4 easy steps for a café-friendly dog

Picture this: you’re sitting with your friends in your favourite dog friendly-café drinking a flat white with your dog snoozing at your feet. Sounds like the perfect Saturday afternoon, right? But you’re probably thinking ‘there’s no way I could ever take my dog to a café, they’d just cause chaos’. If you are, then don’t worry. With a little bit of training and some pre-planning before your coffee trip you’ll have the café-friendly dog of your dreams.

1. Teach your dog to settle

A café-friendly dog lies down and chills out (or even sleeps) while you have a coffee. But chilling out is a skill - and one that most dogs aren’t naturally good at. So you need to teach your dog to settle at home before you take them out to the café. Choose a blanket that you’ll use to help your dog understand that you want them to chill out. This blanket will become your dog’s cue to settle so only get it out when you’re training and put it away afterwards.

Drop treats for your dog on the blanket so they learn it’s a good place to hang out. Then start only dropping treats if your dog’s looking slightly relaxed. At first you might be rewarding your dog for standing on the blanket and not barking. But slowly look for more calm behaviours until your dog is lying down on the blanket chilling out. Practise this when you’re eating dinner or watching TV so your dog gets good at settling.

2. Walk your dog before you go

If you go straight from your home to the café your dog will be full of energy and likely to cause trouble. But if you take your dog for a good walk beforehand and give them a chance to run and sniff they’ll be tired and more likely to chill out. And your dog will have the opportunity to toilet so they don’t have an accident in the café. Just make sure to walk your dog somewhere they won’t get wet or muddy because lots of dog-friendly cafés aren’t so friendly towards muddy dogs.

If you want your dog to snooze while you drink - take them on a walk first

3. Bring the right kit

Being prepared and bringing just a few items with you can make your trip to the café much more enjoyable. Take your dog’s blanket to give them a comfy spot to relax. If you’ve trained your dog to chill out on it, they should use the blanket as a cue to tell them to lie down and settle. You’ll also need to bring loads of treats to reward your dog for settling in a more distracting environment. And bring your dog something to entertain them like a chew or a non-squeaky toy so they don’t get bored and start looking for trouble.

4. Choose the right table

Where you sit in the café makes a big difference to how easily your dog will settle. If you’re right by the door, counter or toilet then your dog will constantly be distracted by people walking past. Try to choose a table in a quieter area of the café. If you get a corner table you can put your dog’s blanket down out of the way so they’re not at risk of being stepped on. If you can, sit at an outside table the first couple of times you take your dog. Sitting outside can be less stressful for them and people will get less annoyed if your dog struggles to chill out.

Written by Juniper Indigo, dog trainer in Tiverton and Exeter