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Positive Dog

I hate the word "Distract"

Published about 1 year ago • 1 min read

Ok, so "hate" might be a bit strong of a word =) But I really struggle with the word. Here's the thing... if we are using food to distract our dogs, we are managing, not training.

Ideally, we use food to help our dogs build new habits and change emotional states.

Sniffing as a displacement behaviour

Anxious dogs will often sniff to avoid conflict or pressure. This is a natural canine behaviour designed to communicate to others that a dog wants space. There are a lot of ways we can accidentally teach our dogs not to sniff, but to bark instead.

Food scatters are one of my favourite ways to use food. You can use them to distract your dog. However, by using lower value food, positioning the scatter so your dog can still see the scary/exciting thing, you can actually teach your dog to sniff to avoid conflict or to calm themselves down. You can teach your dog to offer sniffing to create space, rather than bark!

Counterconditioning

Many of you have heard of the Look-at-that game or Engage/disengage.. various trainers have put their own spin on it and called it their own name. Basically, a dog learns to look at a scary/exciting thing, then look back to you for a treat.

In theory, this teaches our dogs that when they see 'the thing', they should be happy and look to us for a treat.

Unfortunately, many people end up putting a lot of emphasis on their dog looking at them rather than at the thing. This is distracting your dog and can create dogs who seem fine, but explode "out of nowhere".

Be careful to keep the emphasis on your dog looking at the other dog, bearded man, skateboard, kid, duck, or whatever. Use the lowest value food you can get away with =)

Management isn't all bad

And hey, sometimes management by distracting your dog is just fine! Some days we don't want to train, or maybe the situation is above our dog's training level.

Good management skills are actually very very important. Just be sure you know when you are distracting/managing versus actually training your dog.

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Positive Dog

Christina Young, BSc, CDBC, PCBC-A

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