REACTIVE DOG CLASS MODULE 2
Once you have gotten a good feel for using Classical Conditioning and you know what your dog’s indicators are that they are building up towards a reaction we begin the subtle shift towards Operant Conditioning by using the opportunity that arises once our dog starts expecting a reinforcement when they see a trigger. You will see and feel this shift, it will start to feel like your dog is paying less attention to the triggers are the far end of their threshold and they will start to automatically look to you when a trigger appears. If this is still not happening you are likely doing too much practice much too close to your dog’s threshold and you need to back up and work further away. Once you do start to feel the shift we move to making a game out of looking back and forth between us and the trigger as demonstrated in the video below.
The finesse of reactive dog rehabilitation is having a clear plan of how to move your dog from reactive to having a new conditioned response to a trigger. Where I often see people get stuck is they don't know what to do beyond either feed the dog or correct the dog. While using CC to help change a dog's initial emotional responses, we also need to have a plan of how to train them what to do instead. We want to slowly shift that focus off the trigger onto us. Many people want to skip the CC step and move straight to this step, but if you rush the CC you can still be fighting that primal instinctive fear or excitement response so CC is what gets us our foot in the door. If you do the CC well it sets you up for this next step. And again these are all just steps so don't get stuck on the idea of thinking but I don't want to always feed treats, these are steps and food is an extremely valuable tool, don't be afraid to use it!
Success with this step really requires you set yourself in a position of success, you need to be close to your dog's face, so don't try it at the end of a 6ft leash. Watch all of my reactive dog training videos and you will see I am almost always less than an arms lengths away from their mouth. I want to be up there in their field of vision.
LOOK AT IT
You might have to watch this video a couple times as I say, show and write a lot of tips in a short video. What we are wanting to create is a dog that on cue, looks at a trigger and looks back at us. Why have them look at the trigger and not just focus on us and ignore the trigger? Because if the trigger is very scary the dog is not going to want to ignore it and being able to peek and look back can give that dog the confidence to stay in the game. Also if your dog is reactive because they love triggers rather than fear them, getting to look is a reward. And the end goal is your dog can see triggers and look at them naturally.
Once your dog will readily look at trigger without an instant reaction you are going to subtly start focusing on rewarding when they look back to you from the trigger. Remember they do not need to actually lock onto the trigger, if they are just swinging their head in the direction of the trigger that is great, reward that. At first try not to make them look back, watch their ears, if you see the ear closest to you fold back towards you or flick back, start praising, this means they are listening for you. If they wonʼt look back, try making a little sound, donʼt say their name, just a kissy noise (donʼt use a command, sound or noise you have previously used that gets mixed results as we donʼt want to bring previous inconsistent behaviors into this game). You can also bring the reward near their nose and then draw it to your face. If they still donʼt respond, you are too close to the trigger, so move further away and try again.
TARGET/TOUCH TRAINING
Touch a target with their nose on verbal command
Present target in your hand with the treat between fingers behind the target, look at the target yourself, not your dog. When your dog moves itʼs nose towards the target to investigate say “yes” or click when their nose makes contact with the target, then give treat by flipping your hand around so they can reach the treat thatʼs behind the target. Keep practicing until as soon as you present the target your dog is bonking it with their nose, then you can start saying your verbal cue (touch, bonk, hit it, etc) as you present the target.
Using Hand as target. Present your hand, you dog will likely assume it has a treat and investigate, the moment their nose touches your hand say “yes” and reward. Reward with the target hand. If they donʼt touch your hand, just wait a few moments as long as you are in a low distraction area and no triggers are present, look at your hand and wait. If your dog is looking at you and likes food, they will get impatient and likely push their nose at you. If they walk away or give up, try again, move them around a little, have them do a behavior they know and reward and then present your hand.
If your dog already has a hand touch, you can start mixing this into your “look at that” game. Wait until you have done a few just marking looking without reactions, and if the dog is calm and not escalating, try to ask for a touch and reward that. Donʼt do more than 2-3 touches per trigger.
Why you might want both? Sometimes I want my hands to be free, so if I teach my dog to touch a target, like the corner of my pocket, or with a smaller dog maybe my shoelaces, then I can keep one hand on the leash while one hand rewards the touch. When using a hand target you have to either hold treats or the leash in a hand while asking for the touch and this can slow down your treat delivery and allow space for reactions. But sometimes I want a hand target, like maybe I want to use my hand position to move my dog’s head in a certain direction to swing them to my other side from a target or something like that.
MODULE 2 HOMEWORK
LOOK AT IT:
Work on subtly shifting your timing to waiting to reward your dog for looking back to you after seeing the trigger (or hearing) you can do the same exercise for sounds, I usually use “what’s that” as my cue and your timing is with the dog’s head (or ears) swinging in the direction of the noise and back. If your dog backslides and becomes reactive it means they might not be ready for this step yet and you need to back up to Classical Conditioning again, or it means this particular trigger is maybe still too hot for them. You will find during your work some triggers are easier to work than others so you can slide back and forth as needed between asking for the Look at it behavior VS Classical conditioning when you just reinforce for being in the presence of the trigger.
TARGET:
Work on teaching either a hand or target touch, if you already have one, work on the other as well. If your dog already has one you can try mixing a few touches in with your Look at it exercise with easier triggers.