Post Reward Focus Drop Offs
Let’s talk about the common issue of a dog losing focus after you reward and just running back to the end of the leash or sniffing and disconnecting. It’s ok to let a dog sniff, but if their sniffing also disconnects them from you and you lose their attention it’s nice to work on that and have “sniff time” be something you work in so that your dog doesn’t disengage at times you need them to focus.
This is a super common issue and it stems from a dog thinking a treat means they are done and it releases the exercise. You can help this by having obvious releases. So if for example I am walking with my dog and I want them to stay connected to me and not pull on the leash, but I also want to allow them to have time to sniff and go potty I am going to walk to the area and give them a “go sniff” release, then cue them to walk with me when it’s time to connect with me “let’s go”.
So if your dog already has an issue with post reward focus drops watch the video and see examples of how you can work on teaching your dog to stay connected after a treat and stay with you. The secret is all about keeping the fun and engagement up and not letting your own focus drop. Teach your dog multiple rewards are possible.
Another game you can play are simple pattern games, like 1,2,3 reward. Where you get into a pattern of counting each step and rewarding, so your dog snaps into the pattern between the rewards.
Loose leash walking - it's not a straight line!
One of the best ways to help dogs get better about walking on a loose leash: don’t just walk a straight path forward. Keep them guessing, make it fun. Turn circles, do figure 8’s and be someone they need to keep an eye on to know where you are going.
Practice your LLW between your two markers and before you get there, see if you can do a circle or figure 8, keep building them into your pattern.
Focused Loose Leash Walking
Let’s really dig into the details of creating lovely leash walking with your dog!
We are going to begin with concentrating on holding complete focus for a very short marked distance, then rewarding.
When you do this exercise you want to find defined short distances, like parking space lines, cracks in a side walk, mailboxes, sign posts, etc. Don’t just wing it and guess as that will change how hard you focus on holding their attention.
Do not start until your dog’s eyes are on your eyes, if you can’t get that, just work on this! (Say your dog’s name and mark & reward, repeat until their name makes their eyes whip to you in expectation of reward)
Start with your dog at your side (either side is fine) as it’s easier to maintain eye contact if they are beside you.
Have a reward (food or toy) in your hand, hold that hand up so that as your dog gazes at the reward they can also see your face.
As you walk maintain a happy smiling face as you tell your dog how wonderful they are as they look at you.
If they look away, bring the toy/food closer to their face to get their attention and bring it back up again, up the level of your engagement to try and hold them.
When you reach your mark, reward your dog either by hand (bring the toy/food to your side where they are) or by placing the reward on the ground behind your side where they were walking, with a toy you can even give it a little toss back behind you.
If you were not able to hold your dog’s focus for that whole distance find a shorter distance to try next time. Repeat 3-5 times with walking breaks between with no expectations. You can reward your dog if they continue to offer focused walking.
Make your starting and finishing of the focused walking very clearly cued: stop, bring your dog to your side, get their eyes on you, give a verbal cue, hold focus to mark, stop, reward and release.
Moving beyond LAT training
As we move beyond our Look at It work we want to be thinking about how we move our work forward in ways where we keep giving our dog tools on how to disengage with triggering/distracting things. The great thing about these exercises is not only are the wonderful for reactive dogs, but they also help any dog that struggles with distractions even when they are excitement based.
My first work once I’m focused on getting us moving is always going to be working on both quick turn arounds but also then on approaching the triggers/distractions and then having the dog turn away with me. This practice is the one exercise that shrinks thresholds the most when I work with reactive or excitable dogs! They key is picking places to practice where you have a predictable flow of trigger traffic so you can adjust yourself to that, rather than just going out onto the streets and working with whatever walks towards you which gives you very little control. So places I use: if it is dogs- near dog parks (not right at the park, rather the walk ways or parking areas going to them) near pet stores, grooming shops, a parking area near a popular dog walking trail. I want spaces where people arrive with their dogs that have areas like parking lots or an area near a street where I can safely set up to train without having loose dogs running up on us. If it is people- near shops, parks, walking paths, etc. If it is cars- a large parking lot with a field or park near by. If it is bicycles- near a bike path, if it is skateboards - near a skateboard park. If it is kids- near a playground. All of the locations I am going to choose based on; can I safely approach and move away, can I create a safe zone for my dog is the environment quickly changes (can I put my dog in the car if I loose dog starts running up or is there a fence between me and the little children who might run towards us).
