If you are trying to help your dog understand something..timing is everything. You have about 1 second, maybe 1.5 seconds to react to their actions in order for them to perceive it as good or bad, wanted or unwanted. If your timing is off, you will more than likely reinforce the wrong behavior.
Where I notice many of us fail the most is during reactivity training.
This is what typically sets apart those that can be successful and those that cannot.
Let’s take a look at this scenario – you are walking your dog and up at a distance you spot an owner walking their dog.
What should you do?
What I find often is many of us wait for the dog to make a good decision and when they don’t, that’s when we decide to take action but we can’t wait for dogs to make good decisions when we’ve never shown them how to.
Instead, wait for your dog to notice the trigger. You want to wait for your dog to see the trigger because you don’t want to completely avoid it; after all, you can’t work through things your dog isn’t actually seeing…but he gets two seconds to look, AND. THAT. IS. IT.
Wait any longer and you risk your dog having a reaction-and once a dog starts reacting, it’s very difficult to break them out of it.
So you give your dog that two seconds, and then you do what you need to do to get your dog’s focus. Perhaps it’s looking at you by calling his name, sitting, going in a down, or doing a focused heel. Whatever your dog knows how to do well, ask your dog to do that and then continue to hold your dog’s focus-CONTINUE-don’t just reward him once and stop. If you want to build duration, you must reward frequently. Do not expect your dog to hold his focus on his own… you must help him- we do this with a high motivator such as food as well as impulse control training.
Show your dog that it is worth his while to look at you and not the trigger. Show your dog that it is in his best interest to choose YOU and not that trigger. But you must be ready to ask him to focus. You must be quick, but not too quick.
Timing is everything.
Check out the impulse control training resources or the dog reactivity resources if you need more information.
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