# Ep 100 Creating the Calm Café (or Pub) Dog

An episode of [Help! My Dog: The Podcast. Dog Behaviour & Training Strategies that Work!](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1721245241), 29 Oct 2025, 11 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2287608/episodes/17969430-ep-100-creating-the-calm-cafe-or-pub-dog.mp3

Sometimes your dog is the perfect walking buddy, but the moment you sit down at a café or pub, it’s like they forget all their chill. If you’ve ever tried to enjoy a flat white while your dog barks for attention under the table, this episode is for you. We’re diving into what’s really going on when your dog struggles to settle in busy social spaces and how to start changing that picture. You’ll learn simple, practical ways to help them relax without turning it into a battle of wills (or trying to give them endless gobstoppers to stop the bark!). Imagine calm cafés, quiet pups, and peaceful pint breaks in your future! ................ Whether your dog is unpredictable with other dogs or predictably bad… Whether it looks like freezing, barking, lunging or running away… Whether you are just starting out on your dog-owning journey or your dog has been labelled as having a “behaviour problem”… … this episode is for you and is going to give you huge insights! Want to join the Help! My Dog Online HUB? Here's the link: www.helpmydog.com/hub Dr Tom Mitchell is a world-renowned veterinarian, behaviourist and dog trainer and director of the Behavet behaviour clinic (rated Excellent on Trustpilot), which sees over 400 pet behaviour consultations each and every month no matter where you are in the world. In 2023, he founded Help! My Dog, an online dog behaviour learning platform to help even more owners all over the world and show that dog behaviour transformation is not only possible but it's FUN, with the right know-how! Make sure to subscribe/follow the podcast for the free weekly episodes! Useful Links: Follow Help! My Dog on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helpmydogofficial/ Schedule a Consultation with Behavet: https://www.beha.vet/ Follow Behavet on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/behavet

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: That's where your long lasting chew comes in.
[0:02] SPEAKER_00: It is not a gobstopper.
[0:03] SPEAKER_00: It is not five minutes apiece.
[0:06] SPEAKER_00: It is a vehicle to get you to where you need to be.
[0:10] SPEAKER_00: Before we dive in, a warning.
[0:13] SPEAKER_00: The content of this podcast may not be appropriate for some young listeners.
[0:18] SPEAKER_00: This is real life, and that means that sometimes it can be a little bit graphic.
[0:22] SPEAKER_00: So listen on at your own peril.
[0:25] SPEAKER_00: As a veterinarian, dog behaviourist, best-selling author and trainer over the past decade, I've had an obsession with transforming the behaviour of dogs.
[0:34] SPEAKER_00: Understanding their brains and creating practical strategies that you can implement easily at home.
[0:40] SPEAKER_00: I know all too well when the dream you imagined when you first got your dog is far from your daily reality.
[0:47] SPEAKER_00: In fact, out of the blue, a few months ago, my little dog Gorse was bitten by a dog 20 times her size.
[0:53] SPEAKER_00: And suddenly our life of stress-free walks, a calm and cuddly household, and being teammates was replaced with reactivity, anxiety, and worrying about what's around the next corner.
[1:04] SPEAKER_00: I'm Dr.
[1:05] SPEAKER_00: Tom.
[1:06] SPEAKER_00: This is the Help My Dog Podcast, and this is me documenting that journey of transformation, sharing my knowledge and experience with you and having a few laughs along the way.
[1:17] SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to this episode of the Help My Dog Podcast.
[1:22] SPEAKER_00: And today we're doing a listener's question, and it goes a little bit like this.
[1:27] SPEAKER_00: Hello, Tom.
[1:29] SPEAKER_00: Hello.
[1:30] SPEAKER_00: My boy is great on walks, but I have trouble in cafes and pubs, etc.
[1:37] SPEAKER_00: When I need him to lie down and chill, any help would be great to stop him barking at me for attention.
[1:45] SPEAKER_00: Alright then.
[1:46] SPEAKER_00: Super.
[1:47] SPEAKER_00: So I've not seen this one, so I'm just gonna just gonna talk and talk and we'll uh we'll we'll come up with a solution.
[1:55] SPEAKER_00: So I think first thing to say is it's very common for dogs to um struggle in environments where they have to be still and there's not, you know, you're not constantly moving.