Be sure to practice your quick u-turns, tap and turns as well as just LLW towards the triggers and away.
Teaching an incompatible behavior
With many of the problem behaviors people face with their dogs we tend to get focused on how to stop the problem behaviors. But we need to keep in mind that all behavior has purpose, so if you simply work trying to stop a behavior and don’t address the reason the dog found purpose in that behavior it will either just come back or a new problem behavior will pop up in it’s place.
So in behavior modification programs we look to how can we provide an outlet for this purpose in a way that works better for living with our dogs. When we look to do this one of the tactics we use as dog trainers is teaching what we call incompatible behaviors, meaning a behavior that we can reinforce that while the dog does this, they cannot do the problem behavior because the new one is hard to do while doing the other.
Examples:
your dog excitement barks when people come to visit ~ teach them to hold a toy, because barking is harder to do while holding something in your mouth.
your dog jumps on people ~ teaching them to sit to say hello
What are other examples you can think of? With the behaviors you are wanting to stop, can you think of an alternative behavior your dog could do instead?
In our reactivity training as we move past the LAT work we spend a lot of time working on creating many new incompatible behaviors: hand touches, quick turns, chin rests… all of these things are alternative behaviors you can use to help give your dog something to focus on doing rather than on reacting!
Your homework this week is to focus on seeing how you can swap in incompatible behaviors in places where you are struggling with your dog’s behaviors! Find something positive you can focus on and reinforce!
Bang!
It’s 4th of July weekend in the USA and so I wanted to take a moment to add an extra post this week to talk about preparing your dog’s for the fireworks and possible events so you can all be prepared to support your dogs.
If you have not already I suggest you maybe watch the Sound Sensitivity workshop that is recorded in the zoom room. What is important to know is that sound sensitivity can develop at any age, so don’t take it for granted that your dog did fine last year and assume that means they will never be concerned about the noise. I have lost count of the number of friends I have watched over the years brag and brag about how bomb proof their dogs were only to see them suddenly dealing with terrified dogs. So as their caretakers we should always be proactive in helping them deal with loud noises and always on the look out for red flags that they are perhaps unsure about what they are hearing.
WHAT TO DO ON THE 4TH (AND OFTEN THE DAYS LEADING UP AND AFTER CAN BE LOUD AS WELL)
Prepare food puzzles and chews- stuff & freeze Kongs, etc.
Talk to your vet about having anti anxiety meds on hand incase your dog is struggling to cope.
Stay home with your dogs!!! Don’t leave dogs unattended.
If your dog is fearful keep them on leash when you take them outside to go potty.
Make sure your dog is wearing a collar with accurate ID tags - the 4th of July is the number one day of the year for pets going missing in the US.
Take your dogs for a nice long walk early in the day if you can so they are well exercises before the noise begins.
Close windows & doors, close blinds and curtains so they are not seeing the light flashes
Try to keep them in an interior room with the least windows.
Turn on a loud movie or tv show to create white noise.
Fans also make a nice white noise machine.
You can try Thundershirts (and you can search google for DIY body wraps you can make using large bandages)
If using medication give it to them 30-60 minutes before you anticipate the noise starting.
It is ok to comfort your dog if they are frightened, you will not “reinforce their fear”. You can hold them, pet them, massage them or anything they show you is welcomed. Though some dogs will prefer to hole up alone and not want you to cuddle them, respect that as well.
Many dogs like a closet, bathroom or dark room with no windows to hide in.
You can try herbal and natural remedies, but please consult with your vet to make sure they won’t interfere with any of the medications you might also need to rely on. Natural remedies can be very hit or miss as they might work well for some dogs so your friends swear by them, only to have them not help you at all. So you might try a trial run with any supplements or medications you plan to use to see how your dog’s body responds to them.
Your attitude matters!
As I said, it is ok to comfort your dogs if they are frightened. You cannot reward or reinforce fear, no living being wants to return to feeling terrible just for a treat or a cuddle, the only thing that reinforces sound sensitivity is the scary sound stopping.
