distractions | AniEd Ireland

What does your dog learn while eating his dinner?

How to inhale a meal in record breaking time…?

…we need to talk…

Decker earns his meal by catching it, chasing it and sniffing it, and although this is certainly lots of fun, he’s also learning lots, such as, to choose his human over all the stuff in the park like dogs, other people, wildlife, smells and goings on, that his human is where the fun is, responsiveness is rewarding even when distracted and excited and boring kibble can be great!

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Don’t waste these opportunities by feeding from a bowl – think of every mouthful of food for your dog as an opportunity to reward desirable behaviour. And if you do that, your dog will choose unwanted behaviour less.

Don’t worry if you don’t feed kibble, you can still inject fun/training/exercise/focus into meal times!

(Depending on which components you feed here are some ideas that I have used in such situations)

freezing raw e.g. minces into nuggets in an ice-cube tray and hiding those
using a high quality/grain free kibble
drying dietary components to make jerky – works especially well for offal components
the use of freeze dried treats with a high meat content may be counted toward diet
bone or whole organ components can be used in scent games
stuff Kongs or similar with minces or soften components and bring on walks or use as rewards in training, by offering a couple of licks for example

Fun, focus, exercise and training packed into just one meal!

For more on making ‘boring’ rewards more rewarding here.

This is our last challenge…make it a good one!

Adding Distractions

To teach your dog best, keep him successful as possible. That means that if your dog can’t find your face in a particular situation, it’s just too distracting for him.

Distractions will affect your training efforts in three ways:

distance
duration
intensity

If your dog has trouble focusing it may be because:

you are too close to a distraction
you may be around the distraction for too long
the distraction may be too exciting, interesting, active, scary or conspicuous

For example, your dog may be distracted by another dog when:

you are too close to the other dog
your dog can watch the other dog for too long
the other dog is big, is bouncy, is barking, is making direct eye contact with your dog or maybe even approaching your dog

Keeping your dog successful means that you monitor his ability to focus and be comfortable around distractions.

Asking your dog to focus with distractions

Distance:

Start with distance from potentially distracting situations

How close can you be to a distraction, that your dog can find your face?

A good indication is that if your dog can do the Find my Face exercise, take their reward and then offer another focus, within a 5-count

If there is more of a delay or your dog has difficulty playing the
game at all, you’re too close.

Take a few steps away, and try again.

When your dog can offer 5 repetitions, with a 5-count or less between each one, take a couple of steps closer and build again.

When working on distance:

work for about 30 seconds to 1 minute
practice using distractions that are quiet, still, not facing your dog, not interacting with your dog in any way and are not too conspicuous

Duration:

When your dog is able to play focus games pretty close to distractions, start to build the length of each session.

Build by no more than 30 seconds at a time.

When working on duration:

practice at your starting working distance – decrease distance again gradually
practice using distractions that are quiet, still, not facing your dog, not interacting with your dog in any way and are not too conspicuous

Intensity

Now your dog is able to focus closer to distractions for a little longer – it’s time to increase the intensity of that distraction.

play Find my Face around more active distractions

When working on intensity:

practice at your starting working distance – increase distance again gradually
work for about 30 seconds to 1 minute

Combinations

As your dog improves and is able to Find your Face in and around distractions start to decrease distance while at the same time increasing duration or build intensity while decreasing distance.

This will best help you to have your dog responsive and with you in all sorts of situations.