How to Use Distractions as Cues for Attention | Part 2
What you need:
Treats/Food
Leash
Patience!
What your dog needs to know:
A positive conditioned marker cue such as a clicker or "yes"
A very good attention cue such as "look" or "watch me"
M+R = Mark (with your conditioned marker cue) and Reward your dog
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Part 2:
- Review everything practiced in Part 1 but in a new location. We want to be able to control the distractions at this stage.
- Once your dog is offering attention easily in a new location, move on to real life distractions.
- Start at a distance that your dog can easily respond to your attention cue.
- If your dog is still not looking to you, make the distraction easier by getting more space, until responding to your attention cue is simple.
- Practice this with the distraction until your dog is readily offering their attention to you from the distraction.
- Bounce back and forth between getting closer (making it harder) and getting more distance (making it easier) to build your dog's reliability and confidence in this behavior.
- Practice in several new locations and with anything that can be potentially distracting for your dog.
Keep your sessions short and be sure to utilize our previous lessons (using the environment as a reward - Premack Principle, disengagement) when allowing your dog to disengage and not have to look to you anymore. Don't expect your dog to look at you constantly. We want to teach them to look to us for guidance, especially when distractions are present, but we also need to be realistic. Let your dog know when it is appropriate to offer attention and when they are allowed to disengage and decompress.
Part 1 is on a separate post. Please see Part 1 before trying Part 2.
Distractions as cues for attention
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