Fun and Focus Level 2 - Week 5
ENGAGEMENT
What Is Engagement?
Engagement is all about your dog choosing to keep their focus on you. An engaged dog is one that wants to work, and shows you that they want to work. Practicing engagement is a fantastic way to keep your dog focused on you around distractions. The idea is that we put a big portion of the responsibility of maintaining the dog-person connection on your dog, rather than you always bending over backwards trying to keep their attention.
Engagement Stage 1 - Classic Reward
Step 1: Let your dog acclimatise to the environment; don’t ask them to follow any cues, just stick close to them as they check out their surroundings.
Step 2: Wait for your dog to look at you, then when they do mark the behaviour with “yes” and then use a classic reward like treats or a toy to keep their attention on you for ten seconds. Try to move around with them; ideally we’d like them to be totally engaged with what you’re doing by following you and looking at you for the whole ten seconds.
Step 3: After the ten seconds of engagement are up, release your dog with the cue like “okay” and let them check out the environment again if they want to. If they’re still very interested in the environment repeat steps 1-3 a few times.
Step 4: If your dog chooses to keep looking at you after you’ve released them, begin to wait for more than a glance before doing your ten seconds of engagement. For example, wait for two seconds of eye contact before you start, or wait for the dog to come closer to you while looking at you.
Engagement Stage 2 - Delayed Classic Reward
When you get to the point where you release the dog back into the environment and they consistently choose to keep engaging with you, we’re ready to start delaying the classic reward.
Step 1: Wait for your dog to start the engagement game by looking at you or moving closer to you etc, then give your “yes” cue and begin to interact with your dog without a toy or treat visible.
Step 2: Talk to your dog and move around with them, or start to play if they enjoy it; be friendly and fun.
Step 3: After a short amount of time (five seconds is usually a good time to start with) bring out your classic reward and finish the rest of your ten seconds using the reward. Release your dog as usual afterwards.
Step 4: Gradually increase the amount of engagement time before you bring out the classic reward, until eventually you’re doing the whole ten seconds without a reward, and bringing it out at the end.
If your dog loses interest at any point when you’re in the middle of your ten seconds of engagement, don’t try to maintain their attention. Instead, give their release cue and allow them more acclimation time before trying again.
Practise engagement in a variety of locations, and remember that the idea is that the dog is asking you to play the engagement game, not the other way around. You won’t be using your recall cue as a part of this exercise. Try to start off in lower distraction environments and work your way up to more difficult ones, and remember that your dog will need longer to acclimatise higher distraction environments.
LIMITING VARIABLES
Controlling Distractions For Gradual Rise In Difficulty
When we first start introducing distractions to our recall behaviour (mid recall), our goal is to do so systematically and gradually. Going from practising recalls in your empty backyard, to practising recalls in a busy dog park will likely be too big a jump for the vast majority of dogs.
When adding one type of distraction, for example a toy or pile of treats, try to limit any other new variables. Rather than adding a certain distraction in a busy park, it’s better to add it somewhere where your dog is already very proficient at recalling, like your back yard. You should only try to practise recalls around multiple distractions once you’ve taken the time to work on them individually as much as possible.
Slow And Steady - But Not Linear
Though distractions should be added gradually, starting off with smaller ones and progressing slowly to bigger ones, it’s important to throw in some repetitions of easier recalls with lower distractions. If each successive recall is harder than the last, your dog may be a bit overwhelmed as they come to predict harder and harder challenges each time. Vary things up a bit, and ask for an easy, low distraction recall every so often.
USING A DISTRACTION AS A REWARD For Recall
Why Do It?
Allowing your dog to return to a distraction as a reward for a successful recall is a fantastic way to build reliability. If your dog is tempted to stop recalling to engage with a distraction, it’s a pretty sure bet that they’ll find that distraction reinforcing. Giving them access to the distraction as a reward for the recall will reinforce your recall, rather than reinforcing ignoring the recall if they go off after the distraction on their own.
How To Use A Distraction As A Reinforcer
Step 1: Place a low level distraction off to the side of the path you’d like your dog to recall over
Step 2: Cue the recall, and finish the recall with your “Yes”
Step 3: Then give a release cue “okay, go sniff” and lead your dog back to the distraction. If it’s a food distraction let them eat it, and if it’s a toy pick it up and play with them, or let them pick it up if they prefer.
Practise returning to a distraction in a variety of contexts, including some “real life” ones if you can. Examples include releasing your dog to chase a bird, releasing them to play with another dog, releasing them to smell something on the ground and so on. Try to make it very clear that you are cueing them to engage with the distraction, rather than just letting them do it on their own. If they jump the gun and go after the distraction before they’ve been released, switch to settling.
