him/her.
 
This exercise can also be useful for when you go to the vet and when you are grooming the dog. Instead of having the towel in someones lap you can have it on an object or you hold the towel.
To train this exercise we use a “marker” to mark the correct behaviour. If you haven’t taught your dog a marker, you can take our online course on How to teach the dog a marker.
 
To train this exercise we use  “Doggie Zen” to train duration. If you haven’t taught your dog Doggie Zen, you can take our online course on How to teach your dog Doggie Zen