How to Teach a Dog to Hold Still

The first thing we need to do is build value for the dog for simply holding still. And that is not easy for a lot of dogs. Holding still isn't natural to them in any way. We go through what we call Zen exercises or Zen work, which basically mean we're just getting the dog to be still long enough so we can reinforce them for that stillness. Then we add in the procedures, the physical handling procedures we're going to do.