The Hachi Way

Help with ยท CALM

Why your puppy won't settle, and how to fix it

A puppy who cannot switch off is not naughty. They have not been taught that downtime is a thing that exists.

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Ink and wash illustration of a puppy curled asleep on a bed in a quiet room

Your puppy will not settle because they have never been taught that downtime exists, and you fix it by building real rest into the day. Puppies regulate like toddlers. They get overtired, overstimulated and demanding, and most of what looks like a settling problem is a rest problem. A puppy who never learns to switch off invents something to do, usually biting, pacing or crying.

CALM is rest on your terms, in a crate or on a tether, where the puppy learns that demanding behaviour gets nothing and only a settled dog gets up. The point is not the duration. It is that the puppy can switch off even when the house is busy.

CALM is one of four modes a puppy needs in balance. Build it alongside real one-on-one PLAY, brain work, and time to just be a dog, and the biting and the witching hour settle with it.

Try this week. Pick one daily moment your puppy usually loses it, often dinner prep or when you sit down in the evening. Put them on a tether or in a crate with a long-lasting chew. Do not let them out until they are fully settled, not just quiet. Repeat tomorrow, and the day after.

Part of the full guide: How to raise a calm puppy

Keep reading: Read about the four modes .

New puppy? The Good Puppy Blueprint is the online program for puppies under twelve weeks. For a dog over twelve weeks, private training works it through one-on-one.

Case notes

From a real session: the puppy who slept twice as long in the car

A labradoodle puppy had been home a few days in a house with two young children and two grandparents, and he would not settle. Nippy in his free time, fighting the crate door, and his dad was carrying him in every time. Then his dad told me something he thought was a side note: the puppy slept two to two and a half hours in the crate in the car, and about one hour in the crate in the house.

That is not a side note. That is the diagnosis. An eight week old puppy needs 16 to 18 hours of undisturbed sleep a day, and this one was getting a fraction of it, so the nipping was not naughtiness, it was a toddler who had missed his nap. The car crate was quiet, so he slept. The house crate was in a busy room, so he did not. Most people hear that and move the crate somewhere quiet. I do the opposite, because the whole point of CALM is a dog who can switch off inside the noise. You cannot cover your dog at a cafe.

So the house crate stayed where it was, and I told the family to stop tiptoeing around it. Eyes open still counts as rest. Dogs do not shut their eyes like babies do. Carrying him in is fine at this age, and we made the crate part of food play so he started walking in on his own, door open, no fuss. No toys in the crate. You do not put an iPad in your kid's bed. The car crate got promoted from accident to program: car means settle.

The rule that made the difference was the morning one. Whatever time the house wakes up, the puppy comes out 30 minutes after that, never the moment he goes quiet. Otherwise he learns that silence summons a human, and you never sleep in again.

The first thing that usually changes with a puppy like this is the evening biting, within days, because a puppy who has slept has nothing to prove. The crate door fight typically goes next. The families who did best stopped treating the crate as a place the puppy had to like, and started treating it as bed.

Questions

Frequently asked

Is crate training cruel?

Used as rest on the dog's side, not punishment, a crate gives a puppy a place to switch off. The goal is a dog who chooses to settle, not one who is shut away.

My puppy bites constantly in the evening. Why?

That is usually an overtired puppy who has missed CALM, not an aggressive one. Build rest into the day and the evening biting tends to drop away.

In their words

Owners who came in with the same problem

Real reviews of Diona's work. Not the nice-trainer ones, the ones that describe the shift: owners who learned to read their dog, and dogs who got calmer once their needs were met.

  • Bonding over obedience

    Diona's care and understanding of dog behaviour took us from being pulled down the road, with Peanut crying and shrieking at any dog he saw, to walking beside us and choosing us over other dogs. She helped us with bonding and trust, transforming our relationship.

    Lily C. · 2025

  • The household, not just the dog

    Diona was my third trainer I resorted to for my over reactive dog. Diona quickly realised there was much more going on at home than I had truthfully opened up about. Now I have a dog that is absolutely a pleasure to have inside the home. Walks have become more fun and less stressful, reactivity has diminished.

    Ozlem G. · 2023

  • The why behind the method

    Her patience, deep knowledge, and structured approach made all the difference in training our puppy, Bagel. Diona explained everything in detail, ensuring we understood not just the how but also the why behind dog training. Her guidance gave us the confidence to understand our puppy's needs.

    Shelton L. · 2025

240+ five-star reviews of Diona's practice as Diona The Trainer. Read more reviews

Work it through

This is fixable, with the right read.

The free assessment names where to begin. A Hachi Way trainer works it through with you, in your home where the behaviour happens, or online anywhere in the world.

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