LOOKING AWAY FROM A DOG WHICH IS STILL
TRAINING SESSION WITH ANOTHER DOG AND IT’S HANDLER
Moving forward to actually training to pass other dogs it would be good if you could schedule a session beforehand with another handler and a dog, who doesn’t react to other dogs. The distance must be sufficient so that your dog is able to look away from the other dog. It can even be 20m or longer.
In these exersizes the exact same technique is used as in the previous ones, because passing other dogs also requires your dog to spontaneously look away from them. The aim to get as many training partners as you can but always remember that with a new dog and with a new session, you should always start from step 1.
Step 1
- Both dogs and handlers are within a sufficient distance from each other. When your dog begins to offer to spontaneously look away from the other dog, reward quickly. In the video the distance is roughly 12m. You should also reward your dog when it shows no interest in the other dog. Once this happends, you can slowly start to decrease the distance again, 1-2m at a time. If your dog starts to respond to the other dog, you have moved too much, too fast. Patience here is key.
- At first you may also reward your dog from barking but then quieting down and offering to look away. This, however, will only do for a few repetitions so that your dog won’t associate barking and then quieting down as a reward-worthy performance. If, after a few repetitions, your dog still barks and immediately looks away from the other dog – ignore this and start to reward your dog only from disregarding the other dog quietly.
Step 2
- Distance from the other dog should be 10m
- Move on to the next step once your dog no longer shows interest in the other dog and immediately offers to look away after glancing the other dog or doesn’t look at the other dog at all
Step 3
- Distance from the other dog should be 8m
- Move on to the next step once your dog no longer shows interest in the other dog and immediately offers to look away after glancing the other dog or doesn’t look at the other dog at all
Step 4
- Distance from the other dog should be 6m
- Move on to the next step once your dog no longer shows interest in the other dog and immediately offers to look away after glancing the other dog or doesn’t look at the other dog at all
Step 5
- Distance from the other dog should be 4m
- Move on to the next step once your dog no longer shows interest in the other dog and immediately offers to look away after glancing the other dog or doesn’t look at the other dog at all
Step 6
- Distance from the other dog should be 2m
- Move on to the next step once your dog no longer shows interest in the other dog and immediately offers to look away after glancing the other dog or doesn’t look at the other dog at all
If you encounter problems, look through these things step by step:
- Does you dog know and recognize the conditioned reinforcer? Try it by doing the sound you chose and see if your dog reacts to it.
- The quality of the reward? Are you sure your dog is motivated enough to get this reward? You may have to alternate between a few options, always test out the treats before training to see what your dog wants the most. It would be good to always have 2-3 different kinds of treats at hand.
- Does your dog get rewarded often enough? Make sure it does because otherwise, when still in the training phase, the dog may lose motivation.
- Is the exersize too difficult for the dog? If your dog attempts to get to the object and isn’t able to disregard it and to look away, you must increase the distance until it is. Again, check the quality of the treats.
- Make sure that all steps of the exercise have been taught thoroughly before increasing difficulty. By increasing difficulty too soon, the exercise becomes too challenging. In this case, you must return some steps back.
- Is your dog healthy? A sick dog isn’t able to learn as effectively. A dog may, for example, have pains which could cause it to react strongly to other dogs.