Something we have been working on at obedience class is a "go to place" command. This is an easy one for most greyhounds as they automatically assume anything soft on the ground is for them to lay on. Summit rarely even lets me get a blanket laid out properly before he's trying to step onto it.
At first Kili is just getting a click and treat for stepping onto the blanket. Then she gets a click and treat if she sits. And then when she lays down. Moving forward she only gets the click and treat once she offers the correct behaviour on the blanket. In our case that is a down. I basically cut out a whole step. Depending on your dog you may not be able to. The step I more or less skipped was clicking and treating for stepping onto the blanket and automatically sitting. And THEN clicking and treating when she lays down. I just waited her out for the down and now when she goes to her blanket she automatically lays down. I then reward her as long as she stays in her down (often edited out because that's long and boring!). If she gets off her blanket I don't correct her, I just stop rewarding and wait for her to go back and lay down again. If she offers to lay on it for a long time and I decide I'm done I just throw a boring piece of kibble on the ground as I give my release command ("okay").
In the last segment of the video we start working on adding the verbal cue ("on your bed") and adding distance. The point is for the dog to get to the point where you give the verbal command and the dog can run across the room (or into another room, or up the stairs) to go lay on her bed. This is a handy command for a dog who has a penchant for begging at the dinner table. You can then simply tell the dog to go to its place.
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