GET ENGAGED MODULE 2

FOOD TOYS TO BUILD PLAY DRIVE

Another example of making a food toy. This time using a simple closing yogurt container. The more ways you can build upon the idea my thumbs can open up a world of tasty fun for you the better!

Pay attention to how I set up a successful station by placing myself next to his bed where he naturally wants to take things to investigate them. This is what starts setting up the retrieve, he's not coming to me, but to the bed and I just happen to also be there...

DEALING WITH DOGS WHO DON’T RETURN WITH TOYS

LECTURE UNDERSTANDING PLAY MOTIVATIONS

ADDING ENGAGEMENT CUES

One of the secrets to taking all our hard work building play and enthusiasm is being able to take that engagement and apply it to training and getting focus in the real world. So we want to build a language to it so we can use that language to get our dog to engage with us on demand once we have built a strong play bond.

Details, timing and specifics it what separates your success far more than your dogs natural drives. I can often get way more from a low drive dog than many folks can get from their high drive dogs because I know how to shape the games into an interactive exchange and know how to effectively communicate with dogs.

So the details are: are you clear and consistent so that every single time you play with your dog you are pairing a tone and word that means fun? If you are those words and tones become conditioned to your dog and can be as powerful as picking up their food bowl or leash is. Does your energy and mood match what you are asking for? Are you genuinely having fun and connecting with your dog during your engagement work or is it an exercise you have to tick off your to do list? Dogs feel energy and if this is just a means to an end for you and not an actual desire for deeper connection your dog will see right through you and feel your control rather than feeling your fun. I can almost any dog to play with me, because I want to play with them and it's one of my favorite things to do. Timing: when I first begin I need to set the dog up for success and play when they want to, then as we get more and more connected I begin to ask for it when I want it, if we push too hard too fast we can turn dogs off.

People often struggle with this step. You have one cue that means - I want to play with you and have something you want. For me that is "ready". Then you have another cue that is paired with giving the reward, for me that is "Yay". This is NOT praise, it is a specific cue. You can add praise in after you cue it and as you reward but you first want to lay down that association. So the Prompting "ready" cue then can be later used to grab a dog's attention, so I am walking along and see a cow on the trail, I say to Nick get "ready" he looks happily at me ready to play, then I can either immediately reward or once my behavior is solid enough I can ask for more things and keep his focus and reward after some duration. Then my Bridging "yay" cue that is associated with a reward can be used to mark at a distance to begin the reward process before the dog reaches me, which can hold my dog's focus as it executes a command. So for example I see a deer, I call "Nick come" he looks at me and I mark the look with my "yay" as he is running to me which tells him the party is coming.

LECTURE ON DRIVE, INTENSITY AND ENERGY

TROUBLE SHOOTING COMMON ISSUES

First you can see how I approach it if the dog gets too excited and chompy at my hands if I play with their food too close to them. You can see how I keep the food active but don’t have my hands so accessible and use more treat tossing, as I work in some more eye contact to help an excitable dog to focus more.

I show the examples of using a little rope on toys to be more enticing to a dog who wants to keep the toy and chew by themselves. Then for many of you with similar issues where the dogs want to keep the toys and are slow to let go I show some games you can play mixing the two toy game with food tossing to get the play more interactive. This is also a good one for puppies as it helps keep the play a bit more focused and the food can help keep the dogs from becoming over aroused by the toys. The last game I’m playing with Nick where I toss the ball and he drops it and I toss a treat for him to catch is a good one for dogs who don’t want to let go of the toy and don’t want to trade for a different toy. Notice how long I keep tossing treats once he is taking the food, I don’t trade him for the toy, I get him hooked on the new catch a treat game. Dogs are very wise to being tricked so if you just give a treat and steal the toy they will likely not fall for it again if they like toys more than food. It’s the fun of catching the food that gets you into the play brain. Also notice the first tosses I'm putting the food right at his toy so he doesn’t have to worry about me taking it. If he didn’t let go after the first treat I would toss another. Once they see it’s not a trick they will eventually mop up the treats.