However your attitude while doing so can be felt by your emotionally sensitive dogs. So if you are angry, frustrated, worried, etc your dog is not going to feel comforted by knowing you are also unsettled.
Imagine yourself the pilot of the plane- look pups it’s just a little turbulence, we are ok.
Remember to take deep breaths, stay calm and upbeat, carry on as if everything is fine.
Do not scold or correct your dog, even if they do dumb things because they are terrified, so if they are bolting to the end of the leash and pacing the house, don’t get angry at them, it is not their fault, they are scared.
Singing a song, playing with them, have a dance party, but don’t over do it if it’s clear they are too bothered to engage with you, but trying doesn’t hurt.
Prevention for puppies and dogs not yet afraid
Take them for a nice long walk early in the day.
Have a stuffed kong or food puzzles that you give them as the action gets started.
Pair the sounds of bangs with good things: bang- feed a treat- bang - feed a treat. bang- throw ball- bang - throw ball.
Only take measures if you see dog alerting and taking notice, if they are ignoring it and seem completely normal just carry on as usual.
Still take the above environmental measures to minimize the volume of the noises and drown out some of the further away ones.
Stay upbeat and act as if it’s all totally fine.
Again, do not leave your dogs home alone, do not take them out by people setting off fireworks, keep them on leash, make sure they have a collar with ID tags incase they get spooked.
Time for a little fun!
Summer is often a time when it can be hard to keep up with dog training and a time the classes often see a bit of a dip as summer vacations and adventurers make finding time to train more challenging. But guess what? Often those adventures are giving our dog’s many new experiences and ways in which to broaden their own social skills. If we are aware that this is happening we can use these adventures as a way to deepen our connections with our dogs. So to keep you aware of how much your summer might be expanding your dog’s world I have created a series of Summer Scavenger Hunts. You can check things off the list as they happen, or maybe you are looking for some ideas of things to do.
There are 3 lists, one for general ideas, one for reactive dogs and one if you want to play along is a photo scavenger hunt. The idea being you share photos to the group either via the FB group or on IG using the hashtag #hikerpupphotoscavengerhunt (tag me so I can share if you want me to). If you want to share your progress on the FB group how you are getting on with the scavenger hunts I’d love to see what you all get up to!
Also, I would love to hear your ideas for photo challenges so on Mondays on the FB group feel free to add a challenge that is not on my list and share your photo to inspire other’s to try.
I hope you find them fun!
Also, there maybe prizes for those that actively participate 😉
LAT
LAT - Look at that. The idea behind teaching your do the LAT games is that they learn that they can see their trigger and not build a strong emotional response. How we create this is all about timing and threshold. First of all, for this to work you have to get the reinforcement to your dog BEFORE they are reacting, when they are still assessing. And for that to work, you have to be far enough away for the dog’s first look not to already have them over threshold.
Playing the LAT is beneficial for all dogs! Even dogs that just get excited and distracted around things even if they are not reactive dogs!
Remember threshold means, our dog’s personal bubble where once the trigger is inside of that space they can no longer control their emotions. So if I tell you my dog’s threshold with a dog trigger was 30feet away, where is my ideal training distance to work on LAT games? 30ft? This is commonly what I see novice trainers do. Train at the edge of their dog’s threshold. My answer is 50-60ft. I want it to be EASY. I want the dog to see the trigger so far outside of it’s threshold that my reinforcement is so much more important than that trigger way over there. I am going to train here until my dog easily offers looking at the trigger and back to me, my dog is calm and enjoying the training. I have done training sessions with reactive dogs where I am the length of a football field away from their triggers to get the response I am looking for.
I don’t worry about moving closer until I have the LAT on cue and have a calm relaxed dog in the presence of the triggers at that distance. And then I will begin my work on moving closer. And I will do so in systematic easy progressions, only moving closer again when I have that criteria- LAT on cue and calm relaxed dog.
Obviously life is going to throw unexpected triggers at me and I will have to adjust on the fly, but in those moments I am no longer training, I am managing my dog until I can get them back into a learning state of mind. My first move is always can I make distance.