[2:07] SPEAKER_00: So I think that's one thing that I would factor into this plan a little bit, that it might be based on your dog's current skill levels, it might be that that just being still for for a long period of time um in a cafe or a pub just isn't an option right now.
[2:25] SPEAKER_00: Um and um and we might need to um we might need to work on it a little bit.
[2:30] SPEAKER_00: Now, how are we gonna work on this?
[2:32] SPEAKER_00: Well, what I would um what I would do is I I think what we need to do is move to a somehow move to a place, as in metaphorically, of being able to reward your dog for being calm and lying down under the table.
[2:51] SPEAKER_00: But the issue is is right now your dog's barking at you, and you're probably rewarding when they're not barking, and they're just putting you on fast forward, and the presence of food they can't disengage from it, and they're action prompting you and attention seeking, and you're in this vicious cycle.
[3:10] SPEAKER_00: So, first tip that I've got for you one.
[3:15] SPEAKER_00: I like to, with these dogs, give them a long-lasting chew or a frozen cup full of wet frozen wet food, okay, something like that, and give them something to engage with under the table.
[3:30] SPEAKER_00: And then what I do as a way of kind of weaning them onto this idea of being surprised by a bit of food from me is I will still reward them for being calm.
[3:40] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'll still occasionally get a ninja bit of food down under the table, fire it down at them to as a way of getting them to practice being under the table and being settled, yeah, um, and being being fed and disengaging from the food that's with me, but with the help of they've got something to engage with under there.
[4:01] SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
[4:02] SPEAKER_00: So you're kind of doing like an in-between.
[4:04] SPEAKER_00: So that would be the first thing.
[4:06] SPEAKER_00: Second thing that I would um that I would I'd be doing is if you're not in the hub, the help my dog hub, make sure to get into the help my dog hub because there's tons of help on on this exact subject for you in there.
[4:20] SPEAKER_00: Um what I would be doing is I'd be working on teaching your dog um some very specific boundary games, okay?
[4:29] SPEAKER_00: And um that's where you know you'd teach your dog to lie on a um on a mat or a little bed or something that you can roll up in your bag and get out and went through under the table.
[4:41] SPEAKER_00: Um but really important is it can't be about them being in in duration on there constantly because it's too difficult for them.
[4:52] SPEAKER_00: So what I'd be doing is I would be, you know, obviously sipping my tea or my beer or whatever, and I would be occasionally, you know, rewarding them for being on the bed.
[5:02] SPEAKER_00: But what you've got to make sure you do is occasionally release them off the bed and allow them to reset because the movement is almost like a pressure release, it's a reset for them.
[5:13] SPEAKER_00: They're gonna find it, they're gonna find it easier to have that included.
[5:19] SPEAKER_00: Third thing that I want you to consider and I want you to do.
[5:22] SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, I just want to take a moment to answer a question that has been coming in in literally 10 emails a day, and that is how can we help you with your dog's behavior struggle, whether that be reactivity, separation, anxiety, resource guarding, maybe you've got multi-dog household struggle right now, maybe your dog's just so over aroused on a walk that they just can't listen to you and they're chasing everything inside.
[5:46] SPEAKER_00: Like, can I get Tom's help?
[5:48] SPEAKER_00: Um, and the answer is that actually you can, and you can do that by booking a behavet behavior consultation.
[5:55] SPEAKER_00: That's where literally my team give you the plan on how to transform your struggle and get you to that dream that that made you get a dog in the first place, right?
[6:06] SPEAKER_00: Your world's got smaller and smaller and smaller, and actually it doesn't need to be that way.
[6:10] SPEAKER_00: You just need to reach out for help.
[6:12] SPEAKER_00: Now, a couple of things to say on that.
[6:13] SPEAKER_00: First of all, if you're insured, if your dog's insured with Pet Plan, Kennel Club, AgriA, or many pets, we actually do direct claims with them, which means that that's covered by your insurance.
[6:24] SPEAKER_00: So you don't you don't pay out of your pocket, your insurance covers that.
[6:28] SPEAKER_00: And the second thing to say is that we have loads of options if you're insured with another provider, or if your dog's not insured at all, that's also totally fine.
[6:36] SPEAKER_00: We have loads of options that we've developed to make this so accessible for you.
[6:41] SPEAKER_00: Um, because we're aware that you've already invested a load of time and a load of money in getting your dog, looking after your dog, caring for your dog.
