Teaching attention

During our lesson Denise said to me, "You train behaviors, I train ring readiness." That short sentence sent a jolt through me. I haven't been making the effort to get Dragon out and about for practice. I've been focusing on first getting the behaviors solid at home and at the training space at work. However it's past time that we started proofing more! Currently Dragon breaks off to stare at motion by people, animals, or things in the environment, reacts to sounds, and of course loves to sniff new territory.

There are a handful of different methods for training attention among distractions or in new environments. For example, Michelle Pouliot likes to isolate the issue by rewarding eye contact as the dog does a stand-stay on a platform and the handler moves around and/or works toward longer duration. She noted at the seminar we attended that a great way to teach eye contact in various environments is to go to new places and just focus on rewarding eye contact for a couple of minutes. Dragon has had some reward history for isolated eye contact here and there. I decided to try driving to a new but quiet area (just two blocks away, but not along the route we usually walk) and click/treating Dragon for offered eye contact and see what the result was. Surprisingly, the result was that he became frustrated. Sure, the treats for eye contact were nice, but he wanted to either walk and sniff around or to get more engagement from me. I was leaving him mentally stranded by offering no engagement or direction other than C/T and praise for eye contact. The training session was boring and didn't feel good, and listening to that gut instinct is critically imporant. (Not to say that this training method doesn't work, it just isn't a good fit for us at this time.)

I thought of other methods for teaching focus. One is Control Unleashed's "Take a Break" game. I've used this a bit in the past. I do frequently give Dragon breaks to look and sniff around when we're in a distracting area. (Unless we're on the agility field, where I don't allow him to sniff to prevent him from rooting around for treats.) I should return to this more. I like that it encourages the dog to ask to work, rather than relying on the handler to initiate.

Denise also sets up wonderful training sessions in which decoys are present and she turns them into a cue for her dogs to pay more attention to her. I am not so skilled at this, but I have been working on it in the lobby at work. I give Dragon verbal feedback and a high rate of reinforcement for heeling/doing tricks while other people are bringing dogs through, sometimes barking and pulling and jumping. He is improving.

As I thought of these things and practiced with Dragon on the street outside our apartment, I realized that there was also something else holding us back -- Tiny Dog had developed a habit of stopping to look around after eating a treat or breaking off play with me. He did this nearly every time we worked outside our home or the distraction-free training room at work. I hadn't worried about this when I first started training him outdoors. I assumed that after some time, his needing to look around would fade away and the training would be fun enough that he would re-engage right away. Instead, it became in a habit. I realized that I needed to stop him from taking the opportunity to disconnect and check out the environment, and instead do my best to immediately get him moving with me and following my cues again.

I've been focusing on that for the past week, as we trained outside in the dark, at the little park just off our regular walking route, and at Point Isabel on a crowded Saturday morning. At first I had to wave my hand in front of his face and cue touches to get him to look at me while swallowing his treats. Slowly but steadily is response is improving, and with it, I am seeing a greater ability to ignore distractions. I was worried in the beginning that I would be putting too much pressure on him and I watched for signs of stress, but I honestly think his reaction is, "Oh, are we not pausing after each treat anymore? Okay, I can do that."

Of course at the same time I am making sure to keep the sessions fairly short, and mixing together obedience training with lots of tricks. We're doing lots of right-side heeling so that we can work on moving together past distractions without my worrying about getting the footwork or position "just right". We're switching sides, doing leg weaves, spins, meerkat, playbow, backing up, changing positions, and hitting positions out of motion. And we're both having fun!

I would like to plan out a freestyle routine for us soon, and working on that will provide a great foundation for performing obedience as well, since we will need to do long chains of behaviors without primary reinforcers (food, play, petting). Obedience, freestyle, and agility may be very different sports, but my consistent training methods for each mean that any time we are working on one, we are improving our ability to work together as a team for any one of them.