So as you head out there to train and you are making the transition from CC/DS to training the LAT when in doubt be further away! Keep sessions short and easy. It is the cumulative effect of many short sessions that build together to create a change at the emotional level.
Let me see you practicing Look at it games with triggers or things your dog is distracted by!
Bang!
With 4th of July just around the corner and heading into summer when we have a lot more noise and activity outside, let’s take a moment to talk about working on sound sensitivity with a desensitizing program.
Be sure to listen to the Zoom recording of the workshop I did a few weeks ago.
Be sure to consult with your veterinarian about having medications on hand incase they need it.
Be sure to be working on sounds now, even if they have never shown issues with them before, it’s far easier to stay preventative!
Have a plan, where will you go with your dog if they are panicking over sounds?
Interior rooms without windows or doors work the best.
Play white noise.
Make sure your dog is exercised.
Don’t leave them home alone.
Here is a link to a playlist of different sounds you can use to work on it.
Remember: start with the volume all the way down, gradually clicking up one click at a time over many sessions. If your dog is spooking or reacting it’s too loud, turn it down. Ideal DS the dog is not registering they notice or care. Play while feeding, playing, training and having fun.
CC & DS
So to help reactive dogs we want to get really good at Classical Conditioning and Desensitizing.
In the Sound Sensitivity workshop we talked a lot about desensitizing. And when dealing with visual reactive triggers we want to employ some of these principles to our Classical Conditioning, with the main difference being timing. With desensitizing we are bringing triggers in at a very low level, which generally with visual triggers translates to a LOT of distance. So the trigger is far enough away the dog notices but is not heightened. Then when we see our dog notice the trigger we start giving reinforcement to pair the trigger at a big distance away with the presence of rewards.
The number one mistake people make in reactivity training is beginning their training much too close to the triggers. So the dog starts already heightened and you then spend the entire session just trying to keep them from blowing up. Early reactivity work should feel easy, or you are probably way too close. You should like with our Sound Sensitivity, not even be sure if they notice the trigger. We start there, and then we gradually move closer systematically and slowly.
I get it, the reality is that it is incredibly difficult to find the proper training locations to find those perfect distances, and it can feel like it is taking forever and you are getting no where as you work tediously on conditioning and desensitizing. But this is the boring work it takes to fix reactivity. Because we are trying to change that baseline feeling of being around triggers. And we want to be creating something new in it’s place.
A typical reactivity training session for me looks like a regular training session, I am just doing them where we see dogs at a distance. You don’t see fancy flashy edgy training videos on my socials, because I am never close enough to bring out those explosive reactions until my dog is ready to be close and be calm. So I grab all my reinforcements, I take my dog and I drive to the best training locations, I set up nice and far away, and I start training the basics (sits, downs, stays, recalls, leave it’s, etc) all on leash in my typical fin engaged way. Then when a trigger comes into view, I let my dog see it, the moment they see it, I mark and reward, and I keep rewarding them for watching it quietly. Then when the trigger leaves we go back to training. I know I am ready to move a little closer when my dog sees the trigger and after the first reinforcement I give, they don’t look back at the dog and stay engaged with me. (note the training I am doing is engaged and fun so ideally it quickly becomes more interesting then a trigger at that big distance).
During my reactivity training session I will give the dog sniff breaks, I will sometimes scatter some treats for them to find after watching a trigger, so they can snuffle and calm. So it’s not all training. But I also don’t just sit there waiting for triggers. In total my training session is usually 15-30 minutes depending on the dog and how they are doing with the triggers. If a trigger surprises us and comes in close and my dog gets very close to threshold or goes over threshold then I am going to end that session.
Remember the reinforcement you give when the dog sees the trigger is not dependent on any behavior. They just get a treat for seeing a dog. Make sure they see the trigger first as we don’t want to have it be the other way around, they get a cookie and then a trigger shows up, as we don’t want the reinforcements to become a cue that something scary is going to happen. It needs to be the other way around.
If your dog has many triggers, start with the easier ones if possible. Like if dogs are their worse trigger, but they also react to bicycles, work on that first so you can get your techniques down on the easier triggers. Also fixing the easier triggers then can help prevent as much trigger stacking if the easier ones are eliminated as triggers.