[6:47] SPEAKER_00: But the last thing we want is for you to have done all that and still not be living the life that you deserve with your dog.
[6:53] SPEAKER_00: And we know we can get you there.
[6:54] SPEAKER_00: So all you need to do is go to the Behave Vet website, and the way to do that is go B-E-H-A.V-E-T.
[7:04] SPEAKER_00: That's Behay.vet, and it will take you there.
[7:08] SPEAKER_00: Or just Google Behave Vet, right?
[7:10] SPEAKER_00: Um, and you can get scheduled in and we can literally get you booked in for a consultation as soon as possible.
[7:16] SPEAKER_00: We normally can accommodate it within a week, right?
[7:19] SPEAKER_00: So that you can be getting to your dream ASAP.
[7:22] SPEAKER_00: Third thing that I want you to consider and I want you to do is I think we might have to be realistic about how long you can spend in the cafe or the pub at this point, yeah?
[7:33] SPEAKER_00: Because this ultimately is a picture of rehearsal.
[7:37] SPEAKER_00: What we want to do is create a perfect picture that we can then expand on in terms of time that you're there.
[7:45] SPEAKER_00: And so, but first we've got to create the perfect picture.
[7:48] SPEAKER_00: And that might mean that you can go to the cafe and have like a glass of water and be there for like 20 minutes, but you might have to leave before they finish their long-lasting chew for a little bit, okay?
[8:01] SPEAKER_00: To tip the balance on the rehearsal while doing the other stuff that we're doing as well.
[8:06] SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
[8:07] SPEAKER_00: Hopefully that makes sense.
[8:09] SPEAKER_00: And so by doing that, we can create this little perfect picture that we can then expand and grow and make more challenging.
[8:18] SPEAKER_00: But right now, your dog needs, we need to build that perfect picture.
[8:22] SPEAKER_00: And there is tons of stuff that we can do to grow this and build this and teach this in your dog.
[8:30] SPEAKER_00: But right now, that's where we need to start.
[8:32] SPEAKER_00: Um and you'll be surprised that actually in building that perfect picture, and if you can get them to not bark at all for the next, you know, five times you go to a cafe because you're only there 20 minutes and they've got a long-lasting chew, and you're occasionally breaking them off to movement and then back to the long-lasting chew, you'll be surprised how you might be able to expand that without any of the extra strategies.
[8:53] SPEAKER_00: But if you need the extra strategies, then you know where to come, okay?
[8:56] SPEAKER_00: Now, guys, I'm aware that for many of you, you might be thinking, I'd love that to be my problem.
[9:01] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that would be great if my walks were great, but I couldn't stop at a cafe.
[9:05] SPEAKER_00: But you know, some of you will be listening, you'll be like, actually, this is a real problem that I have with my dog.
[9:10] SPEAKER_00: Um and ultimately what we want to do is we want to create that perfect picture that we can expand out over time.
[9:18] SPEAKER_00: And one sneaky strategy to use is if if you if your dog's action prompting and barking at you, and you you're you're stuck in this cycle of them action prompting, you feeding them, them action prompting more, you're feeling like you've been put on fast forward.
[9:32] SPEAKER_00: Well, give them something to engage with, and employ them in a long-lasting chew or a Kong or whatever, and then still reward them.
[9:41] SPEAKER_00: Because this is the key.
[9:42] SPEAKER_00: Often people they give a long-lasting chew and they think, oh great, I've got five minutes peace.
[9:47] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[9:48] SPEAKER_00: But you you miss this opportunity to be getting those ninja feeds in and them eating from you, being aware that you have food, and then disengaging from you and re-engaging with the long-lasting chew.
[10:00] SPEAKER_00: That's the brain pathway that we need, yeah?
[10:03] SPEAKER_00: We need that.
[10:04] SPEAKER_00: Ooh, be rewarded, have a treat from mum or dad and resettle.
[10:08] SPEAKER_00: That's what this little dog is missing right now.
[10:11] SPEAKER_00: And it's too big a jump for them to currently have the piece of food and resettle without anything to help them to resettle.
[10:19] SPEAKER_00: That's where your long lasting chew comes in.
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: It is not a gobstopper, it is not five minutes of peace, it is a vehicle to get you to where you need to be.

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