Aim for 2-3 sessions per week if you can. Three 15 minute sessions a week is more effective than one 1 hour session. But if that’s all you can do, that will work too, just not as quickly. The days between those sessions offer a lot of decompression activities.
Bonus - for those raising puppies
Ok by now I know most of you have spent a good bit of time figuring out how to socialize your puppies. But today I want to talk about the often overlooked aspects of socializing. This time in a young dog’s life it is easy to overlook certain things. We tend to only focus on people and dogs. But part of socialization is all the other things, events, situations and places you might want your dog to have experiences with. For example, if you are not a city person, elevators, loud traffic noises, etc. Or if you are a city person, cows, wildlife, etc. It is not always easy to find access to things you might not think about. So sometimes you just have to get as close as you can. Finding horse stables in town, finding a building with an elevator you can get access to. Taking a field trip on a weekend to expose your puppy to new environments.
Also, many things do not even require you leave home. You can work on having your puppy walk on weird surfaces by putting a tarp down, or set up play areas with lots of boxes to bounce around through. You can work on introducing them to muzzles, harnesses, Elizabethan collars, dog boots, even putting a sweater or shirt on them. The more experiences and things we introduce in fun low stress ways the more flexible we raise our puppies to be!
Handling Dog Stress
So if you have a reactive dog, hopefully by now you have listened to the lecture series in the Reactive Dog Modules. If not, go do that! You really need to understand what is happening inside your dog’s body and mind during reactivity.
Do you know that feeling you get when someone cuts you off in traffic, or someone says something super rude to you, or when your boss calls you into the office and looks super pissed off, or maybe you a coworker tells you something someone else is saying about you behind your back. You might feel shaky, or like maybe it’s suddenly hard to concentrate and that is all you can think about, maybe you feel your heart start to race, or you shout, or wish you could, maybe you can feel that icky feeling in your gut, maybe you feel tears welling up even though you really really don’t want to cry. These are all examples of strong emotions firing up our bodies. Sometimes we can be in a good headspace and we can quickly calm ourselves in these moments, other times it sends us into a spiral and ruins our whole day.
This is the space of emotions, and emotions can strongly take control of our bodies. They are meant to be able to propel us to safety in dangerous situations or propel us to action when it needs taken. But that same operating system can also make it so that even when we are not in true danger right now, our anxieties can take over and convince our bodies we are in danger right now. And that is the place our dogs enter into when they are triggered. That space where their anxieties and the strong emotions can take control of their bodies and minds.
That good headspace, that doesn’t just happen. That is a result of our emotions starting in a positive place. That is the days events keeping us positive and upbeat. That is us doing the work to keep a positive perspective. That is our brain chemistry cooperating with us and functioning as it should. The same goes for our dogs. For our dogs to be in a good headspace to handle what comes their way we need to create an environment that allows them to start in a positive place. That takes us recognizing little tiny triggers stacking up starting to erode that positive energy they started with. That takes us working to help them stay upbeat and positive (or calm and under threshold in regards to arousal issues).
So how do we do that? We help them release stress. For dogs most of the time moving is involved. A nice quiet walk during off hours so they can sniff and explore. In rural settings it might be walking on old abandoned roads or along slow unpopulated country roads. In urban areas it might be cemeteries, industrial parks, churches, school campuses or shopping complexes after hours. Out west here, old logging roads and along irrigation ditches are my jam. What if where you live you have no access to these places and don’t have a car to drive to them? Then we bring sniffing and exploration to indoors. We create puzzles for them: saving our recycling we can put their food inside of things they need to root through to find it. We can play hide and seek with their toys. We can play with them. We can play fetch in hallways. We can take their food and hide it for them to hunt and find their meal.
We can learn things like canine massage, reiki, TTouch, Jin Shin Jyutsu or any other type of body work modality that helps calm and relax dogs. We can play soothing music. We can give them lots of things to chew on.
Some dog training schools or facilities in your area might have open ring time where you can rent the area for your own use, which could be playing with your dog in a new space. Some places offer special training classes for reactive dogs like nosework, agility, etc. Some urban areas also now have things like dog swimming pools and private dog parks or fields you can rent. It can take some searching and asking around but often times there are more resources than you are aware of nearby to help you find safe low trigger spaces to take your dogs.
Remember if your dog has a big trigger stacking event it can take them days to recover from the biochemical reactions inside of their bodies. This is a time to work on things at home, to work on engagement, play and behavior cues at home not a time for getting out there working on reactivity triggers.
Here is a video with some DIY games and puzzles you can work on at home with your dogs as a part of decompressing.
Handling Handler Stress
The next focus for us after spending 6 weeks working on recalls and spending the starting semester of the Academy on foundation, engagement and building a strong relationship with training practices is now for us to dig in deeply into reactivity.
The start of our reactivity training begins with YOU the trainer. To be a great reactive dog trainer we need to get Zen! It's no secret that our behavior affects our dogs. Studies are now beginning to look much more deeply into that. And guess what? If you have a herding breed, your anxiety and your dog's anxiety synchronize. Dogs bred to work closely with man have an increased tendency to mirror your anxieties. So let's start by working on how we help YOUR stress levels!!!
I want you all to think about what helps you cope with stress.
I'll go first! For me a hike in the woods is #1, #2 then a hot bath, even better when covid allows it- a soak in a sauna & hot water, #3 a funny movie, #4 chocolate #5 hot tea #6 venting sesh w/bff #7 nap #8 gardening #9 pretend shopping (I go to a site and add everything I want to a cart but don't buy it) #10 playing or listening to music.
Check out this article about how our anxiety and our dog’s anxiety can sync up together.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-88201-y
So Step one of reactivity training is to work on addressing the anxiety and stress in your own life and learning tools to help decompress yourself BEFORE working your reactive dog. So look at your list and before your training sessions for reactivity try to do one of these things, and if the session is challenging do one after as well. If you have had a hard day at work or are feeling anxious and stressed that is not the time to go out for reactivity work, that is the time to stay home and work on other types of training or to take a decompression walk with your dog.
Come! Week 6
Ok last week of the 6 week intensive Recall Challenge!
This week is all about using toys to teach a dog how to call off of chasing something. If your dog does not play with toys I highly suggest you invest in some toys that hold food, so you have that toy as the visual target that you can throw further while still using the food as the motivator, you can do all of these exercises using food stuffed toys, you will just have to then run to the food toy with the dog to give them the reward if they do not retrieve it for you and for recall training that is ok. I have a series of videos all showing me training this with different dogs and will share them all with you so you get to see many examples. You got to see Nick’s video in week 4’s post. Here are more examples of calling off toys.
We also sometimes have distractions between our dogs and us that they need to pass while recalling to us!
Recall work is never “done” you need to always keep adding to your recall bank by training and reinforcing the fast responses you want. If you stop rewarding fast responses their performance will start to decline as all behavior is fluid. So keep rewarding your dogs for coming to you, just mix it up how you do that, sometimes use food, sometimes use toys, sometimes use affection and keep it fun and interesting.
Here’s one more challenge for you:
Sit in a chair blindfolded, call your dog without moving your body, hands, stay on the chair arms until you feel your dog is all the way to you, then reward.
Come! Week 5
Ok, let’s really dig into some challenges to see how far we have brought our come command this month. If you are still working through the exercises don’t push for the challenges yet, spend a little more time building that strong foundation and then come back to these later.
CHALLENGE ONE:
No reward recall challenge. In the house where you have no competing distractions call your dog and reward them only with your physical praise and affection and see how long they choose to stay with you. The longer they stay, the more you know you can use praise and affection as a reward in training, the quicker they leave the more they are dependent on needing those other motivations, which is fine, it just tells us we have more engagement work to do before we can think about fading any rewards.
Let’s talk about how to introduce our dogs to the idea of a delayed reward:
I’ve talked during our live classes to a few of you about really giving specific body language cues to help dogs see our body inviting them to come in, we talked a lot about natural body cues, but we can also train visual cues in to make it easier for our dogs to read us.
PROOFING CHALLENGE:
Set up a chute of your dog’s favorite toys and call them down the middle. Here you can see i’ve placed mine on cups to raise them up higher more into view as they run by. You can also play this game with food on the cups! Practice, we will play this game in class this next weekend!
Come! Week 4
Let’s get into the real work of recall training. Calling off of distractions!
See Exercise 9 in the Ultimate recall module for more information. Also if you attended this past weekend’s zoom class we worked on this as a group using a hand touch to call off so you can watch the recorded zoom.
Zoom Recorded Recall session:
Come! Week 3
Let’s keep working on those recalls!
Restrained Recalls are the backbone to any great recall. You need a helper, anyone your dog is comfortable being held by will do. And their only job is to hold onto your dog until you call.
Module 3 of foundations have more written details about restrained recalls
Puppy Restrained Recalls
Doing Restrained Recalls running and hiding out of sight
Restrained recalls using leash/toy to reward
To create a great recall we need to do some long line work, where we can work in more distracting areas and still ensure success. Watch the follow videos for tips on long line recall work.
Long line work is a great way to practice recalls if you do not have a helper available to work on restrained recalls.
Come! Week 2
Let’s keep improving those recalls!
We want FAST recalls! So use this exercise from the Ultimate Recall section to work on getting lightning fast turns and returns.
This next one is a great exercise if you can’t yet take your dog off leash. If you want to practice it on walks or in busier areas that you need to keep your dog closer to you, yet you can still work on the speed of that turn back to you.
Let’s also have some games we can play at home with less room to work on that happiness of the return by using a fun behavior loop to work on our cues. We are going to toss a piece of food away, once the dog eats it, give your come cue, when the dog is moving towards you, cue them to come touch your hand, once they touch your hand mark with a click or “yes” and toss the reward so you can reset the loop. Practice for 5-8 treats.
Come!
For April I want to spend some time really working on our dog’s recall. We talked about this in February but let's dive in a little bit deeper. The key to a great come command is that it is reflexive! That a dog hears their call and instantly without thinking turns to you. So step one is to work on conditioning both their name and the come command to mean great things are going to happen.
Let’s work on these exercises from Ultimate Recallers this week:
We worked on this one already but I’ll post it here again for anyone who missed working on that so it’s here for review.
Once you have laid down that strong name recognition let’s do the same with our come command!
You can do these exercises on leash, in the house, in your yard, on a walk. Only do them off leash if your dog will look to you in that environment when you say their name. They don’t yet have to be willing to return to you, but they do need to be interested in your rewards and want to get them if you toss one to them when they look at you. So if they are struggling only do this when they are on leash or in a successful area.
Other ways to strengthen the cues. Put them in before calling your dog for fun things:
When you are going to feed them dinner, call them, even if they are standing right in front of you
When you are going to take them for a walk (if they like going for walks, if your dog get’s stressed out having a harness put on, don’t call for that)
When you want to throw their toy
When you want to feed them a chew
When you are going to give them a food puzzle
Pair their name and “come” to all their favorite things.
This week I want you to focus on seeing how many ways you can make coming to you the most fun part of your dog’s day!
Proofing
Now that we have been working on our stays it’s time to work on proofing them. Proofing means to systematically add little challenges to see how well our dog can stay in different circumstances. When proofing we always want to keep our dogs mostly successful so we don’t damage their confidence by testing more than they are ready for. So if your dog makes a mistake two times in a row be sure to make the next one easier so they can succeed.
I suggest starting first with a little “leave it” on the ground work which you can find more details in Foundations module 4.
Then we can work on setting our rewards down. Having the treats we will reward a stay for on the ground creates a very nice combo of both proofing and reinforcement. You can see more details on this on Module 5
More proofing ideas:
Stay while you sit in a chair
Stay while you tie your shoe
Stay while you set a toy down
Stay while you roll a ball
Stay while you hop
Stay while you bounce a ball
Stay wearing bunny ears ;)
Stay while you place out multiple treats
Stay while you drop many treats
Some proofing ideas for walking on leash if you have gotten the walk with you in the house or in your yard
Walking past their favorite toy
Walking past an open bag of treats
Walking past treat containers
Walking past food on the ground
Walking around their toys
Walking around food on the ground
Proofing your place
Send to place with favorite toy near place
Send past favorite toys
Send past open bags of food
Sends past food on ground
Stay on place while you do the above stay proofing games
We will work on some of these as a group in this weeks group training!